Discovery's Farewell To Captain Phil

[Doomsday101]

Discovery Channel bids a final farewell to one of its own, with several upcoming premieres designed to honor and pay tribute to Captain Phil Harris. DEADLIEST CATCH launches its emotional climax sharing the story of the death of the Cornelia Marie Captain beginning Tuesday, June 22 at 9 PM ET/PT.

Captain Phil Harris suffered a stroke on January 29, 2010, while the Cornelia Marie was off-loading in the small Alaskan port town of St. Paul. He was transported to Anchorage where he battled through surgery and treatment but ultimately passed away on February 9.

The full list of upcoming episodes featuring Captain Phil's last days and honoring his legacy is as follows:



DEADLIEST CATCH: Episode 11 - Tuesday, June 22 at 9PM ET/PT
The opening episode includes Phil's initial stoke and the quick action taken by his sons - Josh and Jake - and the rest of the crew to get medical attention. The severity of the situation weighs heavily on the close-knit Cornelia Marie crew as they pray for the best and are left to wonder who will take the boat out without Phil there.



DEADLIEST CATCH: Episode 12 - Tuesday, June 29 at 9PM ET/PT
The rest of the fleet begins to hear the unsettling news of their friend and fellow skipper. Captains Sig Hansen, Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand and Keith Colburn all react with stunned disbelief while still keeping an eye on the turbulent waters, as the Bering Sea stops for no one.



DEADLIEST CATCH: Episode 13 - Tuesday, July 6 at 9PM ET/PT
Josh and Jake Harris continue to watch over their dad at the Anchorage hospital. They are joined by Johnathan Hillstrand as well as Phil's inner circle of biker buddy friends. Ever the stubborn fighter, Phil rallies in the ICU.



DEADLIEST CATCH: Episode 14 - Tuesday, July 13 at 9PM ET/PT
Despite small signs of encouragement, Captain Phil loses his battle. He passes away surrounded by family and friends.



AFTER THE CATCH: Episode 5 - Tuesday, July 13 at 10PM ET/PT
The fleet wraps up its time at the French Quarter's Blue Nile bar in the season finale of AFTER THE CATCH. Captain Phil Harris is remembered in true 'Nawlins style as fans pour onto Frenchmen Street for a traditional, raucous Jazz Parade. The celebration brings together all the captains to pay tribute to their friend and colleague.



DEADLIEST CATCH: Episode 15 - Tuesday, July 20 at 9PM ET/PT
The news of Phil'S death reaches the rest of the fleet. Captains Keith, Johnathan, Andy and Sig all struggle to come to terms with their friend and colleague's passing.



CAPTAIN PHIL HARRIS REMEMBERED - Tuesday, July 20 at 10PM ET/PT
A special one-hour look back at the life of Captain Phil Harris, skipper of Cornelia Marie. The special includes interviews with fellow captains and deckhands, memorable "Phil moments" from the past six seasons of DEADLIEST CATCH, never-before-seen footage from behind the scenes and fan remembrances recorded at CatchCon 2010 and Phil's public memorial service in Seattle.



DEADLIEST CATCH: Episode 16 - Tuesday, July 27 at 9PM ET/PT
On the finale of the sixth season of DEADLIEST CATCH, the fleet is still absorbing the news about Phil. But the stormy waters of the Bering Sea never take a break, and the Captains and the crew must soldier on in the race to make their quotas, as the Opilio season comes to an end.


http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/phil-harris/

 

[Yeagermeister]

The last few episodes have been pretty dramatic with Phil's stroke, his son Jake admitting he's an addict and Jake from The Northwestern's father going missing.

 

[Doomsday101]

The last few episodes have been pretty dramatic with Phil's stroke, his son Jake admitting he's an addict and Jake from The Northwestern's father going missing.

I know it has been strange watching the show this season knowing what was going to happen with Phil Harris.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I know it has been strange watching the show this season knowing what was going to happen with Phil Harris.

I wasn't sure of timing but yeah I knew it coming. I think it has a lot to do with Edgar talking about taking a break to be with his family. I'll stop watching if he leaves. Edgar and Phil are/were my favorites.

 

[Faerluna]

Good recap my friend passed along to me this morning.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/23/deadliest-catch-capt-phil-stroke-recap/

We’ve known this episode was coming ever since we found out that Capt. Phil Harris insisted the cameras keep filming after he suffered a stroke because they needed “a great finish to the story,” and it’s made season 6 — the show’s most-watched — exquisitely excruciating. You couldn’t have scripted a more moving start to Phil’s final days if you tried.

We started with a replay of the confrontation Phil and son Jake had in last week’s episode after the skipper caught his deckhand stealing some of his prescription pain medicine. Phil said he never wanted to see Jake again after they got home, but once Jake admitted he was an addict, Phil softened. He told Jake it had to end, and Jake agreed because it’s ruining his life. “Then go to treatment. That’s the only f—in’ thing that’s gonna save your ***,” Phil said. He asked Jake what he was going to do when he got home, and Jake said go to meetings. “I’ll go with ya,” Phil said. “I understand.” I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one who started sobbing at that point?


“I love you to death. It doesn’t mean I disrespect you at all,” Jake told his father, apologizing again. And they hugged. “I know, I know, I know,” Phil said, reiterating that only treatment would give him a fighting chance. Jake said he never wanted to tell his father that he was addict, and Phil said he preferred Jake’s honesty to him lying. They hugged again, and Jake said, “I love you, pops.” I think every fan breathed a sigh of relief that Jake got to tell his father that at a moment when there’s no question that Phil heard him. Phil decided to cut their trip short and head to St. Paul Island so Jake could get off the boat and into treatment. Would Phil had gotten those final days with his sons at the hospital if he’d been out at sea when he had his stroke? You don’t want to think about it, but after watching a heart attack victim being lifted off another fishing vessel in last week’s episode, how do you not?


According to narrator Mike Rowe’s voiceover, the 290-mile steam into the harbor felt like the longest of Phil’s life. Judging by the footage we saw, he spent it chain-smoking in the wheelhouse and worrying about Jake. He really did understand — there was a time when he was drinking a quart of booze a day. He chose to grow up, and hoped Jake would make the same decision. Phil knew his son had his own demons, and the fact that he’d missed most of Jake’s childhood because he was out crabbing weighed on him. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get over the guilt of not being there.


The next time we saw the Cornelia Marie, she was in St. Paul Island offloading, 19 hours after Phil’s confrontation with Jake. We knew Phil had his stroke during this time, so these were the most tense moments of a season that has left us, week after week, feeling as though we needed to book a shoulder massage. Phil was in the wheelhouse looking at pictures of the boys and himself when they were young. (Seriously, you could not write this.) At first he was by himself, thinking aloud how goofy little Jake looked in his favorite photo of him and how Jake was smart enough to do whatever he wanted, which is why he hated to see him screwing up now. Then both Josh and Jake, who’d been keeping his distance from his father on the steam in, joined him. Before I knew what hit me, I was crying again. Okay, actually, it was Jake pointing out that the necklace he was wearing at that moment was the same one Phil had on in a photo taken years earlier when he had what Josh called a Billy Ray Cyrus-style mullet. (Josh: “Now it’s feathered.” Phil: “You’re a freak.”) Getting out those old photos is something you do when you know a change is coming. Even though Phil had been feeling tired and faint, I don’t think he or anyone else thought he’d be leaving the boat. Just Jake.


With the crab offloaded, the only thing that needed to be done before the Cornelia Marie headed out again was for Phil to sign off on the official count. Engineer Steve Ward phoned Phil in his stateroom, and when Phil didn’t answer, the sinking feeling in our stomachs told us the moment had arrived. I sat up in my chair and reached for the remote, ready to pause if I felt too much. (My father has been battling an illness for nearly five years, and now dementia as a result of the radiation needed to give him that time. It doesn’t take much to set me off. I’ve cried twice over the trailer for The Expendables because Stallone movies are our thing and he won’t be able to see it. I just want you to know what you’re in for as we watch the remainder of the season together.) I’m assuming Phil had asked for some privacy, either to change clothes or sleep, because if there had been a cameraman in the room with him, Steve wouldn’t have opened the door and said “Ohmygod!” We didn’t see that moment or those that immediately followed. In his voiceover, Mike Rowe said Steve found Phil face down and unresponsive. Steve yelled, and the crew came running. Josh made a calm call to 911, saying he thought his dad had just had a stroke. (That was audio-only, too.) We did see him tell the paramedics that he’d flipped his father over onto his back and that there was drool coming down the left side of his face and he couldn’t move his left arm. Phil was able to say his name to the paramedics and stayed conscious as Jake stood by silent and scared, and Josh, thinking practically, said he was going to call Cornelia, owner of the boat, so she could find another captain for Opie season if Phil’s condition was serious. (Steve told him to wait, and I wasn’t sure if that’s because he just wanted Josh to be able to think as a son — and not a son of a captain — at that moment, or if he wasn’t ready to admit that Phil, who’s needed a relief skipper before for health reasons — was in critical condition.)


The crew worked as a team, like it always does, to strap Phil into a stretcher and carry him up to the deck, where a crane lifted him off the boat to the waiting ambulance. I said it when I first saw this clip as an online preview — I don’t know if there’s a lonelier-looking image than an injured man strapped into a stretcher being lifted by a crane (or, as with the heart attack victim rescued at sea in last week’s episode, a Coast Guard helicopter). It really hammers home how small and fragile he is, and at a time when someone should be there holding him, the only thing surrounding him is the wind. The episode ended with Phil in the ambulance. Josh told him he was there with him, and Phil said something I couldn’t decipher. Since the show will caption dialogue when necessary, I guess producers couldn’t either.

 

[Doomsday101]

I wasn't sure of timing but yeah I knew it coming. I think it has a lot to do with Edgar talking about taking a break to be with his family. I'll stop watching if he leaves. Edgar and Phil are/were my favorites.

Maybe so, it is a hard life and as Edgar said he has been working the deck for 20 something years. That has got to take it's toll on the body.

 

[Doomsday101]

Good recap my friend passed along to me this morning.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/23/deadliest-catch-capt-phil-stroke-recap/

We’ve known this episode was coming ever since we found out that Capt. Phil Harris insisted the cameras keep filming after he suffered a stroke because they needed “a great finish to the story,” and it’s made season 6 — the show’s most-watched — exquisitely excruciating. You couldn’t have scripted a more moving start to Phil’s final days if you tried.

We started with a replay of the confrontation Phil and son Jake had in last week’s episode after the skipper caught his deckhand stealing some of his prescription pain medicine. Phil said he never wanted to see Jake again after they got home, but once Jake admitted he was an addict, Phil softened. He told Jake it had to end, and Jake agreed because it’s ruining his life. “Then go to treatment. That’s the only f—in’ thing that’s gonna save your ***,” Phil said. He asked Jake what he was going to do when he got home, and Jake said go to meetings. “I’ll go with ya,” Phil said. “I understand.” I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one who started sobbing at that point?


“I love you to death. It doesn’t mean I disrespect you at all,” Jake told his father, apologizing again. And they hugged. “I know, I know, I know,” Phil said, reiterating that only treatment would give him a fighting chance. Jake said he never wanted to tell his father that he was addict, and Phil said he preferred Jake’s honesty to him lying. They hugged again, and Jake said, “I love you, pops.” I think every fan breathed a sigh of relief that Jake got to tell his father that at a moment when there’s no question that Phil heard him. Phil decided to cut their trip short and head to St. Paul Island so Jake could get off the boat and into treatment. Would Phil had gotten those final days with his sons at the hospital if he’d been out at sea when he had his stroke? You don’t want to think about it, but after watching a heart attack victim being lifted off another fishing vessel in last week’s episode, how do you not?


According to narrator Mike Rowe’s voiceover, the 290-mile steam into the harbor felt like the longest of Phil’s life. Judging by the footage we saw, he spent it chain-smoking in the wheelhouse and worrying about Jake. He really did understand — there was a time when he was drinking a quart of booze a day. He chose to grow up, and hoped Jake would make the same decision. Phil knew his son had his own demons, and the fact that he’d missed most of Jake’s childhood because he was out crabbing weighed on him. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get over the guilt of not being there.


The next time we saw the Cornelia Marie, she was in St. Paul Island offloading, 19 hours after Phil’s confrontation with Jake. We knew Phil had his stroke during this time, so these were the most tense moments of a season that has left us, week after week, feeling as though we needed to book a shoulder massage. Phil was in the wheelhouse looking at pictures of the boys and himself when they were young. (Seriously, you could not write this.) At first he was by himself, thinking aloud how goofy little Jake looked in his favorite photo of him and how Jake was smart enough to do whatever he wanted, which is why he hated to see him screwing up now. Then both Josh and Jake, who’d been keeping his distance from his father on the steam in, joined him. Before I knew what hit me, I was crying again. Okay, actually, it was Jake pointing out that the necklace he was wearing at that moment was the same one Phil had on in a photo taken years earlier when he had what Josh called a Billy Ray Cyrus-style mullet. (Josh: “Now it’s feathered.” Phil: “You’re a freak.”) Getting out those old photos is something you do when you know a change is coming. Even though Phil had been feeling tired and faint, I don’t think he or anyone else thought he’d be leaving the boat. Just Jake.


With the crab offloaded, the only thing that needed to be done before the Cornelia Marie headed out again was for Phil to sign off on the official count. Engineer Steve Ward phoned Phil in his stateroom, and when Phil didn’t answer, the sinking feeling in our stomachs told us the moment had arrived. I sat up in my chair and reached for the remote, ready to pause if I felt too much. (My father has been battling an illness for nearly five years, and now dementia as a result of the radiation needed to give him that time. It doesn’t take much to set me off. I’ve cried twice over the trailer for The Expendables because Stallone movies are our thing and he won’t be able to see it. I just want you to know what you’re in for as we watch the remainder of the season together.) I’m assuming Phil had asked for some privacy, either to change clothes or sleep, because if there had been a cameraman in the room with him, Steve wouldn’t have opened the door and said “Ohmygod!” We didn’t see that moment or those that immediately followed. In his voiceover, Mike Rowe said Steve found Phil face down and unresponsive. Steve yelled, and the crew came running. Josh made a calm call to 911, saying he thought his dad had just had a stroke. (That was audio-only, too.) We did see him tell the paramedics that he’d flipped his father over onto his back and that there was drool coming down the left side of his face and he couldn’t move his left arm. Phil was able to say his name to the paramedics and stayed conscious as Jake stood by silent and scared, and Josh, thinking practically, said he was going to call Cornelia, owner of the boat, so she could find another captain for Opie season if Phil’s condition was serious. (Steve told him to wait, and I wasn’t sure if that’s because he just wanted Josh to be able to think as a son — and not a son of a captain — at that moment, or if he wasn’t ready to admit that Phil, who’s needed a relief skipper before for health reasons — was in critical condition.)


The crew worked as a team, like it always does, to strap Phil into a stretcher and carry him up to the deck, where a crane lifted him off the boat to the waiting ambulance. I said it when I first saw this clip as an online preview — I don’t know if there’s a lonelier-looking image than an injured man strapped into a stretcher being lifted by a crane (or, as with the heart attack victim rescued at sea in last week’s episode, a Coast Guard helicopter). It really hammers home how small and fragile he is, and at a time when someone should be there holding him, the only thing surrounding him is the wind. The episode ended with Phil in the ambulance. Josh told him he was there with him, and Phil said something I couldn’t decipher. Since the show will caption dialogue when necessary, I guess producers couldn’t either.

Thanks for sharing that. I have to admit I got a lump in my throat as Phil was looking at the pictures of his boys knowing that this was the end.

 

[Faerluna]

Thanks for sharing that. I have to admit I got a lump in my throat as Phil was looking at the pictures of his boys knowing that this was the end.

I was bawling like a baby from when he and Jake were talking about him going into rehab until the end.

Phil was just such a decent, honest guy. It's hard to not feel like you really knew him if you've watched the show for a decent amount of time.

I'm really going to miss him.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Maybe so, it is a hard life and as Edgar said he has been working the deck for 20 something years. That has got to take it's toll on the body.

No doubt

 

[Doomsday101]

I was bawling like a baby from when he and Jake were talking about him going into rehab until the end.

Phil was just such a decent, honest guy. It's hard to not feel like you really knew him if you've watched the show for a decent amount of time.

I'm really going to miss him.

I agree. Seeing last weeks "after the catch" and Johnathan Hillstrand breaking down in tears having to leave the table when they were talking about Phil and showing footage of Phil and Johnathan together riding bikes. Big tough guys with a heart of gold.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I agree. Seeing last weeks "after the catch" and Johnathan Hillstrand breaking down in tears having to leave the table when they were talking about Phil and showing footage of Phil and Johnathan together riding bikes. Big tough guys with a heart of gold.

I missed the first After the Catch.

 

[CliffnDallas]

Eternal Father, Strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty Ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to thee,
for those in peril on the sea...

 

[Seven]

Best show on television in a very long time IMO. Haven't been this faithful to the tube since the early days of OCC.

Thanks for the recap. I'm still confused as to the relationship of Corneila.........EX-something to Phil or just a business partner?

 

[Faerluna]

From Wiki:



The Cornelia Marie was built in 1989 in Alabama on commission from original owner Ralph Collins; she was one of the last boats built by Horton Boats. Named after Ralph's wife, co-owner Cornelia Marie Collins, she is 128 feet (39 m) long, 28 feet (8.5 m) wide, and carries 28,500 U.S. gallons (23,700 imp gal; 108,000 L) of fuel and 3,000 U.S. gallons (2,500 imp gal; 11,000 L) of fresh water.[1][2] The Cornelia Marie fishes for King, Tanner, and Opilio crab, and also does Salmon and Herring tendering. She features an aquamarine and white paint scheme with yellow banners bearing the ship's name.


Ralph and Cornelia Marie divorced, and Cornelia Marie took ownership of the boat. She eventually sold partial share to captain Phil Harris. His share is currently in possession of his estate.

 

[Faerluna]

Here's a bit about the exact medical issues Phil experienced at the end. This is taken from an interview with Josh.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/16/josh-harris-phil-harris-deadliest-catch/


Starting next week, your dad's health problems that eventually led to his death are going to air. Have you seen the episodes? Will you watch?

No, I haven't. I really don't know what they're going to air. It's very important to me. It's going to be really hard reliving this. It's hard enough to have my father gone, but to actually be able to see everything happen ... He had the pulmonary embolism to start with, then two years later he had a massive stroke. His brain went without oxygen on one side for 12 hours on the right hand side. They ended up cutting the whole right portion of his skull off. That was very traumatic. He was getting better, making medical history on the fastest recovery for someone of that nature. The doctors didn't understand it. They said it was going to be 2-3 weeks before opening his eyes, an hour later he opened his eyes. They said it could be a couple months before he could breathe on his own, the next day he ripped the breathing tube out of his throat. They said he'd probably never be able to eat, and the fourth day into it he started swallowing ice and being able to eat. They said he'd never walk, he started shuffling around walking. In the end though, it was a pulmonary embolism that killed him -- the blood clot -- and that was all caused by smoking. One artery, say you hold up your pinky finger... that would be the size of a normal artery. One of his looked like a toothpick. It was all caused by smoking, 100 percent without a doubt smoking killed my father.

Me and my brother have gone into this wellness kick. I'm going to promote not smoking as best as I can throughout the US. If I can save one life, I don't want anybody to have to go through the s--t we just went through. It's the most horrible thing ever.

 

[Seven]

From Wiki:



The Cornelia Marie was built in 1989 in Alabama on commission from original owner Ralph Collins; she was one of the last boats built by Horton Boats. Named after Ralph's wife, co-owner Cornelia Marie Collins, she is 128 feet (39 m) long, 28 feet (8.5 m) wide, and carries 28,500 U.S. gallons (23,700 imp gal; 108,000 L) of fuel and 3,000 U.S. gallons (2,500 imp gal; 11,000 L) of fresh water.[1][2] The Cornelia Marie fishes for King, Tanner, and Opilio crab, and also does Salmon and Herring tendering. She features an aquamarine and white paint scheme with yellow banners bearing the ship's name.


Ralph and Cornelia Marie divorced, and Cornelia Marie took ownership of the boat. She eventually sold partial share to captain Phil Harris. His share is currently in possession of his estate.

Thank-you........

 

[CowboyWay]

This was a unique TV experience. To witness someone who was dying.

My wife and I haven't missed an episode of this show in years. We were very fond of Phil. Normally when someone dies on TV, its no big deal, it was just an actor who died on camera and then went home to his mansion.

But not this time. This time was for real, and it happened in front of your eyes.

We turned the TV off and went to bed after the show. I don't think either one of us fell asleep for a couple hours after that.

It was truly sad.