Why did Wayne Rogers leave the MASH TV series?

Answer 1

Wayne Rogers, who played the part of "Trapper John" McIntyre on MASH, left the show largely because he felt he was not receiving enough recognition in his role. When he originally signed on, Wayne, who was originally considered by the show's producers, Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds, for the part of Hawkeye, which soon thereafter went to future castmate Alan Alda, was promised that his character would receive equal billing and not be subordinate in any way to the Hawkeye Pierce character.

Alan Alda, who, like Wayne, was a strong leading actor, who, as the Hawkeye character began to prove to be the most popular character on the series by the end of the third season of the show, naturally took on a more dominant role on the series, as did the Hawkeye character, and the writers even gradually gave Hawkeye more of Trapper's progonal characteristics and traits.

Rogers, who also was at this time becoming a major investor on the Stock Market as well as in numerous other business ventures which would earn him much more income than he was earning as a film and TV actor, was also dissatisfied with this and the legal wrangling with the producers over a supposed "morals clause", which stated that Rogers could be fired at any time over any on the set action or gestures that the producers found objectionable - which he refused to sign and never agreed to, which resulted in a ugly lawsuit by midseason, filed by the show's producers, and then in he filing a countersuit - for these reasons, he decided to leave the series at the end of that season.

Trapper John's character was written out with the explanation that he'd received his discharge orders and was going home. In spite of his acrimonious parting ways with the series after 3 years, Wayne still did participate with the other surviving cast members and the producers in the 2002 FOX-TV special The M*A*S*H 30th Anniversary Reunion Special.