[Jonty30]

I didn’t say that he left to do another show. Just that he was pressured to take that part when it was given him.

An interesting fact about Radar coming into the operating room to announce Colonel Blake’s death was also a set up, to ensure Stevenson could never return to MASH. Up until the point of shooting, nobody was aware that Blake was going to die. The actor playing radar was supposedly given a cue card to read, just as he was going into the operating room to do something else.

[ConservativeStatement]

It was a few years back that I saw the reunion interview but, yes, as you say, the final scene was scripted as you say. Someone pointed out that a dropped instrument can be heard during that shooting which I gather would have been a re-take for any other scene.

[M1903A1]

They had to do that scene twice...and everybody had been so caught off guard during the first take that they successfully captured the shock the second time as well.