Paula Hutchison Gallery Sightings

Paula Hutchison (or Hutch for short) is a feline character voiced by Linda Wallem. 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 and Traits

She has a hook for a hand which does not hinder her normal activity in any way, since she lost her right hand in an unknown accident, giving a hook to replace her hand. She also used the hook to defeat the Giant Mutant Tooth. Hutch took a liking to Filburt and has encouraged him to do various things he's afraid of and eventually married him. Hutch's mother, the 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 Season 1 episode 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 Hutchison 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 Filbert eventually conceived, becoming pregnant with and giving birth to four of his children - three boys and one girl (in truth, rather than giving birth to them alive, she actually laid an egg - literally). Two of their sons were turtles, their daughter was a cat, and their other son became a steer instead (Heffer had turn in sitting on the egg, causing one of the children of taking on his traits instead). Despite her beauty, Hutch also seems to have a number of odd quirks, including the fact that she claimed to keep a baboon heart under her pillow.

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.