Actor and scriptwriter David Ketchum, who co-wrote the Season 1 M*A*S*H episode “Tuttle” with Bruce Shelly, died earlier this month (August 10) at the age of 97. Ketchum got his start in show business in 1960 as an actor, making guest appearances on TV shows like Angel and The Jim Backus Show. During the 1962-1963 TV season, he was a regular on I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster, an ABC sitcom starring John Astin and Marty Ingels. He starred in Camp Runamuck on NBC for one season from 1965 to 1966.
Ketchum is perhaps most famous for his recurring role as Agent 13 on Get Smart from 1966 to 1967. He later returned as Agent 13 in the made-for-TV movie Get Smart, Again! on ABC in 1989 and in an episode of FOX’s short-lived Get Smart revival in 1996.
While still acting, Ketchum also began working as a scriptwriter in 1967, writing episodes of Hey, Landlord, Captain Nice, and Get Smart. Over the next two decades he penned episodes of a wide variety of TV shows, both sitcoms and dramas, including Here’s Lucy, Barefoot in the Park, The Six Million Dollar Man, Lucas Tanner, Blansky’s Beauties, Wonder Woman, On Our Own, The Bionic Woman, Happy Days, T.J. Hooker, MacGyver, and Highway to Heaven.
According to the Internet Movie Database, Ketchum’s final credit as a scriptwriter was a 1990 episode of Full House. His final acting role was in the 1999 movie The Other Sister.
Obituaries can be found at Deadline Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter, and The New York Times.
RIP David.
The episode Tuttle was a highlight of season 1 for sure, but I remember him mainly as the highly frustrated agent 13 from Get Smart!
Good memories!