M*A*S*H - Interesting Facts

Gary Burghoff was the only actor from the movie asked to recreate his role for the tv show.

Jamie Farr (Klinger) was the only cast member who had actually fought in the Korean War.

Larry Linville left M*A*S*H at the end of the fifth season, because he didn't want to get eternally typecast as a shallow, whining, by-the-book bad guy.

Wayne Rogers was unhappy with his role, always playing 'second fiddle' to Alda's character, so at the end of the third season he just quit.

McLean Stevenson, not realizing how popular and long lasting M*A*S*H would be, left at the end of the third season in order to pursue other TV projects.

In the episode where Henry goes home (Abysinnia, Henry), the final scene of the show, where news of Henry's death reaches the camp, was kept a secret from the actors until the actual taping of the scene.

Dr.Hornberger never cared for Alan Alda's potrayal of Hawkeye. He said that the real (Hawkeye) himself was shy, and not a womenizer.

In the last episode, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, there was a brush fire that burned in the mountains surrounding the camp. So they went ahead and wrote it into the script.

And my personal favorite interesting fact.....

Three minutes after Goodbye, Farewell and Amen finished, the water flow in New York City increased by 300,000,000 gallons. Engineers blamed it on people waiting till the show was over to go to the bathroom.