M*A*S*H

Radar's Report - S2-E3

Stupidity: Radar takes his glasses off, takes a sip of coffee, then props his clipboard onto the typewriter and accidentally starts typing on the desk calculator. Even if he didn't know his desk well enough to wonder what he laid his clipboard upon AND was so blind he couldn't even orient himself by the desk lamp (which he isn't), he would have felt the difference the instant he touched the keys. Note that he puts his hands on the keys, squints at the clipboard (sic!), then starts typing, he doesn't hammer away right off, which would have added at least a little plausibility to the joke.

Doc

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.

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Abyssinia, Henry - S3-E24

Trivia: There were no American planes shot down over the Sea of Japan during the Korean conflict. It is rumoured that producer/director Larry Gelbart knew that, but wrote Henry Blake's death scene as he was very unhappy with the way Mclean Stevenson had left the show, and was determined to make it clear that there was no way he would be coming back.

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Dear Dad - S1-E12

Question: A number of times it is mentioned that the outfit is unarmed, yet several times, Frank has a rifle, or a pistol, and once Klinger had a grenade, and the guards and Klinger, while on sentry duty, has a rifle. Was this standard, or is this a mistake?

Answer: Even an Army field hospital would have SOME weapons for self-defense if the enemy attacked. What's meant is that it's not a combat outfit, and therefore wouldn't have enough weapons to actually attack anyone. (It's also mentioned a few times that the Officer of the Watch is supposed to carry a pistol at all times, but Hawkeye refuses to do it when he's in charge and Colonels Blake and Potter don't enforce the rule).

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: The Geneva Convention allows even doctors to carry a sidearm to be used in their self defense or the defense of their patients, however it is rare to do so.

stiiggy

Answer: As an old medical unit staffer, my experience is that med units have combat units assigned to defend them. Usually it was marines.

Answer: My old doctor (now deceased) served in Korea during the War. He was required to carry a sidearm anytime he was not in the hospital.

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