The Great Scrappy Debate and Rocky and Bullwinkle History

Before we get into Tooncast episode 78, Rocky

and Bullankle, we have something left over from

episode 77. The Great Scrappy Debate. Now...

That's a good name for it. I tried to... get

one over on everybody by... making a post of

actually of the official GeekCast Radio Network

opinion of ScrappyDoo and of course because it's

my opinion it you know when I say it goes um

until I bounce it off yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah but anyway um that's a satanic

and blasphemous use of GeekCast Radio's name

exactly that's bullshit right there um but anyway

uh I After episode 77, we constantly had the

argument of whether Scrappy rules, which is my

opinion, or Scrappy sucks, which is pretty much

everyone else's opinion, where you all suck,

your opinions are wrong, and I don't care what

Kevin says, opinions can be wrong. Well, let's

make a big comparison here. I see Glade said

no to Scrappy, Kevin said no to Scrappy, I said

no to Scrappy, and Mike Birdman Dodd said no

to Scrappy. And it's only you. And three other

people that have voted over on my poll so far

have also said no. Shoot, it might have been

them. This is such a big debate that we had to

get all three of us together to hash it out.

And you guys are not privy unless you go over

to the Geekcast Radio website, network website,

that Mike and I went back and forth for I don't

know how many comments we had. At least 10 or

12 comments back and forth on the Scrappy page.

Yeah. And then Birdman jumped in on it too. Yeah,

he jumped in on your post, but... You know, it's

one of those things where, honestly, I'm done

with it now. I have my opinion, they have their

opinion. We're recording this to pretty much

end the debate, and I still say scrappy rules.

There are good points to his character, and yes,

I will not really concede, but I will agree that

there are also annoying points. However, I think

that the good points outweigh the bad points.

My highlight of this entire argument was when

you mentioned that the reason, well, for those

that don't know, Mike and I got in a debate of

Copper Kid versus Scrappy Doo. My favorite part

of the debate was when Mike said the reason Scrappy

Doo is better than Copper Kid was because he's

a puppy and he's cute and not a big metal thing.

This coming from the Die Hard Transformers fan.

I love that. Everyone, for those of you people

that are listening out there in Podcast Land,

and those of you who have been Tooncast faithfuls...

Is that next to TV Land? No. Okay. For those

of you who have been Tooncast faithfuls since

episode zero, well, actually episode one, you

know, Kevin and I have gone back and forth about

the whole Thundercats versus Silverhawks, and

the whole thing is, I... Which is funny because

we both like both shows. See, that's the thing.

But see, I think, in my own opinion, Thundercats

is infinitely better because I remember it more.

Yes, I do remember Silverhawks. Yes, I had Silverhawks

toys when I was a kid. But I'm sorry. There is

no way a puppy, no matter how annoying the character

could be, is cuter than fucking... There's no

way that Copperkid is cuter than a fucking puppy.

I'm sorry. There's just no way. I wasn't saying

he was cuter. I was saying they have the same

character traits. If you should dislike one,

you should dislike both of them. At least Scrappy

can actually talk. Instead of being something

like this. Although, I wish Scrappy wouldn't

have been able to talk. I don't know. I like

both of the incarnations. Both Lenny Wine Ribs

and Don Messick did a good job with Scrappy.

Yeah, I like them both. I like them both better

than Scott Inns or however you say his last name.

They're all they're all pretty similar. They

all have the little puppy power thing Which by

the way if I have to hear that again in the next

ten years, I'm gonna my head's gonna blow up

Justice and they arrested him in the live -action

movie. That's true And and to just to prove how

much of a crappy character he is they resorted

in the live -action movie to him saying Whatever

he said talking about ghosts and saying puppy

power and then peeing on Daphne You know what

honestly? Honestly, seriously when I say scrappy

rules, I'm talking about the cartoon version

of scrappy I could give a shit less about the

movie version the movie version sucks I will

agree to that but the cartoon versions are awesome

I Just I guess to me it's if I have my choice

now I completely agree with you as to why they

had him on there and As far as you know what

his character brought to the show but The problem

I have with it is that they used him to replace

the human characters, and I liked the human characters

that they took off the show in order to get Scrappy

in there. That's my big problem. Now, hold on

a second, because ever since we've had this debate,

I've gone back, and I've done research on this,

not specifically Scrappy himself, but the whole

thing of replacing the characters. There are

episodes of Scooby -Doo, Where Are You? or Scooby

and Scrappy, or whatever, where all five kids,

or all four kids, or however many fucking kids

there are, uh... are there with scooby and scrappy

there are there is a very rare though right but

i'm just saying it's not that yes they did you

know bring scrappy in and scooby -dum and scooby

-d and whoever other fucking scooby relatives

girlfriends incest whatever the hell you want

to call it uh... you know uh... you know they

did bring other relatives and but i remember

specifically at least maybe five episodes where

fred daphne velma shaggy and scooby were there

with scrappy well usually what they did cuz right

after they had originally they didn't they just

took everybody off and it was just shaggy scooby

and scrappy right realize that didn't work so

one series they brought velma back and it was

a four of them and then later on much later on

they brought uh... took velma off again and brought

daphne back they didn't like fred no fred got

screwed he was a busy uh... sleeping with the

other woman that was on the show They had to

get Fred off because he was trying to sleep with

all the girls. And then he got drunk one night

and Shaggy and Scooby were in there and instead

of them, he ended up getting scrappy. Yeah, and

there was drugs involved. Anyway, getting back

on point here. As Birdman Dodd says, fuck Scrappy

Doo, I hope he dies. I hope he goddamn dies.

End rant. See, I enjoyed the fact that for 14

years we didn't have any Scrappy, and then they

decided to bring him back in the live action,

and that just made me hate him even more. But,

they did him justice by ruining him some more.

I'm wondering, and I'm gonna have to ask Mr.

Derek J. Wyatt about this, and I'm sure he'll

probably... If you get him to bring Scrappy on

Mystery Inc., I will kill you. Hold on, wait

a second here. Wait a minute. I'm going to ask

him if they are going to bring Scrappy in. Ask

him his opinion on Scrappy. I will, but I'm gonna

ask him either way. And then honestly tell us

his response. Well, it'll be on Twitter, so.

But the problem with bringing Scrappy in now,

like I've watched several episodes of Scooby

-Doo Mystery Incorporated. So have I. Frank Walker

is back as Fred. Right. The chick that originally

played Daphne for Michael. Great Delisle. Huh?

Great Delisle is... Oh, is Daphne in it? Okay.

Wait, we're talking about Mr. Ink. I'm thinking

about the movies. I'm sorry. Yeah, no. Mr. Ink,

it's Heather North... Right. Yeah. Whatever her

name was. Huh? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right.

I'm double -checking just to make sure so we

don't give any false information out here. Yeah.

And then... No, it's Great Delisle and... Mindy

Cohn. Oh, okay. For really? For Scooby -Doo Mr.

Incorporated? Yeah. Wow. Okay. And then, of course,

you know, Matthew Lillard is Shaggy and Frank

Welker is... Matthew Lillard is Shaggy and Frank

Welker is Scooby. And Fred, yeah. Well, we already

said that. Yeah. But my thing is, if they were

to bring in Scrappy, I don't know anybody, unless

it's Frank Welker that does it, I don't know

anybody... That can and see I don't know anybody

that can mimic wine rib or messick because the

only way that I would want scrappy in in in SDMI

is if it was a Mimic of wine rib or messick's

voices of them SDMI that sounds like something

you get when Shaggy Scrappy and Scooby get together

That's what I started calling it that after I

saw Derek calling it that but anyway, so I'm

sorry. I just like it when it's the whole gang

That's why I like the movies that they put out.

That's why I like mystery Inc It's the whole

gang and that's what I want to see I think the

only thing and we're kind of getting off the

whole scrappy debate here But I think the only

thing I don't like about mystery Inc so far or

mr. Incorporated the new series is that Shaggy

and Velma or a couple it's just weird to me Yeah,

because it's like, you know, the whole point

of scooby -doo cartoons is that shaggy and scooby

are buddy You can put them in a buddy cop film

and they would do excellent, you know, I mean

Whatever. So anyway Tooncast official opinion

is scrappy rules and the debate will continue

but the geek cast radio opinion is that he sucks

Well, it's split so and the telecast opinion

is that he sucks and the VTVA opinion is that

he sucks The Stephen C. Phillips media corporation

says he sucks. Media corporation? Yes. So gracefully

Michael... The YouTube channel says it. Gracefully

Michael concede that he loses this debate. Oh,

no, no, no, no, no. Tooncast is my show, god

damn it, and Scrappy Rules. Now onto episode

78. This is The Brain, and you're listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Yes! Hello and welcome

to the 78th episode of Tooncast, brought to you

by the GeekCast Radio Network. I am your host,

TFJ1Mike, and I am joined once again by Kevin,

OptimusOlaThompson. Hello, sir. Hello. Today

we're going to be taking a look at the classic

Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Yay! Who said that?

That's funny. So what are you up to? Oh, jeez.

Well, I've been not working on my house or outside

my house anymore because it's too windy and too

cold to do any of that. And I'm finally done

with all that stuff, so that's kind of nice.

So, yeah, I've just been adding all kinds of

Disney movies over at Behind the Voice Actors.

I've added, good lord, a lot of movies lately.

I added Bambi and Dumbo and Peter Pan and Pinocchio

and Fox and the Hound and probably a couple other

ones I'm forgetting. So I'm trying to get every

single Disney movie onto the site, at least the

ones I care about. Through Snow White through

Aladdin or Lion King is where I'm going after

that. I don't care You care about Snow White

whether no, I mean, I mean from that error from

that date until Aladdin or Lion King. Those are

the Disney movies. I'm adding I don't care about

any of the Disney movies that came out after

that Okay Someone else can do the current Disney

movies because I didn't watch them or not a fan

of it My Disney viewing stopped at Lion King

really Yep, wasn't there some good ones at some

point. I'm sure there was but I just stopped

watching after Lion King I never watched any

of the Pocahontas hunchback of Notre Dame Hercules.

Oh see a Pocahontas was good. I know I'm just

saying My last four were Little Mermaid Aladdin

Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. Yeah Pocahontas

was good. What was the other one you mentioned

not hunchback the other one? Mulan and Hercules.

Yeah Mulan and Hercules those were both good

Gotcha yeah Now I don't know about the sequels

to Pocahontas and Mulan because I've never seen

them, but the originals were good Let's see I

have just been Podcasting my ass off this week

more than more than usual because over on movie

weekend review We had a Halloween weekend blowout

for episodes. We released five episodes in one

weekend. In other words, listeners, he is a slacker.

No, I'm a slacker. Ah! Or one of you is a slacker.

Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, no. And, you know, I

had mentioned why that we had done that, and

it is kind of my fault. And it really isn't the

fact that I was slacking, it's the fact that

I didn't have money to get movies, so... Well,

it makes more sense. Yeah. No. I'm not like you

people over at BBTA that don't update stuff when

it was supposed to be updated, or add voice clips

to the Rocky and Bullwinkle page. No, it's not

that we're slackers, it's that there's not enough

of us. You will be interested that we just received

a message on our forums, I don't know if you

saw it, from the only reason I bring it up is

because I know you're a big Charlie Brown fan,

but we received a message from one of the original

voice actors from the peanut specials. and she

was offering to provide us pictures of her and

her two siblings that were also on the Peanuts

specials and she was making a lot of good comments

about the site and how much she liked it but

that was kind of weird because that was way back

in the day like she was she played Peppermint

Patty before it was Peppermint Patty when it

was just Patty so that was kind of cool so hearing

from hearing from real voice actors is always

good and especially someone older like that where

it's hard to find pictures of them yeah yeah

So I guess we can go ahead and get into the history

lesson today If we must um, you know the Rocky

and Bullwinkles show is the collective name actually

for two American television animated cartoon

series the first one was titled Rocky and his

friends which aired from 1959 to 1961 and the

second one was actually called the Bullwinkle

show from 1961 to 1964 so you put those together

and that's where you get the title The Rocky

and the Bullwinkle Show. They were pretty popular

during the 60s. They were targeted towards children

and actually adults. The zany characters and

absurd plots would draw in children while the

clever usage of puns and topical references appealed

to the adult demographic. Strengths helped it

to overcome the fact that it had very choppy

and limited animation. In fact, some critics

have actually called The Rocky and the Bullwinkle

Show kind of like a well -written radio program

with pictures. So that's where the Rocking and

Bullwinkle originated. Do you remember actually

watching any of these as a kid? Or was this something

more you watched as you grew up? Or what do you

remember about these shorts? I remember watching

them as a kid. It's kind of funny because Rocking

and Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, and surprisingly

enough, Tom and Jerry, for me they all kind of

run together. Like at some point in my childhood

I watched all three of those. right around this

like the right after another or like within the

same like four or five hours span of each other

you know all on on any given day all yeah i just

remember watching kind of like you said they

add that to me they were kind of like on some

of the other ones we've talked about like a woody

woodpecker you said tom and jerry even looney

tunes for me even though i saw more looney tunes

on a more frequent basis this is something that

you just kind of caught in between things or

i mean We've said this a couple times, this is

not one of the shows where you were actually

searching it out. It's not one of the shows where

you knew exactly what time it was on and you

made sure you were there, but you did catch it

as you were flipping through. At least for me.

Oh yeah, see me, it's kind of the other way around.

It's not that I didn't enjoy watching it, but

I kind of had to watch it because my mom loved

it. So it's one of those things where whenever

it came on, it was always on. yeah and it you

know it's it definitely was kind of iconic to

me as I mean it's one of those ones where whereas

some of the Hannah Barbera stuff I didn't realize

how old it was at the time this and Woody Woodpecker

and there's one more that I'm not thinking of

right now um Popeye for example those three I

knew they were old Like there's no getting around

it just because of the animation and this and

the kind of the design style whatnot You know,

they're old so it wasn't like it was sneaking

by me and I thought it was like a current cartoon

But at the same time it wasn't so old where I

couldn't understand it as a kid, right? Yeah,

it it's one of those classic cartoons and It's

one of those things where it's another one of

these cartoons that had multiple other Shorts

within it. So it's not just the adventures of

rocky and bullwinkler, you know, whatever you

want to call the show It's not just that cast.

It's you know, ASAP and son fractured fairy tales

Right lots of other ones. Oh Yeah, it's like

it's like a lot of the stuff that was on back

in the day where you had a lot of different pieces

making up for the entire show because they weren't

the types of It just wasn't commonplace back

then to actually make a show that had a 30 -minute

story. They didn't believe people were going

to, you know, pay attention for that long. So

you see a lot of them that were, you know, eight

minutes, seven minutes. And in here, there's

a lot that are like real short. Like you had

shorts that were like two minutes, a minute and

a half, five minutes, I think were some of the

longer ones. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, overall,

very, very awesome cartoon, I think. I agree

with that. It's much better than some of the

other stuff that we've covered from that time

period. Such as? You could have elaborated on

that. Well, just the ones I've mentioned, I would

rather watch Rocky and Bullwinkle. I'm not saying

these other ones are bad, but I would rather

watch Rocky and Bullwinkle than Woody Woodpecker

rather than Popeye and rather than Pink Panther.

To me, to me. For me, I wouldn't count Woody

Woodpecker and Pink Panther in that because that's

putting them in with a potentially rapist type

character. I'm just saying I would rather watch

this than any of those. I don't know. This to

me, if you were trying to compare this to an

80's cartoon, to me the only one you can compare

it with is Danger Mouse. I don't know exactly

why, but that's, to me, it feels like the same

type of cartoon now. I know Danger Mouse had

a lot of British overtones and whatnot, but as

far as bringing in the references to real life

stuff and just the type of comedy it was, it

reminds me of Danger Mouse or something of that

vein. Right, right, yeah. You know, I agree a

little bit. Mean there's really nothing in the

80s that quite compares to it because it's kind

of its own unique thing But to me that's kind

of the only thing I can think right off the top

of my head That comes kind of close right? Yeah,

that's that's very true So I guess we can get

into the voice actors or the characters here

yeah in case you're Completely an imbecile the

the lead characters of the show are rocky and

Rocky is a flying squirrel and Bullwinkle is

a moose, so in case that wasn't painfully obvious

to everybody listening. They lived in the fictional

town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, which was

based on a real -life city of International Falls,

Minnesota. Wherever that is, I've never been

there. And of course, the main villains in the

Rocky and Bullwinkle parts are Boris and Natasha.

Boris, Natasha, and Freeless Leader. Oh yeah,

and Fearless Leader. I always think of Boris

and Natasha. I always forget about the damn Fearless

Leader. So that's the main characters in the

actual Rocky parts. And as we say, some of these

voice actors, it's going to be a little bit of

a who's who of voice acting legends, especially

Jun Fure. And I never, ever, ever, ever knew

that she was the voice of Rocky. Neither did

I. June Foray, before I even got involved with

Behind the Voice Actors, and even years before

that, before I even became interested in voice

acting as just a general kind of history type

thing, June Foray is one of the names that even

I knew as just a casual fan, just from the Looney

Tunes days as the granny and stuff like that,

but I never knew that she was the voice of Rocky.

You even have to almost go back and listen to

it like, really? that's not like really that's

like i can buy natasha she was rocky too and

uh and bill scott was the voice of bullwinkle

and he's also a uh a pretty pretty famous uh

voice actor he did um a couple characters on

the gummy bears a couple characters on the wuzzles

and a few other things not like major things

i mean bullwinkle is probably his one of his

most famous roles and i know i'm leaving a bunch

of his roles out but You know, if you want to

know his roles, you can obviously look it up.

Yeah, we provide other actors, other voice actors

roles on this show whatsoever, because Kevin's

too lazy to go to his own website and look at

the profile. No, I just don't want people getting

bored with me reading like lists of dozens and

dozens of stuff that they do. And one of my favorite

all time, as far as this era, voice actors, Paul

Fries does Boris. I love Paul Fries, him and

he's like one of the trios of Paul's back in

the day that did a bunch of stuff and I'll bring

this up just because you'll probably like it.

Besides doing, I'll just name a couple, besides

being Toucan Sam on Froot Loops, Poppin' Fresh

from the Pillsbury Company on commercials, Sprout

from the Green Giant and Boo Berry from the cereal,

he was also the voice of Ludwig von Drake from

the Wonderful World of Disney. Morocco mole from

secret squirrel squid Lee did Lee and you'll

like this last one the voice of car from the

1982 Knight Rider show yeah, I already knew that

I love Paul and and I have to I Don't really

want to talk bad about the guy. He is a very

awesome voice actor I'm sorry Peter Cullen is

the only voice for car. I did not like when they

changed it to Paul freeze But that's just me.

I mean, the guy is great. You know, like you

said, he's a very great voice actor. He's voiced,

you know, a lot of very iconic roles. Right.

And he's also he's been honored since after his

death as a Disney legend. Yeah. So he's one of

those guys. So and who's the other voice actor

we haven't named for this part? The fearless

leader was. I don't know who Fearless Leader

was voiced by actually. It was, oh Bill Scott

was Fearless Leader as well as Bullwinkle. So

Bill Scott did both of those and then the narrator

for these segments was William Conrad. I'm not

as familiar with him, I'll admit that. So that

was your first kind of segment. I don't know

if you want to talk about some of the other segments.

As far as like the Fractured Fairy Tales or Aesop

and Son? I remember Aesop and Son and I remember

I remember it all but The narrator is what really

kind of stood out for me Yeah, well Aesop Jr.

was a pretty famous voice Aesop Jr. Oh yeah and

and i know i i i didn't i didn't see him on the

list of like a little there's a sub up there

where the hell's damn junior and it is like down

the bottom line you know okay and i was born

there we go and other famous uh... actor that

was involved with this uh... julie bennett as

a female i don't know exactly which voice she

did but she too involved in some of the shorts

and uh... hans connery uh... was snide the whiplash

and uh... he's uh... he's a pretty famous of

old -school voice actor he did uh... sign the

whip lash he did uncle waldo wigglesworth and

the adventures of happy hopper and maybe most

people would recognize him as captain hook from

peter pan yeah uh... on a really uh... stellar

cast and i don't know how uh... i don't know

back in the day if they did ensemble casting

but It would have been it's a pretty big cast

for back in the day. Yeah, it would have been

awesome to be a fly in the wall Oh, yeah in this

in this in this voice booth just to see all these

people together Yeah, and definitely to have

this many people doing some of the main roles

I don't know if they my guess is that they recorded

different segments obviously separately So that

way for the Rocking Bullwinkle all you really

needed was June for a Paul Fries, you know William

Conrad and for you know like a southern son you

just needed charles ruggles and does butler and

one of the you know couple other guys so that's

what i'm guessing they did but man if they would

have done them all together that would have been

quite the crew yeah that would have been so the

crew and uh... they also have some well as as

far as some of the characters that we've mentioned

you know whether it be the rocky characters or

you know a seven -son fracture fairy tales whatever

might be do you have certain characters that

you like more than others My favorite character

in Rocky and Bullwinkle it by far is Rocky I

Love Rocky. I love Bullwinkle's voice the most

I love Bullwinkle when he's mr. Know -it -all

Yeah, he's definitely my favorite voice in the

series as far as not my favorite voice actor

necessarily But my favorite character voice.

I just love it, but Rocky is my favorite actual

character. I Like some of the other ones We'll

get to one of the other segments later that I'll

tell you about one of the characters that I really

like but as far as these main characters from

Rocky and Bullwinkle, Rocky's my favorite. I

don't know, I didn't really just have any feelings

either either good or bad for Natasha and Boris.

The only thing that I absolutely love about Boris

and Natasha is the Russian. Russian accents.

Even if they weren't great. I mean, they were

intentionally not great. I'm not saying they

weren't they didn't do a good job with their

voices They were intentionally over the top.

Oh, yeah, obviously trying to do that on purpose,

but that's what kind of made it cool So you don't

have a favorite rocky character, um, no angle,

okay I thought you were just saying you liked

him when he was mr. Intelligent. I didn't know

you're saying that was your favorite character

I was just hoping you didn't say scrappy Oh wait

a second. Scrappy's not even near this. Come

on now. I know, I was just throwing that out

there. It will never die. Oh yes it will. It

died at the beginning of this episode. I will

bring it up sometime in the future. Maybe in

65 years in the future. No, I mean, Bullwinkle

is the character who always has good intentions

but always fumbles the ball at the three -yard

line yeah he's he's technically a goofy yeah

that's a good that's a good thing to call him

or whatever so that does that mean that Rock

is Bugs Bunny or like Mickey Mouse or something

like that he could be no sir no seriously he

could he reminds me more of Bugs Bunny than Mickey

Mouse yeah yeah I don't know he's not as but

well He's not as mischievous as Bugs is though.

But he's not as nice as Mickey is. Mickey's too

nice. Anyway. Any other thoughts on the characters?

Not really. Not really? Alright. I guess we can

move on to the behind the scenes segment. Wow,

Bill Scott did the producing on 12 episodes.

Huh. That's interesting. And just someone that

people may have heard of was another producer.

What, what, huh? People might have maybe have

heard of the other producer, I don't know. Uh,

Jay Ward. I don't know who the hell it is. Jay

Ward is one of the most famous cartoon people

of all time. If it doesn't say Burt or Fred Ward,

I don't know who it is. Really? You've never

heard of Jay Ward? No. That makes me want to

jump through my headset and slap you in why?

Just because like j -ward is like iconic in like

the animation business for just like everything

you did I can hear you typing in the background

I Was I was clicking my mouse I wasn't typing

it was something to do with your mouse and keyboard

So you can't complain about me doing it either

That's alright, I hear you all the time. No,

he was the producer for Crusader Rabbit, producer

for Rocky, producer for Hoppity Hopper, George

of the Jungle, Dudley Do -Right, but it was more

than that. I think it was more like the people

that kind of learned under him that went on to

do other things was kind of where he gets his

fame from. There's a lot of people that can trace

their roots back to J Ward, I guess is the way

to put it. Yeah, I guess. Like I said, if it's

not Bert or Fred, I don't know who it is. Oh

goodness. I won't slap you then, I'll give you

a pass on this one. So as far as some background

here, apparently the idea for the series was

created by Jay Ward, as you said, and Alex Anderson,

who had previously collaborated on Crusader Rabbit,

and was based upon the original property, the

Frostbite Falls review. This original show never

got past the proposal stage. It was about a group

of forest animals running a TV station. The group

included Rocket J. Squirrel, Oski Bear, Canadian

Moose, which is a bullwinkle. Sylvester Fox,

Blackstone Crowe, and Floral Fauna. Oh, wow.

Um... Those are two characters in, like, uh,

what is it, Cinderella? No, Sleeping Beauty.

I was gonna say, wow, that's a horrible Disney

pun right there. Uh, the show in this form was

created by J. Ward's partner, Alex Anderson.

Bullwinkle's name came from a friend of J. Ward's,

Clarence Bullwinkle. who was a property owner

and landlord in Berkeley, California. Ward wanted

to produce the show in Los Angeles, however Anderson

lived in the San Francisco Bay area and did not

want to relocate. As a result Ward hired Bill

Scott who became the head writer and co -producer

at J Ward Productions and who wrote all of the

Rocky and Bullwinkle features. Ward was joined

by writers Alan Burns who later became head writer

for MTM Enterprises and Chris Hayward. Interesting

And and the production began basically in 1958

so Right before it went went to air in 1959 So

eight months later general mill signed a deal

to sponsor the cartoon Under the condition that

the show be run in a late afternoon time slot

where it could be targeted towards children So

Ward hired most of the rest of his production

staff including writers and designers However,

no animators were hired since Ward was able to

convince friends of his Advertising agency that

had general mills as a client to buy an animation

studio in Mexico called gamma productions So

this outsourcing of the animation for the series

was basically Financially, you know attractive

but that kind of is why the animation is a little

bit choppy at the time, I don't know if that's

a you know who did the final products or whatnot,

but Apparently they saved money in the animation

department. Well, you know save money wherever

you can I guess Yeah, it says well it says there

was basically a lot of stuff that they found

out at the beginning a lot of mistakes as far

as like mustaches popping on and off of Boris

Bullwinkles antlers would change colors Costumes

would disappear so Whatever yeah, and of course

the There's a bunch of syndicated syndication

packages that they did yeah This kind of goes

into all the different parts that were aired

under the title rocking the Winkle show or you

know, this or that right? And you named a couple

of them, right? Yeah, it's um, let's see fracture

fairy tales two bodies improbable history deadly

durate of the Mounties whatever Aesop and son

and shark cartoons including Bullwinkle's core

Mr. Know -it -all sometimes out of original broadcast

sequence the final 20 syndicated Bullwinkle show

episodes featured feature later Rocky and Bullwinkle

storylines from Bumbling Brothers Circus through

the end of the series, minus MuSlovenia. And

then another short that was sometimes seen under

this title was Total Television's The World of

Commander McFrag. So that was basically the different

shorts that you might see if you are watching

something under that title at the time. I guess

we'll wait until the DVD section, but I don't

know how this has been released in DVD, but we'll

keep that in mind. I don't know if all the different

shorts are separate or combined under that title

or what. I'm not sure either. Which of these,

it's kind of getting into the actual show a little

bit, but which ones of those are your favorite

as far as the segments that aired with Rocky?

Aesop and Son. The only thing I liked about Fractured

Fairy Tales was the narrator. The fairy tales

themselves, they were pretty fractured. I mean,

it just didn't really catch on with me at all.

And of course, Mr. Peabody's improbable history,

I like that as well. Yeah, my favorite's probably

the world of Commander McBrague. And maybe that's

just because I'm a history guru, but I just love

the fact that he's like, it's basically this

guy that sits in the chair and he tells his friend

about these historic things, but he inserts himself

into it. Oh, so it's like Transformers. It's

kind of in the same vein as Peabody's Improbable

History, but I like Commander McBrag a little

bit better. See, I never really watched Commander

McBrag, so I have no idea what the hell it is.

Because the only ones I really remember are the

ones that I mentioned. I mean, I barely remember

Dudley Do -Right, but I remember seeing like

maybe a half a second of that cartoon, but the

rest of them... That's a lot. Half a second.

Yeah, I mean, I don't mind fractured fairy tales.

It's kind of like the same vein in, you know,

whether they're taking history and like making

some type of crazy new spin on it or fairy tales

and doing it. I mean, that's kind of the stuff

they were doing with a bunch of these different

shorts. Oh, yeah. So I like I don't mind fractured

fairy tales. Commander McBrague is probably my

favorite. I don't know. I don't know if I don't

really remember Dudley Do -Right too much and.

I don't remember Aesop and Son very much. Aesop

and Son is basically the father tells the son

a story, or there's some situation that happens

to the son, the father tells the son a story,

and then at the end there's a moral. Gotcha.

There's some sort of moral that the son learns.

So you just described every cartoon that's ever

been made? No, I'm just kidding. It's kind of

like the Wheel of Morality, damn it. Wow, a reference

to episode what, one? Two. Two? Yes, folks. Build

morality. Turn, turn, turn. Tell us a lesson

that we should learn. And if anyone doesn't get

that reference, go run yourself into a wall.

Literally, I'm not joking. And then watch episode

two. Or listen. You can watch your screen as

you listen to it. Oh, you're really off tonight,

dude. Whatever. I'm on top of my game. Yeah,

right. As always. So getting into the actual

show, as far as the structure, when this was

first shown on NBC, the cartoons were introduced

by Bullwinkle Puppet, voiced by Bill Scott, who

would often lampoon celebrities, current events,

and especially Walt Disney. This program, Wonderful

World of Color, was the next show on the schedule.

On one occasion, Bullwinkle encouraged children

to pull the turning knobs off the TV set. In

that way, explained Bullwinkle, we'll be sure

to be with you next week. 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. He did a segment

called Dear Bullwinkle, where letters specially

made for the show were read and answered humorously.

Four episodes of Dear Bullwinkle are on the Season

1 DVD. Each episode is composed of two Rocky

and Bullwinkle cliffhanger shorts, that stylistically

emulated early radio and film serials. The plots

of these shorts would combine into story arcs

spanning numerous episodes. The first and longest

story arc was Jet Fuel Formula, consisting of

40 shorts, 20 episodes. Stories range from seeking

the missing ingredient for the Rocket Fuel Formula

to tracking the monstrous whale, Maybe Dick.

Oh boy. Oh boy. They got away with that back

then? That's what you could do back then. There's

no way that maybe Dick would have been able to

get away with something like that today unless

it was a vivid entertainment. Yeah, that's awesome.

And then towards the end of most episodes, the

narrator would announce two humorous titles for

the next episode that typically were puns of

each other, for example... During an adventure

taking place in a mountain range in an animated

state, be with us next time for Avalanche's Better

Than None or Snow's Your Old Man. The narrator

frequently had conversations with the characters,

thus breaking the fourth wall. Dun dun dun. And

there was different opening sequences. There

was four different opening sequences for the

cartoons. Yup. You had a bright day there. Yeah,

there was... I always remember the rocky flying

part I think one another one that I remember

at the end is like They pop up as flowers like

all these flowers pop up and then the two of

them pop up at the at the very end of it Okay,

so yeah, I'm not really sure Well, that's that's

how that's how the episodes ended Oh Well, the

Sun Folk here, that was the end of the episode.

Okay, well, there, I don't have to read that

paragraph. See, you remember the beginnings and

you remember the end. I don't remember the beginning,

with Rocky flying around, so. Some of the supporting

features, Dudley Do -Right of the Mounties, nobody

cares. Let's see, the world of Commander McBrague,

short features on revolutionists in history as

the title character. would've imagined it. Well,

I guess you can talk about that a little bit

if you want. Well, I mean, we kind of mentioned

all of these. I mean, you know, that's the one

where the guys are retelling the histories, basically.

So, you know, we've talked about each one of

these. I don't know, and I think we got them

all. Rocky and Bullwinkle's fan club we didn't

talk about. That was a series of attempts by

Rocky and Bullwinkle to conduct the club's business.

It consisted of Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha,

and Captain Peter Peachfuzz. These shorts showed

these characters out of their regular character.

And then like you had said before, you liked

Bullwinkle when he was playing Mr. Know -it -all.

So that was another thing that, another kind

of segment that they threw in there along with

all the other ones that we kind of already talked

about. Right, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I remember one

other thing. The Wayback Machine, time machine

used by Mr. Peabody and Sherman to witness or

participate in more often than not, the famous

events from history. Yeah. So the Wayback Machine,

that's something that's kind of Lived on that

that the way back machine is kind of like Well

because I watched a few episodes of of Peabody

and Sherman today and Kind of reminds me of a

immobile DeLorean oh But I just don't think it's

interesting and that's kind of where that term

if that's where that term comes from as far as

because people use that all the time in different

things you know they're always like oh we're

in the wayback machine talking about stuff from

the yeah that could be it so interesting you

learn something new every day um i think we're

going to hear some of the other little theme

songs and we will be back with the legacy segment

So the the music segment here the original music

was done by Dennis Farnon I couldn't tell if

it was an R and N or an M Fred Steiner and George

Steiner as well What do you think of the theme

to the show just like the Rocky and Bullwinkle

music? It's all right. It's never something that

I get excited about It's not necessarily something

that like I don't know, to me it's not as memorable

as a lot of other themes I've heard. It's good,

it's entertaining to a point, but it's just not

one of my necessarily favorite ones. I think

it's one of those themes that you have to actually

be watching the show to really get into it. Yeah,

you need something to be visually stimulated

with too, because it's not going to live alone

just on the music. I think it doesn't stand alone

very well. Compared to some themes I mean like

you could hear some themes like scooby -doo you

can hear that theme and it doesn't matter What

you're watching or if you're not watching anything

you can still hear it and kind of get into it

and understand it The rocky music you almost

need to be watching something. Oh, yes very much

so Getting into the legacy segment. Do we want

to talk about some cultural impact here? Well,

I mean just a couple things that I'd mentioned

it has aired in over a hundred countries so that

kind of just points to how how much of a success

i guess it was if you want to call it that you

know as far as being able to be internationally

shown and and if it wasn't successful it would

have done that um... there's been you know different

stuff as far as like games and memorabilia obviously

and of course there is one thing that i guess

we have to mention the adventures of rocky and

boeingle? no in uh... our friends at the uh...

website oh yeah where is it? It's it's the last

one under reception and cultural impact Okay,

let's say no And the only reason I'm not reading

is because I'm making Mike because I don't want

to give them any credit I Should just make you

do it anyway, huh? Although I will give it credit

for where it did rank it You know those bastards

over at IGN actually ranked to show fairly well

Rocky and Bullinkle came in at number 11 in the

top 100 of their January 2009. And see, that's

the thing, though. They need to go back and do

that list over again. Or just have other people

do it for them. How about actually people that

watch cartoons that aired before? I mean, I know

this is an old cartoon, which they put it in

only because, oh, Rockin' Bullwinkle, that's

a famous name. The people that made those lists,

I'm convinced that they didn't watch cartoons.

They were all born in 1990. They didn't watch

anything before 1990. And so if it wasn't really

famous and they hadn't heard of it, it didn't

make the list. I mean, what was the other one

that didn't make the list? What was one that

didn't even make the list? Flintstones? Or something

like that. Something bizarre didn't make the

list. I know Pink Panther didn't make the list.

I mean, it's just it was a terrible list We've

done over this. So anyways There are there were

several attempts to revive Rocky and Bullwinkle

throughout the 1970s a revival In 1981, Parody

the Super Bowl. A script was written, storyboards

were produced, and the network gave it a green

light. But the project was canceled on account

of the objections from the NFL. Actual team owners

were parodied, and Boris was fixing the game.

I guess that was not looked upon very, very nicely.

As far as some in other media here, Boris and

Natasha, a live -action film... Starring the

two spies was produced in 1992 neither Rocky

nor Bullwinkle appear in this film. I have never

seen this that's probably why I film with no

Rocky and Bullwinkle, you know And then, of course,

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, a theatrical

film starring Rocky and Bullwinkle, was released

in 2000. It was mostly live -action, with Rocky

and Bullwinkle appearing as computer -generated

characters for the film. Jun Fure returned to

voice Rocky, while Bullwinkle was voiced by Keith

Scott. Bill Scott's son, maybe? Maybe. I don't

know. I'm not familiar with him. The movie retained

the spirit and feel of the original cartoons,

but most critics did not think the film was as

humorous as the original But I do think it was

cool that they got June for a to come back and

do the voice of Rocky. I Don't know did Natasha

and bore I didn't I've not seen this did Natasha

and Boris appear in this as well You've never

seen this. No, I don't watch animated movies

that came out after 1992 This is not animated,

this is like Looney Tunes back in action or Space

Jam. Oh, well I really don't watch those either.

I'm just kidding. Seriously, you've never seen

this? No. Just answer my damn question, Boris

and Natasha show up in it. Hold on, hold on.

Piper Parabot played Karen Sympathy. Oh god.

Boris was played by Robert De Niro. Oh, I do

remember seeing previous for it. Natasha was

played by Rene Russo. Ah. Gotcha. I do remember

seeing the, yeah. Keith Scott was a long time

friend of Bill Scott, but there was no relation.

Oh, okay. That's how good I am. Tell me I'm not

on top of my game, damn it. So was this a good

movie or not? It's been so long since I've seen

it. It was nice to see. You know Boris and Natasha

as actual humans and of course you really can't

have actual animals as Rocky and Bullwical so

you had to have CGI I Don't know I'd probably

give it like a generous five out of ten maybe

And there has been attempts to make films of

these segments that appeared on the Rocky and

Bollingle show. Oh, God, yeah. Dudley Do -Right,

a theatrical live -action film, was released

in 99 and starred Brendan Fraser and Sarah Jessica

Parker. And apparently there's one in the works

for Peabody's Improbable History. It was originally

cancelled, but now DreamWorks is behind it, so

we'll see. Right, and I know nothing about the

recordings, so I don't know. Yeah, there's records

about it. Oh, okay. Because it was an old cartoon,

there was records about it. And there's been

a couple of video games about it. Yeah, there's

been a couple of video games. Getting to the

DVD releases. In 2002, J. Ward Productions established

a partnership with Classic Media called the Bullwinkle

Studios. In 2003 and 2004, the partnership produced

DVDs of the first two seasons of the series,

which were renamed for legal reasons, Rocky and

Bullwinkle and Friends. These sets were... followed

by season three in September 2005 and season

four nearly five years later in August 2010.

According to a pamphlet accompanying the DVDs

for the first season, the DVDs used second season

opening, which Ward's daughter Tiffany says was

her father's favorite. However, the DVDs for

the third and fourth seasons used the opening

and closing for the first season. The DVDs for

the first two seasons replaced the original music

with themes Ward produced for the third season.

Just wait five more seconds and your head will

explode as soon as it's done spinning. The DVD

releases of the shows differ from the originals.

The remaining of the show to Rocky and Bullwinkle

and Friends led to sometimes clumsy superimposition

of new title onto pre -existing opening credits

and interior bumpers. A Bill Conrad impersonator

was used to announce the new title which viewers

found jarring. Semi -transparent R &B logo appears

for 5 seconds in the beginning of each segment.

Some segments were moved from their placement

in the original episodes. In 2005, Bullwinkle

Studios released a series of best -of DVD compilations

of popular segments of the series, two volumes

of The Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle, plus the

single volume The Best of Boris and Natasha,

The Best of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and The

Best of Dudley Do -Right. These compilations

contain episodes from the entire run of the show,

including the otherwise unreleased Season 5.

On January 4th, 2011, Classic Media will release

Rockin' Bullwinkle and Friends, the complete

series on DVD in region 1. Maybe that won't be

as screwed up. I don't know. So it's coming in

a few months. You can buy everything together

and hopefully it's not expensive and not rearranged.

Now, there is one thing that I hope that Classic

Media does. I hope that they port over the special

features because uh... for season one you have

a sixteen -page booklet detailing the origins

and popularity of this characters never -before

-seen boinkle puppet segments rarely seen u .s.

saving stamp club episode vintage rockin' boinkle

tv spots sneak peek at complete season two which

is kinda stupid but and in season two you have

classic boinkle tv commercials an interview with

June Foray that would be very interesting to

see Sneak peek at complete season 3 moose calls

the best of bullwinkle sings Season 3 you had

live bullwinkle puppet clips best of bullwinkle

follies And a sneak peek at season 4 and then

season 4 had no bonus features. They apparently

were running out of money or got lazy Or they

just ran out of features in general. They ran

out of ideas, they're not very creative. Yeah,

yeah. So I will withhold judgment and wait and

see what the new release is going to be in January.

Yep. Before I even consider buying these and

they would have to be a darn good price. Yeah,

it would be, wouldn't it? All right, so we are

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So, final thoughts on... Rocky and Bullwinkle

to me. I mean to me Rocky and Bullwinkle holds

a kind of a special place as far as the history

of cartoons goes You know, I liked it. I definitely

watched it when I was a kid. I still enjoyed

watching it, you know in preparation for this

I love the characters of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Like I said, I love one of their character I

love the other voice, but I think if you were

like to If you were forced to write down like

certain cartoons that had a major impact on you

know animation and Cartoon, you know history

this would be one of them that I would put down

I just think it did a lot for the cartoon industry

and Like I said a lot of people kind of came

from this in did other stuff in the decades You

know that came right after it. So thumbs up to

Rocky and Bo Winkle for me Yes, I completely

agree I Mean they're just the classic team up

and it's just It's so funny and you know you

can like the characters for different reasons,

but I don't know I just I Just found bull because

Rocky is essentially the straight guy Yeah, as

far as the comedy goes he he has to play it straight

where his boing goal. He's he's the wacky one

and Yeah, I guess I like why you a little bit

better. We wonder why shut up I'm losing my mind

so you don't want you can you and lost your mind

a long time ago so i think that uh... whatever

uh... c have we mentioned anything about uh...

a certain thing that's correct next word actually

already premiered or whatever we've got a mystery

nested go over the cash radio dot com and look

for tv shows so i guess i yeah look for cool

stuff that's coming or has some of it has already

come that's much of it is still to come which

are might have a good that's all hell of a mess

to clean up there okay that radio and look for

new stuff you know they were joining us here

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