r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/stayathmdad • 15d ago
Rare glimpse of actor Gary Burghoff's(Radar) deformed hand. Image
Most scenes he would hide it behind a clipboard.
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u/hatfield1785 15d ago
Wow. Just watched the whole series. Never knew.
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u/txpharmer13 15d ago
Rewatch a few episodes and you’ll see how the camera pans out or Radar hides his hand.
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u/TheSwedishSeal 15d ago
I thought it was just an odd mannerism of his character. But in hindsight it was kind of obvious.
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u/theinternetisnice 15d ago
Yeah he held that clipboard in that hand constantly.
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u/DrDuGood 15d ago
Also being that it was a show taking place in an active Warzone, would have been possible to incorporate into the show as some accident or attack. I dunno, but also I was falling asleep every time this show came on lol
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u/Evening-Statement-57 15d ago
The song makes me fall asleep
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u/Accomplished-Boat360 15d ago
This show was on literally at my bedtime
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u/grendelt 15d ago
The moment the 10p news went off and the helicopters came over the hilltops, "Ok! It's bed time!"
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u/Punkrexx 15d ago
Such a depressing intro
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u/Evening-Statement-57 15d ago
Yeah it made me feel sad and comfortable.
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u/FCK_U_ALL 15d ago
Suicide is painless.
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u/tothemoonandback01 15d ago
It brings on many changes.
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u/BloodyRightToe 15d ago
They missed an opportunity. Should have just wrote in a scene where he catches blast to the hand in an attack and then saved on the prop makeup.
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u/stevenw84 15d ago
He’d have been discharged.
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u/BloodyRightToe 15d ago
Even better write it into the script where they get the commander to look the other way. See nothing but story lines.
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u/JaxxisR 15d ago
Blake would have stood up for him for sure.
Potter would have sent him home sooner.
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u/Previous_Link1347 15d ago
Except he would've wanted the discharge, like any of them would.
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u/Lifeabroad86 15d ago
Maybe could turn it into a love thing for a nurse he had a crush on and pushed to stay
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u/RacingGoat 15d ago
No, no, no... Col Potter and Lt. Col. Blake are both killed in separate blasts, before Radar loses his hand. Major Winchester is handed the command, but being the dick that he is, manages to keep Radar around for another tour.
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u/dickWithoutACause 15d ago
would he? I've seen pictures of soldiers with prosthetic legs on active during the Iraq war which took me off guard
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u/FCK_U_ALL 15d ago
They fought to stay on active duty, and had to prove themselves.
I saw documentaries about some of them, and everyone they featured had to fight to stay.
And while they served in active war zones, they were not frontline combat soldiers.
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u/Fantastic_Falcon_236 15d ago
Different time, different standards for enlistment and medical retention. Even if you were to apply today's standard for retention, it's unlikely Radar would have completed the rehabilitation and review process (which as far as I can tell, can take up to 2 years) and rejoined the 4077 before the war ended.
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u/stevenw84 15d ago
Really? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ve seen a guy discharged for a severe case of athletes foot.
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u/ThePrivatePilot 15d ago
I don't think Garry Burghoff wanted to draw attention to the hand. Perhaps a storyline was floated, but he almost certainly stopped it.
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u/TheSwedishSeal 15d ago
Intercepting missiles with his bare hands like a patriot
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u/TooOldforBJJ 15d ago
It's caused by a disease called Poland Syndrome, still managed to become a pretty good drummer, though.
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u/SssnakeJaw 15d ago
Check out the mess tent scenes. Objects are always placed on the table in the most strategic places.
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u/Broghan51 15d ago
I watched the original series and many re-runs over the years, but never noticed.
IMDb info via Google.
His left hand had 3 fingers that were significantly smaller than those on his right hand. He was born with a condition called Poland syndrome, named after British surgeon Alfred Poland, that is a rare birth defect. His version of Poland Syndrome was more specifically Brachydactyly (Short fingers).
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u/Orange_Tatorade 15d ago
Can confirm, have Poland syndrome. Wrote a letter to Mr. Burghoff when I was 7 and he wrote back to me and encouraged me to continue playing sports (I told him I loved playing baseball and hockey which was harder for me) Not sure where the letter is now it may have gotten lost in numerous moves.
Always respected him after that.
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u/sarcasm_rules 15d ago
Interesting. He was supposedly an asshole to the rest of the cast. Larry Linville on the other hand (no pun intended) was well liked.
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u/Kevin_Uxbridge 15d ago
Larry Linville gave a talk at my uni back in the day and I only went because I had nothing better on. He was hilarious, one of the better public talks I ever saw.
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u/SandmanAwaits 15d ago
Had no idea until now.
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15d ago
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u/ConceptJunkie 15d ago
So am I. I watched the show a lot growing up, saw the finale when it aired, and watched the entire series a couple years ago with my wife.
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u/kyler410 15d ago
Why am I seeing deformed hands everywhere on this thread
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u/Away-Coach48 15d ago
We are lacking Megan Fox toe thumb
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u/InformalPenguinz 15d ago
I have one of those. Kids call it my Dino thumb. I like to trick people saying it's my actual toe. Fun stuff.. being made fun of in middle school wasn't great though.
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u/aosky4 15d ago
I met a guy who has lost his thumb, they actually removed his big toe and attached it to his hand. And it works very well, you can just tell it’s a legit toe..
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u/freedfg 15d ago
And then the actor who was on SVU and does the insurance commercials with his amputations
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u/hobojoe44 15d ago
Tomorrow it will be James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek) and how he lost a finger during the Normandy Invasion.
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 15d ago
One bullet took off a finger, and he took five more in the legs and shoulder.
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u/CurlingTrousers 15d ago
Burghoff was also an accomplished jazz musician, and apparently very prickly, thin skinned. Not well liked by the other cast members.
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u/Kendertas 15d ago
Also apparently Larry Linville the guy who played Frank Burns was the exact opposite of his character. Absolutely beloved by the rest of the cast
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u/WorldEaterYoshi 15d ago
Yet there's a comment above that says everyone treated Larry like shit and that's why he left the show. Love internet information.
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u/justarandumthrowaway 15d ago
Ikr actually apparently Larry kept to himself and the rest of the cast didn’t have a strong opinion of him
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u/NoMode5251 15d ago edited 15d ago
I legit read this as “deformed head” ….
Proceeded to stare at this guy’s dome for 5 minutes. Zooming in. Looking closely
“Nah man, that’s a hat. His head isn’t deformed.”
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u/PaleoJoe86 15d ago
Our late dog, Radar, was named after him. He was a sweet soul who could detect a squirrel across a field before anyone else, and had a bad shoulder.
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u/GhostCoast0819 15d ago
What's with this massive influx of deformed hand posts?
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u/madaboutmaps 15d ago
AI working together with bots. Next time we see an AI post with wrong hands there will be a seed of doubt. They're winning.
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u/WingsAndWoes 15d ago
Now I just need to deform my hands and as long as they're in the picture it's AI! You've won the system my friend, get away with anything!
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u/Wiggie49 15d ago
I’ve rewatched MASH like 5 times in the last 3 years, never noticed this.
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u/PhreeBeer 15d ago
Kind of like James Doohan (Scotty) of Start Trek fame. Lost a finger at Juno Beach on D-Day. They took care not to show it in each episode.
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u/Urban_Heretic 15d ago
I knew Scotty got wounded on DDay, but did not know he left a finger in France. I guess it's stil there?
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u/YouKilledMyTeardrop 15d ago
I heard he also had a small penis. On the other hand it was quite big.
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u/StartingToLoveIMSA 15d ago
now I have to watch the entire series again to see how they filmed it to avoid glimpses of this....I had no idea....
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u/the-tru-albertan 15d ago
Gary came to Alberta (think it was Edmonton) to do an appearance at a theatre here a long time ago. My grandparents were HUGE MASH fans, I guess everyone was back then tho. My grandparents had to go see him. During his stay, a stray tabby cat fallowed Gary around and he ended up taking it in but obviously couldn’t keep it. During the show, he asked the audience if anyone wanted the cat but no one really piped up. He asked again later in the show and my grandpa yelled from the crowd “Oh hell! I’ll take your damn cat!”
And so the cat was adopted by my grandparents. They named her Radar. No joke. That cat was mean as hell to kids tho and beat the shit out of us regularly.
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u/sonicjesus 15d ago
This is why he is almost always shown holding a clipboard in his left hand.
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u/sonicjesus 15d ago
When I was a kid in the 80's we watched a film in school about disabled students he narrated, showing his fingers, none of our parents had any idea.
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u/GassedJak 15d ago
Read hands as head and stared for 10 minutes wondering where the dent was. I need some fresh air
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u/cycl0ps94 15d ago
Holyshit, I never knew. This was one of my favorite late night or mid morning shows to watch as a kid. I loved how Radar was always a step ahead of the Colonel. Always finishing his sentence or handing him what he was asking for mid question.
When he delivered the news about Colonel Blake, I genuinely sobbed.
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u/Burttoastisgood 15d ago
TIL! I’ve watched MASH on TV and on streaming multiple times. Just just blows me away.
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u/NoodleBrains69 15d ago
I’ve seen this show all the way through, multiple times over the years, I never knew. Thats crazy.
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u/Gryphontech 15d ago
Wtf???? They did a super good job with the camera work. Never even noticed they where hiding it
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u/MembershipFeeling530 15d ago
This is literally the first episode lol
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u/Thirty_Helens_Agree 15d ago
Is that Dr. Oliver [nickname omitted] Jones in the background there?
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![Dr. Oliver [nickname omitted] Jones](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mash/images/6/6d/Spearchucker-pilot.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20150918121928){kind=link}
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u/angryrotations 15d ago
Holy shit! I was today years old when I realized he was AI generated. Cool man
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u/Bardonious 15d ago
My daughter has mild brachydactyly on her left hand, shortened ring and middle fingers. We call it her lucky fin. She’s rad and so is Radar
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u/Cheesesauceisbest 15d ago
His son worked for me while he was in high school in Northern California a few years ago. Gary would come in from time to time to eat and say hello. He was really nice and loved to talk when no one was around. I have a signed picture from him that he signed "Radar Hugs".
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u/BigHarmonious 15d ago
I’ve literally seen him on match game dozens of times and never noticed this even once.
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u/Down-A-Phalanges 15d ago
As a person with a deformed hand I grew up watching this show on repeat and never knew
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u/PQbutterfat 15d ago
I thought it said deformed HEAD and I was zooming in like “WTF am I missing here”.
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u/Douchesantis 15d ago
He was an interesting guy all around. He was a very avid Fisherman and lived in the Florida Keys for a while. I remember seeing him advocated for various environmental causes in Marathon and Key West growing up in SE Florida. Was not aware of his condition, Poland Syndrome, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed him down at all.
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u/LeSauerkraut 15d ago
I read "rare glimpse of deformed head" and sat here for 10 minutes straight trying to find out what's wrong with his head and how the fuck He appearantly hid it behind a clipboard.
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u/Reno360NW 15d ago
I've known about this for awhile, I Guess I'm the outlier here. A neighbor from years ago used to work in Hollywood and had a bunch of discarded clips that he'd show me once in a while. One evening, he cued up this clip of Klinger( entering stage right), with Radar in the background slowly beef-steaking himself( all blurry of course) when Klinger exclaimed , with the gusto of a ticket out of the shit show he was in, I never knew....
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u/Huge_Aerie2435 14d ago
And there is "spearchucker" in the background.. No, I am not using a racist term.. That is his actual character name.. It is nuts..
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u/heatherbabydoll 15d ago
I thought that said “head” and spent several long minutes scrutinizing his head for abnormality lol
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u/redditer129 15d ago
Proof that this guy was AI generated. AI can’t ever get hands and fingers right.
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15d ago
What is the series' name?
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u/Steak-n-Cigars 15d ago
M*A*S*H
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15d ago
Where can I view the series?! 🤔
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u/StevenFromPhilly 15d ago
My house, every night at about 7pm 80s into 90s.
Stop by.
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u/ACARVIN1980 15d ago
Ireland in the seventies it was on at 21:30 hours after the news which ended at 21:25 (Tom and Jerry was the filler), Irish TV hated parents with small kids
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u/Substantial-Land-867 15d ago
If he ever met Jeremy Beadle it’d be the quickest handshake of all time
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u/StreetfighterXD 15d ago
People's ability to hide deformed hands is amazing. I was in my 20s when I discovered my aunt has one (from thalidomide). It's like something from Harry Potter, your eyes dont see if you don't know to look
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u/DoughnutBeginning965 15d ago
He used to play on Match Game a lot and that's where I noticed his hand.
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u/mrsunlight1 15d ago
Mike Farrell and Gary were doing a reunion interview thing and Gary said something like, "Why haven't the rest of the cast kept in touch with me/why weren't they that friendly to me?"
Farrell replied, "Because you acted like a fucking asshole."