Henry Blake

M*A*S*H

Of all the traumatic things that happened during my childhood (I was not allowed to be a Brownie, for instance, and Russia invaded Afghanistan), nothing moved me more deeply than the premature death, by helicopter crash, of Colonel Henry Blake. I was a coddled four-year-old when Blake's plane went down, and I did not understand war. But that episode (number 72) changed everything: the way he told Radar to "behave yourself, or I'm going to come back and kick your butt!," then the seasick faces in the OR and the heartbreaking strains of "Suicide Is Painless" leading into the summer of 1975, which would prove to be bleak. Henry Blake never was my favorite character -- B.J. Hunnicutt was the king of my prepubescent heart -- but his death seemed unbearably cruel after all he had done for the sick and wounded. After all he had done for Radar.

The full extent of this tragedy didn't sink in until years later, when McLean Stevenson was guest-hosting Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes, and it became clear that the writers had in fact killed Blake off on purpose because Stevenson had wanted more money. It was like going through the crash twice. How could the second cousin of Adlai Stevenson make such a blind career move, when M*A*S*H would own its time slot until 1983? How, after the bluff, collegial 4077th, could he be satisfied with Hollywood Squares? And sometimes I still wonder why they actually killed the man, since it wasn't required dramatically. But that was war, after all. It was only one of the difficult lessons I took from 11 seasons in Korea, which really was my Vietnam.

-- Ellen Barry