History Trivia / Mash

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: "The Life You Save", in which Winchester almost gets shot and suffers an existential crisis afterwards, was supposed to air March 30, 1981. However, that same day, President Ronald Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt, so it got pushed to May 4, 1981, serving as the season finale.

* DirectedByCastMember: Alan Alda (32 episodes), Harry Morgan (8 episodes), Mike Farrell (5 episodes), Creator/DavidOgdenStiers (2 episodes), Jamie Farr (1 episode).

* RealitySubtext: Sure, Klinger stopped running around in dresses because he was being promoted to company clerk, and therefore, pretty much had to forget about trying to buck for Section 8 (that and the show wasn't funny anymore, and therefore Klinger running around in dresses would have been just plain odd during CerebusSyndrome)... but also because Jamie Farr felt that his kids were starting to feel embarrassed about seeing their dad dressed "like a transvestite" week after week on national TV.

* TooSoon: "The Life You Save", in which Winchester almost gets shot and suffers an existential crisis afterwards, was supposed to air March 30, 1981. However, that same day, President Ronald Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt, so it got pushed to May 4, 1981, serving as the season finale.

** Averted for Radar, as Gary Burghoff played him in both the Film and TV series.

** A vehicle example: in the finale, a tank is driven into the compound by a wounded tanker. After it starts drawing enemy mortar fire, Hawkeye drives it out of the camp. The tank driven into the camp is an [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/M24-Chaffee-latrun-1.jpg M24 Chaffee light tank]]; the tank Hawkeye drives out is an [[http://www.usarmymodels.com/AFV%20PHOTOS/M4%20SHERMAN/M4%20Sherman%20Front%20Left.jpg M4 Sherman medium tank]]. The two look nothing alike.

* The film shown in the mess tent (and parodied by Hawkeye and BJ) at the beginning of "Morale Victory", where they've seen it at least a dozen times and they're all sick and tired of it except Col. Potter (his wife's a big fan) is ''Film/HistoryIsMadeAtNight.''

*** "38 Across" (S5) - Frank finally finishes his B.B. game, and Hawkeye purposely knocks them loose

* The film they're watching at the beginning of "Morale Victory", where they've seen it at least a dozen times and they're all sick and tired of it except Col. Potter, is ''Film/HistoryIsMadeAtNight.''

* TruthInTelevision: The writers and producers DidTheResearch very well, and had actual Army doctors supervising the scripts and showing the actors how things were done. A number of details about Korean every day life and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_shamanism spiritual traditions]] are also accurate, including the ''mudang'' shaman in "Exorcism". She is doing a ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL4FtvGK1oI mudangchum]]'' ceremony, probably a ''dodang-gut'', which purges evil spirits from a community; her regalia and dance are completely authentic. Klinger might be especially interested in the fact that these shamans cross-dress because they embody both male and female spirits.

* BreakthroughHit: For Creator/RobertAltman.

* SleeperHit: As a movie based on an obscure novel, about an unpopular war, with leads played by [[Creator/DonaldSutherland one of the secondary actors]] from ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' and Music/BarbraStreisand's then-[[Creator/ElliottGould husband]], Fox didn't expect it to do much at the box office, focusing most of their attention on ''Film/ToraToraTora''. Instead, it became a huge sensation among younger audiences, had incredible word-of-mouth, and for a while ranked as one of the most profitable comedy films of all time.

* CaliforniaDoubling: South Korea? South California, more like! The campsite at the Fox Ranch (now Malibu Creek State Park) was, of course, reused for the series. Incidentally, the Californian environment actually looks more Korean than Vietnamese, despite the filmmakers' intention to make Korea look like Vietnam.

* CreatorBacklash: Despite winning the film's only UsefulNotes/AcademyAward, screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. later disowned the film since quite little of his script was used in the final film. On his DVD commentary for the film, Creator/RobertAltman said it upset him that Lardner hated the film so much, since the reason the film had the feel that it did was because of his script. Essentially, Altman claimed the final film was a distillation of Lardner's script.

** Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould took to addressing each other as "Shirley" on-set as a joke. While filming one dialogue scene, Gould spontaneously called Sutherland "Shirley", causing Sutherland to burst out laughing; Altman decided to retain this during editing.

* RealitySubtext: Sure, Klinger stopped running around in dresses because he was being promoted to company clerk, and therefore, pretty much had to forget about trying to buck for Section 8 (that and the show wasn't funny anymore, and therefore Klinger running around in dresses would have been just plain odd during CerebusSyndrome)... but also because Jamie Farr felt that his kids were starting to feel embarrased about seeing their dad dressed "like a transvestite" week after week on national TV.

** Creator/SamElliott, Creator/JamesCromwell, and Alan Fudge were all considered for the role of B.J. Hunnicutt before it went to Mike Farrell. Fudge and Cromwell would eventually appear on the show as guests -- Fudge as Capt. Chandler in Season 5's "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?" and Cromwell as Leo Bardonaro in Season 6's "Last Laugh".

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!!Misc. Trivia
* [=McLean=] Stevenson (Col. Blake in the TV series) died February 15, 1996. Roger Bowen (Col. Blake in the movie) died the next day. What's more, both men died of the same cause (heart attack). The eeriness of the coincidence, and a desire to avoid confusion, led to Bowen's family "stalling" news of his death until the following week.
* According to legend, during the first commercial break of the series finale the city of New York lost all water pressure because of so many people going to the bathroom.
* A letter printed in ''Magazine/TVGuide'' in the late '70s, from a doctor who had really worked in a MASH in Korea, said that the craziest antics on the show (including practical jokes and dressing up) were real. They were not far-fetched or unrealistic, just coping mechanisms for the horrific situation these people lived in. Much of what you saw either really happened, or could really happen. Other MASH veterans have pointed out that some of it would ''not'', especially Klinger; he wouldn't have been allowed to go on crossdressing as long as he did.
* This was the first television series in America to freely invoke the swear "son of a bitch", although done so cautiously and very rarely in a conservative environment with [[MoralGuardians strong reservations against profanity]], and only for emotional punch.

** "Preventive Medicine" was originally scripted to have Hawkeye and BJ falsely diagnose a gung-ho Colonel with appendicitis and then remove his (healthy) appendix, to keep him from resuming his command and getting more soldiers needlessly killed. However, Mike Farrell objected, believing the removal of a healthy organ was wrong and could ''never'' be justified and also because he felt BJ would never do such a thing, even if it was for the best possible reasons. Alan Alda felt that removing a reckless, dangerous man from command in order to save lives ''was'' worth it. Their argument was actually written into the episode. As was the reconciliation at the end, as apparently the actors had been at odds with each other over the matter.

** The final scene of the finale shows BJ riding down the hill leading up to the chopper pad, going off the side of the pad instead of following the path. Reports tell that Mike Farrell broke his foot doing the stunt. The finale's production code is 9B04, and the next episode produced (9B05) was Friends and Enemies, in which BJ has an ingrown toenail, keeping him off his feet most of the episode. This was most likely to accommodate Mike's inability to walk properly.

** The final scene of the finale shows BJ riding down the hill leading up to the chopper pad, going off the side of the pad instead of following the path. Reports tell the Mike Farrell broke his foot doing the stunt. The finale's production code is 9B04, and the next episode produced (9B05) was Friends and Enemies, in which BJ has an ingrown toenail, keeping him off his feet most of the episode. This was most likely to accommodate Mike's inability to walk properly.

* CreatorBacklash: Despite winning the film's only UsefulNotes/AcademyAward, screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. later disowned the film since quite little of his script was used in the final film. On his DVD commentary for the film, Creator/RobertAltman said it upset him that Lardner hated the film so much, since the reason the film had the feel that it did (as opposed to the racist, sexist, homophobic book) was because of his script. Essentially, Altman claimed the final film was a distillation of Lardner's script.

*** And, in fact, there's excellent reason to doubt it: Loretta Swit apparently organised annual reunions of the cast. According to Jamie Farr, the only two who regularly did not attend were Harry Morgan (whose age and health made it impossible) and Creator/DavidOgdenStiers (who dislikes that ''M*A*S*H'' has overshadowed his career so heavily).

* CreatorBacklash:
** Dr. Richard Hornberger, the author of the original novel, despised this series so much that when asked about its end in 1983, he said the only thing he would miss were the royalty checks.
** Creator/RobertAltman also hated the series, mostly because he felt that it softened the anti-war and anti-authoritarian spirit of his movie. In his DVD commentary for the latter, he further disparages the show as racist.
--->"I didn't like the series because that series to me was the opposite of my main reason for making this film — and this was to talk about a foreign war, an Asian war, that was going on at the time. And to perpetuate that every Sunday night for 12 years — and no matter what platitudes they say about their little messages and everything — the basic image and message is that the brown people with the narrow eyes are the enemy.[[note]]Most of the Korean characters, North and South, were actually sympathetic; ordinary people who lost livelihoods, homes and loved ones in the war.[[/note]] And so I think that series was quite a racist thing. I didn't approve of it, I don't like it, and I thought it was the antithesis of what we were trying to do. But most people [[AdaptationDisplacement don't even know this movie exists]]. If you poll the world, they'd say, 'Oh, that was that series with [[MaliciousMisnaming Alan Albert,' or whatever his name was]]."
** To a lesser extent, producer/director Gene Reynolds. Although he left from running the show after Season Five, Alan Alda continued to consult with him on the show's production on a weekly basis. There were a few changes that Reynolds was not entirely pleased with, such as Frank Burns's departure, [[ShipTease the writers originally trying to find ways to hook Margaret up with Charles]], and Margaret's eventual divorce.

* DistaffCounterpart: the short-lived follow-up series ''After MASH'' is analogous to the original novel's sequel ''MASH Goes To Maine,'' which followed Hawkeye's post-Army life.

** Several other directors were offered the film and turned it down before it was given to Robert Altman, including Creator/StanleyKubrick, Creator/SidneyLumet, Creator/SydneyPollack, George Roy Hill, and Bud Yorkin.
** Creator/JamesCaan, Creator/JamesCoburn and Creator/BurtReynolds turned down the role of Trapper John. James Garner (a RealLife Korean War vet) was reportedly in the mix for Hawkeye. Creator/BobNewhart was cast but pulled out before filming so he wouldn't be competing with himself in ''Film/CatchTwentyTwo'' (it's not known what his role was to be, but Col. Blake seems likely). Frankie Avalon was considered for Radar.

* AbsenteeActor: Various cast members in various episodes. Alan Alda is the only one to appear in every single episode (although season 6's "Temporary Duty" has him offscreen for all but the very beginning and end), and in season 4's "Hawkeye" he's the ''only'' regular to appear.
* ActorAllusion:
** Larry Linville guest starred on the original ''Series/MissionImpossible'' in three seperate episodes, each time as an Eastern Bloc official ([[YouLookFamiliar though never the same one twice]]) who all act a good deal like his later characterization of Burns, minus the comedic edge.
** Allan Arbus's role as Sidney Freedman harks back to his appearance as Jesus in the 1972 film ''Film/GreasersPalace''. ("If you can feel, heal!")
** Klinger, as one of his Section 8 scams, pretends to be a civilian back in Toledo and that Colonel Potter is a cop and angrily barks: "I pay your salary!", a line famously said to Joe Friday in the 1954 movie version of ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''. Harry Morgan (who played Potter) wasn't in that version of ''Dragnet'', however, co-starring in the 1967 incarnation of the franchise, instead.