History Trivia / Mash

* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: 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 EnforcedMethodActing in the final scene.

* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: Why Henry Blake left the series. And this was used to get some EnforcedMethodActing in the final scene.

** Kellye Nakahara as Nurse Kellye.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JamesCromwell and Alan Fudge were both considered for the role of B.J. Hunnicutt before it went to Creator/MikeFarrell. 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 Leo Bardonaro in Season 6's "Last Laugh".

** The various instances of main characters being PutOnABus 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 was tired of playing Frank 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 [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} George Costanza]]).

** 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, unedited.

* 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]] (hell, Creator/BurtReynolds 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 ''Film/{{Patton}}'' and ''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, while blowing the film of the famous novel ''Literature/Catch22'', which was expected to be a big hit, out of the water.

* CallBack: In the season three episode "There is Nothing Like a Nurse", the subplot of an imminent paratrooper invasion has the camp on edge, fearing the worst (especially the nurses). At the end, the "invasion" turns out to be the return of Five o'clock Charlie, the heroically incompetent lone North Korean fighter pilot from season two.

* OnlyBarelyRenewed: 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[[/note]] A combination of summer reruns gaining traction, and being given a primo time slot for season two (following the hugely popular ''Series/AllInTheFamily'') catapulted the series into the top ten, where it would remain for all but one of it's remaining ten seasons.[[note]]The fourth season would slip to 14th place, following the departures of Henry and Trapper[[/note]]

*** Similarly, some fans insist that Creator.JamieFarr hates Alan Alda, but likewise, there is no RealLife 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.

** 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 [[{{Lampshade}} 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.)

* TheWikiRule: [[http://mash.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page The Monster MASH Wiki]], and another [[http://mashwiki.wikia.com/wiki/MASH_Wiki MASH Wiki]].

* TropeNamers:
** BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord
** GungHolierThanThou

** Expanding on that, both Farr and Creator/AlanAlda 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.[[/note]]

** Klinger is from UsefulNotes/ToledoOhio, 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.[[/note]]
*** 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.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JamesCromwell 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 Leo Bardonaro in Season 6's "Last Laugh".
* TheCastShowoff: Everyone gets to show off their many and varied talents: Harry Morgan, William Christopher, Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, and Loretta Swit are featured singing several times; 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.

** Alan Alda cracks up in “Margaret’s Marriage”, when they’re playing basketball and Potter accidentally judo chops Mulcahy’s arm.

** Both Loretta Swit and Creator/DavidOgdenStiers, in particular, become very agitated when they are asked about the show, or their characters, 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.

* MoneyDearBoy: 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.

** [=McLean=] Stevenson is supposed to have appeared in character as Henry Blake on ''Series/TheCarolBurnettShow'' (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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxmvqrCNwH8 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.[[/note]] 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.)

** 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 ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where Homer reads a book by Farrell and remarks, "Wow, he really ''does'' hate Wayne Rogers!", however, there is absolutely no RealLife evidence that supports this story.

*** Similarly, some fans insist that Jamie Farr hates Alan Alda, but likewise, there is no RealLife 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.

** 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 [[MadBrass nuttier than a fruitcake]]). The producers were so impressed with his performance that it led to his being cast as Potter.

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

* WrittenByCastMember: 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".

** Creator/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.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: {{Creator/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.

** 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, the writers originally trying to find ways to [[ShipTease have Margaret hook up with Charles]], and Margaret's eventual divorce.

* TheDanza: 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.

*** Amusingly inverted by another Gwen Farrell (Mike Farrell's wife) who played Nurse Able.

** 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.

* {{Corpsing}}:
** Many's a time Hawkeye and Trapper pull some kind of prank on Frank, and Trapper could ''never'' keep a straight face, 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.
** Alan Alda cracks up in “Margaret’s Marriage”, when they’re playing basketball and Potter accidentally judo chops Mulcahy’s arm.

* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JamesCromwell and Alan Fudge were 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".

** As proud as he is of “Sometimes You Hear The Bullet”, Alan Alda has commented that the scene of Hawkeye having a SingleTear (and very much TenderTears, when later episodes have sobbing breakdowns) always gets used to show MASH’s status as a dramedy… and he doesn’t like that performance.

* 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.

** 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.

* ShownTheirWork: 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.

** 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.

** Several other directors were offered the film and turned it down before it was given to Robert Altman, including Creator/WilliamFriedkin, Creator/StanleyKubrick, Creator/SidneyLumet and Creator/SydneyPollack.

** 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 CloseToHome to ever get out of his empathy hole again, and how angry-numb B.J. is getting.

** In Season 1's "The Ringbanger", Hawkeye and Trapper [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslight]] a gung-ho colonel (Creator/LeslieNielsen) - 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.[[/note]].Ken Levine, writer of the latter episode, said the recycling was unintentional, and when they discovered it they were so embarrassed that they deliberately [[http://kenlevine.blogspot.ca/2007/01/mash-oscar-show.html had it scheduled opposite that year's Academy Awards]] so fewer people would see it.

** In Season 1's "The Ringbanger", Hawkeye and Trapper [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslight]] a gung-ho colonel (Creator/LeslieNielsen) - 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.[[/note]]Ken Levine, writer of the latter episode, said the recycling was unintentional, and when they discovered it they were so embarrassed that they deliberately [[http://kenlevine.blogspot.ca/2007/01/mash-oscar-show.html had it scheduled opposite that year's Academy Awards]] so fewer people would see it.

** 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.