(*PERSONNEL FILE*) Maj. Frank Burns

One of the most underrated characters from the current fancy “TV-as-cinema” era is Pete Campbell, of “Mad Men.” On that show everybody is a villain in their own special way, but Pete’s way is the most entertaining: he’s a spoiled, sniveling, hissyfit-throwing worm. A good worm, spilling over with neurotic antipathy, can be an absolute boon to any TV series.

Frank Burns is such a worm.

Of the hospital’s main company, this is the only character we’re supposed to unequivocally hate. He is unpleasant in every situation, even during passionate hookups with Margaret, who we know he’d sell out in a minute to preserve his marriage back home. He’s a bad doctor, a pedant, a tattletale, a sneak, and a jingoistic blowhard. So why can’t I help but love him?

The answer is easy: Larry Linville. The one actor in the cast whose character was nothing like him (according to many accounts from his fellow cast and crew), Linville brought an enormous amount of commitment to this comic role, literally throwing himself into every pratfall. Frank’s face, too, is a masterful creation—a mask of permanent annoyance, usually locked into a frown, with narrowed eyes and the tiniest sneer. Psychosis is nakedly apparent. In MASH the movie, Robert Duvall played Burns as a dullard, which was bad enough. Linville went one better—worse, rather—by playing him as a needy little boy.

When he eventually left the series, after season 5, Linville decided not to renew his contract because he felt he’d reached the limit of exploration with Burns. Frank and Margaret had split when she got engaged; Frank was just hanging around, being thwarted by Hawkeye as before even after significant changes elsewhere in the group. The decision was made to write Burns out of service with a section 8, much like in the film—with the difference that this time it wasn’t a ruse; he really was driven mad. No fate more fitting, as it was plain to viewers he’d been cracked from the beginning.

To conclude, here’s a quote from Larry Linville in a book I have, The Complete Book of M*A*S*H by Suzy Kalter. Linville passed away in 2000 after a battle with lung cancer.

“If you look at Burns not as a cartoon, I think you’ll find some frightening and dark elements there. There’s a mind that’s stripped of its gears… And yet, he is functioning with a knife in his hands on other human beings. You’re not playing with cartoons there. Those are nasty and dangerous things. You can’t have the reality of MASH, which is people and bodies and blood and pain and agony, and have a maniac running around the operating room working on them and then come up and say that’s a cliché.”

An eerie addendum: Just now, as I was typing this up, I looked at Larry’s Wikipedia page to check something and discovered that today, April 10, is the anniversary of his death.

There’s always flak that showrunners get if a beloved TV series doesn’t have a great finale. In all these years I think the standard is still the M.A.S.H. finale. While not mind-blowingly epic, I think Mad Men’s finale ended things well. Some highlights:

1. Sally has come home for a while to help her mother out while Betty continues to deal with lung cancer. Yet there she was, puffing away on a…

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Dapper Dean is “a rotating closet of classic, proper, and fun vintage accessories.” Chock-full of style inspiration for men and women, Dapper Dean focuses on things related to the “ideal perception of oneself in dress, appearance, or bearing.”

11 Questions recently caught up with Dapper Dean’s creator, to discuss her fashion sense, her love of package design, and the beauty of simplicity.

11 QUESTIONS: How did you come up with the idea for Dapper Dean?

DAPPER DEAN: I’ve been into collect antiques/vintage items since I can remember. I’m not the most feminine girl so vintage dresses weren’t my thing. I saw a lack of men’s vintage apparel in the marketplace and thought that would be a fun hunt and great collection. 

Being female, and having this ideal male perception that needed to be carried out within a shop, wasn’t going to be easy. I initialy started the dapperdean blog as inspiration. It now holds all my ideals…male, female, lifestyle, a bit of personal, whatever I’m feeling. 

2:What kind of antique and vintage items do you collect?

DD:My two main collections are kitchen accessories, specifically hand mixers/egg beaters (I have one tattooed on me) and vintage packaging. I’m a sucker for great package design and they did it well back in the day.

‘Dapper Dean’ with her egg beater/hand mixer tattoo.

3:What are some of your favorite package designs?

DD:Food packaging used to be so much more fun… ice cream cartons, potato chip bags, even baking flour bags were more appealing in the past. Women’s hair accessories (bobby pins, hair nets, clips) use to come on cards with illustrations of beautiful woman in vibrant colors. 

I also have a shaving razor blade collection, as strange as that sounds, solely for the logos/typography used on the packaging. I probably have about 50 boxes of blades. There were more but I started selling some in the shop.

Razors, from Dapper Dean’s etsy shop.

4:What’s your favorite period in fashion, e.g. Edwardian fashion, 1950s fashion, Regency? Do you have different favorites for men and for women?

DD:The 20s were great for both men and woman. Favorite personally would be the 50s: men were simple with clean lines, woman not too done up, just as it should be. 

5:What are your favorite movies and tv shows, in terms of how the characters dressed? Are you a fan of Mad Men?

DD: Mad Men is a good one for fashion. I have plenty of unrelated fashion favorites: Dexter, Homeland, The Big C, Nurse Jackie, Duck Dynasty (pure entertainment, these guys are hilarious), and any sort of trash reality show will suck me in from time to time.

Movies that come to mind are Secretary, Hard Candy, most John Waters films and Grease. I like my movies a little dark, a little sexual, and a bit twisted.

Source.

6:What did you dress like in high school? College?

DD:In high school I had to wear a uniform. It was not very fashionable, white or navy polo and pleated khakis. I was pretty casual on the weekends. College was a bit easier and much more fun. I went to SCAD so most outfits were probably questionable. I remember there being a lot of black in my wardrobe. 

7:How would you describe your personal sartorial style?

DD:Simple (not sure that’s a sartorial style but that’s me). I wear basics, jeans with a solid tank and cardigan or a button up shirt. I love a good tote or oxford shoes to switch up the usual backpack and vans. My co-workers say tomboy chic––whatever that means.

8: Who are your top style icons?

DD: I wouldn’t really say I have style icons. I love when someone can pull off simplicity without thinking about it too much…that’s iconic to me. 

Photo from Dapper Dean.

9:Tell me a little about your etsy shop. How did you start with it?

DD:I always knew I’d wanted to have my own shop, whether it be online, etsy, in store, whatever. I was a buyer for Urban Outfitters for 3 plus years. Putting collections together always came easy to me. I enjoy the edit. It was started out of the blue really.

10:Why Tumblr?

DD:  Really…it’s only the greatest blogging network there is to share creatively. It’s so easy to have this close community with people that share the same interests as you. For me, Tumblr was a no brainer, if you’re on it then you understand.

11:How has this blog influenced your own day-to-day life?

DD:It has given me inspiration for outfits of my own, made me want to care more about how i dress, and really just given me the opportunity to inspire others (as cheesy as that sounds). My coworkers and friends know about it, yes. All/most are on Tumblr as well. It hasn’t really made me look differently at the world. I’m still the same person.

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