I'm sad to report that the man who created Rocky and Bullwinkle has passed away. Alex Anderson was working with Jay Ward when they were trying to come up with new ideas for animated series for TV following their success with television's first cartoon show, "Crusader Rabbit". They came up with the concept of "The Frostbite Falls Review", a group of animals running a television station in Canada. Part of the cast was Bullwinkle the French-Canadian Moose and Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Unfortuneitly this show didn't sell.
Anderson also came up with the idea of Dudley Do-Right, the bumbling Canadian Mountie for another series. This idea also failed to sell.
Anderson then parted ways with Jay Ward and went to work in advertising were he spent the rest of his career.
In the late 1950's, Jay Ward teamed up with writer Bill Scott and put together the crew that would create one of TV's best animated shows, "Rocky and his Friends" for ABC. It was here that the world would fall in love with the adventures of the heroic squirrel and his smart goof of a partner, Bullwinkle J. Moose.
In 1961 the show moved to NBC and was retitled "The Bullwinkle Show" and played in prime time. One of the new segments of the show was "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties" the misadventures of the Royal Canadian Mounted's most infamous officers.
Anderson never worked on these shows but in 1996 won an out-of-court settlement with Jay Ward Productions naming him the creator of Rocky, Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right.
Thank you so much Mister Anderson for coming up with two of my all time favorite cartoon characters, Rocky and Bullwinkle. Even though you didn't work on the show, your "children" were in very capable hands and have gone on to be very popular Pop Culture Icons.
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