Abyssinia, Henry - The M*A*S*H* Episode That Changed Everything

l-r, Wayne Rogers, Alan Alda, McLean Stevenson

In the early days of television, from the late 40s to the late 60s, the pictures on everyone's TV screens weren't the only things people saw that were black and white.

The shows people saw were basically the same. White people living their lives so cleanly, where father knows best, mother knew her place in the kitchen, the kids were well behaved and didn't cop any attitudes to their elders, and not a trace of any black people, minorities, gay people, feminists, or any other marginalized groups that made white Americans uncomfortable. Where problems were all solved within the show, the good guys were triumphant, the bad guys got what they deserve, and nothing bad ever happened to popular and beloved characters. If people saw someone die, it was always someone who was a guest on the show and never a regular.

Such were these meant to be taken seriously, that in 1952, the National Association of Broadcasters introduced The Television Code, where producers and showrunners adhered to a set of rules and guidelines that states "the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and biochemical addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials, are strictly forbidden!" The Code also told performers how to dress and move to be within the "bounds of decency". And while some, like Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry, chaffed under these rules, the vast majority of producers and showrunners accepted and complied with them.

But by the end of the 60s, America's mood had changed significantly from when it started. Assassinations, civil unrest, and war managed to tarnish and dull the shine off post WWII America. There was no way of turning back to the innocent carefree days of that era.

Television hadn't yet picked up on that mood. But if they hope to stay relevant, they had to change the content of their programming.

To that end, CBS made some major changes to their lineup.

In 1971, the Tiffany network cancelled some of their popular shows, like The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction, because they looked outdated and unrealistic, in what turned out to be the Rural Purge. In their places, CBS hoped to fill their slots with shows that were more realistic and relevant to their audience.

One of those shows they hoped would succeed was M*A*S*H*.

Based on the surprise hit 1970 film by Robert Altman, which itself was based on the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker, M*A*S*H* was about life at MASH unit 4077 (MASH standing for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) during the Korean War, which was a subtext of the Vietnam War that was still going on when the show debut in 1972. In it, the doctors, nurses, and other personnel stationed there, tried to maintain their sanity, while being bombarded with wounded soldiers that were hit on the front lines, several miles away, as well as the odd bombing and sniper gunfire that happened at the camp. Like the movie the series was based on, show producers Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds wanted to blend comedy and drama into the series. Something that had never been done on television before.

But while the cast was made up of mostly young upcoming talent, like Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, and Loretta Swit, both Gelbart and Reynolds felt the show needed a familiar face to the audience that would hook them in to watch. A veteran actor that's already made their mark on television.

Enter McLean Stevenson.

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Edgar McLean Stevenson Jr. was born on November 17, 1927 in Normal, Illinois. After completing high school, Stevenson joined the U.S Navy in 1946. Discharged almost two years later, Stevenson attended Northwestern University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in theatre arts. After college, Stevenson worked at a lot of odd jobs, from selling medical supplies and insurance, to working as a clown on a TV show in Dallas. He even worked as a press secretary for his distant cousin Adlai Stevenson's U.S. Presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956.

In the 1960s, Stevenson decided to embark on a show business career. He made his acting debut in a local production of The Music Man. After moving to New York, Stevenson was finding regular work on stage, in television, and in commercials. Behind the scenes, Stevenson was also a writer for shows like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and That Was The Week That Was. He was also a regular cast member on The Doris Day Show, a celebrity panelist on game shows, and even filled in as guest host on The Tonight Show whenever Johnny Carson was on vacation.

In 1972, Stevenson auditioned for the lead role of Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce for the new CBS series, M*A*S*H*. But both Gelbart and Reynolds, feeling he was too old to play Hawkeye yet believing he was the hook to lure viewers in, offered Stevenson the role of 4077 commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, which he accepted.

When M*A*S*H* debuted in 1972, the ratings were abysmal, and the show was on the verge of being cancelled. But CBS, having faith in the show, kept it alive and, in its second season, moved it to a more friendlier time slot, behind the very popular All In The Family. The move helped the show become a hit, as more people took in its intelligent writing, brilliant acting, and its fearless way of presenting the show to the viewers. While mostly for laughs in the early years, M*A*S*H* also showed some drama in its shows as a reminder to viewers that there was a war raging around them, such as the early season one episode, Sometimes You Hear The Bullet, where Hawkeye watched his best friend from childhood die on the operating table after being hit while working as a war correspondent. Whenever the surgeons were operating on the wounded in the OR, there was no laugh track used to alert viewers of a joke, as they did throughout the series.

Stevenson flourished in the role of the befuddled but good natured and kind hearted Col. Blake. A natural at comedy timing, Stevenson showed the character as frustrated by the antics of his problematic, but brilliant, surgeons, Hawkeye (Alda) and "Trapper" John McIntyre (Rogers), as well as receiving constant complaints by the camp's military minded majors, Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Swit) and Frank "Ferret Face" Burns (Larry Linville), and whatever get-out-of-the-army schemes his cross dressing corporal Max Klinger (Jamie Farr) comes up with.

But, at the same time, Stevenson presented Henry as a warm, caring, compassionate man who kept morale up at the 4077, indulged in any activities his personnel were doing, and was a father figure to both Hawkeye and Trapper, as well as the camp's company clerk, the boyish Walter "Radar" O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff).

Because of that, audiences took to Stevenson's Blake character to heart as the most empathetic and relatable of the show's cast. And Stevenson was honored for it, winning three Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Comedy role, and winning a Golden Globe in 1974 for Best Supporting Actor on television. Stevenson's writing also came in handy, as he penned two scripts for the show, The Army-Navy Game, and The Trial Of Henry Blake, the latter of which earned Stevenson another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in Comedy.

But Stevenson quickly grew restless on the show. Feeling as if his Blake character wasn't getting more of a leading role on M*A*S*H* - and still miffed he didn't get the role of Hawkeye - Stevenson decided he wanted out of the series after three seasons to strike out on his own. During season three, he approached the show's producers with a contract offer he received from NBC, and asked to be released from his contract with the show, which they reluctantly did.

Stevenson's final appearance on the show came in the season three finale, Abyssinia, Henry - 'abyssinia' being a slang term, commonly used during the 20s and 30s, as a shorter version of 'I'll be seeing you'. The episode begins with everyone in the OR, operating on the wounded and getting on each other's nerves. Radar enters with some good news to give to Henry, as he's told he's being discharged and going home, to the delight of everyone in the OR.

Near the end of the episode, Henry shows up to address the 4077, one last time, dressed in a black civilian suit with white pinstripes and a white fedora, that Hawkeye and Trapper gave him as a going away gift. After telling Frank and Margaret to calm down with the Army discipline, Henry says his goodbyes to each personnel, doing up the back of Klinger's dress, and, at the suggestion of Hawkeye, planted a big wet kiss on Margaret, which she seemed to like and Frank resented.

As Henry got aboard the chopper to take him home, he spots Radar saluting him with tears streaming down his face.

At the last minute, he gets out of the chopper to go to Radar, telling him to behave or he'll come back to kick his butt.

He then salutes him back and hugs him, and returns to the chopper to take him away, as the regular cast watches Henry fly off into the horizon for the last time.

After that last scene, everyone assumed that it was a wrap for the season, and everyone was ready for the after season/bon voyage McLean party.

But producers Gelbart and Reynolds had other ideas.

Calling all cast and crew over before they went to the party, Gelbart and Reynolds handed each a piece of paper. It was one more scripted page they wanted shot. In it, everyone was working in the OR, when Radar appears with a message in his hand and a stunned look on his face, acting somewhat dishelved. Radar was maskless when he entered, which Trapper admonished him for. Hawkeye joked to Radar that if it was his discharge papers that he should give it to him straight.

Then, Radar reads the memo:

"I have a message...Lieutenant Colonel...Henry Blake's plane......was shot down...over the Sea of Japan......It spun in............there were no survivors."

And then slowly turned around to leave the OR leaving everyone inside speechless and stunned.

Apart from Linville shouting 'Fucking brilliant!' everyone in the room was shocked by this last minute addition. None more so than Stevenson himself, who couldn't believe his character was going out by being killed off (It was said Alan Alda didn't react like the others, as it was believed he was in on the last minute decision, as his influence on the show's content and direction was growing).

But they all went ahead and filmed it. They had hoped to do it in one take, but a technical error forced them to do a second take. In their second attempt, an object had inadvertently dropped to the ground, but they kept rolling believing that the dropped object would lend credence to the news they were given. They would end up using that take in the show. After that was taken care of, Stevenson angrily walked off the set for the last time, not staying around for the goodbyes, and the after party was cancelled, as everyone was not in the mood for celebrating.

And on March 18, 1975 - 50 years ago this week - Abyssinia, Henry was shown.

And, in the days before the internet, reaction to it was swift and furious.

CBS's switchboard lit up overnight with angry callers protesting Henry's death. Gelbart and Reynolds were buried in hundreds of letters written asking why they did that. Both men tried to personally answer those questions, but the avalanche of letters compelled them to send them form letters for their answers. And both CBS and 20th Century Fox Television, which produced the show, were irate that they would kill off a beloved character, thus violating the Television Code.

But both Gelbart and Reynolds were unmoved by the reactions. Gene Reynolds explains why they killed off Henry Blake.

"If we turned on the television set we would see fifteen people killed in Vietnam every night. They don't complain about that because it is unfelt violence, it is unfelt trauma. And that's not good. I think that if there is such a thing as the loss of life there should be some connection. And we did make a connection. It was a surprise, it was somebody they loved. They didn't expect it but it made the point. People like Henry Blake are lost in war.

"We didn't want Henry Blake going back to Bloomington, Illinois and going back to the country club and the brown and white shoes, because a lot of guys didn't get back to Bloomington. Not everybody, not every kid gets to go back to Bloomington, Illinois...and we realized it was right for the show, because the premise of our show was the wastefulness of the war."

Despite the explanation, CBS, in a pique of craven cowardice, edited out that final scene, where Radar gives the camp the bad news, when it reran in the summer. But it was too late. The deed was done, and M*A*S*H*'s direction - and that of every other show going forward - changed for good.

Of course it wasn't the end of the drama during that hiatus. Wayne Rogers, feeling his Trapper character had become a second banana to Hawkeye, instead of his equal like in the movie, decided to quit the series. The show tried to sue Rogers into staying, but because he never actually signed a contract with them, they couldn't force him to remain. He was replaced by Mike Farrell, who had no problems stepping into the role of Hawkeye's second banana as straight arrow B.J. Hunnicut.

As for Stevenson's replacement, they didn't have to look far and wide. In the season three premiere, The General Flipped At Dawn, Harry Morgan guest starred as a certifiably insane two star general, giving Henry and the 4077 fits and headaches over his crazy orders and suggestions. The producers loved Morgan's comedic performance so much, they offered him the role of the 4077th's new CO, the war weary career army surgeon, Colonel Sherman T. Potter.

Between the cast turnover and the controversial ending to season three, as well as moving the show to a Friday night dead zone, M*A*S*H*'s rating took a tumble in season four. But after CBS moved it back to it's old time slot mid season, their ratings returned to the top ten, where it remained for the duration of the series.

By then, M*A*S*H* had succeeded in delivering what both producers Gelbart and Reynolds wanted, as well as their replacements Alda and Burt Metcalf. A high quality show with equal parts comedy and drama, which evolved into a new genre: dramedy. Their direction was made more evident after Larry Linville left the series after five seasons, when his contract expired, because he couldn't do anything more with his unlikable one dimensional character Frank Burns, an outdated relic of the series' beginnings. He was replaced by David Ogden Stiers, who's M*A*S*H* character, the pompous blueblood Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, was far more nuanced and deeper than Frank.

M*A*S*H* ended on February 28, 1983, with the two and a half hour movie, Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen. It was the most watched scripted show in television history, pulling in 125 million viewers with a 60.2 ratings and a 77 share. Ironically, that same year, the NAB eliminated the Television Code, as shows like M*A*S*H* exposed them as being useless relics of the past.

To this day, M*A*S*H* has been held up as one of the best television shows in history, as well as one of it's biggest game changers. And Abyssinia, Henry was a major reason for it, as one of the most important television episodes ever. In 1997, TV Guide ranked Abyssinia, Henry 20 in its list of 100 Greatest Episodes Of All Time, and in 2005, TV Land listed it at 15 in its Top 100 Most Unexpected Moments in TV History.

As for McLean Stevenson, his career took a nosedive after he left M*A*S*H*. The show NBC promised him, The McLean Stevenson Show, finished near the bottom of the ratings and was quickly cancelled. Stevenson then starred in a few other sitcoms over the years, all of which were badly reviewed, poorly watched, and were quickly cancelled. He soon came to regret leaving the show, saying in a 1990 interview that leaving M*A*S*H* was the biggest mistake of his career, saying "I made the mistake of believing that people were enamored of McLean Stevenson when the person they were enamored of was Henry Blake."

On February 15, 1996, McLean Stevenson died from a fatal heart attack, after recovering from bladder surgery, in an Encino, California hospital. He was 68 years old. (ironically, Roger Bowen, who played Col. Blake in the movie version of M*A*S*H*, died a day after Stevenson. Bowen's family waited a week until they made his death public, so as people wouldn't confuse the two).

Like the character he portrayed, Stevenson was the first M*A*S*H* cast member to die. An ironic ending to a checkered career. Having your character become the first regular TV character to be killed off was not how Stevenson had hoped to be remembered. But, in a twisted way, Henry Blake was a sacrificial lamb that would end up helping improve the quality of future TV shows from there on.

Sad for Stevenson, but better for television.