Looking at undeserved credits a little deeper, I see Richard Boone also shares a writing credit for “The Ballad of Paladin” from when he starred in Have Gun Will Travel. And of course there’s Carroll O’Connor and the closing theme for All in the Family.
The story goes that Irving Berlin visited the set of Singin’ In The Rain, and when he mentioned how much “Make 'Em Laugh” resembled “Be A Clown”, Arthur Freed quickly changed the subject.
Somewhat relevant - the destination of a recent hike.
How is the distance from Decatur over a thousand miles greater than from Toledo? They’re less than 700 miles apart.
The signs point in opposite directions. One city is the distance going West; the other is the distance going East.
I wonder if you can do an exact Google Earth location for where those numbers meet up.
I used to be acquainted with the propmaster from the show. I’ve lost touch with him but would love to know how they approached this.
Curiously enough, the signpost is only a 20 minute walk from the village from Planet of the Apes but fails to note that important reference.
The Seoul/Tokyo distances are also inconsistent. The distance between those two cities is 716 miles, but the distances on the signpost add up to less than that.
I mean, there are a lot of problems. Google tells me that Uijeongbu is 714 miles from Tokyo and only about 15-20 miles to Seoul so we can just assume that the signmaker didn’t really bother with an atlas.
My Mom would often remark “It’s the least I could do. If I could have done less, I would have.”
I wonder… It could be just that nobody checked a map when making that signpost, or it could be that they deliberately made it inconsistent, to keep the camp’s actual location ambiguous.
Maybe? But in the show they say where the camp is on multiple occasions, near the village of Uijeongbu. At least plus or minus a few miles. There was no mystery.
The 4077 was a mobile unit.
One that was in one place most of the war. They evacuated a few times and bugged out once or twice, but permanent movement didn’t, I think happen.
Uijeongbu at last count had a population of more than 450,000. I suspect even in 1950 that it was more than just a “village.”
I’m always amused that people are surprised that half-hour situation comedies aren’t 100% historically and scientifically accurate.
As can be expected in a 11 year show depicting a 3 year war, the timeline is a mess. They didn’t even try to make it make sense.
Their lack of movement could be explained if they set the show after July 1951 when the war became pretty much static. The entire first year the war they would have moved a lot. The problem with that is they mention the Chinese entering the war in season 4 episode 23. That would have caused a lot of retreating. To make matters worse Mako plays a Chinese Army doctor in season 3.
They did permanently relocate once… by about a mile. Some idiotic general (IIRC, the same actor who later became Colonel Potter) decided that since they could move, they must move.
Something I’ve recalled…
When I was a kid in the early eighties (I think it was about a year or so before the series ended), I remember seeing a 4077 playset with MASH action figures (sold separately) advertised on TV.
Doesn’t MASH seem like a rather odd property to merchandise for kids’ toys? A sitcom that was really only half sitcom and half gritty drama? Whose humor was adult, and often pretty black? Which pulled no punches as to the horror of war and what that meant to the combatants, the innocent civilians in the area, and the doctors who tried to save the wounded, and sometimes couldn’t–and who often suffered guilt complexes whenever those they did save had to go back to the fighting? Whose lighthearted and wacky moments often turned on a dime to show the grim reality of the war? This is supposed to be a property that children can play with?
“Hey, kids! Now you too can perform grueling, physically and emotionally exhausting battlefield surgery and suffer burnout, guilt complexes and PTSD–just like Hawkeye and his wacky pals at the 4077th!”
War themes were the bread and butter of boys toys back in the day and MASH was an 8:30 show watched by millions of kids.
I don’t care. It looks awesome and I want it.