Dudley Do-Right

Last updated
Dudley Do-Right
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends character
Dudley Do-Right.jpg
First appearance The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (1959) [1]
Created by Alex Anderson
Chris Hayward
Allan Burns
Jay Ward
Bill Scott
Portrayed by Brendan Fraser
Voiced by Bill Scott (1959–1985)
Scott Wilson (WYME TV Animated Skits for Bullwinkle's Restaurant ) [2]
Keith Scott ( The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle Show , Pandemonium Cartoon Circus , Cartoon Network commercial, Rocky & Bullwinkle's Know-It-All Quiz Game , Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls ) [3]
In-universe information
Occupation Mountie
Nationality Canadian

Dudley Do-Right is a fictional character created by Alex Anderson, Chris Hayward, Allan Burns, Jay Ward, and Bill Scott, who appears as the main protagonist of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", a segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Contents

The segment parodies early 20th-century melodrama and silent film (the "Northern"), using only a piano as a musical background.

Dudley Do-Right's first appearance specifically incorporates silent film tropes such as intertitles and iris shots, as well as incorporating a similar plot to 1921 silent film O'Malley of the Mounted , starring William S. Hart.

Overview

The segments' characters and plot lampooned such films as William S. Hart's 1921 silent drama film O'Malley of the Mounted. O'Malley-of-the-Mounted-1921-Poster.jpg
The segments' characters and plot lampooned such films as William S. Hart's 1921 silent drama film O'Malley of the Mounted .

Dudley Do-Right is a dim-witted, but conscientious and cheerful Canadian Mountie who works for Inspector Fenwick. Do-Right is always trying to catch his nemesis, Snidely Whiplash, and rescue Inspector Fenwick's daughter, damsel-in-distress Nell Fenwick, with whom Do-Right is deeply infatuated. He usually succeeds only by pure luck or through the actions of his horse, named "Horse."

A running gag throughout the series is Nell Fenwick's disinterest in Do-Right; instead, she appears to be infatuated with his horse. She is shown to kiss the horse rather than Do-Right, and when Do-Right leaves the Mounties, she is only upset about the horse leaving. In Do-Right's first appearance, the narrator states,

Dudley loved Nell. Unfortunately, she loved his horse. [4]

In the standard intro, Do-Right jumps on Horse and furiously rides him backwards as titles appear. While riding, he comes across Whiplash tying Nell Fenwick to a railroad track. He tips his hat to the two, before realizing what is going on and righting himself in time to save the day.

Dudley Do-Right made a cameo in a "Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club" segment as the hero in "She Can't Pay the Rent", a play staged by Boris Badenov. Rocky and Bullwinkle also appeared as cameos in "Mountie Bear".[ citation needed ]

The Dudley Do-Right Show

The Dudley Do-Right Show is an animated television series assembled by P.A.T. Film Services, consisting of cartoons produced by Jay Ward Productions and Total Television that aired Sunday mornings on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from April 27, 1969, to September 6, 1970. [5] Each half-hour show included two segments each of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties" and "The World of Commander McBragg", along with one segment each of "Tooter Turtle" and "The Hunter". Dudley Do-Right was a Jay Ward production, while the other segments were products of Total Television. Both companies used Gamma Productions, a Mexico-based animation studio.

The U.S. syndicated version of The Dudley Do-Right Show, called Dudley Do Right and Friends, follows the same format but features different episodes. The syndicated package features "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", "The World of Commander McBragg", "The King and Odie", and "The Hunter". The latter two originally appeared as part of King Leonardo and His Short Subjects , a series that aired between October 15, 1960, and September 28, 1963, on NBC-TV. Twenty-six new segments of both series were produced for CBS-TV's Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales in 1963, and these later segments are included in the syndicated Dudley Do Right and Friends.

Actors (voice overs) included:

Segments

Season 1

  1. The Disloyal Canadians
  2. Stokey the Bear
  3. Mortgagin' the Mountie Post
  4. Trap Bait
  5. The Masked Ginny Lynn

Season 2

  1. The Centaur
  2. Railroad Tracks
  3. Foreclosing Mortgages
  4. Snidely Mounted Police
  5. Mother Love
  6. Mountie Bear
  7. Inspector Dudley Do-Right
  8. Recruiting Campaign
  9. Out of Uniform
  10. Lure of the Footlights
  11. Bullet-Proof Suit
  12. Miracle Drug
  13. Elevenworth Prison
  14. Saw Mill
  15. Finding Gold
  16. Mountie Without a Horse
  17. Mother Whiplash's Log Jam
  18. Stolen Art Masterpiece

Season 3

  1. Mechanical Dudley
  2. Flicker Rock
  3. Faithful Dog
  4. Coming-Out Party
  5. Robbing Banks
  6. Skagway Dogsled-Pulling Contest
  7. Canadian Railway's Bridge
  8. Niagara Falls
  9. Snidely's Vic Whiplash Gym
  10. Marigolds
  11. Trading Places

Season 4

  1. Top Secret
  2. The Locket
  3. The Inspector's Nephew
  4. Matinee Idol
  5. Snidely Arrested

One segment originally seen on The Bullwinkle Show , "Stokey the Bear", was withheld from all reissues of the series for several decades because the U.S. Forest Service objected to the image of a bear that started forest fires, even though he had been hypnotized by Snidely to do so. The segment was released on home video by Sony Wonder and Classic Media in 2005.[ citation needed ]

Legacy

The Dudley-Do Right's Ripsaw Falls log flume ride features a parody of Mount Rushmore with (left to right) Horse, Fenwick, Nell, and Do-Right. Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls 15.jpg
The Dudley-Do Right's Ripsaw Falls log flume ride features a parody of Mount Rushmore with (left to right) Horse, Fenwick, Nell, and Do-Right.

On May 28, 1999, Universal Islands of Adventure opened Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, a log flume ride based on the cartoon segments. Guests enter a queue themed to resemble a theater, with Dudley, Nell, Snidely, and Horse presented as actors. Riders board cartoon logs and journey "into" the story, where Snidely has cruelly captured Nell Fenwick. Horse and Dudley make their first appearance in front of a cyclorama backdrop, theatrically "charging" to the rescue. The ride system contains three drops, the last and steepest of which is seventy-five feet. It is a hybrid flume/coaster that utilizes steel track to not only shoot guest-filled logs down the final drop, but under the water's surface and over a bunny hill. The ride system was designed and built by Mack GmbH. [6]

On August 27, 1999, Universal Studios released a comedy live-action film based on the character, titled Dudley Do-Right. It starred Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Alfred Molina. It received negative reviews and was a box-office failure, grossing less than $10 million domestically against a $22 million budget. [7]

In 2000, music historian Irwin Chusid claimed that scat singer Shooby Taylor's voice reminded him of Dudley Do-Right's "virile baritone." [8]

Premiering in 2013, the Canadian adult animated series Fugget About It features a dimwitted yet well-meaning Mountie character, Strait McCool. McCool exhibits similar appearance, voice acting, behavior, and personality to Do-Right (except for the addition of sexual and drug references). It may be inferred that the character of McCool is a parody of Do-Right. [9] [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends</i> American animated television series

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks. Produced by Jay Ward Productions, the series is structured as a variety show, with the main feature being the serialized adventures of the two title characters, the anthropomorphic flying squirrel Rocket J. ("Rocky") Squirrel and moose Bullwinkle J. Moose. The main antagonists in most of their adventures are the two Russian-like spies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, both working for the Nazi-like dictator Fearless Leader. Supporting segments include "Dudley Do-Right", "Peabody's Improbable History", and "Fractured Fairy Tales", among others. The current blanket title was imposed for home video releases more than 40 years after the series originally aired and was never used when the show was televised; television airings of the show were broadcast under the titles of Rocky and His Friends from 1959 to 1961, The Bullwinkle Show from 1961 to 1964, and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show in syndication.

Joseph Ward Cohen Jr., also known as Jay Ward, was an American creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken. His own company, Jay Ward Productions, designed the trademark characters for the Cap'n Crunch, Quisp, and Quake breakfast cereals and it made TV commercials for those products. Ward produced the non-animated series Fractured Flickers (1963) that featured comedic redubbing of silent films.

<i>Crusader Rabbit</i> The oldest animated television program

Crusader Rabbit was the oldest animated series produced specifically for television. Its main characters were Crusader Rabbit and his sidekick Ragland T. Tiger, or "Rags". The stories were four-minute-long satirical cliffhangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snidely Whiplash</span> Character from Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties

Snidely Whiplash is a fictional character who originally appeared as the main antagonist in the Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties segments of the animated television series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. He is the archenemy of Dudley Do-Right. He was listed among the 100 greatest characters in television animation.

<i>Hoppity Hooper</i> Television series

Hoppity Hooper is an American animated television series produced by Jay Ward, and sponsored by General Mills, originally broadcast on ABC from September 12, 1964, until 1967. The series was produced in Hollywood by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, with animation done in Mexico City by Gamma Productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocky the Flying Squirrel</span> American animated film and television character

Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel, also known as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, is a fictional character and one of the two male protagonists of the 1959–1964 animated series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, produced by Jay Ward. Rocky is the best friend and ally of the western moose, Bullwinkle. Both Rocky and Bullwinkle were given the middle initial "J" as a reference to Ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Tetley</span> Voice actor (1915–1975)

Walter Tetley was an American actor specializing in child impersonation during radio's classic era, with regular roles as Leroy Forrester on The Great Gildersleeve and Julius Abbruzzio on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, as well as continuing as a voice-over artist in animated cartoons, commercials, and spoken-word record albums. He is perhaps best known as the voice of Sherman in the Jay Ward-Bill Scott Mr. Peabody TV cartoons.

Hector James Peabody, simply referred to as Mr. Peabody, is an anthropomorphic cartoon dog who appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s television animated series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, produced by Jay Ward. Peabody appeared in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments created by Ted Key, and was voiced by Bill Scott. In 2014, he was featured in a computer-animated film, Mr. Peabody & Sherman. From 2015 to 2017, he appeared in a television series based on the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Scott (voice actor)</span> American actor, writer and producer

William John Scott was an American voice actor, writer and producer for animated cartoons, primarily associated with Jay Ward and UPA, as well as one of the founding members of ASIFA-Hollywood. He is probably best known as the head writer, co-producer and the voice of several characters from the popular programs Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullwinkle J. Moose</span> American animated film and television character

Bullwinkle J. Moose is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists of the 1959–1964 animated television series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, often collectively referred to as Rocky and Bullwinkle, produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott. When the show changed networks in 1961, the series moved to NBC and was retitled The Bullwinkle Show, where it stayed until 1964. It then returned to ABC, where it was in repeats for nine more years. It has been in syndication ever since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Ward Productions</span> American animation studio

Jay Ward Productions, Inc. is an American animation studio based in Costa Mesa, California. It was founded in 1948 by American animator Jay Ward. As of 2022, the studio was headed by Ward's daughter, Tiffany Ward, and granddaughter, vice president Amber Ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullwinkle's Restaurant</span> American family entertainment center chain

Bullwinkle's Entertainment, previously known as Family Fun Centers & Bullwinkle's Restaurant and formerly Bullwinkle's Family Food n' Fun is a chain of family entertainment centers. Locations feature a sit-down restaurant, complemented by arcade games, go-karts, bumper boats, mini golf, laser tag, a ropes course, a zip line, and small rides for children. Games and activities are generally themed around the company's namesake, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

<i>Dudley Do-Right</i> (film) 1999 film by Hugh Wilson

Dudley Do-Right is a 1999 American slapstick comedy film written and directed by Hugh Wilson, based on Jay Ward's Dudley Do-Right, produced by Davis Entertainment for Universal Studios. The film stars Brendan Fraser as the cartoon's titular Mountie with supporting roles from Sarah Jessica Parker, Alfred Molina, and Eric Idle.

Alexander Hume Anderson Jr. was an American cartoonist who created the characters of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Bullwinkle, and Dudley Do-Right, as well as Crusader Rabbit. He was not directly involved in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, however.

The Dudley Do-Right Emporium was a small, eccentric gift shop named after the fictional Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right, located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jet Fuel Formula</span> 1st episode of the 1st season of Rocky and His Friends

"Jet Fuel Formula" is the first and the longest Rocky and Bullwinkle story arc and is the pilot of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. It is also noteworthy in that it established most of the characters, themes, running gags, and other elements that would be employed in later stories and that would become so closely identified with the Rocky and Bullwinkle programs in the years since. The first few episodes contained a laugh track, which was removed when the episodes were released as part of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends Complete Season 1.

"Upsidaisium" is the first story arc from the second season of Rocky and His Friends. With 36 segments it was the second-longest of all Rocky and Bullwinkle story arcs, and concerns Rocky and Bullwinkle's efforts to reclaim Bullwinkle's Uncle's Upsidaisium mine. It was broadcast on ABC during the 1960–1961 television season on Sundays, concurrently with Metal-Munching Mice on Thursdays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls</span> Attraction at Islands of Adventure

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls is a log flume ride at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, inspired by the Dudley Do-Right character created by cartoonists Jay Ward and Alex Anderson. Opened on May 28, 1999, it is one of the park's original attractions.

Events in 1917 in animation.

References

  1. The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose by Keith Scott ( ISBN   0-312-19922-8), p. 168
  2. "Bullwinkle's WYME TV Animation & Jokes (Bullwinkle and Dudley)". YouTube. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  3. "Voice Of Dudley Do-Right - Dudley Do-Right | Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved August 16, 2021. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources
  4. Rocky & Bullwinkle 1st appearance of Dudley Do-Right (Season 1) , retrieved 2022-08-21
  5. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 86–88. ISBN   0-8108-1557-5.
  6. "Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls at Universal's Islands of Adventure". Orlando Informer. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  7. Gray, Brandon. "Dudley Do-Right". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  8. Chusid, Irwin (2000). Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music. A Cappella. p. 141.
  9. Best of McCool - FOR CANADA! Part 1 , retrieved 2022-08-21
  10. Mccools's Fugget about it intro , retrieved 2022-08-21

Further reading