Ok this for all you old enough to remember MASH. It's the famous (and sad) episode of where Col. Blake was killed. Radar goes into the ER and gives the bad news (as shown above). WTF??? Radar can't you wait until all of Col. friends and colleagues are done performing life saving surgery before you drop that bomb on them. Hey everybody Col, Blake is dead, now go back to doing that surgery thing you guys do

onlyforaminute said:

I remember the scene, never thought anything about the timing. But thinking now I'd say they experienced way more traumatic thing being a MASH unit in the midst of surgery, they would have nerves of steel at that point.

Yeah, I don't see the "WTF" with this. This was the middle of the war, a very horrible and daunting war (not that war is lighthearted or fun at any given moment).

The whole point of the scene, as you noted, is that by this point, they had nerves of steel. Bad news piled on top of extreme situations, like operating on people in a war zone, trying to save lives (the irony is that so they can go out and kill someone else).

The rub was that the reactions of the actors in that scene were genuine. Blake's plane being shot down over the Sea of Japan was something that was added after the script was given to the actors. So when they shot it and read it, the reactions by Alda, and anyone else were on the spot, having heard it for the first time.

I'm not surprised they killed off Blake. Stevenson was a prick. He hated feeling second fiddle (as did Wayne Rogers who played Trapper John, although his beef was with the writers, not Alda who he became close friends with) to Alan Alda's character. He wanted out of his contract and made a stink about it. In the third season, they let him out, writing him off. Loretta Swit had noted how Blake thought he should be the lead and star of the show.

But the thing is, Blake wrote an episode, and gave the story for another. He won an Emmy for it!

The scene was likely how things did happen during the war.

TrivialPursuit said:

onlyforaminute said:

I remember the scene, never thought anything about the timing. But thinking now I'd say they experienced way more traumatic thing being a MASH unit in the midst of surgery, they would have nerves of steel at that point.

Yeah, I don't see the "WTF" with this. This was the middle of the war, a very horrible and daunting war (not that war is lighthearted or fun at any given moment).

The whole point of the scene, as you noted, is that by this point, they had nerves of steel. Bad news piled on top of extreme situations, like operating on people in a war zone, trying to save lives (the irony is that so they can go out and kill someone else).

The rub was that the reactions of the actors in that scene were genuine. Blake's plane being shot down over the Sea of Japan was something that was added after the script was given to the actors. So when they shot it and read it, the reactions by Alda, and anyone else were on the spot, having heard it for the first time.

I 100% disagree with you Trivia it is a WTF moment. Radar could have waited until after everyone was done doing surgery to give the bad news. The nerves of steel........ehhhh..... They are humans with emotions and it's different when you know the person. Though it made for great TV. Yup I knew about them not knowing that Col. Blake had died. Come to think of it I think it would have been even more dramatic if they shot the episode where the doctors finished saving all the wounded soldiers (with everyone patting themselves on the back for doing a good job) only to have Radar come in and give them the bad news that Col. Blake had been killed. I could see Hawkeye picking up a chair and throwing it to the ground.

[Edited 2/1/22 8:41am]

kpowers said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Yeah, I don't see the "WTF" with this. This was the middle of the war, a very horrible and daunting war (not that war is lighthearted or fun at any given moment).

The whole point of the scene, as you noted, is that by this point, they had nerves of steel. Bad news piled on top of extreme situations, like operating on people in a war zone, trying to save lives (the irony is that so they can go out and kill someone else).

The rub was that the reactions of the actors in that scene were genuine. Blake's plane being shot down over the Sea of Japan was something that was added after the script was given to the actors. So when they shot it and read it, the reactions by Alda, and anyone else were on the spot, having heard it for the first time.

I 100% disagree with you Trivia it is a WTF moment. Radar could have waited until after everyone was done doing surgery to give the bad news. The nerves of steel........ehhhh..... They are humans with emotions and it's different when you know the person. Though it made for great TV. Yup I knew about them not knowing that Col. Blake had died. Come to think of it I think it would have been even more dramatic if they shot the episode where the doctors finished saving all the wounded soldiers (with everyone patting themselves on the back for doing a good job) only to have Radar come in and give them the bad news that Col. Blake had been killed. I could see Hawkeye picking up a chair and throwing it to the ground.

[Edited 2/1/22 8:41am]

Actors and television plots made up by a team of writers from the 1970s...you're really invested in this.

While I grew up with the show and it was really well written (Vietnam commentary set during the Korean war), I have not gone back a watched any of it.

I did figure out later in life that Alan Alda was doing the Marx Brothers bits and that's why I enjoyed his sense of humor so much.

I loved Barney Miller, The Jeffersons, WKRP and Sanford and Son too.

PJMcGee said:

Oy. The actors were told right before the scene was filmed. They weren't surprised on camera. The director didn't want their foreknowledge of Blake's death to color their performances in the episode, so he withheld the conclusion until they were about to film it.

You mean not told????

S2DG said:

kpowers said:

I 100% disagree with you Trivia it is a WTF moment. Radar could have waited until after everyone was done doing surgery to give the bad news. The nerves of steel........ehhhh..... They are humans with emotions and it's different when you know the person. Though it made for great TV. Yup I knew about them not knowing that Col. Blake had died. Come to think of it I think it would have been even more dramatic if they shot the episode where the doctors finished saving all the wounded soldiers (with everyone patting themselves on the back for doing a good job) only to have Radar come in and give them the bad news that Col. Blake had been killed. I could see Hawkeye picking up a chair and throwing it to the ground.

[Edited 2/1/22 8:41am]

Actors and television plots made up by a team of writers from the 1970s...you're really invested in this.

While I grew up with the show and it was really well written (Vietnam commentary set during the Korean war), I have not gone back a watched any of it.

I did figure out later in life that Alan Alda was doing the Marx Brothers bits and that's why I enjoyed his sense of humor so much.

I loved Barney Miller, The Jeffersons, WKRP and Sanford and Son too.

Not really. It's more of an after thought

I read the actors from Alien didn't know that the Alien was going to pop out of John Hurt's stomach. Not sure how true that story is. How to even shoot that scene without the actors knowing?? Trivia do you know??

Y'all would argue over a shade of red on a brick house, I swear to God.

TrivialPursuit said:

Y'all would argue over a shade of red on a brick house, I swear to God.

Is that schoolhouse red or fire engine red???????

War is heck.