Lt. Col. Blake was the happy-go-lucky, easygoing commanding officer of the 4077
MASH during the Korean war. Beloved for his down-to-earth, laid back manner by many under his command, notably Captains
"Hawkeye" Pierce and
"Trapper John" McIntyre (along with his fondness for drinking), and scorned for it by those who preferred strict military discipline, such as
Frank Burns and
Margaret Houlihan .
Blake always put himself forward as a friend first, and commanding officer second when it came to his post at the 4077--although in the rare occasion when he was boxed into a corner, he uncomfortably but firmly reminded his officers who was in charge. In one of many letters to his father, Hawkeye described Henry as "a good doctor and a pretty good joe" but as a commanding officer he likened Henry to
Daffy Duck .
Never professing or pretending to be a great leader of men, even Henry seemed to know that as CO he was in over his head. The combination of paper work and constant war surgery often left him feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, but Henry soldiered on as best he could.
Under Henry's watch, Hawkeye and Trapper repeatedly got away with pulling practical jokes, romancing the nurses, mocking the military code and in general causing trouble, either because Henry looked the other way or Hawkeye and Trapper managed to manipulate him into seeing things their way. On the rare occasion when Henry actually stood his ground and refused to let Hawkeye and Trapper have their way, the maverick captains would criticize Henry for not being "one of the guys". When Henry decided to send a lost Korean boy to an orphanage, insisting that the 4077 didn't have the qualifications to look after the child, and technically he was right, Hawkeye called him a villain, to which Henry actually took offense. In the next episode though Hawkeye and Trapper would be kissing up to him or trying to make sure he was secure as the unit's leader, such as when Hot Lips and Frank tried to get Henry court martialed for giving some medical supplies to North Korean civilians.
Henry did not get along well with Frank and Hot Lips, or rather they did not get along with Henry; they thought he was incompetent and ineffectual, while he thought they were callous and overbearing. Frank and Hot Lips often mocked and criticized Henry for his thorough lack of command skill just as Hawkeye and Trapper would mock and criticize the two majors for their lack of sensitivity. Hot Lips was known to call Henry a "golf playing figure head" (because of his fondness for golf) and a "mealy mouthed, fly fishing imposter" (based on his trademark fisherman's hat).
Henry generally let their criticisms roll off his back, but once told Frank, who was letting Hot Lips do all the talking, that if he did not watch his language, Henry would have no choice but to punch Hot Lips right in the mouth. Another time, when Frank was arguing with Trapper, Henry told Frank that if he didn't calm down, he would have no choice but to put it in Frank's records that Frank did not work and play well with others.
Frank and Hot Lips were always going over Henry's head when they didn't get their way, filing formal complaints to full colonels or generals. At one point, Henry mocked Hot Lips by saying that she had gone over his head so many times that he had "athlete's scalp". But being a genuinely kind hearted and forgiving person, Henry chose not to file a court martial against Hot Lips when she got herself so stinking drunk that she could not even pronounce her own name properly. In fact, Henry even ordered Hawkeye and Trapper to sober her up quickly for incoming wounded so that the incident would not show up on her permanent military record. Eerily enough, the drunken Hot Lips told Henry that he looked just like her father before he died, even though her father was actually still alive. Henry merely shrugged and replied "Yeah, a lot of people have said that."
Henry was not completely incapable of following military regulation. He continually refused to discharge Corporal Max Klinger (
Jamie Farr ) for being mentally unstable, despite all the exuberant dresses that Klinger wore and ludicrous schemes Klinger cooked up in order to convince his superiors that he was insane. Henry even had a file full of Klinger's various false reasons Klinger had given him for discharge regarding the apparently poor state of Klinger's family. One of Henry's personal favorites was that half of Klinger's family was dying while the other half was pregnant. One time when Klinger was being particularly obnoxious, Henry threatened Klinger by saying "Klinger, I've never hit a woman before!"
Back in Illinois Henry had a wife, Lorraine (originally Mildred) and three children; a son, Andrew, and a daughter, Molly, and another son born after he left. Henry cared deeply for his family, even though he had a tendency to fraternize with the nurses à la Hawkeye and Trapper. One constant source of frustration was that his wife was always sending Henry her bills and check books so that he could balance things out long distance. According to Henry, his wife, a former "Succotash Queen" at Illinois Normal, was a terrific cook and made a great chocolate cake. She can be seen in a color home movie sent to Henry showing his daughter's birthday party.
- A---S---H'' was that of the naive, fresh-faced farmboy from Iowa , vulnerable to the horrors of war, and Blake was like the father he never had, providing guidance, comfort, and support to the young Corporal. In return, Radar more or less kept the unit running like a well oiled machine, his nearly magical skills for getting everything done and everything needed counter balancing Henry's occasional silliness.
- A---S---H'' was one of the most heartfelt moments in television history. When McLean Stevenson left the show at the end of the third season, his character was scripted to be discharged and sent home. In the final scene of his last episode, it was reported that Blake's plane had been shot down over the Sea Of Japan and that he had been killed. None of the cast (with the exception of Alan Alda , who wrote the scene) knew about that development until a few minutes before Gary Burghoff was told to go in and report that Blake had died. Up until then, as far as anyone knew, they were going to get a message that Blake had arrived safely home. This was deliberately planned so that the emotions shown by the actors during that scene would be as real as possible, and it worked well, so much so that one of the actors accidentally dropped a surgical instrument on the floor which made a loud clank. Even his harshest critics, Frank Burns and Hot Lips Houlihan, wept for Henry upon hearing of his death. Years later, when the doctors decided to bury a time capsule, they included a bit of fly fishing bait that had belonged to Henry to symbolize him and all the other men - soldiers, doctors, sons, fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands - who never returned home.
After the news of Col. Blake's death shocked the world, the very next night on ''The Carol Burnett Show'' (1967), the opening shot was of
McLean Stevenson in a smoking raft, waving his arms, hollering, "I'm OK! I'm OK!"
- A---S---H'' and the character of Henry Blake was written out of the story, he was replaced by Harry Morgan as Colonel Sherman T. Potter in the position of commanding officer of MASH 4077. By contrast, Potter was a career soldier who is a consummate professional in both the command and medical fields, although easygoing and compassionate enough to earn the deep respect of his staff.
