One bizarre bit of M*A*S*H trivia centers around the March 22, 1975 episode of The Carol Burnett Show.
Apparently this episode, which aired only days after M*A*S*H's Season Three groundbreaking episode "Abyssinia, Henry", opens with guest-star McLean Stevenson, dressed as Henry Blake, in a raft, waving his arms, hollering, "I'm OK! I'm OK!"
I had never heard of this until I started doing research for the blog. The Carol Burnett Show isn't yet available on DVD in anything other than "Best of" compilations, so there was no way for me to find a copy of the show and watch it for myself.
From just reading about it, part of me thinks its brilliant. Another part of me thinks, considering the pitch-perfect, emotionally wrenching episode its spoofing, it seems ghoulish and just plain weird.
Nevertheless, I'm dying to see it someday!
Apparently this episode, which aired only days after M*A*S*H's Season Three groundbreaking episode "Abyssinia, Henry", opens with guest-star McLean Stevenson, dressed as Henry Blake, in a raft, waving his arms, hollering, "I'm OK! I'm OK!"
I had never heard of this until I started doing research for the blog. The Carol Burnett Show isn't yet available on DVD in anything other than "Best of" compilations, so there was no way for me to find a copy of the show and watch it for myself.
From just reading about it, part of me thinks its brilliant. Another part of me thinks, considering the pitch-perfect, emotionally wrenching episode its spoofing, it seems ghoulish and just plain weird.
Nevertheless, I'm dying to see it someday!
Glad to see we were thinking alike. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never seen this either. I think I read it first at IMDB.com or Wikipedia. I may have seen it when it aired (we loved Carol Burnett show growing up), but don't recall. I wonder if it's on Utube? If I wasn't a work, I would check myself. Something to look for later....
Hey Rob! How many more "updates" do we have coming for MASH?
Butch-
ReplyDeleteIf its on YouTube, I couldn't find it.
The final post will be on the 21st.
When I was a kid, The Carol Burnett show was a weekly family ritual. We never missed it. Because of that, there's no way I didn't see the McLean Stevenson episode. That said, I have absolutely no recognition of it.
ReplyDeleteLike a few others here, I've just about reached the end of the internet looking for a clip of it, but haven't been able to locate one.
I don't think McLean's appearance was on the Carol Burnett show. If I remember right, Carol's show was on Saturday night M*A*S*H's third season was on Tuesday night and I remember watching Abyssinia, Henry when it originally aired. I was a freshman in college at the time. No idea how the show was goung to play out. I was bummed out the rest of the night after watching it. Now while writing this, I just now did some research and have come to the conclusion that McLean's appearance had to be on Tony Orlando & Dawn's variety show. It was on CBS and it was on Wednesday nights and in fact, there was an episode of Tony Orland & Dawn the night after Abyssinia Henry aired. I've looked at an episode guide for that show and it list Buddy Ebsen & Kate Smith as guests, but no mention of McLean.
ReplyDeleteHey guys!
ReplyDeleteI hate to bring the.. mood up without knowing 100 % but i might've found a torrent with the episode in question. If this is of any interest to any of you ill post the link here when i know for sure.
It wasn't Tony Orlando! It was The Carol Burnett Show on CBS, 3/22/1975 No. 22, season 8. And I can't find the bit anywhere either!
ReplyDeleteAnon 2/17--somehow I missed your comment! If you're reading this, yes I would love to see a video of this!
ReplyDeleteAnon 7/22--Hard to believe this is so hard to find, eh?
Actually it wasn't The Carol Burnett Show, but The Cher Show. McLean Stevenson was a guest on the Cher Show on 05/04/1975, and in her opening monologue as she was announcing her guests, they showed this brief clip of McLean yelling, "I'm OK. I'm OK." This series has never been released on DVD, but several years ago, VH1 was showing a few edited episodes of Cher's program, and this was one of them.
ReplyDelete