January 02, 1997|By DAVID EVERITT and The New York Times
A little over a month ago, a significant confirmation of pop-culture status hovered high above Central Park West and Broadway, televised for an entire nation to see: The Bullwinkle balloon, redesigned with Rocky affixed to the moose's back, returned to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade after a 13-year absence.
Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose's drily satirical cartoon show, popular among adults and children alike, began in 1959 and floated from network to network and time slot to time slot for 156 episodes, until 1964.
The show then appeared regularly in reruns until 1973, and it has popped up in reruns off and on for the past 23 years.
In 1991, with much fanfare, Disney released The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle on home video. So, like Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason and Dick Van Dyke, the clever squirrel and his addled moose pal have maintained a place in America's comedic consciousness. But recently they seemed to have gained a new prominence.
In June, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show had its debut on the Cartoon Network. It has become a popular fixture on that cable channel at 11 on weeknights and at 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Sundays, once again reaching beyond the typical cartoon audience.
"It turns out, oddly enough," said Linda Simensky, the network's director of programming, "that Rocky and Bullwinkle is in our top five shows among teens, which is an elusive group. They don't seem to be watching a lot outside of MTV and a few other channels."
And this fall, Bantam published The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book, a glossy collection of plot summaries and quirky facts. (What is Bullwinkle's hometown? Frostbite Falls, Minn., of course.)
Rocky and His Friends, as the show was called when it had its premiere on ABC, was easily the quirkiest cartoon show of its era. There were cute animals and slapstick to entertain children, but there was something more for viewers of all ages: topical social humor and sophisticated whimsy.
The serialized Rocky and Bullwinkle adventures were usually farcical sendups of the Cold War, pitting decent American animals against Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, the most dastardly dirty-tricksters of Pottsylvania, a vaguely Eastern bloc repository of totalitarian evil.
In one memorable story, Boris and Natasha sabotaged the United States economy by counterfeiting that most fundamental of American currencies, the premium cereal box top.
In other regular segments of the show, "Mr. Peabody's Improbable History" dismantled the most honored exploits of the past, as Peabody, a wealthy dog, traveled back through time with his adopted boy, Sherman; "The Adventures of Dudley Do-Right" skewered square-jawed heroism, and "Fractured Fairy Tales" and "Aesop and Son" turned age-old stories upside down.
After two years of appearing on weekday afternoons, Rocky and His Friends switched from ABC to NBC and became The Bullwinkle Show. Broadcast by NBC on Sunday evenings at 7, it was one of the first cartoon shows to air in prime time, following The Flintstones.
The program's appeal to both children and adults was a key factor in Bantam's decision to publish the new book. "The show has lived on in the minds of those three and a half decades of viewers," said Irwyn Applebaum, Bantam's president. "Everyone has a sense, I think, at any age, that it's a little smarter than it looks, initially, and it kind of sneaks up on you, that gentle attitude that still carries some bite."
While shows such as The Simpsons have made irreverent animation commonplace, it was virtually unheard of in 1959, when Jay Ward created Rocky and His Friends.
Actually, Ward, a Harvard Business School graduate who in 1949 had been a creator of Crusader Rabbit, the first cartoon made for television, did not produce Rocky alone; his partner was Bill Scott, a skillful writer and voice actor (the voice of Bullwinkle, no less).
Nevertheless, Ward, who died in 1989, is singled out as the show's guiding force. Neither a writer nor an artist, he devised a creative setting that his staff found invaluable.
"Ward created a playpen sort of atmosphere," said Louis Chunovic, author of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book, "complete with toys, candy, a popcorn machine and a calliope."
Ward was the ringmaster of this circuslike studio. "It was a wonderful place to work because of the freedom," said Allan Burns, one of Ward's writers. "Jay wouldn't come in and say, `Do such-and-such.' He'd say, `Figure out something you'd want to do.' That was Jay's style. `Be thinking of new stuff.'''
Tiffany Ward, Ward's daughter, who is the managing director of Jay Ward Productions, characterized her father's approach this way: "Some people might have said, `O.K., I'm producing a cartoon; therefore it's for children.' Dad was saying that this is humor, not just children's humor."
