After Stevenson announced he was leaving, it was the showrunner’s call to kill Blake off.
The show quickly replaced Blake and Trapper with Potter (Harry Morgan) and B.J.
Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell), and remained one of the biggest shows on television for its entire run.
Sadly for Stevenson, his bid for solo success quickly faltered.
The press was equally unkind to Stevenson, only mocking his decision to leaveMASHso he could front underwhelming sitcoms.
The mistake was that I thought everybody in America loved McLean Stevenson.
Custom image by Ana Nieves
That was not the case.
Everybody loved Henry Blake.
So if you go and do The McLean Stevenson Show, nobody cares about McLean Stevenson.
Custom image by Yailin Chacon
In Burghoff’s case, some of his most high-profile post-MASHappearances came with spinoffs likeAfterMASH.
This coincided with Stevenson becoming frustrated with makingMASH, including perceived disrespect from the production company over filming conditions.
So when NBC offered Stevenson a big payday to jump ship, he took it.
Custom image by Yailin Chacon
In addition to the shock and heartbreak it created onandoff screen, Blake’s death had a story purpose.
