M*A*S*H: Tuttle

M*A*S*H: Tuttle
CBS
January 14, 1973
Dramedy
DVD
B+

When a Bob Newhart Show episode in the first season is this good, it's not too surprising, but I am baffled by the miracle of an early M*A*S*H episode hitting this height.  David Ketchum and Bruce Shelly didn't write any other episodes, even of other of my shows.  (Ketchum does pop up as an actor on Mork & Mindy though.)  So I don't know if they wrote anything else this clever, both funny and thought-provoking.  Not only are there a lot of great lines, including the "Druid" ones and of course "There's a little Tuttle left in all of us.  In fact, you might say that all of us together made up Tuttle," but the way that Tuttle takes on a reality for everyone is wonderfully handled.  This is one of the episodes where Hawkeye, with of course the help of Radar, makes the Army bureaucracy work for him, rather than against him, and the cause, "Sister Theresa's orphanage," is undeniably a good one.  I would go with an A- or higher, but the pacing could be a shade faster and I wasn't on the floor laughing, just chuckling quietly.

Herb Voland returns as General Clayton.  James B. Sikking plays the Finance Officer.  Mary Robin Redd is Sister Theresa here and would be Susan Wick on Bob Newhart.  This is, by the way, the 500th program I've reviewed on this blog.