The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and Underdog original cartoons (1 Viewer)

[darkrock17]

It definitely was on the old reruns I used to watch in syndication and Nickelodeon.

This was Nick's intro called Bullwinkle's Moose-O-Rama, it does use a bit of The Rocky Show intro before switching over to Fred Steiner's iconic theme.

 

[darkrock17]

A good chunk of the "missing minutes" in the Saturday morning showings were used for previews of next week's show. And it's not like Shout Factory "cut things out" -- it's more like they failed to "put things in," as the "shows" were actually created specifically for these DVDs, i.e. this isn't a version of the show that actually aired on TV in any era. They were assembled from the ground up.

21 minutes would have been too short for 1964. This was before they had to have educational fillers in between the shows. Some of these "shows" on the DVDs run shorter than others. I don't have the set accessible, but I seem to recall that one of the "shows" had only one Underdog cartoon and not two, for instance.

I know the guy who served as a consultant on these sets (not personally but via the internet). He approached me looking for missing audio for certain cartoons and I sent him some stuff, whatever I had that he asked for. But this was so late in the process that the booklets were already printed, listing cartoons as part of the "shows" and then they discovered they didn't have them or they were silent. A few things I sent, they just used for the audio because they didn't have it. I had to "overnight" the stuff to them, they reimbursed me and were very nice, but how much better these sets could have been if they weren't rushed like that.

Some of the Underdog segments were missing chunks of them because the source material had been edited for a previous project where they edited the four parts into one long cartoon, so they were missing the cliffhanger narration. I had all that (although they were just off-air recordings anyone might have had) and I would gladly have sent them if only they'd asked. I had no idea they were going to do things like include one half of a King & Odie two-parter without the other. Granted, this wasn't a King Leonardo set, but where else would those shorts have been released? It would have been nice to get them all.

Frustrating all around, especially since prior to this, they had done two different non-comprehensive sampler "best of" sets.

Shout worked with what it was given, if shorts and segments were missing then it was whoever owns the series that Shout licensed it from.

21 minutes for cartoons is short compared to Hanna-Barbera and their then 25-26 minute series.

I think I remember TVShowsOnDVD talked about how you helped Shout reassemble the series for their release.

Shout Factory only released their Complete Series in 2012, before that Underdog was released by Sony Wonder and then Genius Entertainment.

 

[Randy Korstick]

The Underdog shows are 16-17 minutes they are most likely missing a cartoon. Hanna Barbera Saturday morning cartoons are 21-22 minutes because other things like educational breaks were added to Saturday morning shows and they used more commercials than Prime Time. Prime Time Hanna Barbera shows like the Flintstones, Jetsons and Johnny Quest were 25-26 minutes like any other prime time show of the time.

 

[Lord Dalek]

This was Nick's intro called Bullwinkle's Moose-O-Rama, it does use a bit of The Rocky Show intro before switching over to Fred Steiner's iconic theme.

Ok pal, this is one of the two segment intros they used on Nick and Cartoon Network in the 90s which were done by Filmtel and Satchi & Satchi for a 1990 syndication package.



That is Comstock, not Steiner. Big difference.

 

[darkrock17]

Ok pal, this is one of the two segment intros they used on Nick and Cartoon Network in the 90s which were done by Filmtel and Satchi & Satchi for a 1990 syndication package.



That is Comstock, not Steiner. Big difference.

That's music I grew up hearing before each R&B short.

 

[Mark Y]

Ok pal, this is one of the two segment intros they used on Nick and Cartoon Network in the 90s which were done by Filmtel and Satchi & Satchi for a 1990 syndication package.



That is Comstock, not Steiner. Big difference.

Both were used during the series run. Comstock on ABC, Steiner on NBC. Both were used in syndicated reruns, but more Comstock than Steiner.

 

[Mark Y]

The Underdog shows are 16-17 minutes they are most likely missing a cartoon. Hanna Barbera Saturday morning cartoons are 21-22 minutes because other things like educational breaks were added to Saturday morning shows and they used more commercials than Prime Time. Prime Time Hanna Barbera shows like the Flintstones, Jetsons and Johnny Quest were 25-26 minutes like any other prime time show of the time.

I have a dub of a circa 1964 NBC Underdog show with the commercial breaks. It starts out with a show opening (same announcer audio but different visuals than the one frequently seen in syndication).

There are two Underdog chapters (in this case, "The Magnet Men" parts three and four), and in between there's an Aesop & Son ("The Lion And The Mouse") and a Hunter ("Seeing Stars"). There is no short cartoon such as a Commander McBragg, Twinkles or Bullwinkle's Corner.

Leading into the first Underdog cartoon is the usual prologue from the pilot cartoon. The second Underdog cartoon is preceded with the usual Underdog song. Aesop has no intro. Hunter has an intro which is different from the usual one seen now -- it's a clip from a later cartoon with mobs of people singing "we're calling, we're calling the Hunter."

There are some in-between bits with the sign-posting business (this is featured in the show opening as well, with Underdog's image being plastered onto a billboard, and of course the "Post No Bills" closing). Before the closing credits there are previews of next week's show introduced with a short piece of animation where they put up a big neon sign that says "Next Show." The "Go Go Gophers" music plays under this, although the Gophers don't appear in this episode.

That's what was in an original Underdog show, at least this one. (The sponsor billboards were done "live" with a slide leading me to believe it might be a summer rerun.)

By the way, there were two variations of the Underdog Show intro we've all seen in the reruns, where Underdog is flying through space. Originally it went on a little longer at the end and a satellite bumped into Underdog. It popped open and a sign came out. There were two versions, in one it said Go Go Gophers and in the other it said The Hunter.

Of course, the Underdog show had different formats over the years. When CBS carried reruns circa 1966, it was all Underdog (all four parts in one half-hour) with no other characters. There was a 1960s syndicated series called "Cartoon Cut-Ups" which featured Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and Commander McBragg. This series was later re-edited and repurposed as the "first season" of the 1970s syndicated Underdog show.

 

[darkrock17]

Both were used during the series run. Comstock on ABC, Steiner on NBC. Both were used in syndicated reruns, but more Comstock than Steiner.

I heard more Steiner than Comstock, yes both composers music were used throughout the entire shows run, but Steiner's theme is the one the general public knows best over Comstock's theme he did for ABC.

 

[LouA]

Just wondering; anyone see a Blu-ray release for Rocky And Bullwinkle?

 

[darkrock17]

Just wondering; anyone see a Blu-ray release for Rocky And Bullwinkle?

No unfortunately, we'd like to see one, but it's not something current owners Universal have even given a thought to doing.

 

[Neil Brock]

I have a quick question. I had bought the Best of Tennessee Tuxedo and also the Underdog 3-disc set from Classic Media. I now have the complete TT series box and the complete Underdog box. Is there anything on those 2 earlier sets which is not on the box sets? Otherwise, there's no need to hang on to them.

By the way, its my understanding that all of these cartoon shows have been sliced and diced to pieces over the years and there no long are existing full half hour versions of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Rocky and his friends or any of the shows which were original a half hour long. That's why none of the Warner sets had any interstitials, except for the ones they go from collector's copies.

 

[Nelson Au]

I’ve received all three of the series sets last week. The Universal release of Rocky and Bullwinkle and from Shout, Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo. It will take me a little time before I tear into these sets and enjoy reliving my youth. And also to see how they are are assembled, in terms of the shorts between the main features.

 

[dagover]

I love the Jay Ward style of humor.

I grew up watching Crusader Rabbit. As crudely drawn as it was, that was my favorite.

 

[John Sparks]

I grew up watching Crusader Rabbit. As crudely drawn as it was, that was my favorite.

Talk like that really dates you. Viewed one of the cartoons not to long ago and realized how crudely it was animated. But, since it was the only cartoon available to us, I couldn't wait to watch it...fond memories!!!

 

[LouA]

I grew up watching Crusader Rabbit. As crudely drawn as it was, that was my favorite.

Yes, Crusader was a fun show.
Funko recently released a nice figure of Crusader.

 

[Gary16]

I watched them in the original airings. The local stations here time shifted them to early weekday mornings and I never understood why they were only on one day a week, after all - I looked for them every day at that time. I loved "Fractured Fairy Tales," "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties," and "Peabody's Improbable History." "Aesop and Son" was OK as were the rest of the short bits with Rocky and Bullwinkle. I didn't "get" "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle" at all... That made them all the better once I got the discs and watched it all again with adult eyes.

Yes they replaced the better known Frank Comstock theme from the ABC days with that

This may have been posted before but it was Jay Ward who had the music changed because he said he was tired of paying royalties to Frank Comstock.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, I finally got around to opening the Rocky and Bullwinkle set. A friend warned me that an earlier Bullwinkle DVD set had a logo bug on the lower corner of the cartoons. I checked and I was disappointed to See my set also has a logo bug showing. But it goes away after a few seconds. It’s there at the start of the episode, same with Peabody. I’ve only sampled the first disc, will be watching these shortly! I’m currently converting the discs to add the episodes to my HTPC.

 

[RobertMG]

I’ve received all three of the series sets last week. The Universal release of Rocky and Bullwinkle and from Shout, Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo. It will take me a little time before I tear into these sets and enjoy reliving my youth. And also to see how they are are assembled, in terms of the shorts between the main features.

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Became close friends with Joe Harris when working on our history book about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - loved when he would tell me how he did not get to see the famous Underdog balloon until many years later when he was attending a party on 77th Street the night before the parade and hearing noises from the street he looked out the window and there was Underdog! He grabbed a camera from someone and ran down and finally got to see his character in balloon form! He also created the Trixx Rabbit! What a great talent and a dear friend! We lost Joe a few years ago --- I miss him so much. He also loved telling us about the Mexican animation studio and how they used regular house paint to paint the cells - greatest thrill was bringing him into Macy's to meet the new leaders at the time and how thrilled they were to meet him!

 

[Nelson Au]

That’s a cool story Robert. I read up about Joe Harris in Wikipedia. He had an interesting and varied career!

 

[LouA]

You know, with Kino-Lorber licensing tons of stuff from Universal, I wonder if it’s possible they might release R&B?
KL has released some animated stuff.