December 19, 2006

"The pay was low and the insecurity great. Jay felt the writers should pay him."

So said Christopher Robert Hayward about Jay Ward, of Jay Ward Productions, which made the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Hayward, who has died at the age of 81, was one of the writers:
Mr. Hayward worked on all the segments but was most closely associated with "The Adventures of Dudley Do-Right," which followed the hapless royal Canadian Mountie in his ceaseless pursuit of Snidely Whiplash, a very naughty man.

Because the Dudley Do-Right segments were deemed harmful to the national esteem, the Rocky and Bullwinkle shows were initially not broadcast in Canada.
Ha, ha, Canada. Can't take a joke. They should have been pleased to get any attention at all.

Hayward also worked on "Crusader Rabbit." Remember that? I do! They wouldn't use such Christianist terminology for a cartoon character these days. Anyway, let's talk a look at the little rabbit and see what he was all about. (If the voice sounds familiar, it's probably because it's the same woman who did Smurfette. I know you're old enough to remember Smurfette.)



Oh, you want to see Dudley Do-Right too. Well, YouTube doesn't have everything. I mean, I found this, but...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Google video has some that don't require knowledge of Romance languages.

Anonymous said...

There is some pretty interesting (almost subliminal?) political commentary to be found in Rocky & Bullwinkle. As well, IIRC, Dudley loved his horse more than Nell - make of that what you will.

Tim said...

"Ha, ha, Canada. Can't take a joke. They should have been pleased to get any attention at all."

Canada. It isn't a nation; it is simply an address.

Ron said...

Perhaps Sullivan would insist on "Multi-Culti Bunni" instead of "Christianist Rabbit." And Speedy Gonzalez or Hashimoto-san? Unspeakable!

David53 said...

Crusader Rabbit did indeed visit us in Texas. However he soon returned to Canada when he learned that all Texans are required by law to obtain a concealed weapons permit.

Strayhorn said...

Probably nothing influenced my early years as much as cartoons. I still watch cartoons (Family Guy, South Park) and enjoy the broad satire and sly subversiveness. I can attribute my love of bad puns to Bullwinkle and I've always thought it was an underappreciated show. In one of my favorite episodes Rocky encounters space aliens and tries to describe them to Bullwinkle: "No one has actually seen one before!"

Bullwinkle: "You mean, like a congressman?"

I'm sad to read this obit. Condolences to his family.

Anonymous said...

I think you're right, George. I remember my youngest nephew being bored to tears by a tape I was quite excited to share with him. I think we ended up watching the Lion King for the zilliionth time instead that night.

Kev said...

"The scrawny rabbitt could handle the Texans because they were all sinners (or did he say singers), but needed help with their horses."

I thought he said "singers" myself, which brings up the usual stereotype that all of us in Texas have cowboy hats and pick out country tunes on the guitar (pronounced GEE-tar). But I wouldn't mind having the stereotypical oil well in the backyard... ;-)

I moved all around the country for the first eight years of my life and have been in Texas ever since, so I didn't develop the trademark Texas accent (my parents being native Ohioans and all). It was funny to go away to places like music camp and have people not believe that I was from Texas because I didn't have the accent. When people asked where it was, I finally started telling them that I left it at home on trips.