In one ep I think BJ mentions Paul Newman the movie star. Newman did not showup in a film until 1954, a year after the Korean War ended. And Paul wasn't a hit on B'Way or tv much at all before turning to films so there is little way BJ (again, I think that is who mentioned him) could know of him.

I looked up Paul Newman to see when his career got rollling. You're right, he wasn't making noise in the early 50's. He wouldn't have been likely to get any notice from BJ Honeycut in 1952 or 3. While I was at the site, though, I discovered that Paul Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio. I guess maybe that's the town that the 'Project Greenlight' movie, The Battle of Shaker heights, is supposed to have taken place.

I've caught a lot of mistakes like that.

ther's a lot of mistakes like that in the show-for instance, the "Godzilla" films & the "Bonzo" films are frequently mentioned-but both series didn't start until AFTER the Korean war.

But, the most jarring goof has to be the one in "Movie Tonight" (the one where they're all watching a western, and the projector keeps breaking down-the one where they sing "I Don't Want no more of Army Life") when Radar does an impression of John Wayne in the movie "McClintock"-FROM 1964!!??

How about Radar reading Spider-Man and other Marvel comics? Spider-Man made his debut in 1962, nearly a decade after the Korean war ended. The first Marvel comics of the modern age, starting with the Fantastic Four, made their debut in 1961.

and the time Hawkeye sang part of the theme from "The Mickey Mouse club", but that didn't start until 1954-also after the Korean war. And the time they showed a soldier eating a candy bar with a UPC symbol on the back. One of the writers REALLY wasn't on the ball with that-UPC symbols didn't start to apear until 1971!!!!

But, as someone else said, MASH has TONS of little mistakes like that.

Originally posted by treky
and the time Hawkeye sang part of the theme from "The Mickey Mouse club", but that didn't start until 1954-also after the Korean war. And the time they showed a soldier eating a candy bar with a UPC symbol on the back. One of the writers REALLY wasn't on the ball with that-UPC symbols didn't start to apear until 1971!!!!

But, as someone else said, MASH has TONS of little mistakes like that.

When you consider how good the show was, I think mistakes like that can be overlooked. But they are fun to spot, though...

:crazy:

i was watching an episode from season two over the weekend. i think it was hawkey that mentioned tv. to my knowlege, not many people had a tv back then. and i have never heard anyone in that time period call it a tv. they called it a television.

another time, Hawkeye was talking to a soldier who had become addicted to morphine, and the soldier said, "I can stop anytime I want" to which Hawkeye replied "That's what Bela Lugosi said". He was talking about when Lugosi said he had become addicted to painkillers, but that didn't happen until 1958!


trivia: Bela Lugosi was the first celebrity to admit an addiction.

Originally posted by Bry
i was watching an episode from season two over the weekend. i think it was hawkey that mentioned tv. to my knowlege, not many people had a tv back then. and i have never heard anyone in that time period call it a tv. they called it a television.

Strictly speaking television had been around since before the second world war. A semi regular service had started in the thirties, certainly in the UK by the BBC, though it stopped during the war itself. Nobody seems to know when 'tv' became a popular abbreviation. By 1951 a lot of homes in the States had a television - enough for Hollywood to be seriously concerned. So they weren't really making a mistake with that one! :) Honestly, when I see the detail that goes into making period dramas correct, it amuses me how many mistakes MASH made!

BELA lUGOSI DIED IN 1956. NOT 1958 OR LATER.

Originally posted by Mickey
Strictly speaking television had been around since before the second world war. A semi regular service had started in the thirties, certainly in the UK by the BBC, though it stopped during the war itself. Nobody seems to know when 'tv' became a popular abbreviation. By 1951 a lot of homes in the States had a television - enough for Hollywood to be seriously concerned. So they weren't really making a mistake with that one! :) Honestly, when I see the detail that goes into making period dramas correct, it amuses me how many mistakes MASH made! and, the first comercial use of it was a broadcast of president Franklin Roosovelt presiding over the opening ceromony of the 1939 chicago worlds fair, where it was shown to the public for the first time.

I noticed an odd mistake that nobody's ever caught.

In the story about Hawkeye becoming chief surgon (sp), he's playing cards with the group while waiting for the patient to stablize. They're playing with Steamboats (red backs with a white criss-cross design.) When the general comes back after being driven to distraction by the rest of the camp, Hawkeye is gone and the gang is continuing the game with Bicycles (blue backs at that!)

This happens another time, but I don't know which story. The Aussie is asleep with his cards in his hands but he's holding Bicycles and everybody else is playing with Steamboats. (Possibly they switched decks to avoid having to wake him up to get his cards.)

I have one. In one episode, Hot Lips tends to an Italian soldier - that is, a member of the Italian army - who falls hard for her. While sixteen nations sent troops to Korea under a United Nations mandate, Italy couldn't have been one of them. When the UN was started in 1945, Italy was barred admission for at least ten years - as were Japan, Finland, Spain, and Thailand - for its alignment with Nazi Germany. And so Italy joined the UN in 1955 - two years after the Korean War ended!

Originally posted by ejay
I noticed an odd mistake that nobody's ever caught.

In the story about Hawkeye becoming chief surgon (sp), he's playing cards with the group while waiting for the patient to stablize. They're playing with Steamboats (red backs with a white criss-cross design.) When the general comes back after being driven to distraction by the rest of the camp, Hawkeye is gone and the gang is continuing the game with Bicycles (blue backs at that!)

This happens another time, but I don't know which story. The Aussie is asleep with his cards in his hands but he's holding Bicycles and everybody else is playing with Steamboats. (Possibly they switched decks to avoid having to wake him up to get his cards.) what are "bicycles" & what are "steamboats"?:confused:

"Bicycles" and "steamboats" refer either to the back designs on the cards, just as Ejay was explaining, or the brand of cards, I think.

Anyway, here's an error Suzi Kalter pointed out in her "M*A*S*H" book from 1985. When McLean Stevenson left the show in 1975, the writers decided to send Henry Blake home by saying he'd earned all of his "points." In fact, the military ended its point system at the end of World War II, and it had never applied to the Army Medical Corps anyway. Nevertheless, references to the point system continued in "M*A*S*H" episodes for the rest of the show's run.

Originally posted by Steve M.
Anyway, here's an error Suzi Kalter pointed out in her "M*A*S*H" book from 1985. When McLean Stevenson left the show in 1975, the writers decided to send Henry Blake home by saying he'd earned all of his "points." In fact, the military ended its point system at the end of World War II, and it had never applied to the Army Medical Corps anyway. Nevertheless, references to the point system continued in "M*A*S*H" episodes for the rest of the show's run.

I don't know if it was necessarily an error - they may have been taking a bit of artistic license with that one. They needed some plausible excuse to explain his release and that was the option they took.


;)

Originally posted by Dr. Thong
I don't know if it was necessarily an error - they may have been taking a bit of artistic license with that one. They needed some plausible excuse to explain his release and that was the option they took.

;)

Well, okay, you have a point there.

By the way, here's another error, although it's probalby more out of artistic license as well: B.J. is trying to buy same land back home in Califronia so he and Peg can build their dream house when he gets home. B.J. is afraid that he deosn't buy it, some developer will build a shopping center there.

The first shopping center wasn't built in America until 1956. And it was built in Minnesota, not car-crazy California. (Maybe B.J. meant an arcade-style, pedestrian-friendly shopping center?)

here's another one that was pointed out in the book "The Complete Book of M*A*S*H": once Klinger or Radar (I forget which one) said their serial number, and the 2 letters at the begining of it were only given to volenteers, and not draftees, which is what they were.

It was Klinger - the letters for volunteers, RA (standing for Regular Army) preceeded his serial number. US was used for draftees. Because Klinger's whole schtick was trying to find any way possible other than a dishonorable discharge to get out of the Army, this, as Suzi Kalter wrote, may have been "M*A*S*H" 's most ironic mistake! :D