Larry Linville left M*A*S*H after which season?

Larry Linville left M*A*S*H after Season 5.

Linville played Major Frank Burns, the 4077th’s pompous, rigid executive officer and one of Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre’s chief antagonists. His five-year contract covered Seasons 1 through 5, and he chose not to renew it. Linville felt Burns had become too one-dimensional and that the character offered little further room to develop.

Frank Burns’s final on-screen appearance came in “Margaret’s Marriage,” the Season 5 finale. In the Season 6 opener, “Fade Out, Fade In,” the unit learns that Burns has been transferred stateside after a breakdown. David Ogden Stiers then joined the cast as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, Burns’s replacement.

A common mix-up is confusing Linville’s departure with the exits of Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson, who left after Season 3. Larry Linville appeared in 120 M*A*S*H episodes across the first five seasons.