Mac Steveson (Henry Blake) had very well established himself on this series the first 3 seasons. While the Col. Blake in the original movie (Roger Bowen) was kind of an after thought with Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland (Trapper and Hawkeye) being the main men in the movie, Stevenson's Henry Blake had become a more comic character in the TV show, rivaling Alda & Rogers. This big 3 had established this series as a top rated program in the 1970's when CBS Saturday Nights were must see tv. The show was just hitting it's stride in season 3.
Stevensons best dramatic moments in the series had happened as well which raised him into a really fragile human commander of the MASH unit. I can never forget the time after a patient died, to one of his docotrs- this line - "This is what I was taught in command school - Rule number 1- In war young men die. Rule number 2 - Doctors can not do anything to prevent rule number 1." (Think I got this right.)
Regardless, this episode is a celebration. Blake has earned the right to go home. After seeing home movies of his wife and growing kids, he really wants to go home and be with them. Hawkeye, Trapper and everyone except Radar are looking forward to Blake leaving. They throw a party for him.
Then in the final review of his unit, Blake tries to explores Hot Lips, and tells Frank to ease up when he takes command. His final message to Radar is to shape up or else he would come back and kick him in the butt. Radar cries as he flies off in a chopper.
Then comes something which would happen in real life for Stevenson as well. News that Blake will never be back comes into the operating room. Years later after Stevenson gets passed over to replace Johnny Carson (he was Carson's most frequent Substitute host) Big Mac Stevenson would depart just as suddenly in his real life as he did on this episode. That would become the most haunting coincidence of all. That is the real life tragic loss that this episode foreshadows, and haunts all of us. Real life parallels can be drawn by some of us with the sudden departure of JFK more dramatically, and later of John Ritter dying for real on the set of his latest series.
The country has never recovered from JFK, an he is the only one more shocking than the latter ones. All that is left of this early cast now is Alda, Berghoff, Switt, and Farr. The time passes too quickly for some of us, but those who remember will know exactly what I mean. This episode says it all.
Stevensons best dramatic moments in the series had happened as well which raised him into a really fragile human commander of the MASH unit. I can never forget the time after a patient died, to one of his docotrs- this line - "This is what I was taught in command school - Rule number 1- In war young men die. Rule number 2 - Doctors can not do anything to prevent rule number 1." (Think I got this right.)
Regardless, this episode is a celebration. Blake has earned the right to go home. After seeing home movies of his wife and growing kids, he really wants to go home and be with them. Hawkeye, Trapper and everyone except Radar are looking forward to Blake leaving. They throw a party for him.
Then in the final review of his unit, Blake tries to explores Hot Lips, and tells Frank to ease up when he takes command. His final message to Radar is to shape up or else he would come back and kick him in the butt. Radar cries as he flies off in a chopper.
Then comes something which would happen in real life for Stevenson as well. News that Blake will never be back comes into the operating room. Years later after Stevenson gets passed over to replace Johnny Carson (he was Carson's most frequent Substitute host) Big Mac Stevenson would depart just as suddenly in his real life as he did on this episode. That would become the most haunting coincidence of all. That is the real life tragic loss that this episode foreshadows, and haunts all of us. Real life parallels can be drawn by some of us with the sudden departure of JFK more dramatically, and later of John Ritter dying for real on the set of his latest series.
The country has never recovered from JFK, an he is the only one more shocking than the latter ones. All that is left of this early cast now is Alda, Berghoff, Switt, and Farr. The time passes too quickly for some of us, but those who remember will know exactly what I mean. This episode says it all.