The latest issue of TV Guide (June 15th-28th) includes the venerable magazine’s latest list of television greats. This time around it’s “TV’s Top 100 Episodes of All Time.” There’s no indication of how the episodes were ranked but there is a note that says readers helped pick the episodes which were then ranked by TV Guide‘s editors.
Not surprisingly, an episode of M*A*S*H makes the list. “Abyssinia, Henry” clocks in at #20. Here’s the blurb:
The much-watched finale eight years later made ratings history, but this was the episode that made M*A*S*H great. Before Internet spoilers doomed the element of surprise, millions of fans were stunned by the death of beloved Lt. Col. Henry Blake (Mclean Stevenson). Slapstick scenes celebrating his Army discharge were capped by a coda that has yet to be topped by any sitcom: the news that Henry’s plane was shot down–no survivors–delivered by his bereft aide Radar (Gary Burghoff was handed the script pages only moments before filming). “it was one of those rare times on TV when somebody dies without any preparation,” recalls Alan Alda, who played Hawkeye Pierce. “All of a sudden, somebody you have an emotional attachment to is gone. [Producers] Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds wanted to give the audience the feeling of the suddenness of death in war. That was the thing: The show didn’t ignore the reality of war.”
I’m not sure I would call “Abyssinia, Henry” the episode that “made M*A*S*H great.” It certainly solidified the series as quality television. The episode often singled out as the moment M*A*S*H first crossed comedy with drama — “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet” — could give “Abyssinia, Henry” a run for its money. It showed viewers that M*A*S*H could make them feel and laugh in the same thirty minutes.
For the record, three of the top twenty episodes are from the 1950s, three from the 1960s, four from the 1970s, one is from the 1980s, three are from the 1990s and six are from the 2000s. So while the list is weighted heavily with very episodes from very recent shows, there is a good selection from each decade. The TV Guide website is publishing the list in chunks starting with #100. Here’s 100-81, 80-61 and 60-41.
I heard that an episode of M*A*S*H had made this top 100 TV episodes list, but in all honesty, I had the feeling it would’ve been “Goodbye, Farewell & Amen” (11×16).
Ironically though, Henry’s death didn’t even make AOL’s top 10 saddest TV deaths of all time… how can a character from The Simpsons make the list, and not Henry, when his was a first for network television?
Perhaps the writer(s) of AOL’s Top 10 Saddest TV Deaths of All Time had never seen “Abyssinia, Henry.” That’s always possible, given that the episode aired three decades ago. With television, anything recent automatically has more of an impact simply because people forget so much of what they’ve seen. That’s why Top 10 lists — especially those on the Internet — often neglect television shows from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
That being said, I was impressed with this list. A good sampling from decades past.
Either that, or they simply had a black heart not to be saddened by Henry’s death. They did have some older deaths on the list, ala Mr. Hooper from Sesame Street in 1983.
But you do have a point RJ, kind of like how TV Land is constantly adding their own original shows, and modern sitcoms to their lineup, dropping true classics like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, Mister Ed, Gilligan’s Island, etc that people actually WANT to see on TV Land.