11 Grim TV Moments You Won't Watch Again
5. Henry Blake's Homecoming - M*A*S*H
The untimely passing of hapless Commanding Officery Henry Blake in M*A*S*H is notable for a number of reasons. The show, based on a novel by Richard Hooker and later a raunchy, Robert Altman film had a much lighter tone than its source material. Alan Alda's charming, goofy Hawkeye Pierce was far more slapstick than the much more twisted, cruel, borderline sex-offender first played by Donald Sutherland.
Also made 1970's TV friendly was the adulterous, right-wing zealot Frank Burns (Robert Duvall in the film), but little was changed in Blake, whose aloof superior was always earnest -if somewhat of a dimwit.
MASH's success saw an 11-season run, nearly twice the length of the actual Korean War, and Blake's death off-screen was a signifier that, despite all the gags and one-liners that filled every episode, it didn't entirely abandon its roots.
After finally being granted safe passage back to the United States and some heartfelt goodbyes, Corporal Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burgoff - the one cast member to make the transition from show to film) enters the operating room with a message: Blake's plane home was shot down. No survivors. The cast takes a moment before going right back to blood and guts surgery.
The more control the politically active Alda got, the more serious and pedantic the show grew. But Blake's death was the first turning point.