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M*A*S*H\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a>might not have been the first sitcom to kill off a character \u2014\u00a0Make Room For Daddy<\/i> did a between-seasons, offscreen death for Danny Thomas\u2019s wife after actress Jean Hagen left in a huff \u2014 but it was\u00a0<\/span>the first to off one of its major players<\/span><\/a> then deal with the emotional aftermath.<\/span><\/p>\n To make the fate of Henry Blake, played by McLean Stevenson, even more devastating, the show\u2019s producers employed an unusual, emotionally manipulative tactic. \u201cWe did not get the ending of that,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Jamie Farr, who played Corporal Klinger, recently told\u00a0PEOPLE<\/i><\/span><\/a>. \u201cWe did not know that Colonel Blake was gonna die.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Unlike Danny Thomas\u2019s wife, who simply disappeared,\u00a0M*A*S*H\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>doctors and nurses got a chance to bid farewell to Blake, the 4077\u2019s fearless leader, after he received an honorable discharge and headed for home. \u201cI think I was in that Carmen Miranda outfit or something, and we waved goodbye to him at the helicopter when he was taking off to go stateside,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Farr\u00a0<\/span><\/a>remembered. \u201cWe finished that and we all went home afterwards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But soon, the cast was summoned back to the set. \u201cWe got a call, all of us did,\u201d Farr said. \u201cThey said there’s an added scene and that they needed us in the OR.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That was \u2026 weird. The cast had already filmed what felt like a complete episode. \u201cWhat do you mean, added scene?\u201d said Farr. \u201cWe said goodbye.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But there was still more. The show\u2019s producers didn\u2019t whisper a word to anyone, not the extras or the camera crew.\u00a0 They simply provided one additional page of script, explaining that Blake\u2019s airplane had been shot down. There were no survivors.<\/span><\/p>\n “I know Gary Burghoff, Radar, who had to deliver that line, was upset,\u201d Farr said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The emotional wallop represented a tone shift for the show, evolving from sitcom to that new term, dramedy. \u201cWhat they wanted to show was that people that you love die in war,\u201d said Farr. \u201cAnd they thought that was a good way of doing it because \u2026 Colonel Blake was such a lovable character.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While critics applauded, not all viewers were on board. The show received more than a thousand letters, many from fans who didn\u2019t think death belonged in a situation comedy. Producer Larry Gelbart responded to hundreds of the letters by hand,\u00a0<\/span>according to\u00a0Making M*A*S*H<\/i><\/span><\/a>. CBS and 20th Century Fox were also upset, with the network cutting off the final scene in at least one rerun. \u201cIt was a surprise, it was somebody they loved,\u201d said the show\u2019s co-creator Gene Reynolds. \u201cThey didn’t expect it, but it made the point. People like Henry Blake are lost in war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n