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Alan Alda, David Ogden Stiers, and Mike Farrell in M*A*S*H (1972)

Goofs

The Smell of Music

M*A*S*H

Edit

Continuity

Before the Jeep runs over Winchester's French horn, the shape of the horn changes as if the driver missed the horn in a previous take and left it only slightly damaged.
When Saunders ducks into the storeroom and tries to kill himself with gas, he is barefoot. After Colonel Potter consoles him and walks him back to his bed, Saunders is suddenly wearing black slippers.
As the back tires of the jeep pass over Charles's French horn it can be seen that the horn is not as flat as the French horn that Margaret picks up; after the deed is done.
After the jeep runs over the French horn, Margaret turns to the rest of the crowd, gives a grand curtsy and accepts the praise of the camp. You can see the flattened horn behind her in the sun and it seems they are somewhat distant from the rest of the group. When Col. Potter comes through the group, he doesn't have to walk very far at all to get to the ruined instrument, which is now in "shade". If that had been the actual spot of the horn when the jeep ran over it, the crowd would have been in danger of being run over, too.
When B.J. and Hawkeye are eating outside B.J. has his left hand and arm on the table but in the next scene he does not.

Factual errors

Col. Potter's rank, and caduceus on his collar are placed incorrectly. They should be on an angle across the tip of collar.

Revealing mistakes

When B.J. and Hawkeye come out of 72 straight hours of surgery at the start, both look reasonably clean-shaven. 3 days with no shaving would be a little more obvious.
When the jeep passes over the horn, it is only slightly damaged. But in the succeeding scenes, the horn is completely flattened as if run over numerous times (which it quite obviously was).

Miscellaneous

After Col. Potter uses the anesthesia mask to convince Saunders to fight to SAVE his life, Potter leads him out of the O.R. so Saunders can get some rest. But as had been established in many episodes, the doors through which Potters takes Saunders lead to the scrub room (at screen-right). Potter should have led Saunders to the door at screen-left, which lead back to post-op, where the beds are.
When Hawkeye and B.J. are given their food trays, they each have an egg in its shell on them. Real eggs are a very rare thing at the camp, and not only are they served with no fanfare, but when Hawkeye gets angry at something unrelated, he pounds his fist on his egg and crushes it to vent his anger.
The studio lights for scenes in the interior of the Swamp, when Charles is playing, are reflected in the French horn.

Plot holes

During Hawkeye and B.J.'s bathing boycott, they perform surgery. Yet despite the necessary presurgical scrubbing of their hands, arms, and face, they never should have been allowed into the O.R. covered in days' worth of germs. As surgeons, they should know what a danger their unwashed bodies would pose to the necessary sterility of the O.R.
Despite that Saunders' injury was severe enough to necessitate the eventual rebuilding of his right cheek, not only does Saunders not display any difficulty with speaking, but Col. Potter even forces the anesthesia gas mask over Saunders' mouth during his suicide attempt, which should have caused Saunders great physical pain.

Character error

Potter talks Saunders out of committing suicide with the gas mask, but he doesn't turn off the gas before they leave O.R.

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