The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.

For the rest of the month, Name That Episode posts will be made exactly at 10:45AM Eastern.

And the Winner Is: chuckles, who correctly identified “For The Good Of The Outfit.”

Name That Episode

The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.

For the rest of the month, Name That Episode posts will be made exactly at 10:45AM Eastern.

And the Winner Is: Big Daddy O’Reilly, who correctly identified “Death Takes A Holiday.”

Name That Episode

Thanks to Dan for passing along this news.

Scriptwriter Burt Styler, who wrote two early first season episodes of M*A*S*H, passed away earlier this month at the age of 86. Styler wrote “To Market, To Market” and “Bananas, Crackers, and Nuts.” Although “To Market, To Market” was the second episode aired it was actually the third episode produced; nevertheless, Styler was in on the ground floor in terms of fleshing out characters and setting the tone for the series. He was one of only five writers to work on the first 13 episodes of the series.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Styler’s first writing credit was for a 1951 movie called Call Me Mister, which starred Betty Grable. By the late 1950s, he was working regularly on television, primarily on sitcoms like Margie, My Favorite Martian, Family Affair, The Brady Bunch and All in the Family. He won an Emmy in 1972 for an episode of All in the Family; interestingly, one of the other nominated episodes that year was another episode of All in the Family penned by Style, meaning he was competing against himself.

Styler was later nominated in 1977 and 1978 as part of the ensemble writing team for The Carol Burnett Show. He often worked with his late wife Adele. Again according to the Internet Movie Database, Styler’s last writing credit was for a 1989 episode of The Munsters Today. An obituary can be found at Variety.com.

Last week, on the Thursday, June 23rd installment of Jeopardy! one of the clues during the first round was about M*A*S*H. The category was TV Toe Tags, about deceased television characters. None of the contestants were able to ring in with the correct answer. Here’s the $1000 clue:

After his sitcom alter ego died in 1975, this actor surfaced on “The Carol Burnett Show” in a raft, screaming, “I’m OK”

The answer? McLean Stevenson, according to host Alex Trebek. But is this clue true?

The story about Stevenson appearing on The Carol Burnett Show shortly after “Abyssinia, Henry” was originally broadcast, floating in a raft and waving his arms has been around for as long as I can remember. But the only sources that I’ve ever seen, aside from M*A*S*H websites and random message board postings, are Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database and TV.com. I admit that I have had it listed here at my site in the past, having seen it mentioned so many other times that I assumed it was true.

I have never been able to confirm that the cameo appearance by Stevenson actually took place. As far as I know, no one has ever come forward to say they actually remember watching it. “Abyssinia, Henry” was broadcast on Tuesday, March 18th, 1975. The Carol Burnett Show, which like M*A*S*H aired on CBS, broadcast its next episode on Saturday, March 22nd, 1975. Guests for the episode were Steve Lawrence and Sally Struthers. I’ve looked at some contemporary television listings and found no mention of McLean Stevenson; I also was unable to find any reviews or news stories mentioning the cameo.

Rob Kelly discussed this at his blog in January of 2010 and someone in the comments suggested it might actually have been an episode of Tony Orlando & Dawn that aired the day after “Abyssinia, Henry” on Wednesday, March 19th, 1975, also on CBS. I’ve also seen the story attributed to an installment of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at least once.

The only way to know for sure if the raft gag was real would be for someone to view the episode. As far as I know, it has never been released commercially on VHS or DVD. However, the UCLA Film & Television Archive has a copy of the episode in question. So, does anyone at UCLA want to take a look?

The Name That Episode game is played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Players can participate as often as they like. An archive of past rounds can be found here. Today’s image can be found below. Can you name the episode it’s from? Feel free to post guesses in the comments section. As always, the winner gets bragging rights.

Yikes. I accidentally set this to be posted tomorrow morning rather than this morning as planned. Sorry.

And the Winner Is: Chai, who correctly identified “The Long-John Flap.”

Name That Episode