# M\*A\*S\*H question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100 "2012-11-15T16:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/61 "2012-11-16T22:08:38Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I think we’ve established that MASH was inconsistent with several elements of continuity. Potter was originally from Nebraska, then from Missouri. Klinger was portrayed as an atheist, a Muslim, and a Catholic at various times through the series. Radar began the series as a cognac connoisseur, then became a alcoholic neophyte knocked back by a sip of gin. The writers did what they felt like; making the pieces fit was a low-level concern considering how quickly they had to churn out scripts. Yes, they were churning out scripts fast, and for a long time. They just didn’t bother with that kind of consistency. Some writer had a story idea based on the characters as defined by the actors at that time, they wrote that story. If Potter is a by-the-books military man, it’s fun to make him a vet of 3 wars. They fudge the ages to get it to fit. Later, when Henry Morgan is excessively old to be in service, they write a script about how Potter is old and fearing his age. They wrote the scripts to fit what they wanted, not some planned out database to keep everything straight. > [@StusBlues](#): > > Right. If this were Hawkeye’s second war, I’d expect him to say something at this point–or earlier, when Borelli says that he’s had enough of war after WWI and II. It’s human nature. Um, it’s Hawkeye’s second war, Borelli wishes him luck on his _third_ war. Kinda a moment of “damn, there’s gonna be another one? This one ain’t over yet.” Frankly, there are any number of responses available whether it is Hawkeye’s first or second war. Not conclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/62 "2012-11-16T22:12:02Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Frankly, there are any number of responses available whether it is Hawkeye’s first or second war. Not conclusive. Maybe Hawkeye’s first war was with that cute, but married, nurse across the table. Or the one next to her. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/63 "2012-11-16T22:37:01Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Mondegreen alert! > > It’s not “We is the best hooray”, it’s “Ve iss der master race.” Hawkeye does slur the words a bit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/64 "2012-11-16T22:46:21Z")
Just to inject a little reality and personal experience into this, my father and most of his colleagues were medical corps for the Second World War. One of them ran an evacuation hospital on Omaha Beach. Another ran a surgery on Guadalcanal that was close enough to the front that small arms fire came in to the working tents. Dad was not recalled for Korea and I don’t recall that any of the other doctors were either. When I was on active duty in the late 60s and early 70s many of my senior officers were WWII veterans. My first boss jumped in Operation Market Garden and my last boss took a 105 mm battery into Normandy. One of my judges had humped a BAR across Europe and another one had been in on the Philippians invasion. They had all gotten their professional education on the GI Bill after the war, had been recalled for Korea and stayed on. That means most of them had something like 20 years service under their belts, maybe a bit more, when I knew them. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/65 "2012-11-16T23:00:37Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Per the series and Henry;s drunken ramblings he got sent to Korea within 8 hours after prescribing a coffee enema… There was something in Henry’s line about how he never should have asked if they wanted creme & sugar in it… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/66 "2012-11-17T01:13:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Correction: Potter cocked it for him. We don’t know if Hawkeye knew how to do it, or if Potter just wanted to force his hand. Still ambiguous, I’ll grant you! Hawkeye wants nothing to do with his sidearm and goes so far as to say “I hate guns!” You can tell Potter is ready to kick his ass (or worse) for refusing to defend himself while the two men are under fire. The only way I can picture Pierce in WWII is as a _very young_ CO assigned to a medical unit. What would the status of a CO with an undergraduate degree be? Officer material? What about after the war? Medical school on the GI Bill, and subject to the draft again in a national emergency? I’m genuinely curious about this. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/67 "2012-11-17T03:55:57Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I think we’ve established that MASH was inconsistent with several elements of continuity. Potter was originally from Nebraska, then from Missouri. Klinger was portrayed as an atheist, a Muslim, and a Catholic at various times through the series. Radar began the series as a cognac connoisseur, then became a alcoholic neophyte knocked back by a sip of gin. The writers did what they felt like; making the pieces fit was a low-level concern considering how quickly they had to churn out scripts. I don’t think Klinger was ever portrayed as a Muslim. Once they got over his cross dressing, they did explore his background, but he was never seen as a Muslim. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/68 "2012-11-17T04:23:09Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I don’t think Klinger was ever portrayed as a Muslim. Once they got over his cross dressing, they did explore his background, but he was never seen as a Muslim. Maybe not, be he invoked the name of Allah on more than one occasion, although usually in a lighthearted manner. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/69 "2012-11-17T04:24:01Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Yes, they were churning out scripts fast, and for a long time. They just didn’t bother with that kind of consistency. Some writer had a story idea based on the characters as defined by the actors at that time, they wrote that story… I remember a making-of special, late in the TV series’s run or maybe even at the very end of it, which mentioned that they had interviewed virtually every former M_A_S\*H doctor they could find in order to get more story ideas. By the end of the series they were so desperate for ideas that they kept a board on the wall in the writers’ conference room; even the most insignificant, banal story fragments were written on 3x5 cards and stuck up there. One of them, I remember, was Alan Alda’s observation that he could fake-sneeze pretty well. They then used that in one episode where he had a cold and was sneezing a lot. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/70 "2012-11-17T04:24:41Z")
That was when he was pretending to be King of the Gypsies. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/71 "2012-11-17T04:28:11Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > One of them, I remember, was Alan Alda’s observation that he could fake-sneeze pretty well. They then used that in one episode where he had a cold and was sneezing a lot. Are you possibly remembering the episode where Hawkeye gets a whiff of a wounded soldier’s moldy clothing which then triggers a psychosomatic allergic attack based in long-repressed childhood memories of an idolized older cousin abusing him? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/72 "2012-11-17T06:29:56Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I think we’ve established that MASH was inconsistent with several elements of continuity. Potter was originally from Nebraska, then from Missouri. Klinger was portrayed as an atheist, a Muslim, and a Catholic at various times through the series. Radar began the series as a cognac connoisseur, then became a alcoholic neophyte knocked back by a sip of gin. The writers did what they felt like; making the pieces fit was a low-level concern considering how quickly they had to churn out scripts. The active fighting of the Korean War lasted from the summer of 1950 to the summer of 1953. But the show had four Christmas episodes. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/73 "2012-11-17T07:06:21Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Maybe not, be he invoked the name of Allah on more than one occasion, although usually in a lighthearted manner. That just shows that his mother tongue is _Arabic_ not that he is Muslim. Arab Christians and Jews use “Allah” as well. Both the character and the actor are Arab. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/74 "2012-11-17T19:02:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The only way I can picture Pierce in WWII is as a _very young_ CO assigned to a medical unit. He’d have to be a very young CO in '43 if he was listening to the radio while laying on a rug. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/75 "2012-11-17T20:56:40Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Burns and Winchester were both Majors. I believe that the lieutenant colonel being referred to was Henry Blake. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/76 "2012-11-17T21:11:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I remember a making-of special, late in the TV series’s run or maybe even at the very end of it, which mentioned that they had interviewed virtually every former M_A_S\*H doctor they could find in order to get more story ideas. By the end of the series they were so desperate for ideas that they kept a board on the wall in the writers’ conference room; even the most insignificant, banal story fragments were written on 3x5 cards and stuck up there. One of them, I remember, was Alan Alda’s observation that he could fake-sneeze pretty well. They then used that in one episode where he had a cold and was sneezing a lot. [There were some pretty strange scripts even in the beginning.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Fred_C._Dobbs) Somebody stumbled onto a random factoid about Korea’s gold production and it got worked into the show. I think Larry Gelbart is the one who said it’s the worst episode they ever did. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/77 "2012-11-17T22:43:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I remember a making-of special, late in the TV series’s run or maybe even at the very end of it, which mentioned that they had interviewed virtually every former M_A_S\*H doctor they could find in order to get more story ideas. By the end of the series they were so desperate for ideas that they kept a board on the wall in the writers’ conference room; even the most insignificant, banal story fragments were written on 3x5 cards and stuck up there. One of them, I remember, was Alan Alda’s observation that he could fake-sneeze pretty well. They then used that in one episode where he had a cold and was sneezing a lot. That was [Season 9, Episode 17](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0638257/). Think about it this way. They had 39 more episdoes worth of 3x5 cards left. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/78 "2012-11-18T01:06:34Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > That was [Season 9, Episode 17](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0638257/). Think about it this way. They had 39 more episdoes worth of 3x5 cards left. I am not at all surprised. They were really scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/79 "2012-11-18T03:26:07Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > He’d have to be a very young CO in '43 if he was listening to the radio while laying on a rug. And still back home in Crabapple Cove, I would think. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100/80 "2012-11-19T15:52:49Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > That just shows that his mother tongue is _Arabic_ not that he is Muslim. Arab Christians and Jews use “Allah” as well. Both the character and the actor are Arab. The quote I’m thinking of is from _AfterMash_ when Father Mulcahy was afraid of having lost his hearing, only to have it restored in an operation. Klinger goes crazy happy, rejoicing that he and his wife had both prayed for the Padre: “She prayed to Buddha, I prayed to Allah!” Then again, _AfterMash_ probably isn’t in continuity 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-a-s-h-question/641100.md?page=5)