| In 1959 the cartoon Rocky & His Friends debuted. Today we remember it as Rocky and Bullwinkle. Each week the series would also feature a cartoon short; either Fractured Fairy Tales, Aesop's Fables, or Peabody's Improbable History - featuring Mr. Peabody and Sherman.
Like the Bullwinkle cartoons in general, Peabody's Improbable History was not your average children's fare. Mr. Peabody was a superintelligent dog. He was a scientist, wore a white lab coat, and had his own time machine -- the WABAC, which he would use to instruct the sometimes dim-witted Sherman.
The show had a fairly straight forward formula: Sherman would ask Mr. Peabody a question, Mr Peabody would illustrate the answer by taking Sherman back in time (in the WABAC machine) to an historical event. But upon reaching their destination, they would find things all fucked up. So, Peabody and Sherman would have to make events come out "right", i.e., the way they're depicted in history books. After saving the day, they'd arrive back home and Mr. Peabody would sum up their trip with a real groaner of a pun.
The voice of Mr. Peabody was Bill Scott, whose other voice credits include Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right. Sherman was done by character actor Walter Tetley. It was created by Ted Key and produced by Jay Ward. In all, there were 91 episodes of Peabody's Improbable History.
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