In this past Monday’s (June 15th) episode of Jeopardy! there was a question about Alan Alda and M*A*S*H. It came during the Double Jeopardy! round in the “Alan” category. The $400 clue read as follows:

After playing a doctor on “M*A*S*H”, he turned up as Dr. Gabriel Lawrence on “ER”

One of the contestants rang in with the correct answer: Alan Alda. I’ve updated M*A*S*H on Jeopardy!.

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.

Here’s today’s image. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section.

Name That Episode

I’ve closed the Television Obscurities forums which is where I was hosting the rarely used M*A*S*H, Finest Kind forum. Every article and feature here can be commented on as well as everything I post on the main page. So there was really no need for the forums.

Here’s today’s image. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section.

Name That Episode