‘M*A*S*H’ originally aired for eleven seasons on CBS. However, the series continues to live on with syndication and streaming platforms. Many superfans have seen the war dramedy several times.
When a show runs for that long, some goofs or mistakes will inevitably be made. Though writers often check for facts and continuity, some gaffs will still get by unnoticed.
In this video, 12 of the biggest mistakes are highlighted. Some pertain to setting errors, meaning the writers put an anachronistic detail in the script, mentioning something that wouldn’t have happened during the Korean War.
Other mistakes are continuity errors, where the backstory of one of the main characters changes over the seasons. This often happens when a writing team forgets that they already established a family or past history that they later contradict.
The first example shows Radar, a known comic nerd on the show, reading a superhero comic. Though this seems in character, the issue he’s reading was released in 1969, but the Korean War took place in the early 1950s.
In another clip, we see a production crew member standing in the background. Though a signpost obscures the top half of his body, his legs can still be seen in the shot. Because every time a scene needs to be reshot costs a lot of money, editors may have hoped no one would notice this mistake.
One of the funnier goofs made on ‘M*A*S*H’ is when Hawkeye, played by Alan Alda, spells out M-O-U-S-E as Rada is sending a message. Since Alda spells out the word in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme’s melody, it seems like one of Hawkeye’s many jokes. Still, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse didn’t premiere until after the Korean War. No matter how many mistakes can be found in the production, most fans will agree that nothing ruins ‘M*A*S*H’ for them.
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