Who made the better foil for Hawkeye Pierce?

Burns was just too cartoonish for me, Winchester, while he was still an ass, seemed like a real person...

Burns was just plain annoying, IMO. In fact, I like all the cast replacements better myself.

....I think he was a lot funnier than the stuffy Charles.

Frank would cry and cluck like a chicken..what's not to love?

of Winchester had much more depth to it, but Frank Burns was hilariously played by Larry Linville.

The better foil was Burns. Remember when they drew a pint of blood from him while he slept?

Ha ha ha. Vicarious cruelty towards a symbol of RW paranoia and hypocrisy.
The early shows were slightly better, I thought, because of Frank and Trapper.

Because they were not so anachronistic. When Hawkeye's hair was WAY past regulation and Hot Lips regularly went without a bra, it was no longer a show about the fifties that was really about the seventies. It was simply a show about the seventies.

Frank was my all-time favorite character. He was too farkin' goony. And was superbly played by Larry Linville. I enjoy the rare glimpses of Frank as actually competent - a very few OR scenes actually portray Frank as decisive and competent. He had to have some of these skills, you can't be a complete nincompoop and still manage to become a surgeon, can you?

Trapper was much more of an equal to Hawkeye, in fact, I think the reason Wayne Rogers left the show was the focus on Alda as THE star. And good looking? That curly hair, those shoulders! What a hunk!

I find Hawkeye a little too hard to stomach. Too much righteousness for me. I think both Trapper and BJ were much more realistic about the big green machine.

Winchester was not at all funny, but a very good foil to Hawkeye. It was nice to see someone who was actually a better surgeon than Pierce. On second thought, Winchester was funny once. Remember the episode when he got drunk and "got married"? That was pretty good.