M*A*S*H – What Even Die Hard Fans Don’t Know!

Goodbye, Henry Blake

McLean Stevenson, who was leaving the show anyway, was the focus of the show’s 72nd episode, titled, Abyssinia, Henry. In the episode, Blake was to be honorably discharged. The character spent the episode saying goodbye to his fellow soldiers and making plans to go home and see his family. However, the writers had another scene up their sleeves.

During one of the last scenes, Blake departs the base. After he leaves, the surgeons of M*A*S*H are operating when Radar bursts in, announcing that his transport plane had been shot down over the Sea of Japan and that Henry did not survive the crash. The fans were outraged by this, and CBS got over 1,000 complaint letters.