M*A*S*H (1972) - 30 mistakes in series 1

Continuity: When Hawkeye and Trapper are arrested by Hammond at the party there is a large crowd of people behind the General and Henry. When we cut to the shot of Margaret and Frank approaching, there is no-one in sight.

Continuity: In the pilot episode when Hawkeye and Trapper are going to send Ho Jon to the states to go to medical school, Hawkeye says Ho Jon can stay with his parents, but throughout the rest of the series Hawkeye's father is a widower.

Factual error: Hawkeye and Trapper are concerned about the theft of a stock of hydrocortisone, but that drug wasn't introduced by the FDA until 1952.

Continuity: The bag used by Trapper for training is marked "Property of MAJ. Frank W. Burns". However, later in the series Frank's middle name is revealed to be Marion.

Continuity: In the first shot of Trapper running behind the jeep, he has a large patch of sweat on his chest. For the rest of the scene it is dry.

Other: At the end of the show Trapper has a steak over his eye covering the black eye he received. Throughout the series the characters constantly complained about the food yet they have the audacity to waste a perfectly good steak.

Continuity: As Henry is receiving his medal, Hawkeye walks up and stands close behind a man who is standing up and two women who are sitting down. The camera angle switches to show Hawkeye talking to Trapper and now they are standing behind two standing women.

Continuity: Radar hangs the hammer on the "Out of Order" sign and it is covering the 'of'. When he and Frank walk away the hammer has moved and is covering the 't'

Continuity: When you see the shadow of the helicopter on the ground, there is no shadow of Hawkeye who is supposedly standing in the door getting ready to be lowered to the ground.

Continuity: As Hawkeye and Eddie are going to sit down for lunch, on the table is ketchup, a bowl, pepper and salt. The shot switches to them sat down and the order is now bowl, ketchup, salt and pepper.

Continuity: When Radar is slipping the glass of milk into Buzz's tent, we see the outside of the tent and there are no windows. From the inside, the milk is placed on a table that is right under a window.

Continuity: In this episode we see Radar outside Col. Brighton's tent with a glass of milk to slip into the tent. Before he does, the camera switches to inside the tent and if you look at the bottom left corner of the screen you'll see the milk is already there before Radar slips it in.

Continuity: After doing his pushups, Colonel Brighton puts on a red robe and talks with Trapper and Hawkeye. In some shots the cord from the robe's hood is hanging down and in others it is tucked in.

Continuity: When Frank is trying to examine the Colonel, in some shots Buzz's robe is open and in others it is tied at the waist.

Continuity: Hawkeye lifts Wendell's arm, takes his pulse and lays his arm down by his side again. In the next shot, Wendell's arm is across his chest.

Continuity: As Frank receives his purple heart, Henry calls him 'Franklin D. Burns' All other references to his full name in the series give his middle name as 'Marion'.

Continuity: Frank and Margaret are dancing in her tent when Frank's back seizes up; in the subsequent shots sometimes his arms are around her waist and sometimes around her shoulders.

Other: Near the end of the episode Hawkeye is finishing his letter to his father. He writes "kiss mom and sis", but later in the series we find out that his mother died when he was a kid and he doesn't have any siblings.

Continuity: In some shots, Radar's exam questions are in his hand, in others they are tucked under his arm.

Audio problem: At the end, while Radar is playing drums, he is using drumsticks but drum brushes are heard.