Considering that we didn’t all get blown up, I think we can now agree that the Cold War was worth it, if only for giving us this Ike-era spy-vs.-spy send-up, in which Rocket J. Squirrel and lovable dimwit Bullwinkle J. Moose defended the US of A against Pottsylvanian sneak Boris Badenov and the slinky Natasha Fatale. Writer-animator Jay Ward’s other creations (on Rocky as well as its follow-up The Bullwinkle Show) included oblivious Mountie Dudley Do-Right; time-traveling canine inventor Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman; and the Fractured Fairy Tales narrated by Edward Everett Horton. All shared a love of puns (Bullwinkle was an alum of Wassamatta U), a fast pace and a nothing-sacred sensibility. Rocky may not have won the space race, but it gave red-blooded American kids a leg up on the Russkies in appreciating satire.
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