Trivia / M*A*S*H

The novel

• Write Who You Know: All of the characters are composites of people Richard Hooker knew, met casually, worked with, or heard about. Richard Hooker was originally the joint pseudonym of actual combat surgeon H. Richard Hornberger, M.D. and American Korean War journalist and writer W.C. Heinz, who was later an expert commentator on numerous sports documentaries beginning in 1998. The Hooker pen name was later enhanced with a third author joining the team, William E. Butterworth, (a.k.a. W.E.B. Griffin), who was the co-author of the sequel series of books beginning with M*A*S*H Goes to New Orleans in 1974.

The film

• Acting in the Dark: In the football game's final play, Hawkeye, as the only lineman to the center's left, drops back right before the snap to make center Judson eligible to carry the ball on the (ultimately successful) trick play Spearchucker has thought up. When Hawkeye drops back, the opposing defensive lineman look quizzically at each other, then sloppily shift to their left (so as to better cover an expected run in that direction). Altman had not told the defensive lineman what would happen, instead instructing them to just act like they were in a normal football game. Since a center has likely never been eligible in any college or professional football game, it would make sense that experienced football players wouldn't immediately know how to react to that bizarre formation.
• Amateur Cast: Of the twenty-eight actors with speaking parts, only half of them had prior screen credits.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: A couple different instrumental cover versions of "Suicide is Painless" became minor hits in 1970, but the male vocal quartet version that plays over the film's opening credits became a surprise #1 hit in the UK in 1980, boosted by the popularity of the TV show. Robert Altman's son Mike (who was 14 at the time) wrote the lyrics.^note Due to various covers, and especially being used as the instrumental theme to the TV series, Mike Altman ended up getting millions in royalties for the song, far more than his father got for actually directing the film.
• Breakthrough Hit: 45-year-old Robert Altman, who'd spent two decades toiling in obscurity directing industrial films, episodic television, plus the occasional B-Movie, became a major Hollywood name overnight with this film, praised for his inventive, freewheeling approach to filmmaking.
• California Doubling: South Korea? South California, more like! The campsite at the Fox Ranch (now Malibu Creek State Park) was, of course, reused for the series. The football game was filmed at Griffith Park in L.A. Incidentally, the Californian environment actually looks more Korean than Vietnamese, despite the filmmakers' intention to make Korea look like Vietnam.
• Cast the Expert: Several of the football players are played by actual NFL players. Spearchucker Jones is played by Hall of Fame defensive back Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, the obnoxious opposing lineman who spits on Radar is played by Oakland Raiders defensive end Ben Davidson, and Hall of Fame defensive lineman Curley Culp plays an unnamed lineman. Most of the other football players (except for the main cast members) were actual Los Angeles-area semipro players.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Robert Altman originally wanted Elliott Gould to play Duke Forrest. It was only at Gould's request that he got the role of Trapper John instead, as he was worried that he would spend more time focusing on nailing Duke's Southern accent than inhabiting the character.
• Creator Backlash: Despite winning the film's only Academy Award, screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. later disowned the film, since he claimed that little of his script was used in the final cut. On his DVD Commentary for the film, Robert Altman 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.
• Darkhorse Casting: Robert Altman cast so many unknowns (most of them borrowed from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco) that after the few known actors and actresses, the opening credits are entirely "Introducing".
• Executive Meddling: The opening title sequence has a text that identifies the place as Korea. This was added at the insistence of the studio after Robert Altman had removed every reference to Korea, intending it to be mistaken for Vietnam, which would reinforce the anti-war statement.
• Fake American: Donald Sutherland, from Canada. But, since Hawkeye Pierce is from Maine, and Sutherland was born in New Brunswick (which borders Maine) and grew up in Nova Scotia (across the Bay of Fundy from Maine), his casting actually works.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Pretty much the whole film was improvised; the screenplay was just a template. (As mentioned in Creator Backlash, screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. did not expect Altman and the cast to take this approach to filming.)
• Hostility on the Set: Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland were famously unhappy with Robert Altman during filming, because they felt he was spending too much time working with the extras and background talent and not with them, and they tried to get the studio to fire the director. Altman later said if he had known his stars had felt that way, he would have resigned, but he didn't learn about it until later (actually confessed by Gould to Altman privately). In an interview with Mitchell Zuckoff for his 2009 oral biography of the director, Gould was quoted as saying, "I think that, in hindsight, Donald and I were two elitist, arrogant actors who really weren't getting Altman's genius."
  • According to Gould, he and Altman got into a heated argument on-set after Altman told him that he needed to act like "that guy", pointing to Corey Fischer (who was playing the smaller role of Capt. Bandini).
• Sleeper Hit: As a movie based on an obscure novel, about an unpopular war, with leads played by one of the secondary actors from The Dirty Dozen and Barbra Streisand's then-husband (hell, Burt Reynolds said that they were described to him as such when he was offered the role of Duke Forrest), Fox didn't expect it to do much at the box office, focusing most of their attention at the time on Patton and Tora! Tora! Tora! 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, while blowing the film of the famous novel Catch-22, which was expected to be a big hit, out of the water.
• Star-Making Role: For Donald Sutherland.
• Stillborn Franchise: A film adaptation of the original novel's sequel MASH Goes to Maine, following Hawkeye's life back in Maine after his discharge, was considered but never produced. However, this did end up giving way to the highly popular TV series.
• Throw It In!:
  • During the opening credits a stretcher-bearer stumbles and falls on his ass while carrying a wounded soldier from the chopper pad. This was a real, unscripted accident during filming, and was something that likely happened a lot in real life due to the inhospitable terrain where mobile hospitals had to be set up.
  • After Hot Lips' "This isn't a hospital, it's an insane asylum!" rant to Henry Blake, Robert Altman kept the camera rolling after the scene was supposed to finish, leading Sally Kellerman to improvise wailing "My commission!..." Altman was delighted, as he saw this as the perfect revelation of her hidden vulnerability, and since this was originally supposed to be her last scene in the film, he decided instead to insert her into several later scenes to continue her character arc.
  • 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.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Several other directors were offered the film and turned it down before it was given to Robert Altman, including William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet and Sydney Pollack.
  • Altman originally wanted James Garner for Hawkeye Pierce.
  • James Caan, James Coburn, and Burt Reynolds turned down the role of Trapper John McIntyre. Reynolds was also offered the role of Duke Forrest, but turned it down after "they told me the other two leads would be Barbra Streisand's husband and that tall, skinny guy who was in The Dirty Dozen".
  • Angie Dickinson was offered the role of Hot Lips.
  • Bob Newhart was cast, but pulled out before filming so he wouldn't be competing with himself in Catch-22 (it's not known what his role was to be, but Col. Blake seems likely).

---

The series

• Acting in the Dark: The whole episode where Henry Blake departs was filmed with the entire cast being under the impression that Blake was going home to America. After they filmed Blake's departure, the cast was given a changed script for the last scene: Radar delivers the news that Blake's plane was shot down with no survivors.
• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: One of the most famous examples in television, to the point where this trope was originally called "McLeaned". When McLean Stevenson left the show at the end of Season 3, his character Henry Blake was unexpectedly killed off. And this was used to get some Enforced Method Acting in the final scene.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Klinger is from Toledo, Ohio, just like his actor, Jamie Farr.
  • Expanding on that, both Farr and Alan Alda served in the U.S. Army in Korea, albeit after the shooting war had ended.^note Alda did a six-month tour as a gunnery officer in the Reserves; Farr was stationed in Tokyo and later accompanied Red Skelton on a Korean USO tour. Farr actually wore his own dogtags while playing Klinger.
    • Similarly, Mike Farrell served in the Marines prior to becoming an actor.
  • Henry Blake was from Bloomington, Illinois; McLean Stevenson was born in nearby Normal.
  • B.J. Hunnicutt's daughter Erin was named after Mike Farrell's real-life daughter.
• Adored by the Network:
  • CBS loved the show, even during the first season when the ratings were abysmal. Indeed, the show could easily have been canceled after the first season. Instead, CBS moved it to a better timeslot for the second season, and the rest is history.
  • Reruns of the show are often shown on multiple networks, especially in the early 2000's when a number of new cable networks were just starting and needed syndicated shows to fill airtime. At one point in the early oughts, it was possible to go a full day watching the show by flipping between the different channels. In particular, when the show ran on FX or the Hallmark Channel, all day marathons were quite common.
  • MeTV is quite fond of the show as well. For example, in May 2023 they expanded their dedicated weekday timeslot for the show to two hours as part of a month-long promotion called "MASH Maydays"...which eventually turned into "MASH Maydays in June" when it carried over to the next month, and then they eventually dropped the "MASH Maydays" branding altogether and the two-hour block just became the new norm.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • Whatever the starting intentions with Hawkeye, his early season bi references were more along the lines of "I molest men too". Compare that with the later season constant references to queer authors and the finale’s “loved as many of you as I could” with happy reaction shots from both male and female characters.
  • The creators regretted the cavalier attitude towards rape in the first few seasons, especially in regards to Margaret getting attacked and the “heroes” not caring, and while there were still a few rape jokes scattered around (mostly by Hawkeye continuously sad clowning about past trauma), there are episodes like "No Laughing Matters" where her anger is treated as valid and the attacker is humiliated away, and "Are You Now, Margaret" where her friends are nearby to protect her from Sexual Extortion. Also in contrast to the movie shower scene, there were plenty of times where B.J. or Hawkeye got their clothes stolen and accidentally flashed a crowd watching.
  • Mclean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers left because Trapper and Henry had less to do than Hawkeye (though not blaming Alan Alda), so as a consolation, both characters got more depth in their last season, Henry not wanting to give up Korea because he's a better doctor there but dreaming about being with his wife again, and Trapper struggling on his repression, but still telling his daughters he’s trying to make the best of it.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Hawkeye never actually says "It wasn't a chicken!" in the finale.
  • "Abyssinia" wasn't really Henry's magic word for goodbye, in fact, he only said it once throughout his entire stay on the show. More often than not, whenever he bode someone farewell, he would say, "Goom-bye!"
• California Doubling:
  • As with the film, exteriors for the show were filmed at the Fox Ranch (now Malibu Creek State Park) near Malibu. California is about as mountainous as Korea, but the doubling is obvious in the winter episodes, where, aside from a lack of snow in any such episode, the surrounding plant life is green and alive.
  • Additionally, due to a limited shooting schedule at the ranch quite a lot of "outdoor" scenes (particularly those taking place at night, and/or in the immediate vicinity of the compound) were rather obviously shot on a soundstage.
• Cast the Runner-Up: James Cromwell and Alan Fudge were both considered for the role of B.J. Hunnicutt before it went to Mike Farrell. Both actors would eventually appear on the show as guests — Fudge as Capt. Chandler in Season 5's "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?" and Cromwell as B.J.'s old friend Leo Bardonaro in Season 6's "Last Laugh".
• The Cast Showoff: Everyone gets to show off their many and varied talents: Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Loretta Swit, Larry Linville, and William Christopher are featured singing in various episodes; William Christopher's piano skills are also shown off, as are Harry Morgan's painting abilities and Gary Burghoff's jazz drumming (and talent for impressions); Mike Farrell is also shown dancing in the episode "Dreams." Loudon Wainwright III is a professional singer-songwriter, so Calvin Spalding's appearances (limited to a handful of Season 3 episodes) mainly involved him singing and playing guitar.
• Corpsing:
  • Alan Alda cracks up in “Margaret’s Marriage”, when they’re playing basketball and Potter accidentally judo chops Mulcahy’s arm.
  • In-universe, Trapper could never keep a straight face when he and Hawkeye pulled a prank on Frank Burns, from smirking when Frank wakes up from wetting his cot, to stifling laughter when Hawkeye slips into Margaret's seat next to Frank at the movie, to busting out into laughter watching Frank tear up the Swamp looking for the rest of Hawkeye's "Pioneer Aviation" letter.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Producer/director Gene Reynolds. Although he left 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, the writers originally trying to find ways to have Margaret hook up with Charles, and Margaret's eventual divorce.
  • As proud as he is of “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet”, Alan Alda has commented that the scene of Hawkeye having a Single Tear (and very much Tender Tears, whereas later episodes have sobbing breakdowns) always gets used to demonstrate the show's status as a dramedy... and he doesn’t like that performance.
• The Danza:
  • Kellye Nakahara as Nurse Kellye.
    • Interestingly, her name in the show varies. She has been Nurse Kealani Kellye, Nurse Kellye Yamato, Nurse Abel, Nurse Charlie, and Nurse Baker. And a few times, characters have (apparently mistakenly) referred to her as Nurse Nakahara or Lieutenant Nakahara.
    • The character is supposed to be part Chinese and part Hawaiian Native. Kealani was the name Nakahara and Alan Alda came up with.
  • Also, Corpsman Roy Goldman, played by actor Roy Goldman.
  • Another instance, Frank asks Igor, played by Jeff Maxwell, his name, to which he responds "Maxwell". It appears to have been a mistake by actor Jeff Maxwell; Larry Linville didn't miss a beat.
  • Likewise nurses Gwen Farrell and Jennifer Davis, played by Gwen Farrell (no relation to Mike) and Jennifer Davis.
    • Amusingly inverted with Judy Farrell (Mike Farrell's wife), who played Nurse Able.
  • It's more a coincidental one, but Capt. "Ugly" John Black was played by John Orchard.
• Dawson Casting: Gary Burghoff played 18-year-old farmboy Radar well into his thirties. Jamie Farr was 38 when he made his first appearance as Klinger.
  • By the end of the series, most of the actors were visibly greying and showing other signs of age. This would have been less problematic if the Korean War—and therefore the timespan of the show—hadn't only consisted of three years (though considering the immense stress the characters are under at almost all times, it's just a little bit justified).
• Directed by Cast Member: Alan Alda (32 episodes), Harry Morgan (8 episodes), Mike Farrell (5 episodes), David Ogden Stiers (2 episodes), Jamie Farr (1 episode).
• Disowned Adaptation:
  • 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.
  • Robert Altman likewise 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. 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 don't even know this movie exists. If you poll the world, they'd say, 'Oh, that was that series with Alan Albert,' or whatever his name was."
• Distanced from Current Events: "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.
• Dueling Shows: With Hogan's Heroes, but only in syndication; Hogan's originally ran from 1965 to 1971, while M*A*S*H* started in 1972.^note Incidentally, both shows shared some of the same behind-the-scenes personnel, including director Gene Reynolds, writer Laurence Marks, and cameraman William Jurgenson. And William Christopher appeared in several Hogan's episodes, each time as a different character.
• Edited for Syndication:
  • The show's runtime was 26 minutes in its original broadcast run, so you figure that's roughly five to six minute's worth of show that's cut out for today's commercialism. In fact, entire scenes will get axed, thus giving the story plot holes (wonder why Henry has a piece of surgical tape on his ear in, "The Ringbanger"? In a deleted scene, Frank startles him while he's trimming his hair in his tent, and ends up slicing his ear with the scissors).
  • Depending on how a network chooses to treat the finale, it either runs the conclusion in full or divides it into five parts to fit 30-minute segments of scheduling. The final season itself has a shortened length to 16 episodes, because the finale, in production terms, is the size of five full episodes. If viewed as such, then it is like a normal twenty-episode season.
  • When "Abyssinia, Henry" first aired in syndication, the final scene where Radar announces Henry's death was removed, but it eventually was re-instated.
  • And in fact, many episodes from the first five seasons have their entire tag cut in syndication, resulting in cliffhanger endings (though some stations do keep some of the tags listed below intact while cutting others). The episodes that suffer this are as follows:

Season One

• "Pilot Episode" (E01) - a prologue captioned "KOREA: A HUNDRED YEARS AGO" features Radar catching a football before stopping and announcing choppers incoming, followed by a cut to the opening theme song; the PA announcer gives out an oral cast roll call in a similar fashion as The Movie; the scene of Hawkeye and Trapper having handcuffed themselves together to be arrested (and thus taken out of action), though now the episode's tag, is often shortened as well
• "To Market, To Market" (E02) - Charlie Lee delivers the hydrocortisone to Hawkeye and Trapper while Henry tries to come up with an explanation of his desk disappearing to his insurance company
• "Chief Surgeon, Who?" (E04) - Frank seems to finally accept Hawkeye being appointed Chief Surgeon during another O.R. stint
• "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet" (E17) - Hawkeye and Trapper swipe Frank's Purple Heart and present it to Wendell/Walter so he can still return home a decorated hero without endangering himself any further
• "Showtime" (E24) - As the U.S.O. show winds down, the cast is shown in the audience as their actors' names appear on screen.

Season Two

• "Divided We Stand" (E01) - The PA announcer invites viewers to continue watching the antics of the main cast, who are once again presented in an oral roll call.
• "5 O'Clock Charlie" (E02) - Hawkeye and Trapper contemplate missing Charlie, while buttering up Frank into joining them for dinner in the Mess Tent
• "Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde" (E05) - Hawkeye is finally asleep in the Swamp, while Trapper and Henry discuss his sleep-deprivation-induced antics
• "Officers Only" (E15) - Hawkeye and Trapper spike Frank's drink, while he fumes over General Mitchell continuously dancing with Margaret
• "Operation: Noselift" (E18) - Hawkeye and Trapper see Dr. Stanley Robbins off, then start chasing nurses
• "A Smattering of Intelligence" (E24) - Flagg does his own oral roll call (sensing a pattern here?) of the cast, as he deduces the personnel of the 4077th may need more observation. TV Land, which has recently brought the show back, also cut the scene where Hawkeye identifies himself to Flagg as Dr. Wassmerman ("I'm looking for a cure for V.D. and thought this'd be a good place to start.")

Season Three

• "The General Flipped at Dawn" (E01) - Hawkeye, Trapper, and Henry do a reprise of "Mississippi Mud" in the Swamp
• "Springtime" (E06) During a midnight rainstorm, Radar asks to borrow any poetry books from Hawkeye and Trapper, who comment on his clearing skin and deepening voice
• "Life With Father" (E08) - While the camp celebrates the circumcision of the Jewish Korean-American baby, Hawkeye and Trapper ride off into the sunset on a white horse
• "A Full Rich Day" (E12) - Hawkeye finishes off his audio tape to his father by letting Trapper, Henry, and Frank say a few final words
• "Private Charles Lamb" (E14) - The morning after the Greek Easter celebration in the Mess Tent; half the personnel are passed out drunk, while the other half carry on a listless celebration in a drunken stupor: including Henry passing out face-first into the Spam Lamb
• "The Consultant" (E17) - The surgical staff bid Dr. Borelli a farewell on the chopper pad, including Hawkeye
• "Love and Marriage" (E20) - The Korean corpsman names his baby after Radar, Hawkeye, Trapper, and Henry
• "White Gold" (E23) - Hawkeye and Trapper gloat over Flagg recovering in Post-Op from his (unnecessary) appendectomy. The scene of Flagg going under is often shortened as well, deleting the dialogue that shows he knew fully well that the doctors had drugged him.

Season Four

• "The Bus" (E07) - Frank still fiddles with the walkie-talkie, while Hawkeye and B.J. find the other one in the back of the bus, and have their North Korean prisoner speak into it as a joke on Frank, letting him believe he's intercepted the enemy and is listening in on their secrets
• "Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?" (E10) - Hawkeye and B.J. play a game with a road atlas, while Klinger masquerades as Moses
• "Dear Peggy" (E11) - B.J. finishes his letter to Peggy while playing chess with Hawkeye, and Klinger is arrested going AWOL while camouflaged as a bush
• "Soldier of the Month" (E13) - Radar is arrested and brought back to camp after getting drunk and disorderly while on R&R (and even he can't believe his charges); this is alluded to later in "The Interview".
• "The Gun" (E14) - Frank limps from the graze on his foot, which he claims is a football injury, though Hawkeye and B.J. know better
• "The Price of Tomato Juice" (E16) - Potter thanks Radar for going through so much trouble to get tomato juice for him, while Klinger returns from having a fun time in Tokyo with General Barker.

Season Five

• "Dear Sigmund" (E08) - A brief voice-over from Sidney during another long O.R. session, "They look everyday into the face of death. On the surface, they may seem like other doctors and nurses, but underneath... ah, Sigmund... underneath..."
• "Mulcahy's War" (E09) - Hawkeye and Radar bid farewell to Corporal Cupcake, while Radar remarks how strange it'll feel to be outranked by a dog when Cupcake receives his promotion
• "The Korean Surgeon" (E10) - Frank tries to play up going along with the North Korean guerillas by saying he gave them medical supplies since they're human too, when prompts Potter to put him in charge of tending to wounded P.O.W.s brought into camp
• "Hawkeye Get Your Gun" (E11) Potter prepares for bed, while Frank and Klinger (as Zolton) check in on him before lights out
• "Exorcism" (E13) - Hawkeye and B.J. play a prank on Frank, leading him to believe his radio needed to be exorcised of spirits, when B.J. was actually just plugging and unplugging it out of sight of Frank
• "Hawk's Nightmare" (E14) - Hawkeye apparently is sleeping well again, while Klinger assumes his nightmare and sleepwalking episodes were a crazy act, and he considers giving it a try himself
• "38 Across" (E16) - Frank finally finishes his B.B. game, and Hawkeye purposely knocks them loose.
• "End Run" (E18) - Frank, who has his ears bandaged from Klinger and Zale's illegal boxing match, intends to court martial them, but Klinger and Zale threaten to call him out on breaking regulations as well, so Frank drops all charges
• "Hanky Panky" (E19) - Margaret finally gets through to Donald and learns he had a double hernia ^note Early in the episode, another scene where Margaret attempts to reach him the night before is also cut
• "Hepatitis" (E20) - B.J. is hungover, while Hawkeye attempts a handstand, throwing his back out again, and falling over on B.J.; this episode is a special case as only the syndication copy of this episode is known to exist.
• "The General's Practitioner" (E21) - Frank asks Potter to recommend him for General Korshak's personal physician, but Potter, Hawkeye, and B.J. add all of Frank's surgical gaffes and slipups to his application
• "Movie Tonight" (E22) - Everyone sings along to, "My Darling Clemetine," in O.R.
• "Souvenirs" (E23) - Margaret discovers Frank had the ring she gave him inscribed to his wife, and demands he pay her to have it removed
• "Margaret's Marriage" (E25) - Hawkeye, B.J., and Potter sit up with Frank, as they imagine what Margaret and Penobscott are probably doing as they speak, prompting them to head for a cold shower

• And just to add insult to injury, for the longest time, the only way to see the uncut show was if you had the DVD's. When the show was on Netflix, they only had the edited cuts. As of this writing, however, the show is no longer on Netflix, but all episodes are available on Hulu (or Disney+ outside the US excepting Latin America, where it is on Star+), unedited.

• Enforced Method Acting: Used (though not to the extreme that is sometimes claimed) for the final scene in "Abyssinia, Henry". The cast, save for Alan Alda, were not given the script for the scene until just before they went to film it, the better to capture their shocked reactions (and also to prevent foreknowledge coloring their performances in the earlier scenes). Unfortunately, a technical glitch forced the scene to be shot a second time. The second take featured another mishap, but it was one that actually improved the scene; somebody accidentally dropped an instrument on the floor in the midst of the Stunned Silence, which further enhanced the emotion of the scene. (Radar gave the news on the operating room where Trapper and Hawkeye were operating, and Radar then leaves them to continue to operate, leading to the implication that it was one of the two that dropped the intstrument.) One of the few moments we see Frank Burns actually does have some normal human feeling in him. As the camera passes by him, he has tears in his eyes.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Especially prevalent in the first couple of seasons. A lot of it was mostly restrictions on language, sexual situations, excessive blood shown on screen in the O.R., among other things. CBS practically forced them to make the episode "Major Fred C. Dobbs" (which the entire cast and crew hated) simply because one of the executives read that Korea was the fifth-largest gold producer in the world, and decided M*A*S*H needed to have a "gold rush" episode.
  • The show's Laugh Track was also very much a result of this. Apparently the network was afraid viewers wouldn't know it was a comedy without it.
  • Alan Alda has complained that executives would only let Hawkeye fondle women's underwear, because doing the same to men's underwear would be "degrading".
  • Despite how adored “Sometimes You Hear The Bullet” was, even at the time, execs were terrified that they were playing plots for drama instead of just comedy, and nearly cancelled them.
• Executive Veto: One early season episode would have dealt with Hawkeye getting two different nurses pregnant simultaneously, and not wanting to marry either. After the script had been finished, CBS rejected it, feeling it would be a Moral Event Horizon for Hawkeye.
• Fake Australian: English actor John Orchard did this twice: as Ugly John in the first season, and as MP Muldoon in a later season.
• Fake Nationality: Due to a dearth of Korean actors in Hollywood at the time, most of the featured native Korean speaking parts were played by Asians of different ethnicities. Klinger's girlfriend/wife Soon-Li was played by actress Rosalind Chao (second-generation Chinese-American); Japanese-born actor Mako Iwamatsu played a Chinese Army surgeon, a South Korean Army officer, a North Korean soldier, and a North Korean surgeon; and Japanese-American actor Noriyuki "Pat" Morita played South Korean Army Captain Sam Pak.
  • The only native Korean actor to appear on the series was Soon Tek Oh, playing various Korean characters. Not too bad, except whenever he played North Korean characters and had to speak Korean, he'd be using the standard Southern dialect (aka Seoul Korean) rather than the more unique sounding Northern accent and dialect. There was a Korean-American^note he also could claim part Mexican heritage actor who played a number of different Korean chartacters (usually comedy relief characters) as well: Richard Lee-Sung ^{Interesting Fact...} He was also a genuine Korean War veteran, having been in the Marines during the conflict and earning a Purple Heart while fighting alongside his fellow Marines during the famed breakout from the Chosin Reservoir, a native of Waco, Texas, was featured in 8 episodes.
  • The female shaman in "Exorcism" was never credited, and probably was an actual mudang, but most likely was from Southern California, where many Korean Americans live and carry on the traditions.
• Fan Community Nickname: M*A*S*Hers.
• I Am Not Spock: Almost all of the cast fall into this trope, but some more specific examples include:
  • Loretta Swit tends to become very agitated when asked about the show, as did the late David Ogden Stiers, as they feel that M*A*S*H and their respective roles of Margaret and Charles shouldn't be the only thing that defined their careers.
  • Gary Burghoff has said that he loved Radar, and enjoyed playing the part, up till about Season 3 or so, then admits that he started growing tired of Radar turning into his identity outside of the show.
• In Memoriam: "As Time Goes By" (the last episode filmed, and the next-to-last aired) was dedicated to Connie Izay, a registered nurse who served as the show's technical consultant for several years and died while the final season was in production.
• Laugh Track: CBS insisted on one despite the objections of the producers, though this was averted in the O.R. scenes (and entirely for certain episodes). The laugh track was not used in foreign syndication. The DVDs allow the viewer the option of turning the laugh track off if so desired.
  • The producers slowly phased out the laugh track over the course of the show's run; the Grand Finale featured no laugh track whatsoever.
  • The original UK airings of the show did not feature the laugh track. When laugh track versions started airing, outraged Brits petitioned to have them yanked—and they got their wish.
• Licensed Game: A video game adaptation appeared on the Atari 2600 and on Atari 8-Bit and TI99 computers featuring Hawkeye and Frank (Trapper in the TI99 version) competing to see who can pick up the most wounded on the battlefield in choppers, before switching to an Operation-esque minigame where you extract shrapnel from a wounded soldier's body.
• Life Imitates Art: in one episode Father Mulcahy performs an emergency tracheotomy (cutting a hole in a wounded person's throat to allow them to breathe when their airway is obstructed). Afterwards cases of people doing this in real life soared.
• Missing Episode: The original film footage for the interview segments of "Our Finest Hour" are missing. Because of that, reruns and DVD releases include a low-quality version taken from a video tape.
• Money, Dear Boy: Alan Alda was inspired to take over creative control of the show because he desperately needed the money that came with more responsibility. A year before, his business manager "invested" his entire fortune in a Ponzi scheme without his knowledge or approval. Alda lost almost everything.
• Only Barely Renewed: The show performed incredibly poorly in its first season (placing 46th) and was almost guaranteed to be cancelled. Fortunately, the network had enough faith in the series to give it one more season.^note a possibly apocryphal story claims that the wife of the head of CBS was a fan A combination of summer reruns gaining traction, and being given a primo time slot for season two (following the hugely popular All in the Family) catapulted the series into the top ten, where it would remain for all but one of its remaining ten seasons.^note The fourth season would slip to 14th place, following the departures of Henry and Trapper
• The Other Darrin: Father Mulcahy was played by George Morgan in the pilot episode before William Christopher took over the role, and the character was openly named "Dago Red" in that episode. When the blond Christopher was cast, the "Red" part of the name no longer applied, and the "Dago" was quietly dropped to avoid the wrath of Italian-American groups.^note Although in the 1950's 'Dago' was a common nickname for San Diego, Mulcahy's hometown.
  • Likewise, in the pilot episode, a minor, recurring character from earlier Season One episodes, Boone, was played by Bruno Kirby, before Bob Gooden played the character in other appearances.
  • Another Season One-only character, Kaplan the camp dentist, was played by Jack Riley in his debut episode, and was afterwards played by Harvey J. Goldenberg for the remainder of the season.
  • Margaret Houlihan's fiancé, Lt. Donald Penobscot, was played by a different actor in each of his two appearances on the show.
  • Three different actresses played Rosie, the proprietress of Rosie's Bar, during the course of the show.
  • There were also several different actresses playing "Nurse Able" or "Nurse Baker" in various episodes. From a Doylist perspective, they're placeholder names in the scripts (Able and Baker being the first two letters of the pre-Vietnam radio alphabet, so they're literally "Nurse A" and "Nurse B."). Since the writers used those names primarily for throwaway gags, it's just cheaper to use whichever studio actresses were available that day than to cast regulars.
  • Sal Viscuso and Todd Susman voiced the camp P.A. announcer, when it wasn't obviously Radar or Klinger doing it.
  • When Trapper got his own spin-off Pernell Roberts on the generic medical drama, arguably a Dolled-Up Installment, for 7 seasons.
• Produced By Castmember: Alan Alda slowly gravitated towards a position behind the scenes on the series, mostly due to a strong interest in being behind the camera as well as in front; after getting more involved with writing scripts and later directing more and more episodes, Alda became a part of the production staff by the show's sixth season, including personally consulting with previously departed co-creator/producer, Gene Reynolds on a weekly basis for the rest of the series' run.
• Real-Life Relative
  • Robert Alda (Alan's dad) appeared in two episodes as visiting surgeon Anthony Borelli. The second of these also featured Antony Alda (Robert's other son and Alan's half-brother) as a medic.
  • Mike Farrell's then-wife Judy occasionally played Nurse Able Seasons 5-11.
  • Likewise, producer/director Burt Metcalfe's wife Jan Jorden played Nurse Baker, also Seasons 5-11.
  • William Christopher's wife Barbara appeared as a nurse in the "Dear Mildred" episode. (The two of them even got to sing a duet together!)
  • The picture of Mildred on Potter's desk was actually a photo of Harry Morgan's real-life wife, Eileen Detchon.
  • Larry Gelbart's wife appears as a poker-playing nurse, Lt. Nelson, in Season 3's "Payday".
  • Bonnie Jones, who played nurse Barbara Bannerman throughout the first season, was married to producer, Gene Reynolds, at the time.
• Real Life Writes the Plot
  • "Preventive Medicine" was originally scripted to have Hawkeye and B.J. 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 B.J. 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.
  • Alan Alda wrote "Hepatitis" while William Christopher was very sick with the disease, reportedly to ensure the good Father wouldn't be written out for missing several episodes.
  • The various instances of main characters being Put on a Bus probably counts as well as those actors all wanted out for one reason or another - Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson resented being treated as sidekicks to Alan Alda (additionally Rogers had been at odds with the producers over his contract while Stevenson couldn't cope with the tough working conditions of the Fox Ranch), Larry Linville felt that he'd taken Frank as far as he could, was tired of playing him, and his contract was up, and Gary Burghoff had personal problems as well as a thinning hairline to deal with (by the time he left he looked like George Costanza).
  • The final scene of the finale shows B.J. 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 B.J. 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.
  • Alan Alda felt uneasy to begin with at all the make out scenes he had at the start of the show, and they wanted nurses to be more developed, so while Hawkeye still flirted with anyone who had a pulse, his sexy times either got pushed offscreen or everyone just… got bored of him because he’s so easy.
• Reality Subtext: 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... 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.
  • Mike Farrell had an abusive father, and talked about how working through that trauma was incorporated in playing repressed “anger comes through lashing out at his friends” BJ.
  • Hawkeye is bipolar in that Disease by Any Other Name kind of way, but Alan Alda talked about the character being mentally ill, and he already had experience with that in both form of a schizophrenic mother and his own depression before the show. He also talked about Hawkeye having “roots” in the burlesque dancing scene he grew up around.
• Recycled Script:
  • In Season 1's "The Ringbanger", Hawkeye and Trapper gaslight a gung-ho colonel (Leslie Nielsen) - with twice the casualty rate but half the ground - into thinking he has battle fatigue and needs time to cool off. "White Gold", the penultimate episode of Season 3, ends with Hawkeye and Trapper removing Colonel Flagg's appendix to send him stateside for several weeks. Season 7's "Preventative Medicine" has Hawkeye perform an unnecessary appendecemy on a colonel to stop him from provoking the enemy to attack him so he could take a hill he was ordered to avoid.^note Interestingly enough, the original script for "Preventative Medicine" had B.J. going along with Hawkeye's scheme (just as Trapper had in the earlier episode), but actor Mike Farrell objected as he believed that B.J. would never do such a thing. The producers eventually agreed, so they let Farrell and Alda ad-lib their way through the scene, acting and reacting the way they felt their characters would. Ken Levine, writer of the latter episode, said the recycling was unintentional, and when they discovered it they were so embarrassed that they deliberately had it scheduled opposite that year's Academy Awards so fewer people would see it.
  • Two conversations between a Swampman and his nominal nemesis (Trapper and Frank in "O.R.", Hawkeye and Charles in "Sons and Bowlers") were recycled pretty closely in subject matter. Being the different characters they were and the different points in the show, though, the scene with Frank saying he came from a loveless home was Played for Laughs, while Charles' admission of a distant family life and envy of Hawkeye was treated as showing his good side.
  • In "Pay Day" in season three, Hawkeye complains to Radar about how he could have made $3,000 in his civilian practice, and Radar pulls a few strings and has him paid. "Back Pay", in season eight, has Hawkeye outraged that doctors in the states make $4 an x-ray for draft boards, so he bills the Army for his services. Both have him get into trouble with a bureaucratic officer.
• Recycled Set:
  • A facade of a old, rundown, straw roof shack is used in numerous different episodes, for different locations, such as an abandoned schoolhouse to be used for the 4077th's new hospital in "Bug Out" (S5), a bombed-out house Hawkeye and Margaret seek shelter in from "Comrades in Arms", a burned schoolhouse where stolen penicillin was being hidden (both S6), hideout for a trio of black marketeers Mulcahy does dealings with in "Out of Gas" (S7). In fact, in "Point of View" (S7), when we see the 4077th compound from the chopper, we can see the facade actually stands alongside a dirt road that runs around the outer perimeter of the compound.
  • The same set is used for the 4077th's Pre-Op ward, kitchen and supply room. It's also been used for someone's office in other locations, like Charlie Lee in "To Market, To Market" (S1) or a crooked supply sergeant in "Good-bye, Radar" (S8).
  • The Post-Op ward was used as the courtroom for Hawkeye's court martial in "The Novocain Mutiny" (S4)
  • One specific tent on the sound stage set is pretty much a general purpose tent, and is used for Klinger's tent, Mulcahy's tent, the nurses' tent, the V.I.P. tent, among other things.
  • On occasion, the Officer's Club building is the Supply Hut instead.
• Recycled: The Series: M*A*S*H is probably the all-time most successful example of this.
• Star-Making Role: Hawkeye, for Alan Alda.
  • Donald Sutherland, who'd played Hawkeye in the original film, once told a story on a talk show about when he was standing next to his television counterpart in a receiving line for Queen Elizabeth II. Alda whispered in Sutherland's ear: "Thank you for my life."
• Technical Advisor: The show brought on Dr. Walter D. Dishell as a medical advisor to insure the scenes that take place in the O.R. were as accurate as possible; Dishell himself mentioned that more often than not the writers or actors would ask him more about attitude than the technical aspect (such as how would a doctor break news to a patient that he had to amputate a leg). Dishell also worked on the spin-offs AfterMASH and Trapper John, M.D..
• Throw It In!:
  • During filming of the scene in "Abyssinia, Henry" where Radar announces Henry's death, somebody accidentally (and noisily) dropped a prop surgical tool during the long, shocked silence. Director Larry Gelbart decided to use it anyway, and later wrote that it worked so perfectly for the scene he wished he'd written it that way.
  • The "Radar's Report" episode has a scene where Hawkeye and a nurse are making out on a cot in the Post-Op ward. Suddenly we see the lights dim and go out, and the P.A. announcer comes on to say the generator's gone out. This was an actual power outage on the set while they were doing the scene; Alda and the nurse actress played through it, and the P.A. announcement was dubbed in during post-production.
  • "The Interview" is a partial example. The cast were given questions that Clete Roberts would ask, and the script was built around their answers.
  • William Christopher was absent for much of Season Five, due to hepatitis. Once he returned, they did an episode in which Father Mulcahy comes down with hepatitis, and has to be quarantined.
  • Much of the interaction between Hawkeye and B.J. in "Preventive Medicine" was based on the actual feelings of the actors towards the topic of the episode. Originally, B.J. was supposed to be a willing participant in Hawkeye's quest, but Mike Farrell objected.
  • When a wildfire destroyed most of the show's outdoor set in Malibu during shooting for "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", a storyline involving a fire was added to the script.
  • According to Alda on MASH Notes, the director let him go wild in "Adam’s Ribs". He had no idea what he was going to do until he did it, and ended up having the Hawkeye spinning around the pole moment.
• Truth in Television: The writers and producers have Shown Their Work very well, and had actual Army doctors supervising the scripts and showing the actors how things were done. A number of details about Korean everyday life and spiritual traditions are also accurate, including the mudang shaman in "Exorcism". She is doing a 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.
• Unfinished Episode: It had a ton of them, although most were unsolicited "spec scripts" that were probably never actually considered for production.
  • "Hawkeye on the Double," the most infamous example, was originally written for the first season, in which Hawkeye is secretly seeing two different nurses at the same time, and when they both find out about each other, they both pretend to be pregnant to get back at him. The subject matter was considered too risque for television at the time, so the episode was never produced; the original script is a special feature on the complete series DVD set.
  • "Father Hawkeye Knows Best," was also written for the first season, and dealt with Frank's wife visiting the 4077th with the Congressman of Indiana, so the gang try to cover up Frank's affair with Margaret by having Margaret pretend that it's Radar she's seeing, and Frank is simply her confidant. In the end, it turns out Louise is actually cheating on Frank as well with the Congressman.
  • "The Contract," was written for Season Seven, and dealt with Klinger saving Charles's life after he was nearly killed by mortar fire when collecting rare spices in the Korean countryside; afterwards, Charles wants to repay Klinger for saving his life, while Klinger wants it in writing. (The Klinger-saving-Charles premise was later used as a subplot in Season Nine's "Operation Friendship", albeit without the contract element.)
  • "A Toast to Mildred," was written for Season Nine and has the subplots of Hawkeye indulging in a lobster cookbook from home, Klinger making his own perfume to sell, and B.J. suspects Potter is cheating on his wife with Margaret, even though they're both simply emotionally drained from Army life and had been leaning on each other's shoulders.
  • "Peace is Hell," was originally written for Season Ten, and deals with a rumor that Klinger started that a ceasefire is in effect, and the war will soon be over, which starts a chain reaction of craziness among camp; it's possible this episode wasn't produced because it's virtually recycled from Season One's "Ceasefire."
  • Reportedly, there are many other unproduced M*A*S*H scripts in existence as well; titles for these scripts have been released, but no other details are available. They: "War's a Grind" (written for Season One), "The Fighting 4077th" (written for Season One), "Yankees 7 - North Korea 8" (written for Season Two), "Hawkeye Go Home" (written for Season Three), "A Matter of Time" (written for Season Three), "The Tub" (written for Season Three), "The Key," or "Hawkeye for the Defense" (written for Season Three), "Dear Everyone" (written for Season Three), and "Up the Flagpole" (written for Season Five). Interestingly, "A Matter of Time," was written by Allan Katz & Don Reo who were later hired as producers for the show during Season Five, while, "The Tub," was written by Elias Davis & David Pollack, who were added to the writing and production staff later in Season Nine.
• Wag the Director:
  • As soon as Mike Farrell entered the cast, he apparently had long friendly talks with Alan Alda over their characters and convinced the writers to make BJ more well-rounded instead of straight and narrow in comparison to Trapper.
  • Loretta Swit had a big hand in working with Alan Alda to make Margaret an actual character instead of just a punchline.
  • Alan Alda didn’t write or direct “Bless You Hawkeye”, but he wanted the reveal scene to be worth the foreshadowing leading up to it, so Sidney doesn’t get everything immediately and the Billy/Hawkeye relationship became darker, even pushing Hawkeye in aside.
  • A good example of how much control all the actors had, and how later writers would expand based on those ideas, is “The Interview”. Hawkeye and B.J.'s segments especially foreshadow so much of the characters’ mental health arcs, with Hawkeye far too Close to Home to ever get out of his empathy hole again, and how angry-numb B.J. is getting.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A somewhat sad example, considering the series suffered in the ratings during its inaugural season, that an alternate version of the episode "Ceasefire" was written, in which the war actually did end; this was done in case the series wasn't renewed for a second season.
  • Wayne Rogers has gone on record saying that had he known the show was going to last eleven seasons, he would not have walked away after Season 3. McLean Stevenson echoed Rogers' statements as well.
  • Sam Elliott was considered for B.J.
  • When the producers learned that Gary Burghoff was not going to renew his contract at the end of Season 7, G.W. Bailey was originally being brought in as a character replacement for Radar. However, the producers realized Radar was too beloved and irreplaceable, so Klinger was instead promoted to company clerk, and Bailey's Rizzo wound up effectively replacing Johnny Haymer's Zale instead.
    • Similarly, the producers actually wanted to promote Sidney Freedman to series regular, with the explanation that he had somehow been assigned to take Radar's place as company clerk. However, actor Allan Arbus didn't want to commit to be anything other than a guest star, so Sidney remained an occasionally recurring character.
  • Loretta Swit actually wanted to leave the series in the show's penultimate season to play Christine Cagney on Cagney & Lacey, but the producers wouldn't let her out of her contract.
  • In 2006, Larry Gelbart posted transcripts for interviews with Col. Blake, Trapper John, and Col. Flagg, as they would have been had the characters been in Season 4's "The Interview".
  • It was Jamie Farr’s idea to let Klinger be a guy who both wants to get out by wearing dresses and kind of enjoys it/is accepted by every decent character. Originally he was meant to be “swishy” and more of a laugh object.
  • Both Mclean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers considered going for Hawkeye. Alan Alda was a late sign on, didn’t even have to audition, and the creators specifically wanted someone flamboyant and pretty to carry the show.
  • a TV guide article talked about how “Bless You Hawkeye” came together, especially the reveal scene, and how it had to go through several rewrites (mostly at Alan Alda’s behest) to avoid Epiphany Therapy, and make Hawkeye’s and Billy’s relationship sufficiently “complicated”.
  • Alda wrote “Dreams” seasons before it actually aired, and as detailed by Swit, only happened in season eight because you needed the build up of what the characters were like. Same went for “Comrade in Arms”, that could have happened in seasons three or four.
• Word of Dante: You have to come to expect some of this for such a Long Runner, and a really popular one at that.
  • The biggest example is probably the infamous "lost episode" entitled, "A Sound, a Song, and a Surprise", which supposedly contains a version of the theme song with lyrics sung during the opening titles, and a plot basically filling in all the gaps that were left open during the rest of the series (including off-screen departures of Spearchucker and Trapper, among other things). Further examination and investigation seems to indicate that "A Sound, a Song, and a Surprise" may have actually existed, not as an actual episode of the series but rather as a localized retrospective special a TV station cobbled together to celebrate the show's Grand Finale.
  • McLean Stevenson is supposed to have appeared in character as Henry Blake on The Carol Burnett Show (sitting in a rubber raft and shouting "I'm okay!"), the very next night after Henry was killed off on the show. However, there are no actual logs, data, or information to support that such a Carol Burnett Show appearance actually exists... because it aired as a clip on The Cher Show^note  After Sonny Bono and Cher divorced, Sonny left The Sonny and Cher Show, so Cher presented it solo for 26 episodes in 1975 and 1976. and not on The Carol Burnett Show. During Cher's introduction for an episode in which Stevenson appeared as a guest, she joked that he had been reported "missing in action", leading to the cutaway to Stevenson dressed as Henry in a dinghy with plastic sheeting posing as water. (Some fanfiction authors have taken this and run with it, with various explanations as to why Henry had to be reported dead.)
  • Speaking of which, Stevenson's departure sheds some spotlight on Dante as well. Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds have said, numerous, repeated times, that they decided to use Henry Blake's departure as an example to really show the true horrors of war, and remind people that not everybody was fortunate enough to make it home from a war, however, a number of people are convinced that killing off the character was a ploy pulled by both Gelbart and Reynolds, as well as the network, to permanently get rid of Stevenson, for being such a meddler on the set (in all fairness, he actually did speak up and protest the awful working conditions the actors were forced to work in, even when others were too afraid to speak for themselves, which apparently got him into hot water a lot).
  • Many fans keep insisting that Radar kept appearing on the show less and less each season, to the point that his last full season on the show had him absent practically every other episode. This is certainly not the case at all. If one were to actually watch the series, and keep note, they will see that in Season Four, Radar appears in 23 out of 25 episodes; 23 out of 25 episodes in Season Five; 15 out of 25 episodes in Season Six; and 22 out of 26 episodes of Season Seven.
  • There's an urban legend that's been around for years that Mike Farrell bears animosity towards Wayne Rogers. The legend was even joked about on The Simpsons, where Homer reads a book by Farrell and remarks, "Wow, he really does hate Wayne Rogers!", however, there is absolutely no Real Life evidence that supports this story.
    • Farrell said once that he is constantly confused with Wayne Rogers by fans, and that does get annoying after awhile.
    • Similarly, some fans insist that Jamie Farr hates Alan Alda, but likewise, there is no Real Life evidence to support this. Trivia items on IMDB suggested that Farr once complained about Alda being preachy and once punched Alda for taking dialogue from him in a script while Farr was "playing dress-up", but both have since been removed.
    • 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 David Ogden Stiers (who disliked that M*A*S*H overshadowed the rest of his career so heavily).
• Word of Gay: The creators apparently made Hawkeye flamboyant on purpose because they didn’t want a macho republican lead, Alan Alda complained that the execs forbade them from having Hawkeye touch other men’s underwear, talked about having to code jokes to get past the censors, and played him like the burlesque shows he grew up around.
• Writer Revolt:
  • Alan Alda wasn’t shy about being angry at the execs for censoring sexual talk, violence and how Hawkeye could get caught up in women’s underwear but not allowed to touch other men’s, and talked about how much coded jokes they did to get around the censors. His episode “Dear Sigmund” involves Margaret having a Freak Out about seeing an athletic supporter and demanding it be covered.
  • It's been said that whenever the actors complained about the show's writing, the scriptwriters would pen a script set in the winter that required location filming, forcing the cast to spend the day at the Fox Ranch in heavy winter clothing under the California sun.
• Write Who You Know: Pretty much done throughout the entire series, as a number of the stories came from the personal experiences of actual doctors, nurses, soldiers, corpsman, etc., who actually served tours of duty during the Korean War. Episode-specific examples include...
  • "In Love and War" was written by Alan Alda after he heard the story of an Asian aristocrat, who pretty much lost almost every thing she had in the world because of the war, and yet, continued to look after others who were even less fortunate, such as the elderly, and orphaned children.
  • Towards the end of the show's run, the potential storylines started to dry up. At that point, Korean War veterans offering stories were often told that they'd already done an episode with that premise several seasons ago.
  • Klinger was based on two Real Life people. One was comedian Lenny Bruce, who was in the Navy in WW2, and allegedly tried to get a psycho discharge by wearing dresses (specifically, dressing as a WAVE), though such stories are apocryphal; the other was a corpsman at the Real Life 8055 (which the 4077 was based on) who wore dresses, though unlike Klinger, this man actually was a gay transvestite, and wanted to stay in the Army, while everyone else in camp actually did try to have him discharged, much like in the original script, where Klinger was gay and wanted to stay in the Army, while it was his commanding officers who wanted him discharged, but it was felt that a straight man wearing women's clothes for a discharge was funnier and more interesting.
• Written by Cast Member: Alan Alda wrote 19 episodes in all, including the Emmy-winning "Inga" from season 7. McLean Stevenson has story credit on "The Army-Navy Game" and receives sole credit for "The Trial of Henry Blake," while Mike Farrell wrote "The Yalu Brick Road" and "War Co-Respondent", co-wrote "Death Takes a Holiday", and shares story credit on "Run for the Money".
• Written-In Absence: During the first part of Season 8, Radar was constantly said to be on R&R in Tokyo, explaining his absence during those episodes^note In reality, Gary Burghoff had contractually reduced his appearances in preparation for leaving the series. This was often written into the episodes, with Klinger calling Radar to ask for advice on how to be a clerk, deal with Potter, etc. Radar's first 'real' appearance in Season 8 focused on him trying to get back from Tokyo, explaining that he was overdue and stranded because of a travel snafu.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Harry Morgan had earlier appeared in season 3's "The General Flipped at Dawn", as a general who showed up to inspect and review the 4077th (and turned out to be nuttier than a fruitcake). The producers were so impressed with his performance that it led to his being cast as Potter.
  • Long after Ugly John was written out of the series, actor John Orchard returned in a season 8 episode as a different Australian, an MP named Muldoon who takes bribes to let Rosie's Bar stay open.
  • Edward Winter had previously played a different character, one Capt. Halloran from CID, in the show's second season. However, since that character was also involved in intelligence work and acted in a similar (albeit milder) manner to Flagg, it's fanon for some that Halloran was actually one of Flagg's aliases. (Possibly lampshaded and made canon by the show when, upon meeting Sidney Freedman in a later episode, Flagg says that the two had once played poker together — which Freedman and Halloran had done in Winter's first appearance.)
  • A handful of Asian (Or sometimes only Asian-looking) actors tended to be various villagers as well.
  • Also, the two main actors who provided the voice of the PA announcer during the show's run each had an episode where they appeared onscreen, but as different characters. Call it You Sound Familiar.
  • Done with a few of the guest actors over the years. For instance, Mako appears in four episodes between seasons 3 and 9, each time as a completely different character.
• 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 (he and his wife are big Charles Boyer fans) is Tales Of Manhattan.

---