10 Mistakes That Made TV Shows Better
7. Someone Drops A Scalpel After Blake's Death - M*A*S*H
The third season finale of M*A*S*H, "Abyssinia, Henry," ended with a jaw-dropping reveal, as a thoroughly traumatised Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff) revealed that Lt. Cpl. Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson) was killed after his plane was shot down over the sea of Japan.
To tragically kill a beloved character off in a sitcom was virtually unprecedented when the episode aired back in 1975, and the producers decided not to tell the cast about Blake's demise until shortly before the scene was to be filmed, ensuring their devastated reactions were couched in a lot of real sadness.
The silent, unbroken pan across the O.R. at the surgeons after receiving the news is punctuated by the sound of an unknown party dropping a scalpel in the background, seemingly typifying the traumatising effect the revelation has had on everybody in the O.R.
Yet the background clumsiness was a genuine accident by an unknown actor, possibly an extra, but because it so brilliantly underlined the bunny-stunned feeling felt by everybody in that room simply trying to keep doing their jobs, it was ultimately kept in.