Margaret Houlihan
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| M*A*S*H character | |
 Loretta Swit as Major Margaret Houlihan |
|
| "Hot Lips" Houlihan | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Major |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Blonde in early epsiodes {going Gray in later epsiodes} |
| Eye color | Green |
| Home city | Fort Ord, California, USA |
| Film portrayer | Sally Kellerman |
| Television portrayer | Loretta Swit |
| Spanish voice dubber | Patricia Acevedo |
| First appearance | M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors |
| Last appearance | "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" |
Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan was a fictional character first created in the book M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. Actress Sally Kellerman portrayed her in the Robert Altman film adaptation; however, like many of the M*A*S*H* characters, Hot Lips is probably best known from the television series, where her part was played by Loretta Swit. Having the advantage of an 11-year run on television, Swit's Houlihan became a significantly more developed character than originally portrayed in the film by Kellerman, in many ways demonstrating characteristics that would have been almost antithetical to the cinematic Hot Lips.
The character of "Hotlips Houlihan" was inspired by real-life Korean War MASH head nurse "Hotlips Hammerly," also a very attractive blonde, of the same disposition, and also from El Paso, Texas.[citation needed]
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[edit] Position
Major Houlihan is a member of the Army Nurse Corps and in charge of all the nurses at the MASH 4077 unit. She is devoted to her army career, having been born into the tradition. Her father, Colonel Alvin "Howitzer Al" Houlihan, was her role model for her career. As an army brat she was born in an army hospital & grew up on army bases, most notably Fort Ord. In 4/3, she has been in the service 10 years-and thus presumably was in World War II. She is also a hidden alcoholic {3/9} and not only became roaring drunk on three occasions, but showed up in the operating room drunk as well; although in a late season episode {9/15}, when she tries to console a friend with alcohol problems, she presumably recognized her own problem. She does have a gift for learning to speak the Korean Language. Despite the fact that all three of her MASH relationships with men end in disaster-{Frank Burns; Donald Penobscot; Jack Scully}-she does confess to Hawkeye that one day she hopes to find the right man to stay with. She can be kind and considerate to children and dogs and has a fear of loud noises.
[edit] Relationship with others
Margaret can be very strict and deplores anyone who does not live up to her standard of military discipline, but she also displays her passionate side in the early part of the series in her relationship with Frank Burns. This eventually ran its course (there were hints that she really wasn't happy with Frank and knew he wasn't the man they both liked to think he was) and Margaret became engaged to, and then married, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscot (which precipitated Frank's nervous breakdown and departure). Colonel Potter and even Hawkeye and BJ feared she was making a mistake, caught up in the euphoria of being too happy, of being in love with the idea of being in love, and in the end, they were right. The marriage did not last very long, as Donald mistreated and cheated on her. Later, she had a brief affair with Jack Scully, but that did not last very long either, with his increasingly obvious dismissal of her rank and her worth as a woman. In early seasons of the television show, it was shown that Margaret had a crush on Captain Trapper John McIntyre, professing how attractive she found his crooked smile and sturdy frame. She also had a brief relationship with Hawkeye Pierce, whose talent for kissing often left her speechless.
Hot Lips spent the early part of the series battling Hawkeye and Trapper along with Frank and, additionally, criticizing Lt. Col. Henry Blake for his lack of authority when not going over his head, filing formal complaints. Many early jokes were at her expense, such as when a gassed boxer fell on her and Frank and when she said the oxymoronic description of Hawkeye and Trapper John: "They're ruining this war for all of us!" While she didn't seem to hate Henry as an individual, she once described him as a "golf playing figurehead" and later as a "fly fishing impostor". She also referred to him as "Col. Bubble-Head." Henry generally let her criticisms roll off his back, but at one point, he mocked Hot Lips by saying that she'd gone over his head so many times she'd given him "athlete's scalp". Still, she and Frank both wept for Henry when they heard of his death. By contrast, she got along very well with Colonel Sherman T. Potter, the camp's second commanding officer, who was something of a father figure to her.
[edit] Rear
The most noticeable of her physical feminine attributes among her male counterparts was her big well-shaped voluptuous rear-end housed in very tight Army pants and was often literally the "butt" of jokes. One had Hawkeye needing to give her an inoculation shot, which worked better if administered in the rear. When he saw her bare bottom, he exclaimed, "Magnificent!" Another was when a rash of practical jokes was sweeping through the camp, including an unknowing Margaret parading around the camp in her bathrobe with the backside portion cut out, resulting in several whistles, howls and a marriage proposal. (It was revealed later in the episode that Margaret made up the incident as part of B.J.'s elaborate practical joke on Hawkeye.) When climbing into a jeep for a camp picture taken by Hawkeye, Margaret instructs Hawkeye "Be sure you get my best side." Hawkeye nods followed by a gentle pat on her hiney. In the film after Major Burns' first sexual romp with Margaret that was broadcast over the P.A., Hawkeye asked Burns "Did she move her big ass around, or did it just lay there flacid?" resulting in Burns assaulting Hawkeye and later taken away in a straight jacket.
[edit] Changes
Over the run of the show Margaret mellowed from a completely "by-the-book" head nurse (who was also not above using her romantic contacts with superior officers to attempt to get her way), to a more relaxed member of the cast who tempered her authority with humanity. Key episodes in this development were "The Nurses" which had Margaret making an emotional tirade to her nurses about how their disdain of her hurt her, which thoroughly stuns them, and "Comrades In Arms" where Hawkeye and Margaret make peace once and for all while lost in the wilderness. When the show ended Margaret was on her way back to the US to take up a position in an army hospital. Not coincidentally, the change came when Linda Bloodworth-Thomason joined the show's writing team.
Some fans regretted the change of heart in Hot Lips' character. While some loved how she became a kinder, more gentle person, others felt that she worked better as strict, no-nonsense antagonist with a slight problem regarding her passion. Even at her most antagonistic, she was generally allowed more humanity than her fellow antagonist, Frank Burns.
[edit] Name
The name "Hot Lips" originates from an infamous scene in M*A*S*H, the movie, in which Margaret O'Houlihan is played by Sally Kellerman. During sex with Frank Burns, Margaret is unaware that the public address microphone has been planted beneath their cot, broadcasting graphic details of their sexual encounter throughout the camp on its public address system. Other members of the camp overhear her asking Frank to kiss her "hot lips". This nickname was used in the earlier seasons of the TV series, but less and less as time went on due to the growing respect for her in the eyes of the audience.
[edit] Decorations
Several times throughout the series, the awards that Major Houlihan had earned during her service in the army could be seen on her uniform. She had earned the:
National Defense Service Medal
[edit] Triva goofs
- One early epsiodes has Houilhan parents both being dead and she has a younger sister. Later on her father is seen {as a retired Colonel}. The sister is never mentioned again. In another epsiode she claims she has to spend all her salary on her mother, who when she is not being dryed out as a alcoholic, is also being arrested as a kleptomanic.
- When Burns steals the "antique cavalry" .45 pistol, Houlihan proclaims that its one like her father had. {One goof is that an Artilleryman would have had a G.I. .45 automatic pistol-not an cavalry handgun!}.
- A North Korean girl who did laundry for the 4077 unintentionally humiliated Margaret (albeit just in front of Colonel Potter) when she revealed that Margaret wears tiger skin panties.
[edit] External links
- Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
- Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile
| M*A*S*H | |
|---|---|
| Film: | MASH |
| TV series: | M*A*S*H | Trapper John, M.D. | AfterMASH | W*A*L*T*E*R |
| Characters: |
Hawkeye Pierce | Trapper John McIntyre | Duke Forrest | B.J. Hunnicutt | Henry Blake | Sherman T. Potter | Frank Burns | Margaret Houlihan | Charles Winchester | Radar O'Reilly | Father Mulcahy | Maxwell Klinger | Igor Straminsky | Luther Rizzo | Sidney Freedman | Col. Flagg | Spearchucker Jones | Ugly John | Walter Koskiusko Waldowski | Ho-Jon | Nurse Bigelow | Lieutenant Dish | Donald Penobscot |
| Episodes: | Season 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Books: | M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors | M*A*S*H Goes to Maine |
| Related material: | Guest stars | Differences between book, film and TV versions of M*A*S*H | Suicide Is Painless |
