More on Henry Blake's demise

Several readers wanted more details on the famous O.R. scene in MASH where Henry Blake’s death was revealed. When was it decided? When did the cast know? How much did the cast know? When did they film the scene? Why didn’t they kill off Trapper too because he left the show at the same time? Did everyone feel lucky that there was no ET yet to provide “exclusive coverage”?

MacLean Stevenson announced to the cast and producers that he was leaving several weeks prior to the end of production for that season (the 3rd). Wayne Rogers (Trapper) did not. His parting came after the show had wrapped so producers Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds had to deal with his departure at the beginning of the 4th season.

Larry and Gene decided to take the bold step of killing Henry Blake because of the message it sent – people you love die in wars, sometimes in wars that make little sense. They did not do it for the shock value. They were, in fact, somewhat surprised by the enormity of the reaction.

The episode was the last one filmed. The script the cast was given did not have the final scene. All they knew was “O.R. scene to come.” They often received scenes last minute so didn’t think this was anything odd.

They filmed the rest of the show, and got in wardrobe for the last scene. Moments before it was to be filmed, Gene and Larry came down to the set with the pages. The stunned cast had only minutes to digest the news before the camera rolled. The reactions you saw were real. Interestingly, the portion of the scene where Radar (Gary Burghoff) comes in and reads the telegram was not the first take. There was a technical glitch so Gary had to do it again. Imagine making an actor play that moment twice? It’s hard to believe anyone could do it any better.

If any viewer wrote to the show or network protesting the decision to kill Henry and left their name and address, either Larry or Gene wrote them back a personal explanation. Every one and there were many thousands.

And finally, to CBS’s credit, they supported the decision and did not exploit it. But that was way back in the day when the audience decided what was a “very special episode” and not network promo departments.