Mister Peabody

Mr. Peabody is a fictional dog who appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s television animated series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show produced by Jay Ward, collectively referred to as Rocky and Bullwinkle. Peabody appeared in the Peabody's Improbable History segments created by Ted Key, and was voiced by Bill Scott.

Background

Mister Peabody always appears in these segments accompanied by "his boy" Sherman (in a twist on the hackneyed concept of "a boy and his dog"). Hector^[1] Peabody is a genius who adopted Sherman for company. Sherman is a naïve but fairly bright, inquisitive, earnest and energetic lad who's always one step behind getting his friend's dreadful puns. In appearance, Peabody is a small white dog with floppy ears. Sherman is always in need of having his hair combed. He wears a white tee-shirt and dark shorts. Each character wears a pair of oversized horn-rimmed glasses.

The voices of Peabody and Sherman were provided by Bill Scott and Walter Tetley, respectively.

Bill Scott's vocal inspiration was the carefully modulated, precisely clipped speaking pattern of Clifton Webb, especially in his Mr. Belvedere characterization. This is further indicated by Mr. Peabody's bowtie, an article of clothing always worn by Belvedere in the three films Webb starred in.

Each episode of "Peabody's Improbable History" begins with the dog's greeting, "Peabody, here." The premise each week was to introduce Sherman to real history. For that purpose, Peabody has constructed the WABAC (pronounced "wayback") machine. The WABAC is a take-off on early computer acronyms such as UNIVAC and ENIAC. The WABAC is a time machine used by Peabody and Sherman to travel back in time and witness various historical events.

Peabody always narrates key background events as he and Sherman whiz back in time. This not only moved the story along, it saved a great deal of work for the animator and a lot of money for the sponsor. Upon arrival at any place on the globe, Peabody's technological genius is able to tune in on any language and convert it to English, thus saving the expense and distraction of inserting subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

The episode "Show Opening" outlines Peabody's life including his adoption of Sherman. Peabody realizes that boys need running room and so invents the WABAC as a birthday gift for Sherman. He and Sherman then go back in time to see a Roman speaking in Latin; Peabody then adds a translator circuit to the machine so that everyone seems to speak English and see the Roman again finding out he is a used chariot salesman. Their next trip is to see Ben Franklin flying his kite but find out they cannot interact with the past so Peabody makes some more adjustments turning the WABAC from time machine into a "should have been machine".

This results in the past they visit being totally cockeyed. For example, Paul Revere is unable to make his famous ride through Boston because his horse is actually a statue. In another trip Robin Hood has suffered a head injury causing him to behave the opposite of normal—shooting bows (rather than arrows) at peasants and wanting to steal from the poor so as to give to the rich. Anachronisms also abound such as in a visit with Nero where he plays on a violin (unknown in the West until the 9th century) and Vasco Nunez de Balboa knowing about Lake Erie. Also, many times historical figures are portrayed as not being too bright such as the case with Peter Cooper and the Tom Thumb race where in addition to having to deal with another train (the 502 from Denver) coming the other way they have to overcome the obstacles of the 50% tunnel (so named because it's only half finished) and 50% bridge (so named because the plans are only half finished). Employing various strategies, Peabody, assisted by Sherman, always finds a way to fix the problems though not always in a manner true to the historical record.

At the end of each episode, Peabody and Sherman discuss the event they just witnessed, with Peabody always offering a bad pun related to the occurrence or the people just encountered. The construction of the short but convoluted episodes leading to a terrible pun have been compared to that of a shaggy dog story or specifically a type of story called a feghoot.

The tortured construction of a particularly bad pun was Mr Peabody's signature ending. For example, when the Battle of Little Big Horn is completed, Peabody directs Sherman's attention to a hot dog vendor and his pushcart at Little Big Horn, taking care to mention that this was really "Custer's Last Stand". At the end of an episode about the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Peabody asks Sherman if he was familiar with the heroic rooster who foiled the plans of and apprehended British loyalists. When Sherman replies that he's never heard of such a thing, Peabody casually answers, "What, Sherman? You've never heard of chicken cacciatore?" – enunciated as "Chicken, catch a Tory". Sherman's inevitable response at such puns is rolling his eyes in disgust, often accompanied by the catchphrase: "Oh, Mister Peabody!!"

Segments

• 1. Napoleon
• 2. Lord Nelson
• 3. Wyatt Earp
• 4. King Arthur
• 5. Franz Schubert
• 6. Lucretia Borgia
• 7. Sir Walter Raleigh
• 8. Robert Fulton
• 9. Annie Oakley
• 10. Jesse James
• 11. The Wright brothers
• 12. George Armstrong Custer
• 13. Alfred Nobel
• 14. Marco Polo
• 15. Richard The Lionhearted
• 16. Don Juan
• 17. William Tecumseh Sherman      
• 18. First Kentucky Derby
• 19. P. T. Barnum
• 20. Stanley and Livingstone
• 21. Louis Pasteur
• 22. Robin Hood
• 23. Robinson Crusoe
• 24. Juan Ponce de León
• 25. John L. Sullivan
• 26. Leonardo Da Vinci
• 27. Paul Revere
• 28. Confucius
• 29. Nero
• 30. Francis Scott Key
• 31. Captain Matthew Webb
• 32. Balboa
• 33. Peter Cooper
• 34. The Battle of Bunker Hill
• 35. The Pony Express
• 36. Stephen Decatur
• 37. Alexander Graham Bell
• 38. Robert Peary
• 39. Pancho Villa
• 40. Lord Francis Douglas
• 41. Sitting Bull
• 42. Christopher Columbus
• 43. The French Foreign Legion      
• 44. Guglielmo Marconi
• 45. Scotland Yard
• 46. John Holland^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• 47. Louis XVI
• 48. Francisco Pizzaro
• 49. Daniel Boone
• 50. William Shakespeare
• 51. Zebulon Pike
• 52. The first golf match
• 53. William Tell
• 54. James Whistler
• 55. Ferdinand Magellan
• 56. Sir Isaac Newton
• 57. Kit Carson
• 58. The first caveman
• 59. Johann Gutenberg
• 60. Buffalo Bill Cody
• 61. Hans Christian Oersted
• 62. Leif Ericcson
• 63. John Sutter
• 64. Ludwig van Beethoven
• 65. Calamity Jane
• 66. The surrender of Cornwallis      
• 67. The first Indian nickel
• 68. Jules Verne
• 69. Casanova
• 70. Lawrence Of Arabia
• 71. Bonnie Prince Charlie
• 72. Geronimo
• 73. Paul Reuter
• 74. The Great Wall of China
• 75. The Marquess of Queensbury
• 76. Jim Bowie
• 77. Edgar Allan Poe
• 78. Charge of the Light Brigade
• 79. The Royal Mounted Police
• 80. The first bullfight
• 81. The building of the Great Pyramid
• 82. John James Audubon
• 83. Mata Hari
• 84. Galileo Galilei
• 85. Wellington at Waterloo
• 86. Florence Nightingale
• 87. Henry The Eighth
• 88. The first Indianapolis Auto Race
• 89. Captain Kidd
• 90. The Texas Rangers
• 91. Cleopatra

Adaptations

Films

In January 2011, DreamWorks Animation announced that a 3-D computer animated feature film Mr. Peabody & Sherman is in development which is set to be released on March 21, 2014.^[2][3] The feature is being directed by Rob Minkoff, who is famous for co-directing The Lion King for Disney. The main character Mr. Peabody will be voiced by Robert Downey, Jr.. The role of Sherman has not yet been cast.

Appearances

Television shows

• In The Simpsons, Halloween Special V (later entitled Treehouse of Horror specials), in the Time and Punishment episode, Homer finds himself able to travel through time by means of a magic toaster and comes across Mister Peabody and Sherman. See Treehouse of Horror V to find a picture of Homer floating through the ether with Sherman and Peabody who calls out, "Quiet, you!" to Sherman.

Tribute

• The 1985 film Back to the Future had a character named Otis Peabody and a son named Sherman, which was tribute to the animated characters. Unlike the famed duo, this Sherman and Mr. Peabody are hostile towards Marty and his time travel. A similar appearance occurred on the animated sitcom, The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror V".

External links

• Peabody's Improbable History on Toonopedia

References

1. ^ Peabody tells Sherman that Hector is his first name. "Rocky & Bullwinkle Savings Stamp Club", 3:50 min.
2. ^ Breznican, Anthony (2011-01-17). "EXCLUSIVE: Robert Downey Jr. to star in 'Peabody and Sherman' for DreamWorks Animation". Entertainment Weekly. http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/01/17/robert-downey-jr-peabody-sherman/. Retrieved 2011-01-17. 
3. ^ "DreamWorks Animation Announces Feature Film Release Slate Through 2014" (Press release). DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. 2011-03-08. http://ir.dreamworksanimation.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=555383. Retrieved 2011-03-08.