Alexander Anderson Jr. dies at 90; created TV cartoon characters Rocky, Bullwinkle and others

Los Angeles Times / latimes.com ^ | October 26, 2010 | By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

[thecodont]

Alexander Anderson Jr., a pioneer television cartoonist who created the landmark duo of Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger and two of TV's most enduring characters, Rocky and Bullwinkle, has died. He was 90.

[...]

The nephew of Paul Terry, whose Terrytoons cartoons included "Mighty Mouse" and "Heckle and Jeckle," the Berkeley-born Anderson had apprenticed at his uncle's studio in New Rochelle, N.Y., as a young man before serving in World War II and returned to work there after the war.

[...]

Anderson then teamed up with his childhood friend and former UC Berkeley fraternity brother Jay Ward, who had gone into the real estate business, and they formed the Berkeley-based Television Arts Productions.

Anderson turned a separate garage-apartment building behind his family's Berkeley home into a cartoon studio, where they made their low-budget, limited-animation cartoons for television.

Anderson and Ward, according to the Chronicle story, pitched a half-hour package of cartoon characters they wanted to sell to NBC that included spunky Crusader Rabbit and his pal Rags the Tiger — as well as Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, Rocky the flying squirrel and his sidekick Bullwinkle the moose.

Of his creation of Rocky, Anderson told the Chronicle: "I had worked on Mighty Mouse, and he flew around. I didn't understand the mechanics of how a mouse flew — or, for that matter, how Superman flew. But flying squirrels do fly, and that gave him the mantle of superness without having to stretch the truth."

Bullwinkle grew out of Anderson's appreciation that there's "something majestic" about moose: "They're macho, but they have a comic aspect, with that schnozzola of theirs. There are few creatures just begging to be caricatured."

[Stosh]

“What on earth would people find offensive about “Crusader Rabbit”?”

Mohammedans take offense at anything involving or referring to the Crusades.

[BradyLS]

“I don’t mind ya packin’ heat, Cloyd, but, you guys bein’ new and all, just a friendly word before the cops see ya: this state ain’t open carry!”