M*A*S*H

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

Trivia: Both the movie M*A*S*H and the TV show M*A*S*H were based on the experiences of Dr Richard Hooker. In 1968, he authored, MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. Subsequently he refused to watch the TV show, feeling it was too liberal.

Super Grover

Trivia: Kario Salem, who played a youngster in season 4's "deluge" also played Private Weston in season 10's "follies of the living-concerns of the dead."

Trivia: In one episode, Hawkeye says to Radar, "You're a good man, Charlie Brown", a reference to the off-Broadway show of the same name based on Charles Schultz' Peanuts characters. Because the show didn't debut until 1967, this would appear to be a mistake, but it is not. The reference was intentional, an inside joke: Gary Burghoff played the title role in that play.

Bob Blumenfeld

Trivia: While he was known for the role, William Christopher didn't play Father Mulcahy in the series' pilot.

Trivia: Season 2 Episode 5 "Dear Dad ... Three". Hawkeye and Trapper tell the racist soldier the story of Dr. Charles Drew. Drew was the inventor of techniques for separating and storing blood products. He was in a bad car accident and, legend has it, died because the 'whites only' hospital refused to give him a transfusion. This is an urban myth - he did die after that accident but was treated properly at the hospital. (00:23:00)

jle

Trivia: The only actor from the movie who also played his role regularly on TV was Gary Burghoff (Radar). G. Wood appeared three times as Brigadier General Hammond, the same role he played in the movie.

Trivia: Timothy Brown, who plays Spearchucker Jones, was also in the 1970 film, listed as "Tim Brown", and played Corporal Judson.

Trivia: The only episode whose name was displayed during the broadcast run (as versus on the DVDs) was the final one, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen."

Bob Blumenfeld

Trivia: All of the characters, based on the characters from Richard Hooker's novel, were composites of people Hooker knew, met casually, worked with, or heard about.

Trivia: The actor Mako (birthname Makoto Iwamatsu) played many different roles on MASH, usually Korean (North and South) and once Chinese. In the Korean roles, Mako spoke perfectly pronounced Korean even though he was Japanese (a naturalized American in 1956). Mako also served in the U.S. Army for awhile in the early 1950's, the same time MASH is set.

Trivia: Spearchucker Jones was removed from the series after the writers were informed that there were no black surgeons stationed at MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) units, during the Korean War.

Trivia: To show the horrors of war, Alan Alda had it written into his contract that there had to be at least one scene in each episode that took place inside the operating room. The exceptions are the episode 'Hawkeye', of season 4, where after Pierce is injured in a jeep accident the episode takes place at a Korean family's home, and the 4th season episode "The Bus". However in that episode the doctors treat the Korean soldier's leg injury on The Bus.

Trivia: During the whole series, the same short loop of background chatter is used in every OR scene. You can make out the words "Doctor, do you want me to hold that for you?" and "Irrigate this!" over and over again.

Doc

Trivia: On February 15, 1996, McLean Stevenson died of a heart attack. The following day, Roger Bowen - who played Stevenson's role in the film - also died of a heart attack.

Cubs Fan

Trivia: Season 4. Episode 1 "Welcome to Korea". To get past the checkpoint, Hawkeye claims Radar has neurapraxia - "disease of the nervous system that makes you foam at the mouth." This seems like the perfect setup for a joke where neurapraxia turns out to be something funny, but it is really a condition of the nervous system, but is caused by injury (usually sports related) and only causes weakness in the extremities.

jle

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

Sometimes You Hear the Bullet - S1-E17

Henry Blake: All I know is what they taught me at command school. There are certain rules about a war, and rule number one is that young men die. And rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one.

More quotes from 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.