Rocky and His Friends was created by animation legend Jay Ward and had the uncommon quality of appealing to children and adults alike. Debuting in 1959, the show about Bullwinkle J. Moose and his friend, Rocket J. Squirrel was chock full of wit, satire and enough puns to fill the Grand Canyon.

Bullwinkle wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but he had a good heart, which was something Rocky the Squirrel appreciated greatly. Rocket J. had all the smarts his friend lacked and the courage of ten squirrels. The friends lived in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota where they routinely tried to outwit the dastardly Pottsylvanian spies, Boris and Natasha. Straight out of villain central casting, Boris and Natasha hatched scheme after scheme to eliminate Bullwinkle and Rocky, or as they put it in their thick Russian accents, "KIll Moose and Squirrel."

The adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle were often surreal, sometimes hallucinatory but always funny. They met with memorable characters like Gidney and Cloyd, little green men from the moon and Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz, commander of S.S. Guppy. They also ran afoul of Boris and Natasha's bosses, the evil Mr. Big and Fearless Leader, dictator of Pottsylvania.

Each episode include two Rocky & Bullwinkle shorts in the cliffhanger style of early film and radio serials. The shorts were part of longer story arcs, spanning several episodes, like the "Jet Fuel Formula" arc which consisted of 40 shorts. The Rocky & Bullwinkle segments bookended several supporting features on the show:

Dudley Do Right of the Mounties followed the adventures of a Canadian Mountie locked in an eternal cat-and-mouse game with his nemesis, Snidely Whiplash. There was plenty of melodrama to be had in this series and Snidely sported the costume of silent film era villains, consisting of a black top hat, cape and huge mustache.

Peabody's Improbable History featured the titular character, genius dog Mr. Peabody. The clever canine had a pet boy, Sherman, and the duo went on adventures using Mr. Peabody's "WABAC machine" to travel into the past.

Fractured Fairy Tales and Aesop & Son retold old children's stories with a humorous twist and in the case of the latter featured a bewildered Aesop trying to teach a moral lesson to his smart-aleck son.

In Bullwinkle's Corner, the moose tried to bring refined culture to the show by introducing poetry but instead he ended up making moose patties out of the recitation. Mr. Know-It-All was Bullwinkle's other endeavor to appear smart but predictably, he didn't.

Rocky and His Friends changed its name to The Bullwinkle Show in 1960, when ABC unwisely dropped the series and moose & squirrel moved to NBC (smooth move, ABC). Collectively known as the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, it overcame limited animation with rock-solid writing that has drawn in fans for five decades and counting.

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