Continuity mistake: After Iron Guts Kelly dies in Margaret's tent, Frank Burns visits Margaret, suspecting something. Frank asks why there is a general's star on her cot. In the ensuing 'back and forth' dialogue, Margaret's hair goes (in close ups) from nicely combed, to frazzled, back to nicely combed again (and in a different light).
Other mistake: When Alan Alda and Mike Farrell are walking into frame in the scene where Hawkeye and BJ discover the huge shipment of tongue depressors, Alda's feet are visible for about two seconds and he has bright blue early '80s shoes on.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning scene in the mess hall, Charles' rank insignia & medical insignia are on the wrong sides of his collar, the next scene they are on the correct side.
Deliberate mistake: Winchester is listening on the radio to the 1951 Giants win the pennant. In the MASH series, Potter was supposed to have arrived 19 Sept. 1952, and Charles Winchester after Potter did. The Giants won the pennant during the previous year, not when Winchester was there. Also Potter, BJ and Winchester are present for New Years parties for '50-'51 and '51- '52 even though none of them arrived until late 1952.
Visible crew/equipment: When Frank and Hot Lips are walking into the mess tent for Frank's surpise party, if you look in the window to the right of the door, you can see a person silhouetted, throwing leaves into the wind.
The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan - S5-E6
Factual error: When Col. Flagg makes everybody close their eyes when he leaves, you hear the sound of glass shattering, but the window was a thick sheet of plastic.
Revealing mistake: When the tent roof caves in and the projector shorts out in a gush of water from above, you can see that actually the projector "shorts out" before the tent roof ruptures. The crew probably didn't want to risk the pyrotechnic devices getting wet. (00:02:25)
Other mistake: Across the show, several times doctors looking at an x-ray picture say things like, "Looks like he swallowed a whole junkyard" or "His belly is full of shrapnel." In fact, shrapnel, being metal fragments, should show up as clear white spots on the x-ray pictures, but none of that is visible in any of the x-rays shown throughout the show.
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:10:50)
Preventative Medicine - S7-E22
Other mistake: During the duration of the episode a wounded person is addressed as Corporal North but during the credits he is called Private North.
Continuity mistake: Just after the announcement that General MacArthur is coming, Trapper puts on his sunglasses, then the shot switches to Henry walking, and in the background Trapper is putting his glasses on again.
Factual error: Radar impersonates John Wayne, playing a scene from McLintock - a film which was not released until 1963, which was 10 years after the end of the Korean war.
Continuity mistake: When Hawkeye is examining the orphan who is wiggling his tongue, there are two camera angles: one of Hawkeye from the front and one of the orphan over Hawkeye's shoulder. In the first shot, the tongue depresser that Hawkeye is holding is horizontal, in the other it is vertical. This flips back and forth a couple of times. (00:06:30)
Continuity mistake: In some shots the Spam lamb has mashed potato eyes and a carrot mouth, in others it has green grape eyes and no obvious mouth, and it keeps changing. (00:23:10)
Continuity mistake: In the episode 'Chief Surgeon Who' (season one), near the end of the episode we see Radar in Col. Blake's office smoking a cigar with ease, but in the first episode of season six when Col. Potter offers Radar a cigar, he doesn't know how to smoke it and he throws up after he puffs it.
Continuity mistake: In the episode Iron Guts Kelly, Col. Wardman first calls Iron Gut Kelly a Lt. General, then a Maj. General then he goes back to Lt. General.
Continuity mistake: In the episode "It Happened One Night", Klinger has B Positive blood type. In the episode "C*A*V*E*", Klinger has AB Negative blood type. Blood types *never* change.
Continuity mistake: When Radar is going to bed, he takes his shirt off and his upper body is naked. When he puts the blanket over his teddy bear you can see sleeves. Next shot, he is naked again.
Aid Station - S3-E19
Factual error: Mulcahy asks Hawkeye if he trusts God. Hawkeye replies "It says I should on all of my money." However, the phrase "IN GOD WE TRUST" didn't appear on American bills until 1957.
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 ★