Posted on 10/25/2010 7:40:11 AM PDT by billorites
Alex Anderson, 90, the artist who created the cartoon characters Rocky and Bullwinkle, the flying squirrel and hapless moose who were TV fixtures in the early 1960s, died Oct. 22 at a nursing facility in Carmel, Calif. His wife said he had Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Anderson, who grew up in a cartooning family in California, was also the creator of Crusader Rabbit, which became television's first animated cartoon series in 1949. He spent much of his career in advertising, and his role in creating Rocky and Bullwinkle was overlooked with time. He fought a long legal battle late in life to reclaim recognition as the cartoon characters' artistic father.
Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose first landed on network TV in 1959. They lived in the town of Frostbite Falls and found themselves embroiled in all manner of absurd plots involving espionage and devious villains. The show contained outrageous puns and veiled Cold War commentary that sailed over the heads of the children who were its primary audience.
The Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons also featured another of Mr. Anderson's popular creations, Dudley Do-Right, a Canadian Mountie in constant pursuit of his nemesis, the mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash.
Mr. Anderson was not part of the production of the original series, which ran on ABC from 1959 to 1961 and NBC from 1961 to 1964. As the years passed, his role in developing the characters was largely forgotten. He received nothing when a lucrative video deal was struck for the burgeoning Bullwinkle franchise.
"I'm thrilled that something I did has become so popular," he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1991. "But I'm sorry that I don't get any credit for it."
He decided to take legal action after seeing a documentary about Bullwinkle that didn't mention his name at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
TV’s greatest Cold Warriors.
I like the “Fractured Fairy Tales” part of the show.
“Eet was Moose and Squirrel!”
Our TV was black & white!
I’ve got the full DVD set of Rocky & Bullwinkle. It was a favorite of mine when I was a kid and the humor is still as funny today as it was back then.
RIP, Mr. Anderson. Thanks for so many great, wonderful memories.
“Keel moose and squirrel.”
“Do NOT keel moose and squirrel.”
RIP
As I read this I am sitting in front of the computer with my Bullwinkle sweatshirt on.
Rocky and Bullwinkle are the only cartoons I still watch - have ‘em on DVD. Great stuff.
Rocky and Bullwinkle were unabashedly patriotic, and kicked commie butt all over. God bless you Alex Anderson!
And don't you wish modern TV shows showed even a 1/10th as much patriotism! Can you imagine a show these days where the All-American heroes went around kicking Islamist terrorist butt??!?!?
Thank you, Mr. Anderson!
R.I.P.
OMG!!
Not Bullwinkle J. Moose!!
RIP, Alex. Thanks for all the Sat morning chuckles.
I also loved “Fractured Fairy Tales”.
And don’t forget the Kerwurd Derby!!
“Can you imagine a show these days where the All-American heroes went around kicking Islamist terrorist butt??!?!? “
Rocky: “Hey, Bullwinkle”
Bullwinkle: “Yes, Rockie?”
Rocky: “These Islamo-terror freaks are scared of bacon, I say we give’m a breakfast they’ll never forget!”
My wife asked for S4 of R&B on DVD. I had to order it from Best Buy online. When I walked into my 2 local BBs, there were almost no DVDs. Blu-Ray and other HD formats had taken over most of the space DVDs were in.
RIP
The best example of that was a Pinky & the Brain Christmas Episode where the mice were infiltrating Santa's workshop. The elves and reindeer were getting together for a celebration at Donner's house and the Brain responded [my paraphrase] "Somehow I don't find the idea of joining the Donner party to be all that appealing." Nothing like launching a cannibalism joke over the kids' heads to get the parents to laugh.
I just noticed that season 4 has finally been released on DVD many years after the first three seasons. Time to buy more DVDs.
Aka Paul Frees and June Foray.
Thanks for mentioning the Pinky dvds. Gift idea for a couple family members.
Our family loves Rocky and Bullwinkle. We are all about bad accents and silly puns. Of course, that does mean people don’t invite us over very often...
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