It's one of my favourite all time episodes of 'MASH', and one of the most watched. Back when we only had a patchwork of the first two seasons bootlegged on VHS, 'Tuttle' was watched a lot, and marvelled at. It's an episode centered on a character that doesn't exist, you see...
The first season of 'MASH' is pitched far more toward comedy than later years, and as such is a bubbling anomaly, but it really works. 'Tuttle' is awesome, as it sees all the early chemistry of a stellar cast in full action, as well as some of dopiest scenarios to ever be seen at the 4077th. Hawkeye makes up a fictonal captain called Tuttle in order to cover for his siphoning of supplies to a local orphanage, before pulling off a massive con, with the aid of Radar and Trapper, in convincing the rest of the staff that Tuttle exists. Unsurprisingly, the hospital falls for it, and Tuttle even wins a commendation before being killed off in order to stop the mounting complexity.
It's a classic half hour of comedy. If only I hadn't seen it so many times that it's become more like a warm blanket than a hilarious bout of television. Despite that, it still really works, partly due to some sparkling dialogue but mostly due to the winning performances or practically everyone involved. Never will a eulogy be quite the same, having seen that given to the magnificent Captain Tuttle. There's a little Tuttle left in all of us, if we just let there be. Such a humanitarian, such a wonder.
This was going to be the latest instalment of 'Diary Of A Laundry Robot', but I was just too tired to write it. In such cases, it's best to do a little mini-review, and think about things that you're familiar with. In any case, integrating Egbert the Eccentric Elephant into an extra-dimensional continuum with a couple of laundry robots will require some thoughtless stupidity in execution. When in doubt, write about Frank Burns and his ordeals in MASH...
O.
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