Corrected entry: In this episode, Potter and company are being introduced to white phosphorous that is starting to be used. But in Season 2, Episode 1, "Divided We Stand", as Henry and Hawkeye come out of the O.R. a wounded soldier is brought in on a Jeep with white phosphorous burns, and they knew what to do.
LorgSkyegon
16th Aug 2016
M*A*S*H (1972)
Correction: "New" to the doctors on the front lines and "new" to the doctors back at HQ could be two different things.
It might be old news to the 4077th but new to the Army in general. Without asking a real Army doctor, Instructional briefings like this aren't optional. They don't ask if you already know it. The point of the scene is NOT "How many times has the 4077th already done this?" The point is "Potter thinks he's too old and can't hack it anymore, so IF the Army has learned something new, HE wants to hear it." And also shows us "Potter is on edge about something. Maybe we should call Sidney Green."
You could be the world's top expert in White Phosphorus, but if you're in the Army, and they tell you "You're going to attend a lecture on White Phosphorus," That's called an order and you do it, Mr. White Phosphorus, whether you like it or not.
Correction: Captain Simmons said the new weapon is "white phosphorus rounds." Phosphorus before then was likely used as part of artillery shells.
Correction: I know you can't worry about MASH's timeline or you'll go insane, but six seasons pass between this episode and that one. The Army medics could have learned some new things about treating the injuries in whatever time passed. And again, Col. Potter thinks he's slipping in this episode, so he wants to hear every word, and that's the main point of the scene.
9th Oct 2015
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: In the Swamp, Hawkeye, Trapper and Radar are playing with red backed cards, and Ugly John is holding blue back cards.
Correction: Being in the middle of nowhere and a mobile facility, it's not hard to imagine a situation where some cards from both decks got lost and they decided to combine two partial decks. (They might then choose to ignore the fact that they could tell which cards are from which deck out of sportsmanship).
Correction: Ugly John had been sleeping for two hours. The others grabbed a new deck to avoid waking him up.
12th Sep 2021
M*A*S*H (1972)
Revealing mistake: In Margaret's tent, while she is getting ready, if you look at the central pole you can see the cut where it is supposed to break when Frank hits it.
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21st Sep 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: Klinger has a rash from his uniform. However, in earlier and later episodes, he wears uniforms without a problem.
Correction: As mentioned, Klinger's rash is psychosomatic. It wasn't necessarily the uniform that caused it. It was being forced into it by Colonel Potter. Hawkeye says women's clothes are Klinger's personal defense against the Army and lack of that defense is causing him to break out.
I stand corrected, I had forgotten that angle.
6th Jul 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
Continuity mistake: In this episode, as they come from the pad, Hawkeye told them to get his canvas tub. But in "None Like It Hot", he had one that caused a lot of trouble and they traded it away for ice cream.
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Suggested correction: There is no reason he couldn't have gotten another one.
20th May 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
Baby, It's Cold Outside - S7-E9
Factual error: As Hawkeye performs CPR on the hypothermic soldier, he pumps his arms from his ellbows. CPR is done by keeping the arms stiff and pumping with the whole upper body. Hawkeye as a surgeon would know that. Fun Fact: You can perform CPR one-handed in a pinch, but only as long as you keep your arms stiff.
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Suggested correction: True, but doing CPR the real way is going to likely seriously injure the actor it is being performed upon.
Explaining why mistakes occur does not invalidate them.
Chest compressions can definitely be performed by pumping from the elbow, one or two handed. The first documented use was in 1891, so Hawkeye would be aware of it. However, modern CPR standards, including straight arm procedures, were not developed until at least 1960 by the American Heart Association. Using straight arms and bending at the hips uses the larger muscle groups of the core and legs, which provides more control, as well as stamina. This is not an error for the Korean War era.
Additionally, what Lorg said - you don't want to hurt the actor, you can see his shoulders rise as his arms straighten, giving the illusion of compressions. There is another episode where Hawkeye is performing chest compressions similarly, and yells at the unconscious patient that his arms are getting tired, which is what would happen with bent elbow compressions, and one of the reasons modern technique uses straight arms.
6th May 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
Yessir, That's Our Baby - S8-E15
Plot hole: Charles has the money and family connections. Why didn't he try to get the baby girl sent to the US? Trapper and his wife almost adopted a seemingly orphaned Korean boy in an early episode, so it couldn't have been impossible.
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Suggested correction: There is a difference between adopting a child and merely sending it to the States without any support system to be put into an orphanage.
19th Mar 2020
M*A*S*H (1972)
The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan - S5-E6
Other mistake: As Frank cocks his gun in the Swamp, the slide locks open and he has to hit the slide release to get it to move forward. Next he fiddles with the hammer. Next we hear the shot go off. Burns' excuse later is that he was cleaning The Gun and it went off (although admittedly, Frank doesn't always stick to the truth that religiously in situations like that). The slide on a semi-automatic locks open only if the magazine is empty or missing. The Gun locking open is also a clear, unmistakable indication that the breech is empty. He would have to insert a filled mag, then pull the slide back again to chamber a round before The Gun even had the chance to go off. One never does that while cleaning a gun. One does what Frank did to begin with: Pull the slide back without a magazine inserted to make sure the breech is empty.
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Suggested correction: Frank has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he does not follow the rules of safe gun handling, so ascribing his failure to do so is not a mistake.
You are missing the point. His gun is demonstrably unloaded when we last see it. He would either have to change his mind about cleaning it and load it instead, or load it first and then try to clean it (which makes even less sense), neither of which is not supported by anything in the dialogue.
5th Sep 2019
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: Major Houlihan is frequently shown with very long fingernails. This is against Army regulations and highly impractical in the Operating Room.
Correction: Margaret herself is the highest ranked nurse. As such, only the commanding officer of the unit would be able to put her on report. Neither Blake nor Potter seem to care about such things when they do not affect the stability of the unit. As well, Margaret herself is very well connected among the local generals and as such would be able to get away with minor details like that.
16th Nov 2018
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: It would be impossible for Radar's bee Blitzen to sting the general as drones do not have stingers. (00:17:05)
Correction: Since it did sting him, it seems that Radar had misidentified it as a drone.
25th Mar 2013
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: The POW has blood type AB-, and the doctors search the records to find Frank has AB-. Type AB is the "universal receiver" and can accept a transfusion from any type blood. Type O on the other hand can only receive from another type O. The story should have been based on Type O blood.
Correction: While a person with AB- blood can receive any blood type that is also Rh-, it is still best medical practice to give a person only their own blood type if possible to minimize the chance of transfusion reaction.
19th Feb 2013
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: When the champ comes in, several soldiers are lying in the post-op ward, and some of them don't look likely to get out soon. After the champ suffers his stroke, the ward is empty and Cavanaugh is the only patient there. Hawkeye even says "Afraid you're going to lose your private room, Champ?" What happened to the other wounded? (00:05:00 - 00:18:45)
Correction: Patients get transferred out all the time. If they knew that they were going to get more wounded in, they would transfer as many as could be feasibly moved. Obviously all could be safely moved.
No mention is made in the dialog of moving wounded out to make room, as it is in many other episodes. The wounded are just suddenly gone. While none is explicitly mentioned as being critical or unable to be transferred (transferring wounded just isn't touched upon at all in this episode), as detailed in the original mistake, some wounded look quite heavily injured, e.g. the guy in the body cast the champ talks to. In other episodes, the doctors show quite a lot of reluctance in moving patients with similar looking injuries.
Correction: They do things all the time without specifically mentioning it. The job of a mash unit is to fix up those in critical need and get them to a recovery/evacuation or their unit as soon as possible.
26th Nov 2011
M*A*S*H (1972)
Peace on Us - S7-E2
Corrected entry: During the "red party", Col. Potter can be seen holding a glass containing tomato juice or a mixture thereof. From the episode "The Price of Tomato Juice," we know Potter is allergic to it. Having so recently been reminded of the fact, why would he drink more? (00:42:30)
Correction: Just because it's red doesn't mean it's tomato juice. It could be anything, especially given it's a "red party".
Agreed. It would be something highly alcoholic, not tomato juice. Unless it was a Bloody Mary, which really isn't a military drink.
1st Mar 2011
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: When Margaret and Frank look over Tuttle's file, Margaret reads aloud the words "Berlinishes Polytechnikum". The correct German wording would be "Berliner Polytechnikum". While this could be ascribed to a mistake of Hawkeye or Trapper, no indication of that being the case is given in the show.
Correction: It is indicated. That is what Hawkeye says as he writes it down. He doesn't know German well.
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Correction: Even if they knew how to deal with it at the time, the information might not have been common knowledge. As WP came to be used more frequently, the Army would send instructors to field hospitals to make certain everyone was up on the latest technique for dealing with it. (Col. Potter was also not in the earlier episode you mention, and he wants to hear the information).
Captain Defenestrator
Understood, but Potter was there in Season 4, Episode 24 "Deluge" when a WP case was brought in.
Movie Nut
Remember that the main plot of this episode is that Col. Potter made a rookie mistake that almost cost a kid's life, and is fearing that he's too old to hack it as a doctor anymore. If the Army's learned something he doesn't know, he wants to know it.
Captain Defenestrator
The dialog explicitly states that the enemy "has started using something new", which is phosphorus rounds. If they had to deal with it before, it's logically not so new, ergo the mistake is at the very least plausible.
Doc ★