Rocky and Bullwinkle

The 1990s saw a renaissance in American animation on television, as the phenomenal ratings success of The Simpsons prompted network executives to introduce a host of new cartoon series for adult audiences. But the irreverent humor and satirical eye of these post-modern programs owed a great debt to one of the pioneering shows of this genre, Rocky and Bullwinkle. The animated series about a moose and a squirrel aired from 1959 to 1964 on various networks, setting the standard for sophisticated cartoon whimsy.

"Bullwinkle was a magnificent marriage of concept, writing, performing, and direction," observed June Foray in 1991. Foray would know, having served as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel since the cartoon's inception in 1959. A one-time radio performer, Foray was hired for the long-running gig by Jay Ward, a Harvard Business School graduate who created Rocky and Bullwinkle in the late 1950s. Ward, who had no background in writing or animation, relied on a staff of creative types led by writer and vocal stylist Bill Scott, who became the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose. Others who worked on the show included Allan Burns, a talented comedy writer who would go on to help create The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s.

The program they created, originally titled Rocky and His Friends, followed the adventures of Bullwinkle J. Moose, a good-natured, if slightly dim, antlered mammal, and his resourceful cohort Rocky the Flying Squirrel. But this was no ordinary cutesy animal cartoon. Bullwinkle episodes were leavened with generous helpings of topical humor, including Cold War satire in the form of Boris and Natasha, dastardly spies from a nebulous Eastern Bloc nation called Pottsylvania. In a typical series plotline, Boris and Natasha attempt to sabotage the U.S. economy by counterfeiting America's most indispensable currency, the cereal box top. "Serial" became an operative term for the show itself, as the storylines carried over from week to week in the manner of old-time adventure movies.

There were additional segments of the program as well, including "The Adventures of Dudley Do-Right," about a stolid mountie; "Fractured Fairy Tales," a send-up of the Brothers Grimm and company; and "Mr. Peabody's Improbable History," which followed the exploits of a pedantic pooch who can travel back in time to great moments in the past. All the elements of the show incorporated the same dry humor, reliance on puns, and disdain for the "fourth wall" separating the characters from the audience. Thus unlike most cartoons, Rocky and Bullwinkle could keep the attention of both children and adults alike.

After concluding its original run of 156 episodes, Rocky and Bullwinkle appeared regularly in reruns until 1973. At that point, sophisticated animation sadly went out of style. The moose and squirrel popped up only sporadically in reruns on local stations for the next 18 years. But this long fallow period was only the prelude to a grand Bullwinkle renaissance.

In 1991, six video tapes of classic Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes were released. With the success of Fox's animated series The Simpsons fostering a renewed appreciation for edgy cartoon comedy, sales were brisk. Nostalgic baby boomers and their offspring gobbled up two million copies of the video cassettes in the first year of release. Even an ill-conceived 1992 live-action movie, Boris and Natasha, could not slow the moose's long march back to public favor. Cable television's Cartoon Network soon added Rocky and Bullwinkle to its lineup of cartoon classics, and it quickly became one of the channel's most watched shows among teenagers, a notoriously hard-to-please demographic. To capitalize further on the cartoon's retro hipness, a handsome commemorative volume, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book, reached bookstore shelves in 1996.

But there was perhaps no greater indication of Rocky and Bullwinkle's return to the pinnacle of the pop culture pantheon than their reinstatement to the front lines of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. The inflatable moose had disappeared from the parade after 1983, but in 1996 a new Bullwinkle balloon, redesigned with Rocky on his back, once again joined the likes of Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, and Underdog. It seemed a fitting apotheosis for one of cartoondom's most beloved and influential figures.

—Robert E. Schnakenberg

Further Reading:

Chunovic, Louis. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book. New York, Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1996.