cast of mash sitting in and on vehicle; gray, yellow, and green circles with question marks surround them

Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: 20th Century Fox Film Corp/Everett Collection)

Take Our ‘MAS*H’ Trivia Quiz

Test how well you remember Hawkeye, Radar and the gang

Thom Geier,

AARP

Published June 28, 2023

10 Questions

It’s been 40 years since the CBS sitcom M*A*S*H ended its long, Emmy-winning run and Hawkeye, B.J. Hunnicutt, Radar and the gang bid farewell to their battlefield hospital. The two-hour 1983 send-off episode, directed by Alan Alda, remains the most-watched scripted TV show in American history. Take our quiz to see how well you remember the 4077th and its devotion to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happy hour.”

Take Our ‘MAS*H’ Trivia Quiz

[ {
  "question" : "“M*A*S*H” is set during which war?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "World War II",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Korean War",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Vietnam",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Gulf War",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "“M*A*S*H” endured for 11 seasons, nearly four times longer than U.S. military fighting in Korea, which began in 1950 and lasted for three years.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What does M*A*S*H stand for?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Medical and Surgical Hospital",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Mobile Army Surgical Hospital",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Military Army Surface Hospital",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Mobile Advanced Service Hospital",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Mobile military hospitals first rose to prominence during World War I. The concept was refined during the Korean War, when 10 MASH units supported four Army divisions of up to 20,000 soldiers each — and the death rate for wounded Americans dropped to 2.5 percent.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "True or false: Alan Alda’s character, Benjamin Franklin Pierce, got the nickname Hawkeye from a character in the book “The Last of the Mohicans.”",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "True",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "False",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "In the show, Hawkeye says he acquired the nickname early on due to his doctor father’s love of the James Fenimore Cooper novel “The Last of the Mohicans” — which centers on an 18th-century frontiersman named Natty “Hawkeye” Bumppo, who safeguarded a colonel’s daughters in the midst of the French and Indian War. Late in the show’s run, Pierce writes a will leaving his father’s copy of the book to his on-base father figure, Colonel Potter.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What did Walter “Radar” O’Reilly sleep with every night?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "A photo of his mother",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A baseball glove",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A pistol",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A teddy bear",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The prop bear — a symbol of the boyish innocence of Gary Burghoff’s Iowa farm boy turned military clerk — was sold at auction in 2014 for $14,307.50 The actor said that he had dubbed the bear “Tiger” and had bought it from the show’s set designer years after the series finale.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which character kept a horse named Sophie?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Hawkeye",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Colonel Sherman Potter",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Charles Emerson Winchester III",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "B.J. Hunnicutt",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "In a Season 4 episode, Radar saves an injured horse from being killed, and after having his shrapnel wounds treated, gives it to Potter as a wedding anniversary gift. Potter is so delighted that the horse becomes a recurring character for the rest of the series, even popping up in the finale as Potter donates Sophie to an orphanage before leaving Korea.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What’s the name of the “M*A*S*H” theme song?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“Suicide Is Painless”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Wartime Blues”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Hawkeye of the Tiger”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Cold War, Hot Lips”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "According to composer Johnny Mandel, director Robert Altman approached him before shooting the 1970 film to write the song to play during a “Last Supper” scene that the troop stages for dentist Walter Waldowski (John Schuck). Altman, whose 15-year-old son supplied the lyrics, then decided to use the song during the film’s opening credits — and it became the theme for the TV show as well.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What is the nickname for nurse Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit)?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Hot Stuff",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Hoo-Hoo",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Hot Lips",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Big Mamma",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Houlihan is a member of the Army Nurse Corps and the highest-ranking woman in the 4077th. Sally Kellerman earned an Oscar nomination for her film portrayal of the character, and Loretta Swit won two Emmys for playing her on the TV show. In the film, Houlihan unwittingly gives herself the sexy nickname during a tryst with Frank Burns (Robert Duvall). She tells Burns to “Kiss my hot lips!” Members of the camp had secretly recorded the exchange and then broadcast it over the unit’s loudspeaker.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "True or false: Alan Alda won more Emmy Awards for writing and directing “M*A*S*H” than he did for acting on the show.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "True",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "False",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Alda won three Emmys for playing Hawkeye Pierce. He also won an Emmy for directing a 1977 episode, and another for writing a 1979 episode in which his character falls for a visiting female Swedish doctor and confronts his misogynistic ways. Surprisingly, he did not win for directing the 1983 series finale.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What was chaplain Father Mulcahy’s secret talent?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Singing",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Boxing",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Dancing",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Darts",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "William Christopher took over the role of the unit’s chaplain in the third episode, and the character’s background as an amateur boxing champion served as a counterpoint to his squeamishness around blood. After Christopher’s death in 2016, costar Loretta Swit called him “TV’s quintessential padre.”",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which character got his own spin-off series?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Maxwell Klinger",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Hawkeye” Pierce",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Trapper John” McIntyre",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Father Francis Mulcahy",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "CBS created a new show, “Trapper John, M.D.,” in which the character — played by Pernell Roberts — emerges as a much-mellowed Korean War vet who’s head of surgery at a San Francisco hospital. The hour-long medical drama lasted for seven seasons.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

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Thom Geier is an award-winning writer and editor with a passion for American pop culture. He served as executive editor of the digital news site TheWrap.com and as a senior editor at Entertainment Weekly, where he oversaw coverage of movies, theater and books. His essays and reviews appear regularly on CultureSauce.net.

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Take Our ‘M*A*S*H’ Trivia Quiz

Take Our ‘M*A*S*H’ Trivia Quiz

Take Our ‘M*A*S*H’ Trivia Quiz

Take Our ‘MAS*H’ Trivia Quiz

Take Our ‘MAS*H’ Trivia Quiz

Take Our ‘MAS*H’ Trivia Quiz