M*A*S*H (television)/Trivia

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• Klinger was said to be based on a real person. However the real Klinger was gay and wanted to stay in the Army, it was his commanding officers who wanted him discharged. Klinger's crossdressing ploy was based on something Lenny Bruce claimed to have tried during World War 2.
• Radar was definitely based on a real person -- Don Shaffer, who really was from Ottumwa, Iowa. Amusingly, while Radar returned to civilian life halfway through the war, Shaffer went on to be career military, even becoming an intelligence officer and eventually joining the faculty of the Army intelligence school.
• Directed by Cast Member: Alan Alda (32 episodes), Harry Morgan (8 episodes), Mike Farrell (5 episodes), David Ogden Stiers (2 episodes), Jamie Farr (1 episode).
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Many familiar faces turn up in various episodes.
  • Captain Harris as shifty Cajun greasemonkey Rizzo. (Fun fact: G. W. Bailey is from Port Arthur, Texas, so if you were wondering how he came by such a good Cajun accent...)
  • Miyagi-sensei showed up in a few early episodes as a South Korean doctor and frequent drinking buddy of Henry.
  • The late, venerable, and talented Japanese actor Mako showed up a few times, most memorably as the cold, cruel, loathesome South Korean interrogator and torture expert Lt. Park.
  • Ron Howard when he was 19 playing a 15-year-old. He appeared in the 1973 episode "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet."
  • George Wendt in the 1982 episode "Trick or Treatment" as the guy who got the billiard ball stuck in his mouth. That same year he began playing Norm on Cheers.
  • Alex Karras as Lance Cpl. Lyle Wesson in the 1974 episode "Springtime." This was about the time he appeared in Blazing Saddles.
  • Sun's father was a frequent guest actor.
  • John Ritter played a shell shocked soldier in the episode "Deal Me Out".
  • Patrick Swayze appeared as a wounded soldier later diagnosed with leukemia in the episode "Blood Brothers".
  • Morpheus, Frank Drebin, George Bluth Sr. and even Harry Morgan before he was Potter.
  • Gary Burghoff also played Radar in the movie.
  • Keye Luke, aka Number One Son, showed up a few times.
  • Pat Hingle played a General in an April Fools episode.
  • Leslie Nielsen made an appearance in "The Ringbanger" as Colonel Buzz Brighton, a commander with an appalling casualty record, whom Hawkeye and Trapper talk into thinking he's having a breakdown.
• From the main cast, only two actors served in the Army in Korea: Alan Alda and Jamie Farr.
  • Alan Alda was an Army Reservist who did only six months on active duty.
  • Jamie Farr, the actor who played Klinger, the man trying to be declared crazy in order to be thrown out of the Army and sent back home, was the only member of the cast who had actually served in Korea. However, during the Korean War, Farr was stationed in Japan.
    • Interesting note: the dog tags that Klinger wears are actually Jamie Farr's from his time in the Army.
• McLean Stevenson (Col. Blake in the TV series) died February 15, 1996. Roger Bowen (Col. Blake in the movie) died the next day.
• According to legend, during the first commercial break of the series finale the city of New York lost all water pressure.