M*A*S*H

I Hate a Mystery - S1-E10

Character mistake: When Henry is describing the fishing reel he bought for his girlfriend, he said, "with jeweled escarpment" actually it is a 'jeweled esCAPEment" not esCARPment. An escarpment is a long slope off a plateau. An escapement is a latch/release mechanism that you would find on a device like a fishing reel.

Show generally

Character mistake: When Colonel Blake's wife is having a baby, he is on the phone with the hospital as tells them to tell 'Mildred' he loves her and will talk to her soon. His wife's name was Lorraine.

Mail Call - S2-E23

Character mistake: When Frank is wanting to make a call to New York, Radar told him that New York is 16 hours ahead. Not quite right, as 5 p.m. in South Korea equates to 4 a.m. the same day, a difference of thirteen hours.

Movie Nut

As You Were - S2-E20

Character mistake: When Hawkeye asks Frank what he is doing, Frank replies he is lining up all bottles and jars "according to height and popularity". In fact, the bottles are not lined up according to height at all, also the order of condiments is different on the two tables. The sweet and sour gherkins Frank mentions are not there at all - during the pan shots you can see the line ends with the pepper. (00:01:50)

Dear Dad... Three - S2-E9

Character mistake: While talking to Condon, Hawkeye and Trapper relate the story of Dr. Charles Drew, the man responsible for the storage of blood and plasma, and how he died due to not being allowed in a "whites only" hospital after being involved in horrific car accident. The true story is that he was taken to a "poor whites" hospital. Despite being black, he was admitted, and though the doctors worked diligently, his injuries were too severe, and he died. His family sent a warm letter thanking the doctors for their efforts.

Movie Nut

Der Tag - S4-E17

Character mistake: The last bet comes to Frank after Mulcahy bets a dollar, and Potter raises fifty cents, making it a dollar fifty. Frank makes it another five dollars, making it six dollars fifty cents. Mulcahy says "Oh dear, it's five fifty to me." He should have said six fifty.

Movie Nut

Hawkeye Get Your Gun - S5-E10

Character mistake: As Potter and Hawkeye pull up to the MP checkpoint, Potter and the MP exchange salutes. As per Army regulations, no salutes are given under battle conditions. The reason is that if the superior officer, in this case Colonel Potter, returns the salute, he can be a target for snipers.

Movie Nut

Dear Peggy - S4-E10

Character mistake: When he sees the 'P' for Protestant on Davis' chart, Col. Hollister states "A lot of your Davises are 'J's, you know" implying that Davis is a Jewish name. In fact, the ID tag code for Jewish faith was 'H' for Hebrew. (00:18:45)

Doc

Dear Ma - S4-E16

Character mistake: Radar says about The Gun the enemy sniper brings into the mess tent: "What funny printing on there. All the R's and the P's are backwards." While there is a mirrored R in kyrillic (pronounced "Ya") there is no mirrored P. (00:09:40)

Doc

Hawkeye Get Your Gun - S5-E10

Character mistake: After Potter mocks Hawkeye for not hitting anything, Hawkeye replies "You fired as many shots as I did". In fact, Potter fired seven shots, Hawkeye only five. On a side note, this also suggests that Hawkeye probably was supposed to fire seven times, but his weapon jammed after the fifth shot. (00:22:00)

Doc

Chief Surgeon Who? - S1-E4

Character mistake: As Hawkeye goes to help Maj. Burns right at the end of the episode, he touches the patient with his bloody, contaminated gloves he used to work on the last patient. Such a blatant error would be anathema to any surgeon from the civilized world of the 20th century, let alone one of Hawkeye's caliber.

Doc

Bug Out - S5-E1

Character mistake: At the end of the episode, while Col. Potter is in the helicopter asking where they are, the pilot says they are about 10 miles west of Inchon. Col. Potter says this is no good and he tells the chopper pilot to "head west, towards Inchon." If they are already west of Inchon, heading west will take them further from Inchon.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Potter tells the pilot to head to a different city, Chuksan (not sure of its spelling).

Bishop73

Tuttle - S1-E15

Character mistake: Hawkeye and Trapper make Tuttle an alumnus of "Berlin Polytechnic" and translate that (wrongly) as "Berlinishes Polytechnikum". Berlin's polytechnic university was named "Technische Hochschule Berlin" at the relevant time - and at no time offered a medical curriculum. To study medicine in Berlin, Tuttle would have to attend "Freie Universität Berlin" instead.

Doc

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: And how are Hawkeye and Trapper suppose to know that? They are after all, making all this up. It is never meant to be factual.

MasterOfAll

It is intended to fool Margret and Frank, so it has to be assumed that they meant to pull it off. Hawkeye says "It can't be any place they'll check", which is why they select a German university in the first place. That shows it is indeed meant to be if not watertight, then at least convincing. To use an university you don't know the proper name of doesn't make sense under these circumstances.

Doc

M*A*S*H mistake picture

Death Takes a Holiday - S9-E5

Visible crew/equipment: After Charles confronts Choi Sung Ho about the candy, Ho explains that he sold it on the black market to buy real food, and when Ho reenters the mess tent through the side door, we can see that outside there's a director's chair, which actors also use, with something printed on its back.

Super Grover

More mistakes in M*A*S*H

Frank Burns: You disgust me!
Hawkeye: You're right, Frank... I discussed you with everyone I know and we all find you disgusting.

More quotes from M*A*S*H

Trivia: Gary Burghoff's left hand was slightly deformed, and he often hid it behind his clipboard during filming.

More trivia for M*A*S*H

That's Show Biz - S10-E1

Question: Talking with stripper Candy Doyle, Potter remarks that he still remembers how she used to spin her tassels and that he is reminded of this every time he sees a C 42 revving up. On the net I do find references to a C40A, a C47 and others, but no reference to an aircraft of the time called a C 42. What would he have been referring to?

Answer: The C-42 was a military variant of the Douglas DC-2. Very few C-42's were built, so it's questionable that Potter would specifically have seen that particular model, but, given his military background, it's not entirely unreasonable that he might use the military designation even when the aircraft in question is actually a civilian DC-2.

Tailkinker

More questions & answers from M*A*S*H

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.