About This Quiz
"M*A*S*H" remains one of the most popular TV shows ever. Although the 1970s-era show was about the tragic Korean War, it made you laugh, cry and think. But how much do you know about this perennial favorite?
"M*A*S*H" was filmed in two locations: the former Fox Ranch at California's Malibu Creek State Park, and 20th Century Fox's Studio 9. Although most of the original characters left the show during its 11-year run, that never harmed "M*A*S*H's" popularity. After all, people serving in the military during wartime do come and go, according to the terms of their deployments. So that seemed realistic.
You may know, or at least suspect, that "M*A*S*H" and its actors won numerous awards over the years. But did you know that the Smithsonian accepted two complete show sets from 20th Century Fox? The Washington, D.C., museum normally doesn't accept complete television sets — only representative props. But it now has "M*A*S*H's" operating room and the "Swamp" in its possession, the latter being another name for the bachelor officers' quarters.
Interestingly, "M*A*S*H" didn't do so well in its inaugural year; it was actually in danger of being cancelled. Luckily for us, it was given a second chance, after which it hit the top 10 in viewer ratings. It remained popular from that second season on, until its end in 1983.
Now let's see how much you remember about this groundbreaking sitcom by taking our "M*A*S*H" quiz.
Klinger dressed in women's clothing, hoping someone would think he was crazy and send him home.
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Boston blue-blood Winchester was smart and a great surgeon -- who didn't want to be in Korea. But that's where the similarities between him and his tent mates -- Hawkeye and BJ -- ended, making him an excellent foil for their antics.
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Maj. Margaret Houlihan stayed for the show's 11-year run as the woman in charge of the nurses. It was actually a very sexist show, representing both the 1950s and the 1970s.
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Frank, a married man, had an affair with Margaret until she became engaged to another. Frank went more than a little nuts and was sent back to the states for psychiatric evaluation. He was promoted and put in charge of a VA hospital.
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Frank Burns was acting CO at the beginning of season 3, but Potter took over and stayed for the rest of the run.
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Henry's on his way home when his plane is shot down over the Sea of Japan. Radar tells everyone in the OR -- and they all keep operating, even as they're crying.
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Wayne Rogers' departure came following the third season. Mike Farrell, who played BJ through the rest of the run, came in as new tent mate, surgeon and friend to Hawkeye.
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Blake, played by McLean Stevenson, was the commanding officer in the first three seasons.
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One of the more popular episodes, "Dear Dad," has Hawkeye writing to his dad about the yuletide season in an army camp -- hijinks and heart.
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Walter (better known as Radar) O'Reilly, played by Gary Burghoff, was the one who really ran the MASH unit. He left the show in Season 8.
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The two-and-a-half-hour, show-ending movie aired Feb. 28, 1983, and wrapped up the war with a lot of laughs and more than a few tears, as everyone prepared to go their separate ways.
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Hawkeye and Trapper's (and later BJ's) tent mate was everything the two of them weren't -- a stickler for rules, a bigoted snob and a terrible surgeon.
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In one episode, Hawkeye searches for what the initials BJ stand for, but all the paperwork lists just BJ as his name. BJ says at the end of the episode that his parents names were Bea and Jay and that's where it came from.
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In a rare moment of drunkenness, Frank tells Hawkeye and Trapper the nickname his brother gave him. When BJ joins the show and meets Frank for the first time, it's clear he's been clued in when he says, "What say, Ferret Face?"
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Mobile was the key -- the hospital could move quickly as the war's front moved. In fact, "Bug Out," an episode from Season 5, features the camp moving, as the war comes closer. This MASH unit was the 4077th.
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Trapper was discharged while Hawkeye was on leave. Hawkeye spent the episode trying to get back to the 4077th before Trapper is gone.
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While he was great with animals, his super power was knowing ahead of time what his commanding officers were going to say or ask him to do. He also knew just before helicopters of wounded were going to come in.
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While the Korean War itself only lasted three years, the show lasted 11 seasons and 256 episodes.
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This wedding dress got around. Klinger wore it to marry his sweetheart back home via a phone ceremony. Margaret put it on when she got married in person. In the final episode, Klinger (by then divorced from his first wife) marries Soon-Lee Han, a Korean woman. She wears the wedding dress this time.
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Tuttle was Hawkeye's childhood imaginary friend. When he wants to raise money and requisition supplies for a local orphanage, he resurrects Tuttle -- which stirs up the whole camp as people start claiming they've met the invisible man.
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While the Super Bowl of 2010 passed the episode in total viewership, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" still stands as the most-watched television series finale.
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Comedies had to have laugh tracks back in the day, so the network wanted one and the producers didn't. The compromise they reached was a "chuckle track," not quite as invasive, that was never played in the OR. When the show was run in the U.K., the track was turned off.
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After years of wearing dresses in an effort to get a Section 8 (insanity) discharge and go home, Klinger marries a Korean woman and stays behind to help her find her parents.
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Klinger stepped in as company clerk after Gary Burghoff, who played Radar, left in Season 8.
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Capt. Hawkeye Pierce, Father Francis Mulcahy, Maj. Margaret Houlihan and Cpl. Max Klinger were there for the full 11 seasons.
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By the end of the show, Alda was a household name. He was not only playing Hawkeye, who was the star of the show, but he was also writing and directing episodes.
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Jones, played by Timothy Brown, left the show in the first season because there was no evidence of African-American doctors having served in Korea.
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The TV show was based on the 1970 movie of the same name, which was in turn based on the book "MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors," by Richard Hooker.
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Though technically a comedy, one of the ways "MASH" broke TV ground was by delving into the bleaker aspects of war, always with one eye on the laugh meter. You could call it the first dramedy, although the term became popular only after "MASH" went off the air.
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Alda (Hawkeye) and Farr (Klinger) both served in Korea, though after the cease-fire in 1953. The dog tags Klinger wore in the show were Farr's from his time in Korea.
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