MAS*H: Season 03 (1974)

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With an ever-increasing viewership and three Emmy awards to its credit, M*A*S*H had no trouble easing into a third successful season in the fall of 1974. Not wishing to tinker with the success, the series' producers retained all of the regular characters from previous years--Hawkeye (Alan Alda), Trapper John (Wayne Rogers), Frank Burns (Larry Linville), Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Henry Blake (Maclean Stevenson) and Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff)--while steadily beefing up the roles of the series two most popular recurring characters, Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) and Cpl. Klinger (Jamie Farr). And in a piquant bit of guest-star casting, the third season opener "The General Flipped at Dawn", Harry Morgan was cast as a crackpot General named Bartford Hamilton Steele, whose adherence to regulations was matched only by the length and breadth of his certifiable insanity. Although General Steele would not be seen past this episode, Harry Morgan would of course return the following year in a radically different--and far more enduring--characterization. One person who would not be returning for a fourth season was Maclean Stevenson, who in a career move that has become legendary in its short-sightedness, opted to leave M*A*S*H to star in a new series of his own. The departure of Stevenson's character, the 4077th's beloved commanding officer Henry Blake, occurred during the third season's final episode, "Abyssinia, Henry", the conclusion of which was one of the best-kept--and most shocking--secrets in TV sitcom history. Having ended the 1973-74 season as the fourth most popular series on American television, M*A*S*H slipped ever so slightly to fifth place during 1974-75, a decline attributable to CBS' decision to move the program from its winning Saturday-night slot to a less desirable Tuesday-evening berth. Even so, M*A*S*H remained one of the jewels in CBS' crown, if for no other reason than the series copped its fourth Emmy during its fourth season: the winner was series co-creator Larry Gelbart, for his direction of the episode titled "O.R.", the first (but hardly the last) of the season's installments to completely dispense with a laugh track. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi