History Trivia / MashS3E24AbyssiniaHenry

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the scripts distributed to the actors, to prevent foreknowledge leaking into their performances and ensure that they acted like people who didn't know what was coming. The actors weren't shown the pages for that scene until after all the other scenes were in the can. (It is sometimes claimed that most of them were kept in the dark even then, and the camera captured their genuine reactions to hearing the news for the first time when the announcement was made during the actual filming of the scene, but this is inaccurate: they were all given the script, and an opportunity to get their initial reaction out of the way, before the scene was filmed--which was just as well, because Larry Linville's reported initial response[[note]] "Fucking brilliant." [[/note]] would have been unbroadcastable. In any case, the scene as broadcast is actually the ''second'' take, as the first was considered unuseable due to technical issues, so everyone in it has heard the announcement at least once before.)

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the scripts distributed to the actors, to prevent foreknowledge leaking into their performances and ensure that they acted like people who didn't know what was coming. The actors weren't shown the pages for that scene until after all the other scenes were in the can. (It is sometimes claimed that most of them were kept in the dark even then, and the camera captured their genuine reactions to hearing the news for the first time when the announcement was made during the actual filming of the scene, but this is inaccurate: they were all given the script, and an opportunity to get their initial reaction out of the way, before the scene was filmed--which was just as well, because Larry Linville's reported initial response[[note]] "Fucking brilliant." [[/note]] would have been unbroadcastable. In any case, the scene as broadcast is actually the ''second'' take, as the first was considered unuseable due to technical issues, so everyone in it has heard the announcement at least twice before.)

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the scripts distributed to the actors, to prevent foreknowledge leaking into their performances and ensure that they acted like people who didn't know what was coming. The actors weren't shown the pages for that scene until after all the other scenes were in the can. (It is sometimes claimed that most of them were kept in the dark even then, and the camera captured their genuine reactions to hearing the news for the first time when the announcement was made during the actual filming of the scene, but this is inaccurate: they were all given the script, and an opportunity to get their initial reaction out of the way, before the scene was filmed--which was just as well, because Larry Linville's reported initial response[[note]] "Fucking brilliant." [[/note]] would have been unbroadcastable. In any case, the scene as broadcast is actually the ''second'' take, as the first was considered unuseable due to technical issues, so everyone in it has heard the announcement at least once before.)

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the scripts distributed to the actors, to prevent foreknowledge leaking into their performances and ensure that they acted like people who didn't know what was coming. The actors weren't shown the pages for that scene until after all the other scenes were in the can. (It is sometimes claimed that most of them were kept in the dark even then, and the camera captured their genuine reactions to hearing the news for the first time when the announcement was made during the actual filming of the scene, but this is inaccurate: they were all given the script, and an opportunity to get their initial reaction out of the way, before the scene was filmed--which was just as well, because Larry Linville's reported initial reaction[[note]] "Fucking brilliant." [[/note]] would have been unbroadcastable. In any case, the scene as broadcast is actually the second take, as the first was considered unuseable due to technical issues, so everyone in it has heard the announcement at least once before.)

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the scripts distributed to the actors, to prevent foreknowledge leaking into their performances and ensure that they acted like people who didn't know what was coming. The actors weren't shown the pages for that scene until after all the other scenes were in the can. (It is sometimes claimed that most of them were kept in the dark even then, and the camera captured their genuine reactions to hearing the news for the first time when the announcement was made during the actual filming of the scene, but this is inaccurate: they were all given the script, and an opportunity to get their initial reaction out of the way, before the scene was filmed--which was just as well, because Larry Linville's initial reaction is reported to have featured unbroadcastable language. In any case, the scene as broadcast is actually the second take, as the first was considered unuseable due to technical issues, so everyone in it has heard the announcement at least once before.)

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the scripts distributed to the actors, to prevent foreknowledge leaking into their performances and ensure that they acted like people who didn't know what was coming. The actors weren't shown the pages for that scene until after all the other scenes were in the can. (It is sometimes claimed that most of them were kept in the dark even then, and the camera captured their genuine reactions to hearing the news for the first time when the announcement was made during the actual filming of the scene, but this is inaccurate: they were all given the script, and an opportunity to get their initial reaction out of the way, before the scene was filmed--which was just as well, as Larry Linville's initial reaction is reported to have featured unbroadcastable language. In any case, the scene as broadcast is actually the second take, as the first was considered unuseable due to technical issues, so everyone in it has heard the announcement at least once before.)

* Probably more FanFic s have been written about this than any other episode. Most find a way to save Henry (often taking the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJiX2U-Pm2U I'm okay, I'm okay]]" clip from the ''Cher'' show as inspiration), some explaining that his death was faked by Army Intelligence and he couldn't contact anyone from the 4077th until after the war. Others just take it as given that he really is dead and show how his former colleagues coped with it.

* McLeaned: The TropeNamer. The creators of the show admitted in several interviews that they killed Henry off to make a point that not everyone makes it home from a war.

** When the bad news is given at the end of the episode, someone is heard dropping something that falls to the floor with a hard clatter. This was purely accidental, but the creators left it in as they believed it was actually a nice touch to the heartbreaking scene.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The scene announcing Henry's death wasn't in the original script. The actors weren't shown the pages until moments before it was time to shoot the scene so their shock would be as genuine as possible.