The first take of the shot where Hot Lips is revealed in the shower didn't work because Sally Kellerman anticipated the reveal and was already lying on the floor when the tent flap went up. To distract her, Robert Altman and Gary Burghoff entered the shower tent and dropped their trousers while the shot was rolling outside. While Kellerman was staring at them, the tent flap was raised, resulting in her genuine surprise and shock when she realized what had happened. In the special double disc dvd they say that Radar is standing naked beside the camera and that that's the reason why Sally Kellerman looks so surprised when the flap was raised.
According to the memoir of actress Sally Kellerman, during the scene in "MASH" when Major Houlihan storms into Colonel Blake's tent after being exposed in the shower, Sally Kellerman shouted her scripted lines at actor Roger Bowen, and then noticed that Robert Altman was keeping the camera running. Kellerman, not knowing what else to do, continued sobbing her final words of dialogue, "My commission...my commission..." until finally Altman ordered the camera to cut. Following the scene, Altman embraced Kellerman and told her she had finally revealed the vulnerability in the character he'd been hoping for. Unfortunately, the scene was the final appearance in the script of the Houlihan character. But because of Altman's delight with Kellerman's improvised performance in the scene, the director kept her on the film for the duration of the production, and inserted the actress into additional scenes in which she was not originally scripted, such her cheer-leading as the football game, observing the poker-playing, and even a scene near the end of the picture which revealed Major Houlihan had become romantically involved with Captain Duke Forrest.
Robert Altman said that during filming, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland together went to the studio and complained that Altman was filming too much of the secondary characters. They requested that he be removed from the film, but the studio refused. After the film was completed and received its accolades, only Gould confessed the matter to Altman. As a result, he received parts in other Altman pictures, whereas the director never again used Sutherland.
The scene where Father Mulcahy is blessing the jeep was improvised. Actor Rene Auberjonois found the blessing in a copy of the Army Chaplain's Handbook, and thought it would be a good addition to both the story and to his character. The director agreed, and the scene was shot in one take.
According Johnny Mandel and Robert Altman, the film's famous theme song was intended to be the "stupidest song ever written". After attempting to write the lyrics himself, Altman said he found it too difficult to write "dumb enough", and instead gave to the task to his 14 year old son. Mike Altman apparently wrote the lyrics in five minutes. Because of its inclusion in the subsequent TV series, he continued to get residuals throughout its run and syndication. His father was paid $75,000 for directing but his son eventually made about $2,000,000 in song royalties.
The story goes that Robert Altman was editing the movie with his editor, Danford B. Greene; they had nude pinups on the walls of the editing room. The head of postproduction came by and tried to stop Altman from using the editing machine, as he wasn't a designated editor, and Altman threw him out of the editing room. The next day a memo came down from the Fox front office, stating a new policy that there were to be no pinups on the walls of editing rooms. Altman took the memo to the sound recording studio and added it as one of the loudspeaker announcements during the film."Time 25:10 以下命令已经下来了：请把照片、明信片、裸女月历等等全从墙上撤下来 好让房间看起来干净整齐。"
Speaking about the troubles he had with the studio, Robert Altman now says, "This film wasn't released - it escaped."
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