Dr. Paula Hutchison, or Hutch for short, is a main character of Rocko's Modern Life. Originally a dentist, Hutch has also been a cashier, surgeon, veterinarian, obstetrician, and pharmacist. She has a large smile and very upbeat outlook on life.
Personality
Dr. Hutchison is a upbeat, peppy type, known for her distinctive grin. She is by far the most consistently compotent and moral O-Towner, being able to perform many selfless jobs that would require years of training by the end of her 20s, but is also highly eccentric, being prone to strange behaviors such as performing karate during a serious checkup and sleeping with a baboon heart. She can use her hook in any way that she'd use a paw. Hutch took a liking to Filburt and has encouraged him to do various things he was afraid of and eventually married him. Hutch's catchphrase is "'kay?", said while tilting her head.
History
She has a hook for a hand which does not hinder her normal activity in any way. It is unknown whether she lost her hand in an accident or was born with a defect. She also used the hook to defeat the Giant Mutant Tooth. Hutch's mother, Widow Hutchison, disallows the wedding between the two because of her belief that "cats and turtles don't mix", an obvious reference to interracial marriage.
Her first appearance was in "Rinse & Spit". While both Filburt and Hutch's families fight each other, it turns out that Hutch's father Frank Hutchison, who was thought to be dead, is actually a turtle, meaning that Widow did not want her daughter to marry Filburt because she did not get along with her own turtle husband. Hutch's catchphrase is "'kay?", said while tilting her head. She was the prom queen of O-Town High School.
In the final season of the series, she and Filburt eventually conceived, becoming pregnant with and giving birth to four of his children - three boys (Shellbert, Gilbert, and Norbert) and one girl (Missy) (in truth, rather than giving birth to them alive, she actually laid an egg). Two of their sons were turtles, their daughter was a cat, and their other son, Norbert, became a steer instead (Heffer incubated the egg, causing one of the children to take on his traits instead).
Behind the scenes
Early development
The team created Hutchison after Joe Murray attended a press conference for networks to market new seasons of television shows to the press. A reporter asked Murray why the show did not have any "positive female role models." Murray responded by stating that he had no positive role models, that people do not use cartoon characters as role models, and that television shows should not teach lessons. After the conference, some Nickelodeon executives told the reporter that they had plans to place female role models in the show and asked Murray to place an unused character, Magdalane (Rocko's narcoleptic sister), as a female role model. Murray refused to use Magdalane in that way because it went against his creative vision. Then, a female executive from Nickelodeon later requested Murray to create "a professional woman, someone with a good hook" and Murray started developing Hutch. The executive intended for the "good hook" to be a personality trait that attracts viewers; Murray instead gave Hutch a literal hook. Soon enough, Murray and the directors "grew to love her." Martin Olson, a writer, described the decision when Nickelodeon gave the "okay" for the marriage of Filburt and Paula Hutchison as one of the most memorable moments of the production. Olson said that the executives at first did not like the marriage idea which he came up with in his outline of "The Big Question"; linear character development did not exist in Nicktoons at the time. However, Murray convinced the executives to allow for the marriage to occur.
Trivia
- Despite marrying Filburt Shellbach, Dr. Hutchison is still referred to by her maiden name for the rest of the series. It is unknown if this is just for professional purposes, if her husband took the Hutchison surname, or simply because everyone refers to her by the full title. More likely, it may have been kept for the sake of not confusing viewers who hadn't seen the "The Big" episodes.
- In Creating Animated Cartoons With Character, Joe Murray claims that Dr. Hutchison lost her hand during her dental career, where a crocodile patient bit it off.