Mark To

Other Jay Ward Cartoons

Now that we are seeing the releases of all of the Rocky and Bullwinkles, what about Dudley Do-Right, Hoppity Hooper and George of the Jungle? Does the Ward estate own all of these as well? It would be great to get ahold of them. Also Crusader Rabbit, although Ward sold off the rights and they wound up with Fox (or maybe public domain?) They could easily fit the 195 CRs (5 minutes each) onto a nice DVD set.

pitchman

I think it would be a great kick to see Jay Ward's early sixties prime-time pilot, "The Nut House," as an easter egg on one of these collections. It only aired one time before cancellation, but when you see it, there's no denying that "Laugh-In" bears a striking resemblance to Jay's original format. Great stuff!

Gary

george kaplan

The only vhs tapes left in my collection are George of the Jungle (along with Super Chicken and Tom Slick). I'd want these on dvd more than Rocky & Bullwinkle!

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Al (alweho)

Dudley Do-Right (like Fractured Fairytales, Aesop & Son, Bullwinkle's Corner and Peabody's Improbable History) are included in the Rocky & Bullwinkle season sets and considered an integral part of the series. R&B ran for five seasons.

Hoppity was created as a new "wrap around" for a show including repeats of Fairytales, Aesop and Peabody. George of the Jungle, Tom Slick and Super Chicken were all grouped together in another single series. (Both shows were only produced for one season from what I can gather. Fox released George and Tom on VHS once.)

Fractured Flickers is now out on DVD, leaving George, 195 Ward produced Crusader Rabbit segments, more than a few commericals and both animated and live action pilots unreleased.

\"Politics is the profession whereby the inevitable is made to seem a great human achievement\" - Quentin Crisp

Mark To

I did some research and you are right, Dudley Do-Right was just made up of reruns of his cartoons from the Bullwinkle Show years before. However there were 104 Hoppity Hooper cartoons that were produced. Maybe they can put them together with George of the Jungle in one package? Forget Crusader as the rights were lost long ago.

Al (alweho)

I think the ideal way to go would be to issue a special Hoppity set (minus what was already released on the R&B sets), and then a complete George/Tom/Super package.

Hoppity was sort of dumbed down a bit for a younger audience (due to sponsor insistence - with much disagreement from Ward's camp) and wouldn't mesh all that well content-wise with the George/Tom/Super material.

If they really wanted to appeal to collectors, they'd also find a way to package all the Ward pilots and commercials in some manner as a bonus - although it might fill up the Hoppity set time/value-wise, it would still be difficult thematically to pull off.

Crusader Rabbit also has the problem of later episodes being produced by someone else other than Ward.

\"Politics is the profession whereby the inevitable is made to seem a great human achievement\" - Quentin Crisp

MarcoBiscotti

I recall hearing a rumor of the complete George Of The Jungle coming to DVD sometime in 2005, though I have no sources to cite. Has anyone else heard anything of this?