Chicago Herald-American

Thursday was the 50th anniversary of the debut of "Rocky and his Friends," the greatest cartoon of all time. You can't say they don't make them like this anymore, because "The Simpsons," "Family Guy" and "South Park" all rate as "cutting edge" on different levels of entertainment. But Rocky & Bullwinkle not only was  cutting edge, but good, clean fun. Narrated by William Conrad, the show included one memorable segment after another: "Mr. Peabody," Fractured Fairy Tales, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Know-It-All,  and Aesop and Son.

Click this link for a feature on the 50th anniversary of Rocky & Bullwinkle from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A lot of good background and information here.

Most of the series' key contributors are gone: Bill Scott (Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody), Jay Ward, Paul Frees (Boris Badenov, Inspector Fenwick), William Conrad, Daws Butler ("Aesop's son," and also Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound), Hans Conried (Snidley Whiplash), Walter Tetley (Sherman) and Edward Everett Horton ("Fractured Fairy Tales").  But June Foray, the voice of Rocky and Natasha, is still going strong at 92. She recently wrote a book with television comedy writer Mark Evanier. Here's a link to Mark Evanier's Web site, which provides a link to order the book, if you are so inclined. (Mark's blog is chock full of great information from the world of animation, comic books and television and general entertainment.)

And here's the opening of the original "Rocky & Friends":