M*A*S*H

Dear Mildred - S4-E7

Revealing mistake: When the camera is in a close up on Dan the pilot, the sound is a chopper that is running full power, but you can tell that the main rotors are turning slowly to simulate flight.

Movie Nut

Dear Mildred - S4-E7

Revealing mistake: In the shot where the horse kicks in the door, there's actually two shots - a kick, a quick cut, another kick. If you look closely, you can see how the hoof of one of the horse-leg props breaks off during the first kick. The second kick is performed by one leg only. If you look really closely - and probably use the slow-motion function - you can even make out the hand of the one wielding the leg through the hole made in the first kick. (00:18:10)

Doc

Hey, Doc - S4-E5

Revealing mistake: When Radar carries the field phone from Col. Potter's desk over to Hawkeye who is squatting in the corner, the phone doesn't have a phone line attached. It is an EE-8 Military Field Phone, which is a wired device, not a radio - even if Radar elsewhere says he has somebody "on the radio" when in fact he is using an EE-8. (00:17:35)

Doc

The Gun - S4-E13

Revealing mistake: When Radar walks into the supply room, he carries four or five ammunition belts around his neck. Since he stows them in The Gun bin, it has to be assumed that they are not meant to be empty. If they were only half filled each, he would still be carrying something in the area of 60-100lb. However he moves with absolutely no visible strain and tosses the belts into The Gun bin with ease. Elsewhere in the series Radar is depicted as being none too strong. Clearly the magazine pouches were stuffed with something light and the effect carrying the real weight would have on Radar was overlooked. (00:06:45)

Doc

It Happened One Night - S4-E3

Revealing mistake: When Hawkeye and Margaret turn toward the stove, and he says "Are you hungry?", watch the can. Though it is meant to look like it blew the top off, it is plain that the top was just set into the top, and a blast of air was used to blow it open. This is because of the sound, and a stream of vapor that often accompanies a blast from an air gun. A sealed can set on a heat source would have burst not only from the top, but also from the side at a seam, or the bottom. Also, they were about five feet away from the can, and the beans went up, not out at a ninety degree angle. So they wouldn't get beaned. Beans on the face were for comic effect.

Movie Nut

Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen - S11-E16

Other mistake: How did Hawkeye Pierce, a surgeon, know how to drive a tank? It is nothing like driving a car and takes skills, training and experience that a surgeon simply would not have. He wouldn't even be able to start the engine.

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

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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