User:Hotstreets/SandboxB
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[edit] Final O.R. scene
| We didn't want Henry Blake going back to Bloomington, Illinois and going back to the country club and the brown and white shoes, because a lot of guys didn't get back to Bloomington. —Gene Reynolds, Producer[1] |
The final scene, in which Radar informs the staff, and cast, of the death of Henry Blake was unprecedented: it was the first time in major television history that a main character of a series was killed off in a tragic way.[2] When McLean Stevenson decided to leave the series part way through the third season, Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart, the show's producers, decided to make a statement regarding the unexpectedness and horror of war, especially with the Vietnam War fresh in the people's minds.[2]
The filming schedule for "Abyssinia, Henry" dictated that the final scenes taped for the episode were the ones which took place in the O.R.: the first scene of the episode in which Henry is informed of his discharge and the final scene in which the cast is informed of his death.[3] In order to evoke genuine emotions of shock and sadness, the final O.R. scene was kept a secret from the cast, with the exception of Alan Alda (who served as a creative consultant for the show) until the moment of filming; only then did Gelbart hand out the last page of the script.[2] As a result, Stevenson was still on the set to see the final scene being filmed.[4] Due to a technical problem, the non-rehearsed scene was shot twice; the sound of a dropping surgical instrument, while not scripted, was left in the final episode due to its dramatic effect.[3][5] After shooting was completed, a season-ending cast party was planned; however, McLean Stevenson left the set almost immediately after the end of filming, and the party was canceled due to the poor mood of the cast; Stevenson would later state in an interview that he was deeply hurt that his character's death was revealed just prior, and the party was "ruined."[4]
