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Did Larry Linville and Loretta Swit have an offscreen fling?
Did Hot Lips' heart burn for Burns in real life, too?
Sometimes the chemistry between two characters leads to questions about the actors' relationship when the cameras stop rolling. Surely, even the best actors couldn't fake that, right? We've all seen romcoms where we can't buy into the main romance, so when the opposite happens, we're aware of it straight away.
M*A*S*H fans surely remember that over the show's first five seasons, Frank Burns was the apple of Maj. Houlihan's eye. He was her little weasel, and his sniveling, tattle-tale ways seemed to really do it for her.
For anyone who followed the series, the sparks were clear. This wasn't just a run-of-the-mill sitcom guy and gal combination. Most comedy series rely on a trope of the long-married husband and wife who are entirely over their marriage. So to see something with a little more steam to it really raised some eyebrows.
So, how much of it was the real deal? In a 1988 conversation with The Hamilton Spectator's Gary Smith, Linville nearly set the record straight over lunch at the Haida Garden Cafe in Mississauga.
"Loretta Swit and I were friends offscreen. Did we have an affair? Well, look, I never kiss and tell. But in those M*A*S*H episodes, I seemed to be always chasing her."
Ok, so it's not the definitive answer we were hoping for, but readers are free to read between the lines.
What do you think? Was their flame real, or was it just Hollywood magic?
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