Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Boomers and Bullwinkle

     Somewhere after the Beatniks and before the Beatles, my generation of Boomers was blessed with Bullwinkle the moose, who, with his pal, Rocky the flying squirrel, showed up on television in 1959 and stayed until 1964.

     The show, with its hokey animation, hokey puns, and hokey characters, taught us fun, satire, and much more.

     We became acquainted with all of the show's many stars, including but not limited to, Rocket J. Squirrel, Bullwinkle J. Moose, Captain Peter Peachfuzz, and the spies from Pottsylvania, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, all played against the cultural background of the Eisenhower-Kennedy-Khrushchev Cold War.

     In addition, there were Dudley Do-right the brave Mountie, his sweetheart Nell, and his nemesis Snidely Whiplash; Mr. Peabody and his Improbable History, made possible by the Wayback time machine; and Edward Everett Horton's Fractured Fairy Tales.

     Well, maybe you had to live through those times to fully enjoy that show, but maybe not.  If you have 55 minutes to connect with the characters and the times, I think you'll have a lot of fun going to this link.  And you'll learn a little bit of cultural history! (How's that for a great justification?)

     Thanks to Charles Burris at LRC for getting me started down this moose-and-squirrel trail.

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