The current blanket title was imposed for home video releases more than 40 years after the series originally aired and was never used when the show was televised; television airings of the show were broadcast under the titles ofRocky and His Friends from 1959 to 1961 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons on ABC (and again in Canada in 1963),The Bullwinkle Show from 1961 to 1964 on Sunday evening and then late Sunday afternoon on NBC, andThe Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (orThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle) as repeats from 1964-73 on Sunday mornings on ABC and in syndication following this.[8]
Rocky and Bullwinkle is known for quality writing and wry humor. Mixingpuns, cultural and topicalsatire, andself-referential humor, it appealed to adults as well as children.[7][9] It was also one of the first cartoons whose animation wasoutsourced; storyboards were shipped toGamma Productions, a Mexican studio also employed byTotal Television. The art has a choppy, unpolished look andthe animation is extremely limited even by television animation standards at the time, yet the series has long been held in high esteem; some critics described the series as a well-writtenradio program with pictures.[10]
The show was shuffled around several times during its run, airing in afternoon,prime time, andSaturday-morning cartoon timeslots, and was influential to other animated series fromThe Simpsons toRocko's Modern Life.[11] Segments from the series were later recycled in theHoppity Hooper show. There have been numerous feature film adaptations of the series' various segments, such as the 2000 filmThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, which blendedlive action and computer animation;[12] and the 1999 live-action filmDudley Do-Right.[13] Both films received poor reviews and were financially unsuccessful. By contrast, an animated feature film adaptation of the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment,Mr. Peabody & Sherman, was released to positive reviews in 2014, but was also financially unsuccessful. Arebooted animated series also based on "Peabody's Improbable History",The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show, debuted onNetflix in October 2015[14][15] and ran to April 2017.
Another reboot animated series based on the main and final segments,The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle premiered onAmazon Prime Video on May 11, 2018. In 2013,Rocky and His Friends andThe Bullwinkle Show were ranked the sixth-greatest television cartoon of all time byTV Guide.[16]
The idea for the series came fromJay Ward andAlex Anderson, who previously collaborated onCrusader Rabbit, based upon the original propertyThe Frostbite Falls Revue.[17] This original show never got beyond the proposal stage. It featured a group of forest animals running a television station. The group included Rocket J. Squirrel (Rocky), Oski Bear, Canadian Moose (Bullwinkle), Sylvester Fox, Blackstone Crow, and Floral Fauna. The show in this form was created by Alex Anderson.[18] (The bear and fox characters would later be retooled for Ward's next series,Hoppity Hooper.) Bullwinkle's name came from the name of a car dealership in Berkeley, California, called Bullwinkel Motors. Anderson changed the order of the last two letters of the name and gave the name to his moose.[19]
Ward wanted to produce the show in Los Angeles, but Anderson lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and did not want to relocate. As a result, Ward hiredBill Scott as head writer and co-producer at Jay Ward Productions, and he wrote theRocky and Bullwinkle features. Ward was joined by writersChris Hayward[20] andAllan Burns; they eventually became known for creatingThe Munsters with Burns going to co-createThe Mary Tyler Moore Show. In a 1982 interview, Scott said, "I got a call from Jay asking if I'd be interested in writing another series, an adventure script with a moose and a squirrel. I said, 'Sure.' I didn't know if I could write an adventure with a moose and a squirrel, but I never turned down a job."[21]
The series began with the pilotRocky the Flying Squirrel. Production began in February 1958 with the hiring ofvoice actorsJune Foray,Paul Frees, Bill Scott, andWilliam Conrad. Eight months later,General Mills signed a deal to sponsor the cartoon program, under the condition that the show be run in a late-afternoon time slot, when it could be targeted toward children. Subsequently, Ward hired the rest of the production staff, including writers and designers. However, no animators were hired. Ad executives atDancer, Fitzgerald and Sample, the advertising agency for General Mills, set up an animation studio in Mexico calledGamma Productions S.A. de C.V., originally known as Val-Mar Animation. Thisoutsourcing of the animation for the series was considered financially attractive by primary sponsor General Mills, but caused endless production problems. In a 1982 interview by animation historian Jim Korkis, Bill Scott described some of the problems that arose during production of the series:
We found out very quickly that we could not depend on Mexican studios to produce anything of quality. They were turning out the work very quickly and there were all kinds of mistakes and flaws and boo-boos... They would never check... Mustaches popped on and off Boris, Bullwinkle's antlers would change, colors would change, costumes would disappear... By the time we finally saw it, it was on the air.[22]
The show was titledRocky and His Friends while airing on ABC......and was later re-titledThe Bullwinkle Show after its move to NBC
The show was broadcast for the first time on November 19, 1959, on theABC television network, under the titleRocky and His Friends, twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, followingAmerican Bandstand at 4:30 p.m.ET, where it was the highest-rated daytime network program.[23] The show moved to theNBC network starting September 24, 1961, broadcast in color, and first appeared on Sundays at 7:00 p.m., just beforeWalt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.Bullwinkle's ratings suffered as a result of airing opposite perennial favoriteLassie. A potential move toCBS[22] caused NBC to reschedule the show to late Sunday afternoons (5:30 p.m.)[22] and early Saturday afternoons in its final season. NBC canceled the show in the summer of 1964. It was shopped to ABC, but they were not interested. However, reruns of episodes were aired on ABC's Sunday morning schedule at 11:00 a.m. until 1973, at which time the series went into syndication.
An abbreviated 15-minute version of the series ran in syndication in the 1960s under the titleThe Rocky Show. This version was sometimes shown in conjunction withThe King and Odie, a 15-minute version of Total Television'sKing Leonardo and His Short Subjects.The King and Odie was similar toRocky and Bullwinkle in that it was sponsored by General Mills and animated by Gamma Productions.
The Bullwinkle Show returned to network television during the 1981-1982 season, when NBC aired it at 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoons. These were rebroadcasts of the original 35mm network prints as Jay Ward produced them, without the Total Television fillers added to the 16mm syndication prints.
Title card from the syndicated run under the titleThe Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky
Reruns of the show aired on ABC from 1964 to 1973 and from 1981 to 1982 on NBC.[24] On cable, the series had extended runs onNickelodeon (1992–1996),Cartoon Network (1996–2003) andBoomerang (mid 2000s). Since the late 2000s, The Program Exchange has typically only licensed the series for short-term runs; nationally, the series has seen limited airings onWGN America (2009),VH1 Classic (2012), and Boomerang (2013). Since The Program Exchange's demise, the series has resurfaced over-the-air onMeTV Toons as of 2024, airing under the title "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" for the first time on American television, however the series' broadcast on the station has been paused since January 2025 per request of WildBrain, after the rights reverted from them over to the Jay Ward Estate.[25]
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show remained insyndicatedreruns and was still available for local television stations throughThe Program Exchange as late as 2016;WBBZ-TV, for instance, aired the show in astrip tocounterprogram10 PM newscasts in theBuffalo, New York, market during the summer 2013 season.[26] The underlying rights were then owned byWildBrain, who acquired the licensing, production, and distribution rights to Ward's library in 2022.[27] They expired, however, in 2025, with them currently being reverted to the Jay Ward Estate. These rights were previously held byUniversal Pictures, which acquired the library of predecessor companiesDreamWorks Animation andClassic Media in 2016 (coinciding with The Program Exchange's shutdown), and who in turn with copyright holder Ward Productions formed the joint venture Bullwinkle Studios, which managed the Rocky and Bullwinkle properties. Despite the move, Universal still owns the rights to the co-productions Ward produced with DreamWorks.
SponsorGeneral Mills retained all United States television rights to the series. Two packages, each containing different episodes, are available. The syndicated version ofThe Bullwinkle Show contains 98 half-hour shows (#801–898).[28] The first 78 comprise the Rocky and Bullwinkle story lines from the first two seasons of the original series (these segments originally aired under theRocky and His Friends title). Other elements in the half-hour shows (Fractured Fairy Tales,Peabody's Improbable History,Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties,Aesop and Son, and short cartoons includingBullwinkle's Corner andMr. Know-It-All) sometimes appear out of the original broadcast sequence. The final 20 syndicatedBullwinkle Show episodes feature laterRocky and Bullwinkle story lines (from "Bumbling Bros. Circus" through the end of the series, minus "Moosylvania") along withFractured Fairy Tales,Bullwinkle's Corner, andMr. Know-It-All segments repeated from earlier in the syndicated episode cycle. Originally, many syndicated shows included segments of Total Television'sThe World ofCommander McBragg, but these cartoons were replaced with other segments when the shows were remastered in the early 1990s. A package, promoted under theRocky and His Friends name but utilizingThe Rocky Show titles, features story lines not included in the syndicatedBullwinkle Show series.[29]
The most recently syndicatedRocky and His Friends package retains the 15-minute format, consisting of 156 individual episodes, but likeThe Bullwinkle Show, the content differs from the versions syndicated in the 1960s.[29] The various supporting segments, includingFractured Fairy Tales (91),Peabody's Improbable History (91), andAesop and Son (39) segments are syndicated as part ofTennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, and 38 of the 39Dudley Do-Right cartoons are syndicated as part ofDudley Do Right(sic) and Friends. Syndicated versions of the shows distributed outside of the United States and Canada combine the various segments under the package titleThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends; it is this version of the show that is represented on officialDVD releases through DreamWorks Classics and the official online version sold at websites such asAmazon Video.
From left to right: Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz
The lead characters and heroes of the series wereRocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel, aflying squirrel (who anchored the perspective of the show's younger audience), and his best friendBullwinkle J. Moose, a dimwitted but good-naturedmoose (who carried a bulk of the adult humor with his spontaneous puns). Both characters lived in the fictional town of Frostbite Falls,Minnesota, which was purportedly based on the real city ofInternational Falls, Minnesota.[30] The scheming villains in most episodes were the fiendish spiesBoris Badenov (a pun onBoris Godunov) andNatasha Fatale (a pun onfemme fatale), forever attempting to "catch Moose and Squirrel". Other characters includedFearless Leader, the dictator of the fictitious nation ofPottsylvania and Boris and Natasha's superior;Gidney & Cloyd, little green men from the Moon who were armed with scrooch guns; Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz, the incompetentEd Wynn-esque captain of the S.S.Andalusia; various U.S. government bureaucrats and politicians (such as Senator Fussmussen, a recurring character who opposed admittingAlaska andHawaii to the Union on the grounds of his ownxenophobia); and the inevitable onlookers, Edgar and Chauncy.
When first shown on NBC, the cartoons were introduced by a Bullwinkle puppet, voiced by Bill Scott, who would often lampoon celebrities, current events, and especiallyWalt Disney, whose programWonderful World of Color was next on the schedule. Compared with the dim-witted and lovable moose that most fans of the series would grow up with, in this short-lived version Bullwinkle was portrayed as a sarcastic smart-aleck. On one occasion, "Bullwinkle" encouraged children to pull the tuning knobs off their television sets ("It's loads of fun, and that way, you'll be sure to be with us next week!"). The network received complaints from parents of an estimated 20,000 child viewers who actually did so. Bullwinkle told the children the following week to put the knobs back on with glue "and make it stick!" The puppet sequence was dropped altogether.[31] Scott later re-used the puppet for a segment called "Dear Bullwinkle," where letters written for the show were read and answered humorously.[32] Four episodes of "Dear Bullwinkle" are on the Season 1 DVD.
Each episode is composed of twoRocky and Bullwinklecliffhanger shorts that stylistically emulated earlyradio and film serials. The plots of these shorts would combine intostory arcs spanning numerous episodes. The first and longest story arc wasJet Fuel Formula consisting of 40 shorts (20 episodes). Stories ranged from seeking the missing ingredient for a rocket fuel formula, to tracking the monstrous whaleMaybe Dick, to an attempt to prevent mechanical metal-munching moon mice from devouring the nation's television antennas. Rocky and Bullwinkle frequently encounter the two Pottsylvanian nogoodniks, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. In each adventure, the title characters stumble into an absurd situation, which leads to a sequence of further absurd situations.
At the end of most episodes, the narrator,William Conrad, would announce two humorous titles for the next episode that typically were puns of each other (and usually related more to the current predicament than to the plot of the next episode). For example, during an adventure taking place in amountain range, the narrator would state, "Be with us next time for 'Avalanche Is Better Than None,' or 'Snow's Your Old Man.'" Such a 'This' or 'That' title announcement was borrowed fromThe Adventures of Sam Spade radio shows produced in 1946–1950. The narrator frequently spoke with the characters, thus breaking thefourth wall.
Episodes were introduced with one of four opening sequences:
Rocky flies about snow-covered mountains. Below him, hiking on a snowy trail, Bullwinkle is distracted by a billboard featuring his name, and walks off a ledge. He becomes a large snowball as he rolls downhill. Rocky flies to him and pushes against the snowball, slowing it to a halt at the edge of another cliff. Bullwinkle pops out of the snowball to catch the teetering squirrel at the cliff edge.
In a circus, Rocky is preparing to jump from a high diving board into a tub of water tended by Bullwinkle. However, when Rocky jumps, he ends up flying around the circus tent, while Bullwinkle chases after him carrying the tub. As Rocky lands safely, Bullwinkle tumbles into the tub. This was the same intro used for the Buena Vista VHS series in the early 1990s.[33]
Rocky is flying acrobatically about a city landscape. Bullwinkle is high atop a flagpole painting, and is knocked from his perch as the squirrel flies by. Rocky attempts to catch the plummeting moose with a butterfly net, but the moose falls through. Rocky then flies lower to find his friend suspended from a clothesline, having fallen into a pair oflong johns.
Similar to the previous opening, Rocky is again flying about the city. Bullwinkle is suspended from a safety harness posting a sign on a large billboard. He loses his balance as the squirrel zooms past him and tumbles off the platform. The moose lands on a banner pole mounted on the side of a building, and the recoil springs him back into the air. He lands on a store awning, slides down, and drops a few feet to a bench on which Rocky is seated. The impact launches the squirrel off the bench, and Bullwinkle nonchalantly catches him in his left hand to end the sequence.
Episodes ended with abumper sequence in which a violent lightning storm destroys the landscape, appearing to engulf Rocky and Bullwinkle in the destruction and accompanied by dramatic piano music. The music would become more lighthearted, and the ground would scroll upward while the outlines of the heroes gradually appeared. We then see a smiling sun overlooking a barren field which rapidly fills withsunflowers until Rocky and Bullwinkle finally sprout from the ground.[34]
TheRocky and Bullwinkle shorts serve as "bookends" for popular supporting features, including:
"Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", a parody of early-20th-centurymelodrama andsilent film serials of theNorthern genre. Dudley Do-Right is aCanadian Mountie in constant pursuit of his nemesis,Snidely Whiplash, who sports the standard "villain" attire of black top hat, cape, and largehandlebar moustache. This is one of the few Jay Ward cartoons to feature a background music track (by Dennis Farnon). As is standard in Ward's cartoons, jokes often have more than one meaning. A standard gag is to introduce characters in an irised close-up with the name of fictional actors displayed in a caption below, a convention seen in some early silent films. The names are usually silly names or subtle puns, e.g., Abraham Wilkes Booth as Dudley Do-Right, Sweetness N. Light asNell Fenwick, and Claud Hopper as Snidely Whiplash. On one occasion, Whiplash's role is credited to the then-incarcerated bank robberWillie Sutton. Occasionally, even the scenery is introduced in this manner, as when "Dead Man's Gulch" is identified as being portrayed by "Gorgeous Gorge," a reference to professional wrestlerGorgeous George.
Sherman (left) andMr. Peabody (right) enter the Wayback machine ca. 1960 to witness another time and place in history.
"Peabody's Improbable History" features a genius talking dog namedMr. Peabody who has a pet human boy named Sherman. Mr. Peabody is named after a dog belonging to Scott's son John; Sherman is named after UPA director Sherman Glas. Peabody and Sherman use Peabody's "WABAC machine" (pronounced "way-back", spelled WAYBAC in season 1, episode 4 ("Wyatt Earp"), and partially a play on words of the names of early computers such asUNIVAC andENIAC) to go back in time to discover thereal story behind historical events, and in many cases, intervene with uncooperative historical figures to ensure that events transpire as history has recorded.[35] The term "Wayback Machine" is used to this day in Internet applications such as Wikipedia and theInternet Archive to refer to the ability to see or revert to older content. These segments are famous for including a terrible pun at the end. Perhaps the worst one appears in the "Mata Hari" episode, where Peabody explains that the entire population of Scotland was evacuated in a zeppelin: "one nation in dirigible."
"Fractured Fairy Tales" presented familiar fairy tales and children's stories, but with altered, modernized storylines for humorous,satirical effect. This segment was narrated byEdward Everett Horton;June Foray, Bill Scott, Paul Frees, andDaws Butler supplied the voices.[36] A typical example was their spin on "Sleeping Beauty." In this version, the prince (a caricature of Walt Disney)doesn't wake up Sleeping Beauty; instead, he builds a theme-park around her ("Sleeping Beautyland"), and gets headlines inVariety magazine ("Doze Doll Duz Wiz Biz" and "Doze Doll Dull").
"Aesop and Son" is similar to "Fractured Fairy Tales", complete with the same theme music, except it deals withfables instead of fairy tales. The typical structure consists ofAesop attempting to teach a lesson to his son using a fable. After hearing the story, the son subverts the fable's moral with a pun. This structure was also suggested by the feature's opening titles, which showed Aesop painstakingly carving his name in marble using a mallet and chisel and then his son, with a jackhammer and raising a cloud of dust, appending "And Son." Aesop was voiced (uncredited) by actorCharlie Ruggles[37] and the son, Junior, was voiced by Daws Butler.
"Mr. Know-It-All" again features Bullwinkle posing as an authority on any topic. Disaster inevitably ensues.Boris Badenov plays a variety of roles as Bullwinkle's antagonist in most of the segments.[38]
"The Bullwinkle and Rocky Fan Club", a series of abortive attempts by Rocky and Bullwinkle to conduct club business. The fan club consists only of Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha, and Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz. These shorts portray the characters as somewhat out of character, with even more fourth-wall breaks than in the story arcs.
Some later syndication prints ofThe Bullwinkle Show include short segments ofThe World of Commander McBragg: a tale-spinning windbag regaling a skeptical friend with exaggerated feats of heroism. These short features were never part of the Bullwinkle canon. They were actually prepared forTennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (and later shown onThe Underdog Show). Although the shorts were animated by the same company, Gamma Productions of Mexico, they were produced for Total Television, rather than Ward Productions. These segments were packaged with pre-1990 syndicated versions ofThe Bullwinkle Show and appear in syndicated episodes ofThe Underdog Show,Dudley Do-Right and Friends, andUncle Waldo's Cartoon Show. Since 1990, this feature has been deleted from the Bullwinkle library and has never been included in Bullwinkle home videos.
Boris Badenov, Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz, Cloyd, Inspector Fenwick, narrator forDudley Do-Right (shared), various historical figures inPeabody's Improbable History
In 1962, as a publicity stunt, Ward leased a small island on a lake between Minnesota and Canada, which he named after "Moosylvania",[39] a small island shown in the laterRocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. In a campaign to make the island into the 51st state, he and Scott drove a van across the country to about 50–60 cities collecting petition signatures. Arriving in Washington, D.C., they pulled up to theWhite House gate to seePresident Kennedy, and were brusquely turned away. They had arrived during the height of theCuban Missile Crisis.[40][41]
Also in 1962, British Invasion bandHerman's Hermits got its name because bandmates thought lead singerPeter Noone looked like Sherman of "Mr. Peabody" fame, and the name "Herman" was close enough to "Sherman" for them.[42]
In the sci-fi movieBack to the Future, Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to November 5, 1955, ending up on the Twin Pines Ranch, owned by "Old Man Peabody," who angrily shoots at the DeLorean, mistaking it as a spaceship, taken from his son Sherman, when Marty, who was also mistaken as an alien, accidentally killed a pine sapling. DirectorRobert Zemeckis named the landowner after Mr. Peabody, the time-traveling dog: the subtle joke being that Mr. Peabody apparently didnot take kindly to competing time-travelers.
In 2002,TV Guide named Rocky and Bullwinkle as the joint third-greatest cartoon character of all time.[46]
In January 2009,IGN namedRocky and Bullwinkle as the 11th-best animated television series.[47]
In 2012, Mr. Peabody and Sherman from the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment appeared inMetLife's "Everyone" commercial duringthe 2012 Superbowl.[48]
There were a few attempts to reviveRocky & Bullwinkle throughout the 1970s. A revival in 1981 parodied theSuper Bowl. A script was written, storyboards were produced, the NBC network gave it a green light, but the project was canceled because of objections from theNFL (actual team owners were parodied, theSuper Bowl championship was lampooned as the "Stupor Bowl", and Boris wasfixing the game).[22]
Another revival attempt took place at Disney in the mid-1980s, back when the company was distributing the show on VHS. Developed byTad Stones andMichael Peraza Jr., the revival was namedThe Secret Adventures of Bullwinkle and would have been a modern take on the old Bullwinkle show, with the return of characters like Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Dudley Do-Right and would have featured new segments like "Fractured Scary Tales", a parody of horror films, and a new "Mr. Know It All" skit that, among other things, had Bullwinkle programming a VCR. Before the two presented their pitch, they discovered Disney did not own theRocky and Bullwinkle franchise, and the concept was abandoned.[49]
The program debuted on home video with two compilationCED Videodiscs released by RCA during the format's rise in the early 1980s, featuring complete, uncut story arcs and accompanying alternating segments and bumpers. Volume 1 contained the complete story forWossamotta U, while volume 2 containedGoof Gas Attack andThe Three Mooseketeers.
Buena Vista Home Video released the show on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc in the early 1990s, under the titleThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. These are presented differently from when broadcast. Two "Rocky and Bullwinkle" chapters were sometimes edited together into one (removing the "titles" for the next chapters as well as part of the recap at the beginning of the next), usually showing the storyline in four or five chapters per video. For example, the 12-episodeWossamotta U adventure is reduced to five episodes, and runs about seven minutes shorter. The "Bullwinkle Show" closing was used on these.
The first eight videos were released under the "Classic Stuff" banner, with covers and titles being parodies of famous paintings or painters. Four more videos were released under the "Funny Stuff" banner but, unlike the first eight, these were not numbered, the video titles matched the title of the featured "Rocky and Bullwinkle" storyline, and the covers represented scenes from shows (such as Bullwinkle pulling a rhino out of a hat as the cover for "Painting Theft" (the change in the banner might have been due to a video magazine publishing a letter criticizing the editing).
Volume # (LD #)
VHS/Betamax name
Episodes
Additional segments
1. (1)
"Mona Moose"
"The Treasure of Monte Zoom"
Fractured Fairy Tales: Riding Hoods Anonymous,Bullwinkle's Corner: How to Be Happy (Though Miserable),Peabody's Improbable History: Robinson Crusoe,Mr. Know-it-All: How to Get into the Movies Without Buying a Ticket,Dudley Do-Right: The Disloyal Canadians
2. (1)
"Birth of Bullwinkle"
"The Ruby Yacht"
Bullwinkle's Corner: Little Miss Muffet,Fractured Fairy Tales: Sleeping Beauty,Mr. Know-it-All: How to Catch a Bee and Make Your Honey Happy,Peabody's Improbable History: Robin Hood,Dudley Do-Right: Flicker Rock
3. (2)
"Vincent van Moose"
"Goof Gas Attack"
Mr. Know-it-All: How to Be an Archaeologist and Dig Ancient History,Fractured Fairy Tales: Rapunzel,Dudley Do-Right: Finding Gold,Aesop and Son: The Dog and His Shadow
Peabody's Improbable History: Cleopatra,Bullwinkle's Corner: The Queen of Hearts,Dudley Do-Right: Mountie Without a Horse,Fractured Fairy Tales: The Ugly Almond Duckling
Dudley Do-Right: Saw Mill,Fractured Fairy Tales: The Frog Prince,Aesop and Son: The Jackrabbits and the Mule
6. (3)
"Canadian Gothic"
Four "Dudley Do-Right" segments, instead of a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" storyline ("Marigolds", "Lure of the Footlights", "Trading Places", and "Snidely Arrested")
Aesop and Son: The Hound and the Wolf,Bullwinkle's Corner: Simple Simon,Fractured Fairy Tales: The Frog Prince,Peabody's Improbable History: The Royal Mounted Police,Mr. Know-it-All: How to Do Stunts in the Movies Without Having the Usher Throw You Out
Aesop and Son: The Mice in Council,Mr. Know-it-All: How to Direct Temperamental Movie Stars,Bullwinkle's Corner: Tom Tom the Piper's Son,Peabody's Improbable History: Whistler's Mother,Dudley Do-Right: Railroad Tracks,Fractured Fairy Tales: Little Red Riding Hood
8. (4)
"Norman Moosewell"
"Wossamotta U"
Bullwinkle's Fan Club: Enlarging the Membership,Peabody's Improbable History: William Shakespeare,Fractured Fairy Tales: Son of Rumpelstiltskin,Dudley Do-Right: Mother Love
9. (5)
"Pottsylvania Creeper"
"Pottsylvania Creeper"
Dudley Do-Right: Recruiting Campaign,Bullwinkle's Corner: Mary Had a Little Lamb,Peabody's Improbable History: Lawrence of Arabia,Fractured Fairy Tales: Red White,Mr. Know-It-All: How to Sell Vacuum Cleaners and Clean Up,Aesop and Son: The Centipede and the Snail
10. (5)
"Painting Theft"
"Painting Theft"
Fractured Fairy Tales: Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess,Mr. Know-it-All: How to Be a Cowpuncher Without Getting Hit Back,Peabody's Improbable History: Mata Hari,Bullwinkle's Corner: Hickory Dickory Dock,Dudley Do-Right: Coming-Out Party
Peabody's Improbable History: William Tell,Bullwinkle's Corner: Wee Willie Winkie,Dudley Do-Right: Mortgagin' the Mountie Post,Mr. Know-it-All: How to Escape from Devil's Island and Get Away From it All,Fractured Fairy Tales: Hansel and Gretel
12. (6)
"Banana Formula"
"Banana Formula"
Peabody's Improbable History: Bonnie Prince Charlie,Mr. Know-It-All: How to Win Friends and Be Influential with People,Aesop and Son: The King of the Jungle,Bullwinkle's Corner: The Daffodils,Dudley Do-Right: Trap Bait,Fractured Fairy Tales: The Golden Goose
In 2002, Jay Ward Productions established a partnership withClassic Media calledBullwinkle Studios.[citation needed] From 2003 to 2005, the partnership produced DVDs of the first three seasons of the series, which were renamed (for legal reasons)Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends. Releases then stalled until 2010, when season 4 was released, in part to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the series.[50] The complete series was released on January 4, 2011,[51] marking the debut of season 5 on DVD. A standalone release of season 5 was released on March 29, 2011.[52] The DVDs for the first three seasons were distributed bySony Wonder, while seasons 4, 5, and Complete Series sets are currently distributed byVivendi Entertainment. The complete series was re-released on DVD again on March 12, 2019, byUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment, to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary.[53]
The DVD releases differ somewhat from the originals. The original opening bumpers as seen on the network run were restored, but the title of the show was replaced with the name "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" (never used during the show's original run, and only on international broadcasts from 1997) and a modern logo with styling inconsistent with the rest of the animation (pictured) somewhat clumsily inserted into the original bumpers.[54] AWilliam Conrad sound-alike (Keith Scott) was used to announce the new title, which some viewers found jarring.[54] In addition, a semi-transparent "R&B" logo appears for five seconds at the beginning of each segment in the lower right-hand corner. Some segments were moved from their position in the original episodes. Also, the season 5 shows on DVD recycle supporting features found on the DVDs for the first four seasons. Mathematically, this makes sense, since the total number of supporting features (assuming two used per show) exactly equals the number of shows created during the first four seasons. The first set, most of the second set, and the fifth season set use the second opening and closing used for theRocky and His Friends broadcast, while the last two story arcs in the second set, as well as the third- and fourth-season sets, use the original opening and closing from theRocky and His Friends broadcast. Frank Comstock's musical themes are replaced on the sets with Fred Steiner's music produced forThe Bullwinkle Show due to copyright issues regarding the former’s music cues. These remasters are the first time a few of these music cues from Fred Steiner have been heard in the series. In addition, the first four season sets include optional Spanish-language audio tracks.
In 2005, Classic Media released a series of "best of" DVD compilations of popular segments of the series: two volumes ofThe Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle, plus the single-volumeThe Best of Boris and Natasha,The Best of Mr. Peabody and Sherman,The Best of Fractured Fairy Tales, andThe Best of Dudley Do-Right. These compilations contain episodes from the entire run of the show.
On October 30, 2012, Classic Media released a DVD calledThe Complete Fractured Fairy Tales, which includes all 91Fractured Fairy Tales segments.
On May 14, 2019, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released a 2-disc DVD calledMr. Peabody & Sherman: The Complete Collection, which includes all 91Peabody's Improbable History segments.
During the time the show was available onHulu (it was offered as a free series before it went to a subscription-only model), the DVD versions of the episodes were used instead of the syndication prints.
Network promos; "Savings Stamp Club" episode; "Dear Bullwinkle" bumpers; "The Many Faces of Boris Badenov" (a montage of Boris scenes); two segments from Season Two's "Metal Munching Mice"
Interview with June Foray; Three Cheerios commercials (storyboard and final versions); "Moosecalls: The Best of Bullwinkle Sings" (a parody of television ads for compilation records); a segment from Season Three's "Missouri Mish Mash"
Bullwinkle puppet openings; "The Best of Bullwinkle Follies" (avaudeville-themed montage of clips); the first segment of Season Four's "Painting Theft"
Years after the Buena Vista VHS releases ended, another series of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" VHS tapes were released, both separately and as a boxed set. These videos includedUpsidaisium,The Last Angry Moose,Metal-Munching Mice,Much Mud, andRue Britannia. However, these were released throughGoodTimes Home Video and were not authorized by Ward Productions. The copies used were from 16 mmBullwinkle Show prints. Some other companies also released unauthorized editions ofRocky and Bullwinkle, including Nostalgia Family Video, which also released all 98 ofThe Bullwinkle Show package shows via 16 mmBullwinkle Show prints, and Bridgestone Multimedia, which released eight episodes asRocky and his Friends using an old broadcast 16 mm print.
The copyright status of these 98 episodes (along with some episodes ofHoppity Hooper) is disputed.[60] As of 2017, the copyright is generally recognized as valid, and attempts to post the gray-market releases on video sites have historically been greeted withDMCAtake down notices.
On April 12, 2018, it was announced that a reboot of the series fromDreamWorks Animation would premiere onAmazon Prime Video on May 11, 2018. The series is executive produced byScott Fellows and Tiffany Ward (the daughter of Jay). The cast includesTara Strong as Rocky, Brad Norman as Bullwinkle,Ben Diskin as Boris, Rachel Butera as Natasha, Piotr Michael as Fearless Leader, andDaran Norris as the Narrator.[61]
In 1966, the duo appeared between show segments in ads forGeneral Mills' Frosty O's cereal[62] and Kendall "Curad Comic Strips" plastic bandages[63]
In the mid-1960s, the show promoted the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Saving Stamp Club" (at the time, theU.S. Post Office was directly under control of the federal government).Stamp albums of unused stamps could be exchanged forU.S. savings bonds, which paid interest.[64] To date, Rocky and Bullwinkle have not appeared on any U.S. postage stamps.
Rocky and Bullwinkle were in a 1986 television commercial forHershey's Kisses snack pack (this was Bill Scott's final appearance as Bullwinkle before his death).[65]
In the 1990s, Rocky and Bullwinkle appeared in some ads forTaco Bell, wherein they ate real tacos by stopping Boris and Natasha from selling burgers.[65]
In 1993, Rocky and Bullwinkle appeared in an advertisement for their ownvitaminsoda pop which was in different colorful flavors including Bullwinkle’s favorite MooseBerry.
In 1995, Boris and Natasha appeared in twoEnergizer batteries commercials, in which the spies are trying to stop theEnergizer Bunny. Rocky and Bullwinkle also appeared in a commercial.
In 1998, Rocky and Bullwinkle appeared in a commercial forTarget Corporation where Boris and Natasha captured them and the two spies go shopping for a Black Friday sale.
In 1997, TheLos Angeles Opera toured a children's production, namedLes Moose: The Operatic Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, around various L.A. County Elementary Schools. The story followed Boris and Natasha as they tried to steal the formula for Mooseberry Rocket Fuel from Bullwinkle J. Moose.[67][68][69]
A syndicated daily newspaper comic strip titledBullwinkle began on July 23, 1962, with original stories drawn byAl Kilgore. It was syndicated by theBell Syndicate and ended in 1965.[70]
Rocky and Bullwinkle stories were published inFour Color.
Rocky and Bullwinkle comic books were published byDell Comics,Gold Key Comics,Charlton Comics andStar Comics (an imprint ofMarvel Comics). All were calledBullwinkle and Rocky. The comics, although for children, did contain numerous references spoofing issues such as celebrity worship or the politics of the 1980s. In one Star Comics issue, Bullwinkle owns a small company, which makes him eligible to compete in a fun run in Washington, D.C., for presidents of small companies. When Bullwinkle says he is there for the race, it is mistaken that he is campaigning for President. The comic also spoofed U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan, and he personally thanks Bullwinkle for stopping Boris and Natasha by rewarding him with monogrammedjelly beans. Another comic broke the fourth wall when the narrator is outraged at a plot of Boris', to which Boris claims he has control of everyone "by capturing the Marvel Comics building and tying up the editor". When the narrator comments on how this is morally wrong, Boris quiets him by saying, "You will agree or you will not find paycheck in mail this month!" The same issue made reference to the1988 Olympics, which Boris had engineering inFort Knox, Kentucky, in an attempt to steal its gold by carving all the bars into gold medals, as well as furnishing false information to every country so Pottsylvania would win all the gold medals (and thus take all true gold) by virtue of default. After Boris is foiled, the narrator comments that the games will go on as planned in real time inSeoul,South Korea.
From 2013 to 2014,IDW Publishing withDreamWorks Classics and Bullwinkle Studios released comics ofRocky and Bullwinkle,Dudley Do-Right andPeabody and Sherman.[71]
From 2017 to 2020, American Mythology Productions released comics of Rocky and Bullwinkle and it was written byTodd Livingston.[72]
Boris and Natasha: The Movie (1992), is a live-actionfeature film starring the two villainous spies. Neither Rocky nor Bullwinkle appears in this film; however, the characters of Toots and Harve are identified as "Moose" and "Squirrel" at one point in the film. The film was originally intended for theatrical release, but was premiered onShowtime.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) is a theatrical film starring Rocky and Bullwinkle. It was a mix of live-action with Rocky and Bullwinkle appearing as computer-animated cartoon characters created byIndustrial Light & Magic. June Foray returned to voice Rocky, while Bullwinkle was voiced byKeith Scott.Robert De Niro,Jason Alexander andRene Russo played the live-action versions of Fearless Leader, Boris and Natasha, respectively. This film takes place 35 years after the show's cancellation.
Rocky and Bullwinkle is a short animated film produced byDreamWorks Animation, and directed byGary Trousdale. It was originally planned to theatrically accompany the DreamWorks' feature film,Mr. Peabody & Sherman,[74] but was instead released on theBlu-ray 3D release of the film.[75] The short features Foray reprising Rocky[76] andTom Kenny as Bullwinkle.
Golden Records released a phonograph album of songs,Rocky the Flying Squirrel & His Friends (1961), usingvoice actors from the series. Boris and Natasha, for example, sing: "We will double, single and triple cross our very closest friends!"
A 78 rpm single (Golden 659) was released on yellow vinyl. This had Rocky singing "I Was Born To Be Airborne" on one side, backed with Bullwinkle singing "I'm Rocky's Pal". The single sold in grocery stores. Paul Parnes (who later wrote songs forSesame Street) is credited as composer. "Some nutty characters get together here for the benefit of the very young. Lots of laughs for the juvenile sense of humor."[77]
The pseudonymously named Boris Badenough released a record called "Hey Rocky!" on Trax Records in 1986. The record featured a house-music beat underneath clips from the series.[78]
In 2007,Blackstone Audio released the audio tracks of 15 of theFractured Fairy Tales on CD.[79]
In 1999,Mattel released a numbered collector series under itsHot Wheels toy line, the "Car-Toon Friends" series.[44] It contained four cars; the now-retired model "XT-3" for Rocky, "Double Vision" for Bullwinkle, "Saltflat Racer" for Natasha and "Lakestar" for Boris.[80] They are no longer produced with these paint jobs and, as of December 2012, are hard to find.[citation needed]
In the Season 9 episode ofFox'sThe Simpsons titled "Simpson Tide", the opening couch gag is a recreation of theRocky and Bullwinkle animated bumper seen at the end of eachBullwinkle short. The music accompanying it is also adapted from the original music in the bumper.
Rocky and Bullwinkle made a brief cameo in theComedy Central animated showDrawn Together in the episode "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education" when the hospital's waiting room features cartoon cameos including Rocky getting stuck into Bullwinkle's anus.
In the animated seriesArthur, the opening sequence of "Do You Believe in Magic?" parodies Bullwinkle attempting to pull a rabbit out of a magician's hat. Arthur pulls alion out by mistake and says "Nothing up my sleeve...presto!" However, unlike Bullwinkle, Arthurdoes manage to pull a rabbit out of a hat: Buster, who claims "And now here's something we hope you really like!", just like Rocky would.
TheTiny Toon Adventures episode, "Acme Cable TV" starts out with a spoof called "The Adventures of Babsy and Buswinkle", in which the titular characters are tied to a missile aimed for the Bay of Pigs (a bay populated with actual pigs) and make fun of early 1960's references on their way.
The season 3Rugrats episode "Sour Pickles" features a flashback to Stu and Drew as babies watching "Blocky and Oxwinkle" with June Foray providing the voices of Blocky and Svetlana.
In an episode ofAdult Swim'sRobot Chicken, in the "Papercut to Aorta" segment "Of Moose and Squirrel", acutout animatedRocky and Bullwinkle spoof ofJohn Steinbeck'sOf Mice and Men has the duo playing George and Lennie, respectively, acting out some of the major moments of the story.
A season 6 episode ofThe Powerpuff Girls, called "I See a Funny Cartoon in Your Future", is a homage toRocky and Bullwinkle, lacking background music, the narrator talking constantly, pointing out the obvious and making puns, Madame Argentina (the antagonist of the episode) being voiced byJune Foray and a cliffhanger with two different titles.
Rocky and Bullwinkle made cameos in the background in theSouth Park trilogy "Imaginationland". CreatorsTrey Parker andMatt Stone have mentionedRocky and Bullwinkle as one of their biggest influences forSouth Park, primarily for its humor and satire.
In theseason 5 episode ofSpongeBob SquarePants titled "Stanley S. SquarePants", a squirrel character who resembles Rocky made a cameo on a TV screen whileSpongeBob's cousin Stanley changes the channels but accidentally destroys the TV.
Rocky and Bullwinkle has been referenced several times inFamily Guy.
In the Season 3 episode "The Thin White Line",Peter mistakes thetanning beds as time machines and accidentally pulls out alion and Rocky (with June Foray reprising her role) shows up and says, "And now, here's something we hope you'll really like", a frequent segue in the show.
In the Season 7 episode "Stew-Roids", afterStewie's steroids injection wears off and leaves him with large arm-flaps of loose skin, he jumps out the bedroom window and flies like Rocky, landing on a mailbox with Rocky's quote, "And now here's something we hope you'll really like".[85]
In the Season 10 episode "Thanksgiving", during Quahog's annualThanksgiving parade,Tom Tucker mentions the Rocky and Bullwinkle float while a car alarm interrupts his news reporting.
InTrue Lies, Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) convinces Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) that she was going to be a spy and her contact's name would be Boris. He went on to say that her name would be, and she interrupts to say "Natasha?" and is told, "No, Doris". For the rest of the film, they are called Boris and Doris... This refers to and spoofs Rocky and Bullwinkle's nemeses, Boris and Natasha.
In the season 2 episode "The Great Muppet Cartoon Show" fromthe original 1984Muppet Babies,Gonzo imitates Rocky during the song "We Love Cartoons" and sings "I'll be a flying squirrel".
InThe CW showSupernatural, lead charactersSam andDean are often called "Moose" and "Squirrel" respectively by the demonCrowley. In season 14 episode 10 "Nihilism", Dean runs a bar called "Rocky's" in a dream sequence, referencing his nickname of "Squirrel".
^Marsh, Jeff; Dan Abrams (1997)."Contributors". The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ. RetrievedNovember 9, 2011.It was always our intent to create shows that would be entertaining on many levels. Rocky and Bullwinkle are still funny to me now, but on a new level. There were jokes that I didn't get as a child that I now understand the references to. They were able to create shows that were funny to both groups without sacrificing anything. That is a hard job to do and we always strove to emulate that quality
^Erickson, Hal (2005).Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 677–685.ISBN978-1476665993.
^Farber, Jim (February 8, 1991)."Rock Lives".Entertainment Weekly.Archived from the original on January 10, 2012. RetrievedNovember 7, 2010.
^Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed.0786486414 Vincent Terrace - 2008 "Bullwinkle also appeared in filler segments called "Mr. Know-It-All" where he displayed his knowledge (his "bird's eye view with a brain")
^"1962 Timeline: July 23. A Bullwinkle newspaper strip by Al Kilgore, based on the animated series, makes its debut."American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960–64 by John Wells. TwoMorrows Publishing, 2012, p. 77.
Beck, Jerry; Minkoff, Rob; Ward, Tiffany; Burrell, Ty (February 11, 2014).The Art of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Hardcover).Insight Editions.ISBN9781608872589.
Kilgore, Al; Mendelsohn, Jack; Berg, Dave (2015).Rocky and Bullwinkle: Classic Adventures (Paperback).Idea & Design Works, LLC.ISBN9781631404900.Al Kilgore, Dave Berg, Fred Fredericks, Jerry Robinson, Illustrators
