"Tuttle" is an episode from the television series ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. T ...

''. It was the 15th episode broadcast and aired on January 14, 1973. It was written by Bruce Shelly and

David Ketchum David Ketchum (born February 4, 1928, in Quincy, Illinois) is an American character actor, writer, and director perhaps most noted for playing Agent 13 on the 1960s sitcom '' Get Smart''. Ketchum studied physics at UCLA and joined other UCLA stu ...

and directed by William Wiard. This episode was nominated for a

Writers Guild Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility T ...

. Guest cast is

Dennis Fimple Dennis Clarke Fimple (November 11, 1940 – August 23, 2002) was an American actor. Biography Fimple was born in Ventura, California, the son of Dolly and Elmer Fimple. He graduated from Taft Union High School in 1958 and received a teaching c ...

as Sergeant "Sparky" Pryor, Mary-Robin Redd as Sister Theresa, Herb Voland as Brigadier General Crandell Clayton, and

James Sikking James Barrie Sikking (born March 5, 1934) is a former American actor, most known for his role as Lt. Howard Hunter on the 1980s TV series ''Hill Street Blues''. Early years Sikking was born in Los Angeles on March 5, 1934 to Andy and Sue (né ...

as a finance officer.

Overview

To create a way of diverting camp supplies to the local orphanage, Hawkeye and Trapper invent the fictional Captain Tuttle (based on Hawkeye's

imaginary friend Imaginary friends (also known as pretend friends, invisible friends or made-up friends) are a psychological and social phenomenon where a friendship or other interpersonal relationship takes place in the imagination rather than physical reality. ...

from childhood). With Radar's help, the doctors add more layers to their creation (such as a fake personnel file), and the deception slowly grows until nearly everyone at the 4077th believes Tuttle is a real person. The situation ultimately climaxes when they obtain Tuttle's back pay—fourteen months' worth—and donate it and Tuttle's future pay to the orphanage. However, matters threaten to spiral out of control when General Clayton decides to award Tuttle a medal for his actions. Hawkeye ends the problem by faking Tuttle's death, stating that he had heroically jumped into a combat zone without his parachute, and claiming that the orphanage is the sole beneficiary of the fictional doctor's GI insurance. As the episode ends, the Swampmen joke with each other about where they got a pair of dog tags they used to authenticate Tuttle's death—from the equally fictional Major Murdock. Captain Tuttle is a parody of

Lieutenant Kijé Lieutenant Kijé or Kizhe (russian: Пору́чик Киже́, translit. Poruchik Kizhe), originally Kizh (Киж), is a fictional character in an anecdote about the reign of Emperor Paul I of Russia, in which the cover up of a transcript ...

, the subject of a novella by Soviet author

Yury Tynyanov Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov ( rus, Ю́рий Никола́евич Тыня́нов, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ tɨˈnʲænəf; October 18, 1894 – December 20, 1943) was a Soviet writer, literary critic, translator, scholar and scre ...

. Kijé, who existed only on paper, was supposedly a soldier in the Czar's army. As with Captain Tuttle, the paperwork edifice begins to collapse when Lieutenant Kijé must make a personal appearance. The novella was made into a film, famous for its music by

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, ...

. This is the only episode of the series in which the normally

unseen character An unseen character in theatre, comics, film, or television, or silent character in radio or literature, is a character that is mentioned but not directly known to the audience, but who advances the action of the plot in a significant way, and w ...

of Sparky actually appears. In the closing credits, "Captain Tuttle" is credited as playing himself.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuttle (MASH) 1973 American television episodes M*A*S*H (season 1) episodes