Please note the attributes. I didn't see any PI in the immediate area, but it is the preserve and there is PI around. You should have clear access to the cache without bushwhacking but when I got back to my car, there was a bug on my pants leg. Again, it is the preserve. Long pants is always recommended.
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Braymore Blake, M.D. was the original commanding officer of the 4077th MASH. Blake was introduced in the original novel and was played by Roger Bowen in Robert Altman’s movie. When the television show was being cast, the producers found their Blake during the auditions for Hawkeye, which is the character McLean Stevenson wanted to play.
Henry Blake was described as a competent administrator and it was often noted that it was Radar who really ran the camp even to the point where it seems Blake took orders from Radar. While this made for quite a few funny moments between Blake and Radar, it did take something away from the character of Henry Blake. Originally described in the book and movie as a career army doctor who enlisted prior to World War II, the television Blake was a reservist who was called up interrupting his private practice back in Bloomington, IL. These two stories could go hand-in-hand, except that the original enlistment and World War II aspects of this background are never mentioned. He is actually referred to as a draftee, which would go against his rank and position in the camp. While we get glimpses of a strong Henry, we don’t get that too often. In this cachers opinion, the show would have benefited from a stronger commander as we saw with Potter. Hawkeye and Trapper walk all over Henry in the television show. Even in the movie when Hawkeye and Duke try to push Henry around, Henry is more aware that he is being pushed around and when he gives in, it is more of a decision to give in rather than what it is in the TV show, which is that Hawkeye and Trapper just out-maneuver Henry.
Henry almost seems distracted by his job, using his command to get whatever creature comforts he could get, such as a BBQ, which Hawkeye and Trapper trade for an Incubator in and episode, oddly enough called “The Incubator” and an antique oak desk which Hawkeye and Trapper trade for hydrocortisone in “To Market To Market.”
“You’ll never guess what kind of wood this is.”
“It’s oak.”
“Nope, it’s oak.”
When it came down to why they were there, Blake was an excellent surgeon. Maybe not on par with Hawkeye but he was a good doctor. His command style was very loose partly because you needed to counter-balance the stress of the work and partly because he had no choice. In “The Incubator”, Blake mentions that he can’t arrest Hawkeye and Trapper for their transgressions. In the real war, doctors often got away with a lot because their talents made them indispensable. That very fact led to the book. Blake often had to tolerate the antics around him to the point that he even participated in them as well.
In the episode “The Trial of Henry Blake”, Blake is brought up on charges based on allegations from Burns and Houlihan. They claim that he is not only an incompetent but he also gives aid and comfort to the enemy. This is really one time where we see a different side of Blake. There appears to be reason to the rhyme. When Klinger is not on duty he spends his time trying to get out and escape (looking like a big red bird with fuzzy pink feet), when Radar is not on duty he sells shoes from the Style Right Shoe Company of Storm Lake, Iowa. To celebrate Kentucky Derby Day, they held gurney races in the camp with doctors pushing nurses on a gurney around a track like a horse race with Blake calling the race as a horse race announcer would. (There was a great moment for Stevenson at the end as Blake stumbles on his words calling the winner of the race.)
The last charges are falsifying records and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Nurse Cratty is an American nurse who works with pregnant women and kids. She is not an Army nurse and only has what she is given. Blake has been helping Nurse Cratty and his explanation of this is where Blake really comes to his own, even saying he is guilty of the charges, but he doesn’t regret what he did since these wome and kids needed the help, and he didn’t care where they were from. Not only is it assumed that he continues to help, but that help is long term as Nurse Cratty appears in the later years of the show with Colonel Potter knowing who she is as well.
The running gag of Stevenson’s entire three years is his relationship with Radar and how Radar never lets Blake finish a sentence. He is constantly talking over Blake. This gag, stemming from the opening scene of the movie, turned into a staple of the show in the beginning years. While Radar did it with other characters at times, he did it in almost every interaction he had with Blake. There was just something about how Stevenson and Gary Burghoff played off of each other, they worked so well together. The best example of this is in “The Army/Navy Game” when Blake tells Radar of his time as a team manager in Illinois:
Henry: 21-20.
Radar: How do you know that, sir?
Henry: Ohio State - Illinois. Last game of the season. I was team manager.
Radar: Oh...
Henry: Two minutes to go. Crazy Wilensky - great quarterback, only weighed 120 pounds. Got arrested the next year for punching a milk horse. Anyway, Crazy snaps one off, throws a bomb to Tanker Washington. Old Tank runs it down to the Ohio State one-foot line. One foot! Can you imagine?
Radar: 12 inches.
Henry: Not 12 inches - one foot. Anyway, Tanker twisted his ankle. So, quick as a flash, thousands of eyes on me, I run across that field and tape that leg good and tight, then run off. 30 seconds to go. The ball snapped to Crazy. Crazy fakes a hand-off to Butcher Palasco, and then gives it off to Tanker. And Tanker starts off and hits the ground screaming, his face twisted with pain.
Radar: Tackled.
Henry: No. I taped the wrong leg.
Radar: Oh. Was he mad?
Henry: To this day, once a year, Tank Washington comes to my house and shoots out the porch light. (sighs) And he's a judge now.
McLean Stevenson, as Wayne Rogers, never settled into his role. He wanted top billing. He auditioned for Hawkeye and had to be convinced to take the role of Henry. After 3 years, McLean Stevenson decided he was ready for his own show and he left MASH leading to the often used phrase whenever someone leaves a popular show that “it was the biggest mistake since McLean Stevenson left MASH.” There was a controversy about how Blake left the show. It has been said that killing Henry Blake (especially off-screen) was a retaliatory move by the producers as a way to get back to Stevenson. In a documentary about the show, Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds said they wanted to use the opportunity to show people that war is not about laughs and gags. That people do get killed and they all don’t make it back to Bloomington, Illinois. Even though they handled tough topics including death (“Sometimes You Hear the Bullet”), it was the first time they killed off a main character and it caught everyone by surprise. It upset viewers who called in to complain. CBS even left the last scene out during re-runs for several years. The night after the episode aired, McLean Stevenson was on Laugh-in on a row-boat waving and yelling he survived!
I really enjoyed the character of Henry Blake, but the weak way they wrote the character couldn’t last long term. The strength of Sherman Potter gave Hawkeye some challenges Blake was not able to.