M*A*S*H

Life With Father - S3-E8

Trivia: In the scene where Hawkeye & Trapper are trying to figure out who the Korean woman is asking for, Trapper suggests she's looking for Captain Forrest. This could be a reference to the feature film, in which, Captain Duke Forrest is one of the swampmates.

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

Out of Sight, Out of Mind - S5-E3

Trivia: When Hawkeye is temporarily blinded, he meets a soldier, Tom Straw, whose face is covered in bandages having just been blinded in battle. He is played by Tom Sullivan, who is actually blind in real life. This is the first episode that Judy Farrell, ex-wife of Mike Farrell (B.J.), appears as Nurse Abel.

Super Grover

Radar's Report - S2-E3

Trivia: After Erika tells Hawkeye that the ring is her grandmother's and she's not married, when Hawkeye joins Erika on her cot the lights flicker on and off a few times. This flickering was real and totally unscripted, and was due to a power failure on the set, but because Alan Alda and Joan Van Ark didn't miss a beat and continued with their lines the scene wasn't reshot, and they just added the PA voiceover announcing that it's the generator again.

Super Grover

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

Trivia: In several episodes, we are treated to a glimpse of Col. Potter's paint box. He must have had this for quite some time - the inscription in the lid says "Capt. Potter"

Doc

Welcome to Korea - S4-E1

Trivia: While Hawkeye, Radar, and BJ are in General Dickering's jeep, when they meet up with some GIs on the road Hawkeye asks them, "Anybody here from Maine?" and one answers that he's from Vermont, to which Hawkeye responds, "Close, but no cigar." What's funny is that earlier in the series Hawkeye has said that he's from Vermont not Maine.

Super Grover

Trivia: The photograph of Mildred on Colonel Potter's desk is actually a photo of Harry Morgan's then real wife, Eileen Detchon, to whom he was married for 45 years and who passed away 2 years after the series wrapped.

Super Grover

Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen - S11-E16

Trivia: A real wildfire occurred at the Fox Ranch M*A*S*H outdoor set, located in Malibu Creek State Park, destroying the entire set. The fire was filmed, and the producers and writers decided to incorporate the fire in the reworked script for the series finale.

Super Grover

Give and Take - S11-E14

Trivia: In the swamp, there's a black and white photo of a lady hanging over Winchester's area that can be seen behind Mulcahy as he rants at Charles. If you look closely, it's the same photo referred to many times by Frank Burns as a picture of his mother.

Movie Nut

Trivia: Robert Altman, director of the 1970 film on which the series is based, strongly disliked the show.

Trivia: The pictures painted by Col. Potter throughout the show actually were painted by Harry Morgan, the actor playing Col. Potter, who is an amateur painter in real life.

Doc

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

Suggested correction: According to all sources, Harry Morgan didn't paint the pictures. The prop master hired local talent as needed.

Movie Nut

Trivia: "Suicide is Painless", the show's theme song, was a UK No 1 single in 1980. However, the producers couldn't use the original version for a TV series theme due to the nature of the lyrics..

M*A*S*H mistake picture

Divided We Stand - S2-E1

Visible crew/equipment: In the opening scene where General Clayton is explaining the 4077 to the psychiatrist, the scene changes to the outdoor set and the camera pans to the right. As the camera pans past the hospital, a white 1970s era shuttle van can be seen driving into the set in the upper right corner of the screen. (00:01:35)

John Hunt

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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.

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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

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