Goofs

Even a show as well written as M*A*S*H has the occasional mistake. Here are just a few that have slipped the net over the years.

In an early episode Henry called his wife Mildred but in later episodes he called her Lorraine.

Hawkeye said he was an only child and that his mother was dead, but in one episode he ends a letter home with 'give my love to mom and sis'

When Radar gives Col. Potter a horse in Dear Mildred it was referred to as 'he'. In later episodes it was given the name Sophie and from that point it was always said to be female although it was obviously meant to be the same horse.

In one episode Radar is seen showing Henry his new tattoo, later in the series Hawkeye persuades Radar not to have a tattoo.

In the episode 'A War For All Seasons' Col. Potter is seen at the end of 1951 but he didn't arrive at the camp until Sept. 1952.

Henry was given a discharge because he had enough 'points' but the points system wasn't used for doctors in the Korean War.

The 'Godzilla' series of films were often mentioned in the show, but they weren't actually made 'till after the Korean War. "The Blob" was also mentioned but this wasn't made until 1958.

In the episode "Movie Tonight" Radar did an impersonation of John Wayne. The impersonation he did was a quote from the movie "Mclintock" however, the movie wasn't made until 1963, ten years after the Korean War ended.

In the episode "Depressing News". Alan Alda and Mike Farrell are walking into frame in the scene where Hawk and BJ discover the huge shipment of tongue depressors, Alda's feet are visible for about 2 seconds and he has bright blue early '80s trainers on!

In one episode people can be seen drinking from beer cans that are clearly aluminum, but these weren't available in the '50's

In "The Is Nothing Like a Nurse" there are a few scenes where Trapper and Hawk are in the officer's club having a drink. I believe it's the first scene of them at the bar in which this blooper occurs, right after Hawkeye gets the "arid" martinis. Trapper is talking to someone on the left of the screen (who it is escapes me right now) and Hawkeye is sitting on the right of the screen, on the edge. As Trapper is talking to the other person, Hawkeye sips the martini. As he does so, he spills some! You can actually see it on the bar. Alda nonchalantly looks down at his spill and Trapper's STILL talking. Before it's time for Alda's line he casually wipes his lips/chin off, as I'm sure some of the spilled martini got on him.

In the "The Price of Tomato Juice" when Frank asks Igor his name he replies Maxwell. Could this be Jeff Maxwell forgetting his characters name.

In "Der Tag" Radar is seen with an Avengers comic which wasn't around until the sixties.

In the same episode when Frank comes up missing (he's at the aid station with the toe tag), Radar looks for him in the swamp, Hawkeye suggests that he try Margaret's tent, but Radar says there's a padlock on it. Later, when Margaret gets back to the 4077, Frank immediately escorts her to her tent, and they open the door with ease. So what happened to the aforementioned lock?

In "Sometimes You Hear The Bullet" when Henry presents Frank with a "Purple Heart" (Hawkeye replaced it with an earring) he calls him Franklin D. Burns but Franks middle name is Marion.

In "Post Op" a soldier arrives at the camp and introduces himself as Sergeant Attias of the Turkish Brigade, but he is wearing a corporal's uniform!.

In "Potter's Retirement", at the Kentucky Derby party, Alan Alda is sitting on a sawhorse. Everyone cheers about something, and Alda nearly falls off the horse, taking the saddle with him! But, he catches himself just before he falls.

Again in "Potter's Retirement" BJ and Hawkeye are in The Swamp. In one shot BJ's scarf is hanging down, in the next shot, a split second later, it is over his shoulder and in the third shot it's again hanging down.

In "The Ringbanger" when Trapper and Hawkeye take Buzz back to his tent they suggest he drinks the glass of milk he "ordered," The next scene shows Radar sneaking the glass of milk onto the table from behind the tent, but if you look closely the glass of milk was already sitting there!

1) Early in the episode, Frank calls Hotlips "Major Houlihand"! Freudian slip...? You decide.

2) McLean Stevenson has a bit of a quiver to his voice the first time he orders Hawkeye to open his footlocker... perhaps Alda's laughing was breaking him up. I also think he's grinning quite unseriously/unmilitarily, but luckily for him, the soot makes it difficult to tell! Gary Burghoff seems to also be giggling a little, but I can't tell if, as Radar, he was merely being amused by the situation. He appears to be trying to stifle his laughter, but he might just be acting as Radar might... not wanting to laugh at Henry.

In "The Incubator" Hawkeye and Trapper are sitting down with the base commander when he says that with a few days notice, he can get anything, even a B-52 But B-52 wasn't in service until after the war.

In "Strange Bedfellows" a Korean soldier is in the bed next to an American. The Korean offers him his candy bar because the American gave him his blanket. On the bar, you can clearly see the UPC code, but these weren't around until the '70s.

In "Give 'Em Hell, Hawkeye", in the next-to-final scene where Margaret's bedpan fountain is finally revealed, Hawkeye is in the Swamp finishing his letter to President Truman, yet in an earlier scene he had finished it, sealed it, and asked Kellye to send it out.

In "Blood and Guts", Clayton Kibbee asks Father Mulcahy if he knows the Pope, and the father responds with "By reputation only." Yet in "The Smell of Music" he tells Hawkeye and B. J. that he had once dined al fresco with the Pope.

In "It Happened One Night" Hawkeye needs a B-positive blood donor for a patient, and Klinger says that he's B-positive. In "C*A*V*E", Klinger mentions that he and Charles have the same blood type, which would of course mean that Charles is also B-positive. But in "Life Time" they need some AB-negative, and Charles says that he is that type.

In "End Run," Hawkeye tells Frank that the soldier who "slipped on some Jell-O" was PFC (Private First Class) Kornhaus. But Kornhaus was only a private.

In "Hawke's Nightmare", Hawkeye is speaking with a patient about hometowns, and mentions that Crabapple Cove has a population of 3976. But in "Letters" when the fourth-graders wrote back to the 4077th, he said that there were only three hundred people in Crabapple Cove.

In his first episode, Colonel Potter asks Father Mulcahy if he does a good Methodist sermon. However, in the episode "Period of Adjustment", when Father Mulcahy is describing Radar's former clumsiness as a company clerk, the Colonel asks "You wouldn't lie to a Presbyterian, would you?"

It was known that Col. Potter lived in Missouri. But in one episode he says he lives in Nebraska.

In "The M*A*S*H Olympics" Penobscott arrives and Potter informs him that he made it in time for the last 2 events. Potter had to of been a physic or fixed the game to know that, because the last event was a special tiebreaker event which only occurs if there's a tie.

In "Iron Guts Kelly" a General dies while visiting Margaret. At one point, his aide refers to him as "Major General Iron Guts Kelly", but other references and the three stars on his helmet clearly identify him as a Lieutenant General.