M*A*S*H Headlines 3: Death of Col. Henry Blake Garners Strong Reaction

“M*A*S*H Headlines” is a new, limited time post that will focus on the press reaction to various events in the M*A*S*H timeline. The Press Pass posts focus on the press materials released by 20th Century Fox and CBS, but this series of posts will focus the press coverage of various M*A*S*H events including the release of Robert Altman’s film, the premiere of the M*A*S*H pilot episode on CBS, the death of Henry Blake, the M*A*S*H finale, and more! See the full series of Headlines posts here.

On March 18, 1975, CBS aired the season three finale of M*A*S*H. The episode, titled “Abyssinia, Henry” (03×24), was advertised as being the final episode for Lt. Col. Henry Blake and McLean Stevenson. The episode began with Henry finding out that he was going home, and the episode was largely upbeat and celebratory. However, that changed in the episodes final minutes when Radar informs the crew in the O.R. that Col. Blake was killed and didn’t make it home. The effect on screen is chilling. The silence in the O.R. is interspersed by the quiet sounds of crying from the characters and the sound of a surgical instrument hitting the floor. It was unheard of for a television series to kill off a main character, especially a show that was labeled a “sit-com.” Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds made the decision because they had vowed to show the horrors of war, and M*A*S*H started showing death on screen in its first season with the episode “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” (01×17). To Gelbart, the logical progression was a main character dying because death was a part of war. At the time, fans of the series largely disagreed with the death of Henry Blake, and they made their voices heard by writing to CBS and 20th Century Fox en masse. To their credit, Gelbart and Reynolds responded to every letter.

My concept for the “Headlines” posts was based on this episode. I wanted to research the real-time reaction to Henry Blake’s death in 1975. Newspapers across the country had television critics, entertainment columnists, and letters to the editor, so I decided to explore the response in the immediate aftermath of “Abyssinia, Henry” airing on CBS. On Newspapers.com, I set the date filter to only show articles two weeks following the day the episode aired. I downloaded 82 newspaper articles from three countries (Guam, Canada, and Scotland) and 24 U.S. states. There were a number of syndicated columns that ran in multiple newspapers, so I filtered those out so they were only counted once. My goal was to round up the impact that the episode had, and I was not disappointed. The overall reaction to Col. Blake’s death was shock, mixed with anger. However, there were a surprising number of people who supported the decision.

The largest percentage of feedback on the death of Col. Blake was negative. Columnsts and fans alike questioned what they felt was Blake’s needless death. There were headlines such as The Ventura County Star-Free Press’s “Viewers Rap Col. Blake Killing,” The Oregonian’s “M*A*S*H Fans Angry over Colonel Killing,” The Minneapolis Star’s “For M*A*S*H’s Col. Blake it was an Abrupt and Disappointing Departure,” The Indianapolis Star’s “M*A*S*H Callously Wipes out its Lovable Colonel Blake,” and Florida Today’s “M*A*S*H Death Resented.” The articles were as critical as the headlines with many questioning whether M*A*S*H was still a comedy. Newsday simply called Blake’s death the “M*A*S*H Tragedy.” Fans resented the death of Col. Blake, and their letters to their local newspapers and CBS proved it. One woman in Florida even filed a complaint to the Public Service Commission demanding that they force Fox and CBS to resurrect Col. Blake! As reported in the St. Petersburg Times, the commission responded saying that “television was outside the PSC’s jurisdiction.”

Amidst the outrage, Gelbart responded by defending their decision to kill off the character. The Arizona Daily Star reported Gelbart saying, “M*A*S*H has always been different from most other series, which is what made it unique. We’ve often crossed the line between comedy and serious material and there have always been verbal and visual references to death, and no one batted an eye. But it’s usually anonymous deaths…We are dealing with a real war where not everyone returns home happily. It’s only appropriate to occasionally make a comment to the effect that war is not funny.” Many columnists and fans speculated that the death of Blake was “payback” for Stevenson’s decision to leave the show and to leave CBS for NBC. The show runners have denied this accusation.

Not all of the feedback was negative, however. Columnist Barbara Holsopple wrote about the episode in three of her columns for The Pittsburgh Press. Her initial reaction to the episode was neutral as she reported the death of Blake. However, as the fans protested the death, she defended the decision of the writers. One reader of her column said, “If any viewer accepted M*A*S*H as no more than a comedy, they must not be very receptive individuals. How can death, a significant aspect of life, be out of character?” In The Oregonian, Francis Murphy wrote about a number of fans who supported the decision to kill Col. Blake quoting one reader who said, “M*A*S*H has always shown the comedy and the irony of war. Blake’s death was akin to that of a GI who survives Vietnam only to be run over by a New York City truck driver upon his return to ‘the real world.’” Syndicated columnist John Keasler admitted that he had never liked M*A*S*H until the death of Blake. His headline in the Fort Myers News-Press, “Taps for Colonel Blake True to War,” gets to the point that Gelbart and Reynolds were making. Death was the true cost of war, something that Col. Blake himself explained to Hawkeye in “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet.”

While fans and columnists were debating the merits of the death of Col. Blake, there was one thing that was clear: M*A*S*H was a ratings success. In between the headlines decrying the episode, there were also headlines that said, “M*A*S*H Tops Week Ratings” and “As Character Falls, M*A*S*H Rating Soars.” According to the Nielsen ratings, M*A*S*H was the top rated show of the week, and that was because the episode had been advertised as Col. Blake’s farewell. Once the initial backlash of the episode settled, then new questions were asked. Columnist Bettelou Peterson wondered, “Blake Gone — Will M*A*S*H Ever be the Same Again?” She wasn’t alone. Fans of the series wondered what would happen next. They wouldn’t have to wait long as shortly after the episode aired, 20th Century Fox Television announced the casting of Harry Morgan as the new commanding officer of the 4077th.

Today, we look back at the death of Lt. Col. Henry Blake as a pivotal moment in television. The decision by Gelbart and Reynolds to kill a main character of a successful series allowed other shows the opportunity to make the same choice. Today, the death of a main character on television is fairly common, and while some character’s deaths upset fans, there isn’t quite the reaction that was seen following the death of Col. Blake. Whether you like it or not, it was groundbreaking. M*A*S*H fans today are still divided on whether the death was “necessary.” Some argue that, for them, season three is when the series ended. The ratings of season four showed that M*A*S*H did lose some fans. However, the fans returned to the series because the series stuck to its core values as it introduced Col. Sherman Potter as the new commanding officer of the 4077th. When these newspapers were published in the weeks following “Abyssinia, Henry,” it would have been hard to imagine that M*A*S*H fans would embrace any replacement for Col. Blake. That was a big risk at the time. The fans could have tuned out, but they didn’t. I argue that M*A*S*H is a stronger series today because of how well it handled the departure and arrival of new characters, and because they told the truth about war.

Newspaper Bibliography

• Abraham, J. “We Get Letters.” The Los Angeles Times. March 26, 1975, 21.
• Adler, Dick. “Mac’s Farewell a MishMASH.” The Los Angeles Times. March 20, 1975, 18.
• Allen, Judy. “Previews & Reviews.” Austin Daily Herald. March 21, 1975, 9A.
• Anderson, Jack. “Insanity of War Killed Col. Blake.” The Miami Herald. March 22, 1975, 5B.
• “Ask Showcase.” The Tennessean. March 30, 1975, 10.
• The Associated Press. “2nd Coming of Col. Blake Asked of PSC.” The Miami News. March 20, 1975, 3A.
• The Associated Press. “M*A*S*H Death Irks Woman.” The Naples Daily News. March 20, 1975, 1B.
• The Associated Press. “M*A*S*H Rated No. 1 for 2 Weeks.” Lincoln Journal Star. March 30, 1975, 6.
• The Associated Press. “Woman Asks PSC to Bring Blake back to M*A*S*H.” St. Petersburg Times. March 20, 1975, 8B.
• Bawden, James. “Spring in Air but Reruns are on TV.” The Hamilton Spectator. March 27, 1975, 19.
• Beck, Marily. “TV Viewers Protest Blake Death.” The Idaho Statesman. March 30, 1975, 2.
• Beck, Marilyn. “Viewers Rap Col. Blake Killing.” The Ventura County Star-Free Press. March 24, 1975, A10.
• Benson, Ray. “Blake’s Death Surprise.” The Columbia Record. March 29, 1975, 25.
• Coffey, Jerry. “Hawaii to Take 12 Hours.” Forth Worth Star-Telegram. March 20, 1975, 17A.
• Deeb, Gary. “M*A*S*H Commandant’s Demise Stirs Protest Howls from Viewers.” The Bradenton Herald. March 22, 1975, A9.
• Deeb, Gary. “TV Viewers Protest Henry Blake’s Death.” The Shreveport Times. March 21, 1975, 11B.
• Doussard, James. “Unhappy Ending on M*A*S*H Irks Many.” The Courier-Journal. March 26, 1975, C2.
• Fanning, Win. “On the Air.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. March 20, 1975, 29.
• Fanning, Win. “On the Air.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. March 27, 1975, 21.
• “Fatal Phase-Out Causes Mixed Viewer Reaction.” Asbury Park Press. March 25, 1975, A5.
• Finkenaur, Claudia. “Tomboy Suit More His Style.” The Charlotte News. January 7, 1975, 4A.
• Florence, William. “The Remakings of M*A*S*H.” The Times Herald. March 30, 1975, 6.
• Gardella, Kay. “What’s On?” Daily News. March 27, 1975, 138.
• Hanna, Charlie. “IRS, Haldeman, Abortion Spice Weekend TV Menu.” The Charlotte Observer. March 21, 1975, 21A.
• Hoffman, Steve. “As Character Falls M*A*S*H Rating Soars.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. March 27, 1975, 36.
• Hogner, Steve. “Networks Play the Rating Game.” The Austin American-Statesman. March 25, 1975, 10.
• Holsopple, Barbara. “Death has no Place in Comedy, M*A*S*H Fans Contend.” The Pittsburgh Press. March 24, 1975, 32.
• Holsopple, Barbara. “M*A*S*H Discharge Brutal Ending for Col. Blake Fans.” The Pittsburgh Press. March 19, 1975, 73.
• Holsopple, Barbara. “While M*A*S*H Fans Laughed, They Missed Pathos.” The Pittsburgh Press. March 31, 1975, 30.
• Holston, Noel. “Blake’s Death a Double Loss.” The Orlando Sentinel. March 20, 1975, 12F.
• Hurst, John V. “On the Air.” The Sacramento Bee. March 20, 1975, D14.
• Inman, Julia. “M*A*S*H Callously Wipes out its Lovable Colonel Blake.” The Indianapolis Star. March 19, 1975, 23.
• “Jamie Goes ‘Farr’ in Klinger Role.” The Lexington Herald. March 30, 1975, 8.
• Keasler, John. “The Day they Killed Col. Henry Blake.” The Miami News. March 21, 1975, 9C.
• Keasler, John. “Taps for Colonel Blake True to War.” Fort Myers News-Press. March 31, 1975, 6A.
• Kotarski, Kathryn L. “M*A*S*H.” The Buffalo Evening News. March 29, 1975, 22.
• Kreiling, Ernie. “A Closer Look.” The Van Nuys News. March 27, 1975, 18C.
• Kupcincet, Irv. “Col. Blake Eliminated.” Lincoln Journal Star. March 30, 1975, 6.
• Lamantia, Ann. “McLean Stevenson’s Departure.” Dayton Daily News. March 22, 1975, 2.
• Laurence, Bee. “Don’t Mess Around with Our Hero.” The Napa Valley Register. March 24, 1975, 13.
• Low, Bob. “M*A*S*H Star Henry Takes a Dive.” Daily Record. March 21, 1975, 16.
• MacDonald, Jim. “A Mish-M*A*S*H Prediction.” The Orlanda Sentinel. March 25, 1975, 9D.
• Martin, Bob. “M*A*S*H Discharging Col. Blake.” Press-Telegram. March 18, 1975, C18.
• “M*A*S*H Episode Stuns Cast, Public.” The Jackson Sun. March 27, 1975, 9A.
• “M*A*S*H Fans Balk at Death.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. March 24, 1975, 52.
• “M*A*S*H Tops Week Ratings.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. March 21, 1975, 27.
• “M*A*S*H Tragedy.” Newsday. March 25, 1975, 30A.
• McMahon, Tom. “The Colonel’s Gone, but McLean Lives On.” The Windsor Star. March 19, 1975, 17.
• Morrison, Don. “For M*A*S*H’s Col. Blake it was an Abrupt and Disappointing Departure.” The Minneapolis Star. March 20, 1975, 4C.
• Murphy, Francis. “Death of Col. Blake Defended by Readers.” The Oregonian. March 29, 1975, B7.
• Murphy, Francis. “M*A*S*H Fans Angry over Colonel Killing.” The Oregonian. March 26, 1975, B21.
• Murphy, Joe. “Pipe Dreams.” Pacific Daily News. March 29, 1975, 26.
• Nelson, Rick. “If Everybody’s Good, Maybe Muppets will get Show. The Times Standard. March 23, 1975, 11.
• Newton, Dwight. “40 Million M*A*S*H Notes.” The San Francisco Examiner. March 21, 1975, 21.
• Newton, Dwight. “Curse of the Hope Diamond.” The San Francisco Examiner. March 27, 1975, 19.
• Newton, Dwight. “He was a Jolly Good Fellow.” The San Francisco Examiner. March 19, 1975, 43.
• Pearson, Howard. “Eddie Albert Busy in Movies and TV.” Deseret News. March 21, 1975, D9.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “Blake Gone — Will M*A*S*H Ever be the Same Again?” Fort Worth Star-Telegram. March 19, 1975, 14A.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “Col. Blake, We Loved You So.” Detroit Free Press. March 24, 1975, 5B.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “Colonel Blake, We Miss You!” The Daily Oklahoman. March 30, 1975, 4.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “M*A*S*H Loses Colonel Blake.” Detroit Free Press. March 19, 1975, 7D.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “M*A*S*H Won’t be the Same.” The Wichita Beacon. March 21, 1975, 13C.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “TV’s M*A*S*H Viewers Mourn Blake’s Death.” The Macon News. March 20, 1975, 23C.
• Peterson, Bettelou. “We Get Letters.” Detroit Free Press. March 31, 1975, 4C.
• Powers, Forrest. “Viewers Black TV Death.” The Minneapolis Star. March 24, 1975, 17A.
• “PSC Power has Limits.” Fort Myers News-Press. March 24, 1975, 6A.
• Reed, David. “Reed Between the Lines.” The Lexington Herald. March 30, 1975, 8.
• Renock, John. “Col. Henry Blake is Shot out of Series.” The Galion Inquirer. March 19, 1975, 7.
• Riste, Tom. “Producer Injects Death in M*A*S*H.” The Arizona Daily Star. March 28, 1975, C17.
• Shain, Percy. “M*A*S*H Tops Neilsen Ratings with Season Finale.” The Boston Globe. March 27, 1975, 33.
• Shull, Richard K. “Goodbye for Keeps.” The Indianapolis News. March 19, 1975, 23.
• Spier, Nancy. “Spierited.” The Columbia Star. March 20, 1975, 11.
• Stanich, Dorothy. “Around the Dial.” Corpus Christi Caller-Times. March 23, 1975, 3.
• “Tashman on TV.” Independent-Gazette. March 27, 1975, IG-13.
• “Tell-It Line.” The Charlotte Observer. March 29, 1975, 16B.
• Tunstall, Al. “M*A*S*H Death Resented.” Florida Today. March 30, 1975, 2.
• Tuttle, Lisa. “M*A*S*H Episode Jolts Public.” The Austin American-Statesman. March 20, 1975, C20.
• “TV Line.” Newsday. March 30, 1975, 2.
• United Press International. “Caan Signed.” The Atlanta Constitution. March 28, 1975, 18B.
• Williams, Larry. “Bob Hope, Money May Bring Smiles.” The Commercial Appeal. March 30, 1975, 63.
• Williams, Larry. “Outlook is Bright for Reiner Series.” The Commercial Appeal. March 19, 1975, 32.
• Winfrey, Lee. “Late Col. Blake of M*A*S*H — A Good Man in a Grim World.” The Buffalo Evening News. March 22, 1975, 4.