50 Fun Facts About Rocky and Bullwinkle

On NBC, a Bullwinkle puppet once told children to pull which parts off their television sets?

The tuning knobs came off in the homes of an estimated 20,000 children, so the following week the puppet told them to glue the parts back on.

Bullwinkle the moose took his name, with two letters swapped, from which kind of California business?

A car dealership called Bullwinkel Motors caught the eye of creator Alex Anderson, who swapped its last two letters and gave the name to his moose.

Jay Ward's van tour for Moosylvania statehood reached the White House gate during which Cold War standoff?

The Cuban Missile Crisis was at its height when the van pulled up, so Ward and his petition were turned away before he could see President Kennedy.

Which British Invasion band was named for its singer's resemblance to Mr. Peabody's pet boy?

Herman's Hermits owe the name to singer Peter Noone's resemblance to Sherman, which was clipped to Herman.

Mr. Peabody's time machine lent its name to a tool for viewing old web pages, run by which nonprofit?

Internet Archive called its service the Wayback Machine after the WABAC, the device the genius dog and his boy Sherman use to drop in on history.

In the first Rocky and Bullwinkle adventure, which of the heroes' recipes turns out to be a powerful fuel?

Cake was the unlikely secret: the recipe worked so well as a propellant that two notorious spies came after it, starting the 40-part story Jet Fuel Formula.

Which actor both co-produced the 2000 Rocky and Bullwinkle film and played its dictator, Fearless Leader?

Robert De Niro made the film through his company Tribeca and asked for the villains' national anthem to be added, which changed the shooting schedule and raised the budget.

Jay Ward turned to cartoons while recovering after what crashed into his real estate office on its opening day?

A runaway truck pinned him inside the building, and he kept the real estate firm running in Berkeley even after he moved to Los Angeles.

Which cartoonist gave many of his own characters the middle initial J as a tribute to producer Jay Ward?

Matt Groening borrowed the initial that Rocky and Bullwinkle themselves both carry in honor of the man who produced them.

Which time-travel film honors Mr. Peabody with a 1955 character named Peabody who has a son called Sherman?

Back to the Future has Otis Peabody mistake Marty McFly for an evil alien and his DeLorean for a spaceship.

Rocky and Bullwinkle share a house in Frostbite Falls, a fictional small town in which US state?

Minnesota is home to International Falls, the real border town that Frostbite Falls spoofs.

Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are spies for which fictional nation ruled by Fearless Leader?

Pottsylvania's dictator rules from an underground hideout called Central Control and carries the national treasury with him wherever he goes.

Which top-hatted villain keeps tying Nell Fenwick to railroad tracks in the Dudley Do-Right cartoons?

Snidely Whiplash ties women to the tracks for no profit at all, simply because he feels compelled to, and in one cartoon he swaps hats with Dudley and becomes the hero.

Which voice actress played both Rocky the Flying Squirrel and the villainous spy Natasha Fatale?

June Foray voiced hero and villain alike, and she is also credited with coming up with the idea for animation's Annie Awards.

The genius dog Mr. Peabody is said to have graduated at the age of three from which university?

Harvard gave the pup his degree, and in the first cartoon he rescues an orphan boy from bullies and goes to court to adopt him.

The voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel played which Flintstones character in the pilot before being recast?

Betty Rubble was hers only in the pilot before Bea Benaderet won the series role, and she later described losing the part as a terrible disappointment.

In the Fractured Fairy Tales take on Sleeping Beauty, the prince is a caricature of which showman?

Walt Disney's stand-in never wakes the princess; he builds a theme park called Sleeping Beautyland around her instead.

Jay Ward's studio, makers of Rocky and Bullwinkle, designed which cereal mascot and made its television commercials?

Cap'n Crunch came from the Ward studio along with the cereal characters Quisp and Quake, and the head writer of the moose's adventures wrote many of the ads.

Which George of the Jungle star played the Mountie hero in the 1999 live-action film Dudley Do-Right?

Brendan Fraser was making his second film from a Jay Ward cartoon, and the ads played on the coincidence, but it failed with critics and at the box office.

In one Rocky and Bullwinkle story, six-foot robot mice descend on Earth to devour which household fixtures?

TV antennas across the nation are on the menu in the story Metal-Munching Mice, and the heroes have to stop the mechanical swarm.

Which future star of the detective series Cannon narrated the Rocky and Bullwinkle adventures?

William Conrad dropped his usual rumbling baritone for a brisk, high-pitched nasal tenor, a voice he kept for these cartoons and used nowhere else.

Which head writer of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons also voiced Bullwinkle, Mr. Peabody and Dudley Do-Right?

Bill Scott never received an on-screen credit for any of those voices, and producer Jay Ward had simply assumed he would play the moose.

Which voice actor, the Ghost Host of the Haunted Mansion ride, also played the spy Boris Badenov?

Paul Frees, nicknamed the Man of a Thousand Voices, was also the Pillsbury Doughboy in television commercials.

Boris Badenov's look was modeled on which member of a famously macabre cartoon household?

Gomez Addams lent Boris his look, and Natasha was drawn from the cartoon wife who had not yet been given the name Morticia.

Which Seinfeld actor played the live-action Boris Badenov in the 2000 Rocky and Bullwinkle film?

Jason Alexander took the part years after early plans for the film had imagined Danny DeVito as the spy opposite Meryl Streep.

Which Modern Family star voiced the genius dog in the 2014 animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman?

Ty Burrell replaced Robert Downey Jr., who had first been announced for the role, and his sitcom daughter Ariel Winter voiced Penny.

Rocky and Bullwinkle was among the first cartoons outsourced abroad, to Gamma Productions in which country?

Mexico's Gamma studio worked so fast and unchecked that Boris's mustache popped on and off and Bullwinkle's antlers changed between shots.

Which cereal maker sponsored Rocky and His Friends on condition that it air in a late-afternoon children's slot?

General Mills kept the US television rights to the series, and its advertising agency set up the overseas studio that animated it.

Rocky and His Friends premiered on ABC in 1959 in the afternoon slot right after which teen dance show?

American Bandstand handed over a young audience, and the cartoon became the highest-rated daytime network program.

Bullwinkle played football on a scholarship at which fictional college, later the setting of a whole story?

Wossamotta U sees its forlorn team go undefeated once it discovers Bullwinkle's unstoppable passing, which soon attracts gamblers Boris and Natasha.

Which anti-gravity metal makes Mount Flatten, the mine Bullwinkle inherits, float in the sky?

Upsidaisium is so valuable that the spies' overlord takes personal charge of the attempts to steal first the mountain and then the government's ore.

In the Rocky and Bullwinkle story Wailing Whale, the sea monster Maybe Dick turns out to be what?

A pirate ship built by Boris was behind the terror, and shipping magnate Pericles Parnassus hires the heroes to hunt it down.

In a first-season Rocky and Bullwinkle story, Boris and Natasha wreck the world economy by counterfeiting what?

Box tops have become so vital to the world's economy in Box Top Robbery that forged ones let the spies cause sabotage worldwide.

Boris and Natasha lose the formula for a silent explosive when Bullwinkle eats which fruit it was written on?

A banana was where the spies foolishly wrote down the formula for Hush-a-Boom, and the moose promptly devoured it.

Rocky and Bullwinkle buy the struggling Lazy Jay Ranch, a dude ranch that raises which unlikely livestock?

Worms are what the ranch raises, while Boris and Natasha try to get rid of the new owners and grab its mineral rights.

Rocky the Flying Squirrel's nickname is short for which first name?

Rocket J. Squirrel is his full name, and he is said to have learned to fly at the Cedar Yorpantz Flying School.

Fearless Leader is usually drawn with a long cheek scar and which accessory linked to old German officers?

A monocle and the scar mark him out as a Prussian type, and his accent is German-style while his two spies speak mock Russian.

Every Peabody's Improbable History cartoon closes with the time-traveling Mr. Peabody delivering what?

A pun on the historical trip ends every cartoon, a habit shared by the son who caps each fable the same way in the sister segment Aesop and Son.

A running gag in Dudley Do-Right has Nell Fenwick ignoring the Mountie because she is smitten with whom?

His horse, simply named Horse, gets the kisses, and when Dudley leaves the Mounties she is upset only that the animal is going too.

Which character actor from the Fred Astaire film Top Hat narrated the Fractured Fairy Tales segments?

Edward Everett Horton made his name in 1930s screen comedies, yet baby boomers know him best for reading these twisted tales.

Which voice of Captain Hook in the 1953 animated Peter Pan also played the villain in Dudley Do-Right?

Hans Conried also hosted Jay Ward's live-action series Fractured Flickers, which redubbed silent films for laughs.

Before Rocky and Bullwinkle, Jay Ward and Alex Anderson made which pioneering made-for-television cartoon?

Crusader Rabbit and his dimwitted sidekick Rags the Tiger starred in satirical four-minute cliffhangers, much as the moose and squirrel later would.

Rocky and Bullwinkle writers Chris Hayward and Allan Burns went on to create which 1960s sitcom?

The Munsters came from the pair, and Burns later co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The Bullwinkle Show lost ratings on Sunday evenings in 1961 because it aired opposite which perennial favorite?

Lassie was the competition at seven o'clock, and NBC later moved the moose to late Sunday afternoons.

A statue of Bullwinkle and Rocky stands in West Hollywood on which famous street, once home to Jay Ward's offices?

Sunset Boulevard got the refurbished statue back in 2020, years after it was taken away for repairs and its whereabouts became a mystery.

Bullwinkle's Family Food n' Fun, with its animatronic moose show, opened in 1982 to rival which restaurant chain?

Chuck E. Cheese had proved the formula of pizza, arcade games and robot shows, and the moose's first restaurant opened in Santa Clara, California.

A 2018 DreamWorks reboot of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle premiered on which company's streaming service?

Amazon carried the reboot on Prime Video, with Tiffany Ward, daughter of the original producer, among those in charge.

A fully storyboarded Rocky and Bullwinkle revival was canceled in 1981 after objections from which organization?

The NFL objected to a script that lampooned real team owners and had Boris fixing the championship game.

Which bumbling skipper of the SS Andalusia in Rocky and Bullwinkle goes by the nickname Wrongway?

Captain Peachfuzz was played in the style of comedian Ed Wynn, and he is one of only five members of the show's official fan club.

In the segment Bullwinkle's Corner, the moose tries to bring culture by reciting and acting out what?

Poems by Wordsworth and Robert Louis Stevenson get butchered, and Simple Simon becomes a variation on Abbott and Costello's Who's on First routine.