Happy 50th birthday, Rocky and Bullwinkle
(CNN) — Fifty years ago, Jay Ward’s animated moose and squirrel duo, “Rocky & Bullwinkle,” debuted on ABC, forever changing the way the world looked at animated television.
In one episode, Rocky and Bullwinkle are propelled to the moon when their oven explodes while the pair are following Bullwinkle’s grandmother’s recipe for mooseberry fudge cake. Fun for kids for obvious reasons, but adults certainly got a chuckle when the moose griped about still having to make payments on the oven.
Bullwinkle also mentions having graduated from MIT — the Moose Institute of Toe-Dancing, that is. Furthermore, Mr. Peabody the dog, a Harvard graduate, lives in a Manhattan penthouse, practices yoga and has an adopted son, because as he puts it: “Every dog should have a boy.” Peabody chooses an orphan because he “always roots for the underboy.” It’s these little jokes that set the show apart from typical children’s programming of its time.
Today those jokes may not have us rolling on the floor laughing (or ROTFL, as the kids say), but they were the 1960s equivalent of Stewie’s reaction to being rejected by “American Idol” on “Family Guy.”
The 50th anniversary of “Rocky and Bullwinkle” also means that spy duo Boris & Natasha, Mr. Peabody & Sherman and the Fractured Fairytales are celebrating birthdays as well.
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Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: Join Bullwinkle the moose, a lovable but often confused hero and his devoted friend and companion, Rocket J. Squirrel, as the two heroes face off with their perennial foes.
