Scriptwriter Burt Prelutsky, who wrote eight episodes of M*A*S*H between 1975 and 1977, died December 21st, 2021 at the age of 81. The first episode he wrote, “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler” from Season 4, earned him a Humanitas Prize nomination in 1977. He lost to Larry Gelbart and the script for the Season 4 finale, “The Interview.”
Prelutsky penned one other episode for Season 4, “The Novocaine Mutiny.” He wrote three episodes for Season 5: “Hawk’s Nightmare,” “The General’s Practitioner,” and “Souvenirs” (based on a story idea by Prelutsky and Reinhold Weege). He also wrote three episodes for Season 6: “The Light That Failed,” “Images,” and “The Grim Reaper.”
Prelutsky got his start in Hollywood as a movie critic, working for the Los Angeles Magazine from 1961 to 1971. In the late 1960s he wrote a number of episodes of Dragnet. During the 1970s, he wrote for shows like McMillan & Wife, Faraday and Company, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Rockford Files. He worked sporadically in the 1980s and 1990s and into the early 2000s. According to the Internet Movie Database, Prelutsky’s last credited television script was a 2001 episode of Diagnosis Murder; he later provided the story for a 2002 made-for-TV movie based on that series. He also wrote the script for a 2018 movie called Angels on Tap.
I can’t find any obituaries online but Burt Prelutsky’s official website notes his passing.
(Thanks to Dan.)
