Corrected entry: Radar is seen reading Marvel Comics that were weren't published until the mid 60s.
Corrected entry: Many references to films mentioned appeared well after the Korean War.
Correction: A few movie anachronisms are already listed individually for the episodes, which include "McLintock!" and "The Ten Commandments." Also already listed are variations of "Godzilla" movies. If you watch an episode with an unlisted anachronistic film, submit it for that episode.
Bombshells - S11-E6
Corrected entry: At the end, after BJ has received his Bronze Star, Colonel Potter dismisses the formation with "At Ease. Dismissed." According to Drill and Ceremonies as I learned them, this is impossible. The only legal command from the at-ease position is "Attention."
Correction: While this is technically correct, I've had NCOs and officers call fallout or dismissed from at ease, parade rest, and rest all the time. This is in line with a unit that has as little military discipline as the 4077TH.
Dear Sigmund - S5-E7
Corrected entry: After being loaded with wounded, an ambulance accelerates, turns left and moves out of sight. Immediately after there is the sound of a crash, and the ambulance is lying on its left side. Radar states that it turned too fast and rolled over...but in that case, it would be on its right side.
Correction: The ambulance driver was quickly heading for the next left turn on the road out of camp, but instead wound up driving into the sloped rocky ditch on his left, hence the vehicle rolled onto its left side. Nothing wrong with its depiction.
Last Laugh - S6-E3
Corrected entry: Leo Bardonaro supposedly left his hat at the hotel where he used BJ's name as an alias. General Fred Fox made BJ put on the hat to prove he was at the hotel. When Leo shows back up at the Swamp he has his hat back on.
Correction: He could easily have more than one hat.
Corrected entry: Radar is talking with Henry. In this episode, Radar is smoking a cigar, and drinking alcohol, something he did in "Chief Surgeon Who?" But in a later episode, he has trouble when Potter is trying to teach how to smoke a cigar.
Correction: Dr Freedman explains this as the war causing Radar to regress to a more childlike state, helped along by Potter as more of a father figure.
Corrected entry: The only ones who knew Dr. Borelli was in camp was Radar, Hawkeye, Trapper, and Henry. Since they were the only ones who knew him at all, how did Frank and Hotlips find out so quick?
Correction: Frank and Hotlips were always busy bodies around the camp and spying on the going ons of the camp. And as can be seen in other episodes, the swamp is near Hotlips' tent, so if her and Frank were in there, then it makes sense they would know pretty quick.
Good-Bye Radar: Part 1 - S8-E4
Corrected entry: When talking to Klinger, Radar tells him that "Nobody helped me when I took this job." Yet later on, when Potter is among those complaining about Klinger, Mulcahy tells him about "a real Bozo" that had trouble with the simplest of tasks. And that Col. Blake took the guy under his wing, and helped him grow into the job.
Correction: This error is taking the dialogue too literally. Radar isn't implying that nobody taught him, just that he had to work his way into the job himself, and without having anyone to fall back on if he dropped the ball. He is saying that Klinger should stop whining and make the effort, just like he had to back then.
Corrected entry: When the Col. is explaining the circumstances, he says "1918 to be exact". When they begin to drink the cognac, he says "As I recall, it was smooth in 17".
Correction: Potter says "1917, to be exact" and "it was mighty smooth in '17".
Corrected entry: When Hawkeye and Margaret are operating on Lovett, Hawkeye hooks a clamp on to the light to adjust it. In the next shot it disappears and later it reappears.
Correction: The angle of the camera changes, but the clamp is never removed, you can even see it on Hawkeye's scrubs. The change in angle keeps your from being able to see the side of the like he hooked the clamp to.
Corrected entry: When Hawkeye and Radar are talking to the recon men, an explosion goes off behind them, with no sound of the incoming shell.
Corrected entry: When BJ and Hawkeye are at the desk in Post Op, Margaret comes in to blame BJ for the missing fabric in her bathrobe. He claims that it wasn't him, but pulls a piece of fabric out of the desk drawer that he claims to have "coincidentally" noticed there. He never touched the desk drawer, and had come in only a minute before. The only way that he could have known about it was to have placed it there beforehand.
Correction: Exactly. He (or even Margaret) put it there after it was cut.
At the end of that episode, it is disclosed that BJ was the mastermind and the others acted as if "they got, got."
Corrected entry: At the end of the episode, Hawkeye asks Sidney if he's going crazy. Sidney responds, "No. A little farshimelt perhaps, but not crazy." Farshimelt in Yiddish means spoiled, moldy. Sidney probably meant farmisht - mixed up.
Correction: Elsewhere in the series, Hawkeye himself describes mental conditions with the word "moldy", which indeed is the English translation of farshimmelt, see also the German "verschimmelt" of the same meaning. Since obviously to the writers "moldy" was a legitimate if somewhat humorous description of a less-than-optimal mental condition, the word "farshimmelt" is probably not a mistake but an intentional use.
Corrected entry: The POW has blood type AB-, and the doctors search the records to find Frank has AB-. Type AB is the "universal receiver" and can accept a transfusion from any type blood. Type O on the other hand can only receive from another type O. The story should have been based on Type O blood.
Correction: While a person with AB- blood can receive any blood type that is also Rh-, it is still best medical practice to give a person only their own blood type if possible to minimize the chance of transfusion reaction.
Corrected entry: Hawkeye is discharging his sidearm into the air. It seems to be a .45 cal. M1911A1, which was the most popular officer's sidearm during the Korean war, but he only shoots 5 times before announcing that that's all his bullets. The M1911A1 had a 7 shot magazine. (Potter seemingly did shoot 7 times.) Even allowing for the fact that his gun might not be fully loaded, muzzle flash is visible only after the third shot. The first and last two have none. (00:21:35)
Correction: The Gun wasn't fully loaded, or jammed. And muzzle flash isn't always visible on film.
Corrected entry: The cast was not told that Mclean Stevenson's character Henry was going to be killed off until the last possible second so that the shocked reaction of the cast was used in the show to reflect the reactions of the characters at the death of Henry.
Correction: Larry Gelbart has stated numerous times that all of the actors knew exactly what was happening and that there were in fact two takes of this scene, with the second take being the one used. To paraphrase what Mr. Gelbart typed in alt.fan.mash "What we see on the screen is called acting, and Gary and the rest of the cast performed superbly"
Corrected entry: I don't know the episode number; I have seen it a few times. Hawkeye is in the Col office with a few of the boys, they have a discussion and Hawkeye says "here's to 1984". Seeing the Korean war ended in 1953.
Correction: He is making a sarcastic toast to the political and social situation in Korea during the war, comparing to the dystopian world of Orwell's "1984".
Corrected entry: In the pilot episode, the MASH unit holds the raffle to send Ho Jon to medical school. In the rest of the series, Ho Jon is still at the MASH unit.
Correction: According to IMDb character Ho Jon last appeared in "Ceasefire" aired 3/18/1973 in the second to the last episode of the first season. This would make sense for him to attend classes the following Fall term as in incoming freshman.
'Twas the Day After Christmas - S10-E9
Corrected entry: The officers are supposed to change places with the enlisted, Nurse Kelly is a Lt, but she supposedly changed places with another officer.
Correction: It seems all of The Nurses were at least Lts. You never met a corporal or private nurse. So to switch, they "promoted" a lower ranking nurse.
Corrected entry: When Hawkeye takes Lt. Hoolihan's blood pressure, he attaches the cuff below her elbow. Blood pressure cuffs must go above the elbow.
Correction: I haven't seen the episode, but a blood pressure cuff does not need to be above the elbow, it just needs to be over an artery, any artery close enough to the surface to get a reading. Often, if the arms are too large, or if there are problems with the upper arm, a cuff may be placed below the elbow, around the wrist, even on legs if there is no other place, though that doesn't happen very often.
Correction: Technically, that is correct. The real error is that the cuffs use Velcro, which wasn't invented till well after Korean War.
Correction: The problems with Radar's comics are already noted in the specific episodes.
Super Grover ★