Monday, October 11, 2010

Non-Trivia: M*A*S*H

How well do you know the TV show MASH? Well, we’d be willing to bet a large bucket of salamanders that you’re unaware of these little-known bits of trivia.

  • MASH was originally supposed to be set during the Civil War, but Alan Alda had an irrational fear of southern accents.
  • It’s well-known that the show was filmed in southern California, but what was never publicized was that the land they filmed on was owned by a communist hermit who occasionally wandered onto the set yelling, “Hamburgers suck! Borscht rules!”
  • The actor who played Walter “Radar” O’Reilly got frequent headaches from ironically being able to actually pick up radar signals in his head.
  • During the first season, many of the actors had nervous breakdowns, because as a prank, the script writers told them all that MASH stood for Mystery Assassins Slaying Hospitals. So they all feared that their characters could be killed off at any second, and they’d be out of work.
  • Harry Morgan (Colonel Sherman Potter) was allergic to popsicle sticks.
  • For fear of frightening children, the origin of Kool-Aid has been covered up. It was invented after the studio refused to let the actors use real blood in scenes.
  • Klinger was supposed to be a woman, but no actress could play the part as well as Jamie Farr (who was only allowed to audition for the part because they assumed “Jamie” would be an actress). But since Klinger’s wardrobe was already made, Jamie was forced to make do.
  • Loretta Swit (Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan)—who was known to have a jealous temper—was the only female main character on the show because most other actresses would get “accidently” killed on set. The mystery was never solved.

Now, when you go and impress your friends with these amazing non-facts, remember that you heard them here first.

(Disclaimer: The Non-Review, and its affiliates, accept no responsibility for lost friendships.)

By Reputation@Stake at TheStupidBet.com

14 comments:

  1. The character of Charles Emerson Winchester III's father was Charles Emerson Winchester Senior. Nobody knows what happened to number II.

    Mike Farrell and Jamie Farr were lovers in real life.

    Nurse Kellye Nakahara was played by Pat "Mr Miyagi" Morita in between shooting breaks on "Happy Days".

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  2. The LS and Acronym ones are hilarious. BTW...why no trivia on After-Mash? Yes I watched that too.

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  3. Too funny on the Jamie Farr "fact". He was by far, my favorite character!

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  4. Great stuff Rep. I had no idea Harry Morgan was allergic to Popsicle sticks. lol

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  5. I loved that show (and also the movie). Great and funny post!

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  6. This is my number one comfort show. I can watch it anytime except for the episode with the dreams, which to this day still freaks me out. I will turn the channel whenever that episode comes on. I think I would die a little if this show wasn't on daily on some channel, somewhere in my satellite universe.

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  7. Very well done, TS. I especially like the borscht comment (Afterall, it's gotta be better than hamburgers, though I haven't tried it), and the unsolved murder mysteries. Very peculiar indeed.
    xoRobyn

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  8. I so very much tried to watch MASH and enjoy it on a few different occasions and, sadly, it just doesn't do it for me. These non-facts, however, made my night. The one about Alan Alda and southern accents is my fave!

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  9. Speaking about MASH I had to add the following:

    The night after my father died BJ Honeycutt came to me in a dream and we flew to my dad's funeral. I would have thought it would be Hawkeye who took me there because he was my dad's favorite character.

    Best Klinger related conversation.

    Franks - "He's a pervert"

    Trapper - "He is not."

    Frank - "How can you be so sure?"

    Trapper - "Because I'm one and he's never at the meetings."

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  10. Thanks everyone for the comments. I'm glad there are so many MASH fans here, since it's my second favorite show of all time. And Kal, I love that quote too. I clearly remember it even though I haven't seen that episode in years.

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  11. Loved M*A*S*H, yes, they aired on Indian television in the early 90's. Loved it cuz it was crazy and mainly cuz mom freaked out on seeing a few episodes...good Indian girls weren't supposed to see or hear such stuff...well my love for western sitcoms owes itself to M*A*S*H...I am not good at TV actor names, but I hope Alan Alda was that cute guy with twinkling eyes(green uniformed seated next to the table)...he was so.... ;))

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  12. Most teens still believe this show to be about some form of potato.

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