Title: M*A*S*H
Year: 1972–1983
Actors: Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, Jamie Farr, William Christopher, Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell, Gary Burghoff, Kellye Nakahara
Genre: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: USA
Viewing method: Selected episodes
Why in Database: Turtle elements appear in eight episodes of this series, mostly in the form of mentions in the dialogues.
The first turtle is mentioned in episode L.I.P. (Local Indigenous Personnel) (season 2, episode 7), one character asks another why he didn’t choose a more typical souvenir, such as a turtle with a painting of MacArthur (military commander).
– You couldn’t just go home with a Japanese bathrobe or a turtle with MacArthur painted on its back?
In O.R. (season 3, episode 5) one character says that his tortoiseshell brush is missing again somewhere.
– My personal tortoise-shell scrub brush given to me by my lovely mother with my initials in gold leaf, is missing out of the scrub room… again!
In Private Charles Lamb (Season 3, Episode 14), one of the heroes mentions that he had a twenty-year-old turtle that he raised from a pup.
– I’ve had dogs and hamsters and I got a 20-year-old turtle that I raised from a pup.
In Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler (season 4, episode 9), the conversation mentions how the heroes put a turtle into one of the heroes’ shorts.
– Oh, you’ve hated them since they stuck a turtle in your shorts.
In The More I See You (season 4, episode 22), one of the characters shows how he can pretend to be a turtle (we add screenshots from this point).
– There’s my impersonation, sir. I’m workin’ on a turtle.
– A turtle?
– Yes, sir.
– Ku-shhh! A turtle. That’s the best turtle I ever saw.
In The Korean Surgeon (season 5, episode 9) a jeep is compared by one of the characters to a turtle with an enlarged thyroid.
– Yeah, the jeep. It’s a big green thing. Looks like a turtle with a thyroid condition.
In Mail Call Three (season 6, episode 20) tortoiseshell is mentioned again – in form of a fountain pen. It is visible on the screen.
– Have you seen my tortoise pen? My tortoise shell fountain pen?
The most interesting piece of turtles is in C * A * V * E (season 7, episode 21). One of the characters suffers from claustrophobia, and asks another if he believes in reincarnation, continuing to reflect on what would happen if he returned as a turtle – fearing to hide in his own shell due to claustrophobia. This track, as the character’s creator admits, was the impetus for the creation of the turtle Franklin.
– Do you believe in reincarnation?
– What?
– Looking in there makes me think of all the things I wouldn’t want to come back as a snail, an oyster, a turtle. Can you imagine me as a turtle? Afraid to get into my own shell. I’d die of embarrassment, all the other turtles laughing at me in my underwear.
Author: XYuriTT
