M*A*S*H

Bug Out - S5-E1

Continuity mistake: After Radar calls assembly, Potter starts to address the personnel. Accounting for Hawkeye, BJ, and Margaret in Surgery, there are only thirty-three people there. In the episode "Dear Ma" (S4: Ep 17), Radar wrote that there were almost two hundred people there.

Movie Nut

The Army-Navy Game - S1-E20

Revealing mistake: When the second shell explodes outside, the shelf in the right foreground shakes a moment, then the top suddenly flips up, dumping the bottles that were on it. Obviously a stagehand flipped it when no bottles fell.

Heroes - S10-E18

Continuity mistake: In the mess tent, Hawkeye is attempting to get the reporter to focus on BJ instead of him by telling the guy about the defibrillator made by BJ to save a life in the O.R. As Hawkeye is making his point, the reporter is putting a sheet of paper into a folder on his typewriter case. After the camera cuts to a close up of the reporter saying his next line, he's putting the paper into the folder again.

Movie Nut

Dear Ma - S4-E16

Plot hole: In this episode, Maj. Burns is trying to avoid the foot inspection because he has nail polish on his toenails. Having access to a fully outfitted hospital dispensory, he'd be able to remove that nail polish in a minute.

Doc

Lt. Radar O'Reilly - S5-E4

Revealing mistake: When Radar salutes Major Burns dropping the package, you can see wet spots on his uniform where he held the package. Before the bottle inside breaks, it is supposed to be dry. The crew probably re-used a single package for several takes of the shot. (00:04:45)

As You Were - S2-E20

Character mistake: When Hawkeye asks Frank what he is doing, Frank replies he is lining up all bottles and jars "according to height and popularity". In fact, the bottles are not lined up according to height at all, also the order of condiments is different on the two tables. The sweet and sour gherkins Frank mentions are not there at all - during the pan shots you can see the line ends with the pepper. (00:01:50)

The Light That Failed - S6-E6

Factual error: Charles mistakenly injects a Post Op patient with curare instead of morphine. This would have been hard to do. Curare was not approved for use in Korea by the U.S. Army and it would not have been there. Even if it had been, curare was used in conjunction with anesthetics in the operating theatre. It would make no sense to have it in the Post Op. (source pg. 14 "Notable Names in Anasthesia" by J. Roger Maltby, Royal Society of Medicine - Great Britain). (00:12:20)

Welcome to Korea - S4-E1

Continuity mistake: In the assembly called by Major Burns at the beginning of the show, Klinger is in the front rank far left (except when the continuity error has him centre rear), but after the appearance of Hawkeye in the rickshaw Klinger isn't on parade at all.

ainitatyb

The Joker Is Wild - S11-E4

Continuity mistake: After Klinger's file cabinet gets bombed, BJ appears in the window. He's facing directly ahead, head slightly tilted to the right. When the camera goes to a close up, he's in quarter profile, left cheek forward. In the long shot, he's back to the original position.

Movie Nut

Show generally

Revealing mistake: A number of times, during the night periods (for instance, during an OR scene) the windows are dark when the lights are on in the room. Then when the lights go out, the windows brighten up. They, and the interior lights seem to alternate lightening and darkening.

Movie Nut

Dear Comrade - S7-E11

Revealing mistake: In the first scene, when the camera pans back, in the upper left corner of the screen you can see that a part of the tent has been removed to make room for the camera. (00:02:15)

The Sniper - S2-E10

Revealing mistake: When The Sniper begins his attack, a sandlot football game is in progress in the compound. As the quarterback goes back to throw a pass, he waits just long enough for the ball to be "shot" out of his hand.

The Winchester Tapes - S6-E5

Plot hole: In a tape home, Winchester implores his father to get him out of the MASH and suggests that Senator Griswold should help as his father "paid good money for him". As the length of time the show ran so exceeds the length of the war itself, inconsistencies for dates are perhaps unavoidable, and it might not be fair to call them mistakes. In this case however, the writers/producers have carelessly picked a senator who only served from November 1952, making dating inescapable. As Charles, in the same episode, complains how hot it is and everyone is in shirtsleeves, it must be very late spring, perhaps May, at best, just a month before the end of the war. To emphasize the mistake, by the next episode it is late fall/early winter. (00:12:45)

Sometimes You Hear the Bullet - S1-E17

Factual error: We see Pvt. Wendel trying to hot-wire a jeep to escape. He wouldn't have to hot-wire it, because vehicles assigned to a combat zone were equipped with an ignition switch, not an ignition lock, for the simple reason that keys get lost or mislaid all the time and in an emergency, having to track down keys for vehicles would be extremely detrimental to an unit's combat effectiveness.

Doc

The Sniper - S2-E10

Continuity mistake: When Hawkeye is preparing to go for his picnic, Radar brings him some brandy from Col. Blake. There is only a small amount of brandy in the bottle, which is commented on. Radar takes a jug of martini from the still to top up the bottle, but this is not done and the jug of martini remains on top of the stove untouched. When the picnic scene takes place, the brandy bottle is now nearly full with the brandy/martini mix. (00:10:00)

Frank Burns: You disgust me!
Hawkeye: You're right, Frank... I discussed you with everyone I know and we all find you disgusting.

More quotes from M*A*S*H

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

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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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