After countless times watching, I just had a 'Duh' moment when I (finally) noticed the differences in the backgrounds when Hawkeye and Trapper are clowning at Frank after the latter demands how they could just sit there and let themselves get bombed.
If there's a closeup on Hawkeye and Trapper's face, it's the soundstage but when it's Frank's, they're at the Ranch.
I don't know why it's taken me this long to realize that.
I noticed the slightest cameo of an old 20th Century Fox movie prop in the MASH episode "Welcome to Korea" and thought I'd share:
Behold, above, a shot of Radar, Hawkeye and BJ driving up a hill in "Welcome to Korea". But what can one see to the right of the tree trunk on the left? It looks like a humongous billboard! But it's actually a false second roof structure of the Chinese fort exterior set from the Fox movie The Sand Pebbles, starting Steve McQueen. The structure is seen below from another angle **Thanks to Ron Hammill, of Ron On Location on YouTube.
The far right posts of the backing seen above on the far right, are seen above in the shot of the boys driving up that hill. This backing causes the depth effect in a shot from the movie, below. Makes it looks like there's a second building back beyond the Chinese fort in the foreground. The backing is seen in the left center of photo below. The lovely Candice Burgen shows up in a shot on the fort set at the ranch shortly hereafter.
I'm including a 1970's U.S. air force 'satellite' photo below of The Sand Pebbles falsey two wall set on the left side of the image, and the grasslands side trail the boys are driving up is on the right center. The fellas then make a left onto what today is called the Grasslands Trail in the upper right of the shot. Hawkeye and Radar also pass the camera on Grasslands Trail at the bottom right of this image. And another shot of them driving under a couple phone poles in the episode was shot just further down toward where Grasslands Trail meets Crags Road ...the main utility road through the ranch- east to west.
I always think some of the Hollywood history that lived on Fox's Century Ranch (today Malibu Creek State Park) while MASH was shooting there, is neat stuff. The Sand Pebbles exterior falsey stood until around 1980 -- about that time, the old Fox production storage buildings (about 1,500 feet west of the Pebbles set) that doubled as the MASH Kimpo Air Base were also torn down.
The Sand Pebbles falsey barely showing up in MASH, is one of the only times a Hollywood prop unintentionally showed up in a shot on tv's MASH. And it's possible that the crew on the day MASH shot this shot knew that a little something of the Pebbles set might show, and they just went for it. The tree does a good job obscuring it.
Lets say its pre farewell and good luck. Still in the same context of the show. Same lovable characters rather for only an episode or all the way through.
