It would never have spread had people actually read the autobiographies and such. But then, I guess that’s true for almost any urban legend.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone contradict a mention of this, not even here, but I could be wrong…
The real story is just as good or better. But it isn’t *that *far from the myth anyway. They still didn’t know until very late in the filming.
I’ve never loved this particular myth. These were professional, experienced, and respected actors, not contestants on a damned reality show. The idea that you could get a better performance out of them through trickery rather than allowing them to do what they were paid to do is somewhat demeaning. Note that according to that account the second take was better than the first.
According to Gelbart’s account quoted in the Snopes article, the crew didn’t know about Blake’s death until the scene was shot. I wonder if that could be where the rumor came from.
This reminds me that McLean Stevenson was well ahead of David Caruso in the over-inflated sense of self worth TV personality game.
Yeah, Gelbart’s memory seems to be different from Farr’s. Not that it really matters all that much, because as TWDuke and Khadaji say, the story’s great anyway and filmed take was brilliant thanks to the actors being professionals (and that added touch of serendipity from the dropped instrument).
Poor MacLean, though. That’s gotta hurt, seeing your character killed off.