The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show is the collective name for two separate American television animated series (Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show) that originally aired from 1959 to 1964. Rocky & Bullwinkle enjoyed great popularity during the 1960s, and is still found in reruns in the United States.

History

The series, inspired by an original property called "The Frostbite Falls Follies," was created by Jay Ward and Alex Anderson, who had previously collaborated on Crusader Rabbit. Ward wanted to produce the show in Los Angeles, and Anderson, who lived in the San Francisco Bay area, did not want to move south, so Ward was joined by Bill Scott, who became head writer and co-producer at Jay Ward Productions, and wrote all of the "Rocky & Bullwinkle" segments. Another notable writer was Allan Burns who later became head writer for MTM Enterprises.

Related Topics:
Jay Ward - Crusader Rabbit - Los Angeles - Bill Scott - Allan Burns - MTM Enterprises

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The series got its start as a pilot, Rocky the Flying Squirrel; the voice actors (June Foray, Paul Frees, and Bill Scott) recorded their dialogue in February 1958. Eight months later, General Mills signed a deal to sponsor the cartoon, to be shown in an late-afternoon time slot targeted at children.

Related Topics:
Voice actor - June Foray - Paul Frees - Bill Scott - General Mills

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Ward then hired the rest of the production staff, which included writers and designers but no animators. Friends of Ward's at Dancer, Fitzgerald & Sample (an advertising firm with General Mills as a client) had bought a studio in Mexico to produce the animation; this outsourcing had made the deal financially attractive to the sponsor. Scott, when interviewed by animation historian Jim Korkis in 1982, described their work:

Related Topics:
Dancer, Fitzgerald & Sample - Outsourcing - Jim Korkis - 1982

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:We found out very quickly that we could not depend on the Mexico studio 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.

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The show started in fall 1959 as Rocky and His Friends on the ABC television network. In 1961 the series moved to NBC and was renamed The Bullwinkle Show. The show moved back to ABC in 1964 and was canceled that same year, although episodes continued to be aired on ABC until 1973 when it went into syndication.

Related Topics:
1959 - ABC - 1961 - NBC - 1964 - 1973

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