DAVID BIANCULLI

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Watch Me Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat! Aw, That Trick NEVER Works...
April 28, 2011  | By David Bianculli  | 8 comments
 

Last-second warning -- and, I hope, a treat, at least to some. On Thursday's edition of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I review a boxed set I've been meaning to get to for a while. It's Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: The Complete Series...

IMG_2827.jpg

It's the first prime-time show I was addicted to as a kid, and a boxed set of DVDs I've thoroughly enjoyed working my way through half a century later. Boris Badenov! Fractured Fairy Tales! Mr. Peabody! "Avalanche is better than none..."

Hear my review of the complete Classic Media boxed set on today's Fresh Air on your local public radio station -- or read and hear it by clicking HERE.

Either way, before or after, you can order the complete five seasons -- billed, by Classic Media, as "100 Percent Complete Bull" -- by clicking HERE.

Nuthin' up muh sleeve!

 

5 Comments

 

Mac said:

Just the best! I've said this before; this is one entertainment that I laughed at 8 years old,18, 28 (by then, with my kids), 38, 48, 58 (and now with grandkids to pollute bad puns and just plain silliness), for different reasons than the decade before. Disney's "Masterpieces"can't stake that claim, though, Pixar's output & Sesame Street would come close. Even most of the Warner Looney Tunes, outside of catching up on the then-current gags of the day (and radio voices) just hit me the same as they did decades ago. But Rocky & Bullwinkle evolved as I grew older. And Hoppity Hooper & "George of the Jungle" are pretty good also-rans (George,speaking Tarzan-like:"Steal track." Big Game Hunter: "Yes, George, the track is made of steel". Train crashes when the track ends. George: "See, someone steal track.") Once again, the absence of closed captioning is a big minus, as the mediocre animation made the writing and sounds so important. Daws Butler, June Foray, Bill Ward, Paul Frees, Walter Tetley- the best outside of Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg.
I recently saw a youtube video showing Sunset. Blvd. circa 1964, shot inside a car in daylight. Midway in, you can see Jay Ward's studios, with a huge Bullwinkle statue in the front.No cheapskate,Ward.

[That statue now graces the front of Dudley Do-Right Emporium on Sunset Blvd. Always worth a visit. - DB]

Comment posted on April 28, 2011 5:50 PM


diane deschanel said:

My husband and I as young marrieds loved to watch "Rocky and Bullwinkle". I am delighted that a boxed set is available and plan on buying it for my grandsons and their mom and dad. What great family entertainment!!!! It sounds as though it is still funny, after all this time!

Comment posted on April 28, 2011 10:13 PM


Debbi McNiven said:

Loved your review on NPR today, especially when you admitted that you were in your 20s before you linked Boris Badenov to Boris Gudunov. I, too was in my mid-20s when this clicked and I was simultaneously delighted with the pun and embarassed that it took me so long. BTW: also loved your Smothers Brothers book.

[Dear Debbie: With compliments like that, I love YOU. Thanks, twice. -- DB]

Comment posted on April 28, 2011 11:50 PM


Dan Langhoff said:

Definitely a treat.

Always happy when some one else acknowledges one of my all-time favorites. Loved re-runs as a kid, then discovered a whole other show when I viewed it as an adult. Often dismissed as merely low-brow, I often wonder "Wossamata U."

I got excited when you mentioned this all-in-one edition, but it sounds like just alternate packaging to the individual seasons.

Presto!

[You;re right. Basically, it IS alternate packaging, now that Season 5 is available individually. And it irritates me that the main title theme was swapped out. But the booklet, the order, and the mere completeness of the set makes it a treat nonetheless. - DB]

Comment posted on April 29, 2011 1:11 AM


Sally W. said:

I've been terribly behind, but finally got to listen to your review. This sounds like a great DVD set, and I do miss seeing the Rocky & Bullwinkle reruns. Plus, the legacy that the show has in television history! (I'm beginning to wonder who else, besides Matt Groening, was influenced by the show?). This set might very well end up on my birthday or holiday wish list now...

Comment posted on May 5, 2011 2:08 AM
 
 
 
 
 
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