The Moose With The Most!

Talking Rocky and Bullwinkle
 dolls from 2000, JCPenney.

       The Bullwinkle J. Moose doll is based upon an animated character with the same name. Bullwinkle, the star of the American animated television series originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks.

       Produced by Jay Ward Productions, the series is structured as a variety show, with the main feature being the serialized adventures of the two title characters, the anthropomorphic flying squirrel Rocket J. ("Rocky") Squirrel and moose Bullwinkle J. Moose. The main antagonists in most of their adventures are the two Russian-like spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, both working for the Nazi-like dictator Fearless Leader. Supporting segments include "Dudley Do-Right" (a parody of old-time melodrama), "Peabody's Improbable History" (a dog named Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman traveling through time), and "Fractured Fairy Tales" (classic fairy tales retold in comic fashion), among others.

       Rocky and Bullwinkle is known for quality writing and wry humor. Mixing puns, cultural and topical satire, and self-referential humor, it appealed to adults as well as children. It was also one of the first cartoons whose animation was outsourced; storyboards were shipped to Gamma Productions, a Mexican studio also employed by Total Television. The art has a choppy, unpolished look and the animation is extremely limited even by television animation standards at the time, yet the series has long been held in high esteem by those who have seen it; some critics described the series as a well-written radio program with pictures.

• The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show - Bullwinkle Puppet Intros
• Voices of Rocky and Bullwinkle
• June Foray Interview
• Hokey Smokes! Celebrating 60 Years of Rocky and Bullwinkle (Documentary)

"They created them all--but even Bill Scott and Jay Ward can be amazed by the zany antics of
Bullwinkle J. Moose and such pals a Rocket J. Squirrel, Dudley DoRight of the Mounties,
the Genius Dog, Boris Bandenov."

Bullwinkle: The Moose with the Most

       There's one star this season who is a big jump ahead of his competitors in getting laughs from the oft-unrealistic situations of TV comedy--because he's unreal himself: Funny fictitious Bullwinkle J. Moose, who leaped to fame on the popular cartoon series Rocky and His Friends and now has star billing on his own Bullwinkle Show each Sunday.
       Real or unreal, it's only natural that the inimitable cross-eyed moose is a veritable fountain of funniness. He's the brainchild of the zaniest pair of behind-the-camera laugh-provokers ever to hit Hollywood. The general tenor of madness that surrounds everything connected with the show was evident at its gala premiere. Everybody who is anybody in the film capital received formal, engraved invitations and a pair of tickets to widely separated seats--to accommodate couples who weren't on speaking terms! As guests arrived at the theater's red-carpeted entrance, the most famous stars were met with stony silence. But the lesser-known members of the press were saluted with wild applause and cheering-supplied by an off-stage sound track. Each was greeted at the microphone by a master of ceremonies nattily attired in white tie, tails, Bermuda shorts and sneakers.
       The Bullwinkle Show )including its rib-tickling, pomposity-pricking premiere) is the proud preparation of Jay Ward Productions, a firm built around Jay Ward and Bill Scott. Remarkably similar in looks, build, age and anything-for-a-laugh approach to life, this Tweedledum-Tweedledee pair are hard to pin down to specifics. When someone does manage to get them settled together for any brief period, he comes away with the impression of having witnessed a game of table tennis--with himself as the ball.
       The best description of the two is the one they give of themselves: "I look like the guard on a losing football team of ten years ago," says Jay. "I remind people o the meat-and-poultry man at the A & P," says Bill.
       San Francisco-born Jay is a graduate of the University of California and the Harvard School of Business. While selling real estate in 1947, he came up with the idea for Crusader Rabbit, sold the show to TV, then returned to the real-estate business. In 1957, he created Rocky-and, this time, gave up the business world for good.
       Bill reversed Jay's eastward trek. Born in Philadelphia, he went West to the University of Denver. After graduation, he went on to Hollywood, worked on "Bugs Bunny" and "Daffy Duck," graduated to writing and producing Time For Beany (one of TV's first hit puppet shows), then moved to the "Mister Magoo" series and the "Gerald McBoing-Boing" show, which won an Academy Award as best cartoon of the year.
       Jay Ward Productions consists of a host of creative talents, including six other writers, five directors, a spate of animators and some of the most able delineators of various voices in show business, including Paul Frees, Hans Conried, June Foray, Mel Blanc, Louis Nye, Don Knotts, Charles Ruggles, Bill Conrad, Alan Reed and Walter Tetley.
       It should not be surprising to learn that the firm has no president. "We're all vice-presidents," Jay and Bill announce. In the same straight-faced manner, they go on to discuss the man they consider most important to their organization-  Ponsonby Britt, chairman of the board. "We needed him," says Jay producing a prepared biography of their esteemed leader. "He had the money. He's head of the Widows and Orphans Benevolent Fund."
       A harried publicity man hastens to explain that there is no such person as Ponsonby Britt, that he is just a name dreamed up by the kookie pair for a gag. "We decided to invent him because we thought the enterprise needed a touch of class," Bell admits.
       Like Rocky And His Friends, from which it sprang, the Bullwinkle Show is classified by the network as a "children's show" --a fact which puzzles its producers. "We feel it's adult humor, but NBC can't understand the jokes, so they think it's a children's show." TV Radio Mirror, 1962

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