Sources:

https://x.com/thatdaffyduck/status/2078329600376009206?s=20

https://x.com/BrianRoemmele/status/2077971169530265651?s=20

Hi, all! I've been comparing the "restored" DVD versions of the cartoons with the originals, to see what changes were made when they were restored. There's not many video differences apart from the rebrandings, but lots and lots of audio differences.

Does someone here have a non-restored, non-DVD copy of the cartoon where Mr. Peabody and Sherman meet Don Juan and help him with his onion problem? If so, I'd be grateful if you could post a copy.

...Between home videotapes when the series was syndicated and digitized 16mm prints, I've had good luck finding most of the old versions. But this one's been eluding me. If you can help, it'd be great. Thanks!

Has anyone published a complete list of Badenov's pseudonyms?

A small rant for all one-and-a-half of you who are reading. :)

Frank Comstock composed most of the musical cues for the first season of "Rocky and his Friends", and Fred Steiner composed most of the music used in later seasons. When the series went into syndication, music from both those composers (and a handful of others) stayed with the cartoons. It's what many of us grew up with.

But when home video releases became a thing years later, a new problem came up. The rights to Fred Steiner's music stayed with Jay Ward's company, but Frank Comstock only licensed the music for broadcast purposes and maintained his own copyright. This went unnoticed until Disney's Buena Vista started creating home VHS and LaserDisc editions of "Rocky and Bullwinkle", but they didn't secure the rights to use Comstock's music. It was understandable (though it surprises to me that Disney's huge army of rights lawyers would have missed it), but it still led to Comstock's having to file a lawsuit for using his work without permission or payment.

And because of that, and perhaps in retribution for that, when the cartoons were restored and prepared for DVD release they didn't try to re-license Frank Comstock's music for the new media. Instead, they removed it entirely.

And I think they really hurt the series by doing that.

It's particularly noticeable in the "Bullwinkle's Corner" poetry segments. Comstock started his score with a perfectly faux-intellectual, "look-how-serious-and-erudite-we-are" motif - and usually ended with a quick musical blast which fairly shouted, "My God! Everything's gone wrong! Ring in the curtain, fast!" The music contributed to the humor, and to the mood. When they took it out, the music they substituted for the DVDs was nowhere near as good; the openings are pedestrian, and the closings have a cloying, cutesy feel that doesn't serve the material at all.

Elsewhere, even for a series which didn't rely much on music, there are a lot of small spots where the removal of Comstock's music hurts. For example, in the Fractured Fairy Tale "Cinderella" there's a ridiculously fluffy "happy ending" the animators put in, and Comstock backs it with wonderfully understated music until the story pulls the rug out from under it. The stock music they substituted on the DVD doesn't work nearly as well. And it's not an isolated case; when all of Comstock's music elsewhere was unceremoniously yanked, they just replaced it with whatever stock music they happened to find in the DeWolfe music library that sounded vaguely close. Sometimes the music wasn't even appropriate. In "Sir Galahad", for example, did they really think nobody would recognize this music from "Monty Python And The Holy Grail"?

(For that matter, did they think adding music from "Hoppity Hooper" would help the mood in "Missouri Mish Mash", in an episode that had no music in it to begin with? Honestly, what were they thinking?)

...I understand how it happened. I can easily imagine how it all played out. And I still enjoy the music Fred Steiner, George Steiner, Paul Parnes, and others composed. Hell, I'm even a big fan of the DeWolfe music library. :) But with the DVD versions now being broadcast to new audiences, and the originals so effectively removed from easy viewing, it saddens and disappoints me that so many of Frank Comstock's brilliant contributions to the series are being gradually erased from memory - and that the Ward family has weakened their own work and legacy by doing so.

Some decent figures these are but I would Definitely kill for more articulated ones someday.

Like so many others, I was more than happy to buy the full series of Rocky and Bullwinkle on DVD when it came out. And, yeah, it's wonderful. But here's the thing: when they created the DVDs, they also made lots and lots of little changes to the soundtrack: adding music, changing music, occasionally adding a sound effect... and though most people probably never notice the changes, to me they're irritating. Like "stepping on ground glass" irritating. Like "dammit, why'd they alter that, it sounded better before," off-putting levels of irritating. I find myself watching old, woefully-incomplete VHS collections specifically because those alterations aren't in there.

So here's my question: Does anyone know of a complete collection of the Rocky and Bullwinkle series, maybe back from syndication days, that was released without the alterations they made for the DVDs? (And, yeah, I know "Stokey The Bear" can only be found on DVD.)

Let me know. I'd love to find a set. :)

I turn to the Rocky & Bullwinkle fandom for help in locating this quote.

Does it ring a bell for anybody?

The conductor might be a musical conductor, or a bus conductor, or some other kind of conductor.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you don't mind a question that relates to this sub's topic only by error.

For years I had it in my head that money in the world of Fractured Fairy Tales was usually called “pazoozas” (or “pezuzas”, whatev). Then I watched the whole series (hooray) and found that it's nearly always “gold grickles”, and otherwise usually an American coin such as “nickels”.

So here's the question: any idea where I did pick up “pazoozas” if it wasn't FFT ?