minor muppetz
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2005
- Messages
- 16,067
- Reaction score
- 2,649
Were parodies protected by law back then (I would think so, considering all the classic WB shorts with parody titles that came out by then), or was fair parody use more recent?One thing that I find interesting is that whole "defamation" lawsuit of sorts (sort of) filed by Derwood Kirby over the whole Kurward Derby thing, but that's really not the only time something like that has happened on Rocky and Bullwinkle: another example I can think of is from a Fractured Fairy Tale with an old wise man named Merlin LeRoy... you can't tell me that's not a playon the name of the big producer/director Mervin LeRoy.
Watched The Weather Lady for the first time, and noticed at one point Rocky refers to Boris by name, as if he knew Boris was the usual enemy (or maybe he'd heard Boris referred to by name and I missed it). That's rare (another instance, to an extent, is in Goof Gas Attack, where Rocky points out he knows who the villian of the whole show is, only to become stupid right before mentioning his name). It seems like they usually don't even recognize them as their usual enemies when they see them in their regular clothes (like in The Treasure of Monte Zoom).
Was watching the "Painting Theft" episodes today, and noticed that Boris eventually offered to buy Bullwinkle's paintings at several thousand dollars a piece. He and Natasha leave with the paintings, but I wonder if he really did purhcase them or if they weaseled their way out of paying. We don't really see (and somehow I think that even if they did become rich they'd still steal).
Also noticed an error in the last chapter: Boris and Natasha both set out for Potsylvania in their regular clothes, but when they arrive Natasha is in her art collector disguise (without the sunglasses), but then she's suddenly back in her regular dress by the time Fearless Leader accepts Boris' paintings.
Also noticed on the fourth season DVD, in the second half-hour contianing "Painting Theft", it includes the segment where Bullwinkle pulls a lion out of his hat, but the audio used comes from the one where Bullwinkle pulls a tiger out of his hat (so we see Rocky react without moving his lips). I wonder what went on there.
I think I've mentioned that Boris and Natasha have a happy ending of their own in "The Last Angry Moose" (they keep all the money they scammed out of Bullwinkle with no apparent cosnequence), but it seems they also had a minor victory in "Greensperent Oogle". No, I'm not talking about the fact that they are never actually shown getting blown up on their land mines (so we don't know if they ended up as lucky as Bullwinkle), I'm talking about the fact that Boris seemed to keep all the money he'd stolen as a result of the Oogle Bird's predictions.
I wonder if much from the various storylines and supporting segments were ever cut for time on TV broadcasts. I figure it makes sense for the commercial intros to be cut for time, and makes sense they were cut on the VHS releases. They seem out-of-place without being followed by a commercial. But then the "Bullwinkle Show" syndication package includes both Bullwinkle's Corner and Mr. Know-It-All (or a "Fan Club" segment in place of either) in each episode. I would think that the time cut from losing the commercial intros would add up the time to an added one-minute segment.
Was reading The Moose That Roared, and looked at the listing of various "miscellaneous animations" for Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show. It lists "special feature introductions" (jolly juggler, hat tricks, etc.) and "commercial introductions", but it also has seperate lists categorized as "old special feature introductions" and "old commercial introductions". I wonder why they listed those as they did. With "old special feature introductions", I felt it made sense, as the two listed (Bullwinkle does a soft shoe routine and "hat trick: bear") don't appear in syndication, but none of the commercial intros appeared in syndication. Were these considered "lost" at the time the book came out (though all were included on the DVDs)?