NEWS_MOOSE_SQUIRREL

Hokey smokes! Moose and Squirrel are back.

Huge metal-munching moon mice have descended upon the humble hamlet of Frostbite Falls, Minn. Rooftops are ravaged, and the town is sucked into a video vacuum when the robotic rodents select television antennae as the snack du jour.

Townsfolk face the improbable conundrum: watch blank screens or settle for the hypnotic tumble of clothing at the Laundromat. Will the vexed villagers survive this community calamity?

In a world such as this -- a world awash with alliteration, packed with puns, besieged by the best bon mot -- there are just two hapless heroes to turn to: Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel. That world came to life for television viewers in fall 1959 in the animated series Rocky and his Friends.

"And so it began -- not just for me, but for a lot of us; our introduction to the wonderful world of Jay Ward and Bill Scott and all the other splendid folks who conspired to create Jay Ward cartoons," recalled Mark Evanier, columnist for Comics Buyer's Guide magazine.

Each half-hour program consisted of two episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle and one apiece of Fractured Fairy Tales and Peabody's Improbable History. The show featured the adventures of Moose and Squirrel as they roamed the globe, undoing the dastardly deeds of the evil Fearless Leader, Boris Badenov, and Natasha Fatale.

"It was funny in a very hip manner, never condescending to the viewers, never taking the easy route to something that kind of resembled a gag," Evanier said. "As such, the shows stood up to repeated viewing. The more you saw them, the more jokes you'd get."

Like all the early television cartoons, the animation was crude and did not improve much over time, even when the show moved to prime time on NBC. However, the witty dialogue overcame the less than stellar animation.

"The graphics were clever, the characters and scripts were brillant, and the voice acting was first-rate," said Evanier. "It may be the best cast ever assembled for a cartoon show."

The cast included June Foray, Bill Scott, Paul Frees, Daws Butler, and William Conrad, with Edward Everett Horton as the narrator of the Fractured Fairy Tales.

This summer Moose and Squirrel once again battle Boris and Natasha. And once again the theme revolves around the great American pastime of television viewing, as Fearless Leader seeks to take over the world through the broadcast of "Really Bad TV."

June Foray, the only surviving member of the original cast, reprises her role as Rocky.

Fans of the fury flying squirrel and his oafish but lovable pal can find plenty of collectible items available in the secondary market.

Comic books were produced by Charlton and Gold Key while the television series was in syndication in the '60s and early '70s. Near-mint copies of Gold Key's Bullwinkle, which became Bullwinkle and Rocky at issue No. 20, range in price from $75 for issue No. 1 to $12 for No. 25, according to the 2000 Comic Book Checklist & Price Guide book. Near-mint comic books from the Charlton series carry collector values between $10 and $25.

Toy figures of series' characters were widely produced. Dana Cain, author of the book Saturday Morning TV Collectibles, values Wham-O's 1972 Boris, Bullwinkle, Rocky and Natasha at $15 to $25 each. Mr. Peabody, who has developed a devoted following of his own, is valued slightly higher at $20 to $30.

The Rocky and Bullwinkle figural bubble-bath bottles produced by Colgate/Palmolive during the 1960s can command as much as $50.

During the 1970s, drinking glasses picturing Rocky and Bullwinkle were offered as premiums by Pepsi Cola, Pizza Hut, Arby's, and others. Arby's issued Bullwinkle crossing the Delaware and Rocky waving an American flag while astride a rocket.

Glassware generally falls in the $8 to $12 range, though Cain has found that Mr. Peabody in the Pepsi series can reach up to $25. The Pizza Hut series is the most valuable, with a collector value of $30 for the Boris and Bullwinkle glass with an orange truck and $50 for the version with a green truck.

High-end collector items include a tin wind-up Bullwinkle in a car, $300 to $500; a '62 steel lunch box and a '63 blue vinyl lunch kit with a metal bottle, $500 to $750 each; Mr. Peabody ceramic bank, $300 to $400; and a Bullwinkle brown and yellow Pez dispenser with no feet, $200 to $250.

For a free catalog of Krause Publications books or periodicals on collectibles, write Public Relations, Dept. IC, Krause Publications. 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990-0001, or visit www.krause.com on the worldwide web, or e-mail info@krause.com