Why didn't Wayne Rogers reprise his role on the Trapper John, M.D. spin-off? Pernell Roberts replaced him there.

I never saw the show but wasn't the title just a gimmick to get MASH watchers to tune in? Did the show have anything at all to do with MASH? One was a comedy, the other a drama. Seems like just a typical TV ripoff of a name.

Why didn't Wayne Rogers reprise his role on the Trapper John, M.D. spin-off? Pernell Roberts replaced him there.

There was a 25 year gap between settings - Trapper John was present day rather than the 1950's.

Also technically, and legally, the show was a spin-off of the film rather than the TV Series. (This is so they didn't have to share profits with the producers of the MASH TV Series! - Same Studio but different producers.)

The simple answer is that Trapper John was set over 20 years after M*A*S*H so they hired an older actor to play the part.

The simple answer is that Trapper John was set over 20 years after M*A*S*H so they hired an older actor to play the part.

Also, at the same time Trapper John M.D. premiered (fall 1979), Wayne Rogers was playing the lead character in the series House Calls.

Not only was House Calls on the same network as Trapper John M.D. and M*A*S*H, but Rogers was once again playing a wisecrakcing doctor in a sitcom based on a movie.

He probably should have just stayed on M*A*S*H.

And while I never watched Trapper John M.D., from what I understand, they made none or two references to the fact he was in Korea, but he never really talked about it. Clearly this was a older and more dramatic Trapper John and they wanted to distance themselves from the original character.

Actually according to IMDB" Wayne Rogers, who played Trapper John in M*A*S*H (1972), turned down the role because he did not want to play a doctor again on television. (He later played a doctor on the television show House Calls (1979)" I do remember watching the show but I was only 11-12. I liked the show and love MASH but never linked the together at the time . Even though they share the same character name they are so different

Actually according to IMDB" Wayne Rogers, who played Trapper John in M*A*S*H (1972), turned down the role because he did not want to play a doctor again on television. (He later played a doctor on the television show House Calls (1979)" I do remember watching the show but I was only 11-12. I liked the show and love MASH but never linked the together at the time . Even though they share the same character name they are so different

If this is true then the original concept would have been set in the 1950's as the TV series that got to the air was set 25 years later than M*A*S*H.

IMDB is not 100% Reliable as it is.

As noted, it was the same studio, but no one involved with M*A*S*H TV Series production wise was involved with the Trapper John.

In fact, there was a lawsuit over if it was a spin off of the Book/film or the TV Series, and it was found to be the former. 20th Owned the rights to the book and the book spawned two different projects as legal contexts go. It was an interesting precedent.

(If you look closely on the wall in his office in the background in a handful of episodes, you see a picture of two unknown actors in front of "The Swamp" clearly to represent Trapper and perhaps Hawkeye or Duke which doesn't appear to be taken from the film or tv series!)

Hawkeye and Radar were mentioned in the first episode of Trapper John.

haven't seen the show in years, but as I recall in the first episode in one scene he's asleep on the couch in his office and on the wall above him is a picture of Hawkeye and Trapper in front of the swamp and one of Radar standing by the BEST CARE ANYWHERE sign. A nurse comes in and wakes him and he says something like "Radar? Radar, wake Hawkeye!" And she says something like "Dreaming of Korea again? That was 30 years ago."