Wayback machine

The Wayback machine originally referred to a fictional machine from a segment of the cartoon "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" used to transport Mr. Peabody and Sherman back in time. The term "Wayback Machine" has been enthusiastically adopted by popular culture as mechanism to suggest transporting one's thoughts back to a historical time and place.

The WABAC machine on "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"

The WABAC (pronounced "wayback") machine was from the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment of the early '60's cartoon series "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show". The machine was constructed by Mr. Peabody, a professorial, bow tie-wearing dog, to be able to visit famous historical events. At the request of Mr. Peabody, Sherman, Peabody's "pet boy" assistant, would set the WABAC machine to a time and place of historical importance, and the two would be instantly transported there. The machine was not exactly a time machine because it only transported backwards in time, hence the name "Wayback Machine." The machine apparently later returned Mr. Peabody and Sherman to the present, although the return trip was never shown in the cartoon segment. The machine was little more than a plot device to allow the characters to visit the past.

The name WABAC is a play on computer names such as UNIVAC and ENIAC that were contemporary to the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and the WABAC machine was similar in size to those early computers.

The Wayback Machine will no doubt be a key component of a new computer animated feature film by DreamWorks Animation featuring Mr. Peabody and Sherman. [cite web
url = http://videoeta.com/news/2127
title = Mr. Peabody and Sherman take the Wayback Machine to the big screen
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Briscoe
first = Tim
date = September 15, 2006
format =
work =
publisher = Videoeta.com
cite web
url = http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/dwa/opencms/company/news/news.jsp?nId=905834
title = DreamWorks Animation and Director Rob Minkoff Team Up to Bring 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' to the Big Screen
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last =
first =
date = September 15, 2006
format =
work =
publisher = DreamWorks Animation]

The Wayback Machine in popular culture

The concept or term "Wayback Machine" has been extensively adopted in popular culture as a convenient way to introduce issues or events of the past and to suggest the audience follow the narrator back to the past. Frequently such visits to the past are trips of nostalgia, remembering times, places, or things of the not-so-distant past.cite web
url = http://web.archive.org/web/20060424082239/http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=350
title = Sherman, Set the Wayback Machine for Scientology
accessdate = 2007-06-27| last = Miller
first = Ernest
date = 24 September
format = Blog
work = LawMeme
publisher = Yale Law School
cite news
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/04/AR2006090400698.html
title = Who Set the Wayback Machine for 1939?
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Robinson
first = Eugene
date = September 5, 2006
format =
work =
publisher = Washington Post
cite web
url = http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050725_dusty_star.html
title = The Wayback Machine? Nearby Solar System Looks Like Home
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Britt
first = Robert Roy
date = July 25, 2005
format =
work =
publisher = Space.com
cite news
url = http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/travel/escapes/06Ritual.html
title = A Jukebox Is a Way-Back Machine With Black Vinyl Wings
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Mallozzi
first = Vincent M.
date = April 6, 2007
format =
work =
publisher = The New York Times
cite web
url = http://scholarsandrogues.wordpress.com/2007/04/26/condis-way-back-machine/
title = Condi’s way-back machine
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Smith
first = Sam
date = April 26, 2007
format =
work =
publisher = Scholars and Rogues
cite news
url = http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2004-04-12-mikes-menu_x.htm
title = Wayback machine puts out plenty of time-travel movies
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Clark
first = Mike
date = April 12, 2004
format =
work =
publisher = USA Today
cite web
url = http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070621/COL05/706210351/1009/EDIT
title = Who misses 'Miami Vice' '80s? College kids, of all people
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Bronson
first = Peter
date = June 21, 2007
format =
work =
publisher = The Enquirer
cite web
url = http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/fantasy/story/9790116
title = Pitching to be your keepers
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Gonos
first = David
date = November 9, 2006
format =
work =
publisher = CBS Sportsline
cite news
url = http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/10/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm
title = Pac Man turns 25: A pizza dinner yields a cultural phenomenon - and millions of dollars in quarters.
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last =Morris
first = Chris
date = May 10, 2005
format =
work =
publisher = CNN Money] Similar to the original Wayback Machine experience, in such visits of nostalgia there is no need to describe the return trip to the present.

Examples

*In the TV show "NewsRadio" (Goofy Ball (1995)): Station owner Jimmy James (Stephen Root): "Dave, don't mess with a man with a Wayback Machine. I can make it so you were never born." [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660190/quotes]
*In the movie Tron (1982): Fired programmer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges): "Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for...oh, 1973." [http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/TRON.html]
*In Law and Order: Criminal Intent ("Legacy", first run Aug. 3, 2008): an extra playing a computer tech uses the "Wayback Machine," a reference to archive.org, to find an archive of a students Facebook style website.

Wayback Machine at Internet Archive

The Internet Archive ( [http://www.archive.org archive.org] ) has capitalized on the popular use of the term "Wayback Machine" and uses this term as the name for the snapshot archives of the World Wide Web. [cite news
url = http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2002/tc20020228_1080.htm
title = A Library as Big as the World: Brewster Kahle has the technology to assemble the ultimate archive of human knowledge. What's stopping him? Restrictive copyright laws
accessdate = 2007-06-25
last = Green
first = Heather
date = February 28, 2002
format =
work =
publisher = Business Week Online ] This service allows users to see archived versions of web pages of the past—what the Archive calls a "three dimensional index". Not all webpages are available, however, because many website owners voluntarily exclude their sites. The use of the term "Wayback Machine" in the context of the Internet Archive has become so common that "Wayback Machine" and "Internet Archive" are almost synonymous.

ee also

*Mister Peabody
*Time travel
*Time Machine
*List of television series that include time travel
*TARDIS

External links

* [http://www.toonopedia.com/peabody.htm Toonopedia entry on "Peabody's Improbable History"]
* [http://www.timetravelreviews.com/tv_reviews/peabodyandsherman.html Andy's Anachronisms: Time Travel Television Reviews: Peabody's Improbable History]
* [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php The Wayback Machine at archive.org]

References