The Guy Who Played Sherman Died

There was no Twitter or Facebook when I watched Rocky and Bullwinkle as a kid. I mention this because Dick Beals died. He was the voice of Mr. Pesbody’s boy, Sherman. I heard about it on Facebook.

Without social media I can’t know if my Rocky and Bullwinkle experience was singular or universal.

There was no Twitter or Facebook when I watched Rocky and Bullwinkle as a kid. I mention this because Dick Beals died. He was the voice of Mr. Pesbody’s boy, Sherman. I heard about it on Facebook.

Without social media I can’t know if my Rocky and Bullwinkle experience was singular or universal.

I watched the show and thought it was hip. It never spoke down to me. It was funny without insulting my 14 year old intelligence.

I watched the credits. I knew all the names of the producers, writers and most of the voice actors, though they were uncredited.

In honor of Dick Beals I found a Mr. Peabody and watched.

Incredibly witty. Characters spoke complex words, perfect for the occasion, but a little fast for the house. They’re not heard often on TV today.

A lot of politically incorrect jokes were told. Fun is made of Geronimo and Indians. They weren’t even good jokes. I winced a little when I heard them.

Paul Frees played Geronimo. You have heard him thousands of times. He’s the voice of Disney’s Haunted Castle. He is Boris Badenov. He is Ludwig von Drake.

Here is my favorite Rocky and Bullwinkle clip. It’s a compilation of Boris and Natasha entrances.

14 thoughts on “The Guy Who Played Sherman Died”

  1. I loved that show! Sorry to hear of the passing of Dick Beals. Geoff, if you don’t already know, there’s a Rocky & Bulwinkle DVD set you can buy – it’s great!

  2. I loved that show too! I remember it wasn’t very mainstream Saturday morning cartoon, on later in the morning but we never missed it.

  3. “Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!” Classic! Also loved fractured fairytales which was part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show as well.

  4. I would watch it with my dad. He would laugh at things I didn’t think were funny – until I watched the show again as an adult. I still think of my dad when I watch Rocky and Bullwinkle, and the Fractured Fairy Tales, and Dudley Doo-Right. I have various Rocky and Bullwinkle .wav files I use on my computer – when someone IMs me or if a particular email comes in – It makes me laugh every day.

  5. I was a fan of R&B, but especially a fan of their predecessors, Crusader Rabbit and Ragland T Tiger. I liked them for the same reasons you did; perhaps it has to do with our hip, metropolitan NY upbringing? Saturday mornings were never the same without them. (And lets not forget the farmer forecast show. Remember when eastern LI was agrarian? I do…)

  6. On sunset Blvd. in LA there was a large billboard for the Stardust in Vegas with an 8 foot tall showgirl slowly turning on a pedestal. Directly across the street was a tiny bungalo with an even smaller sign that said “Jay Ward Productions”. To those in the know it was the home of Rocky & Bullwinkle. Soon enough everyone knew due to the 8 foot tall Bullwinkle, dressed in a swimsuit, and painted to match the Stardust girl, sitting atop the small house. Whenever the Stardust girl got a paint job with a different color swimsuit our Hero got one to match! And yes, he held Rocky in one hand.

  7. I LOVED that show…never missed it …still use some sayings and every squirrel I come across I ask “so where”s Bullwinkle?”…..Wen I worked in a Hospital in the 60’s-70’s there was a MD named Dr Bullwinkle… I cracked up every time I heard him paged….he was a tall, very distinguished looking, older GP (no antlers)….lol at the memory

  8. Was attending the Nursing School after graduation party at the Uneversity of Southern California (USC) for my son, the (currently) active duty Army Nurse Captain.

    They had a string quartet there to provide some music at the party. At one point, I thought heard a VERY familar theme, and went over to confirm I was not hearing things.

    Yup, it was the theme from Rocky and Bullwinkle. The leader said they loved to toss a few obscure themes into their sets just to see if they could smoke out a fan or two of the original shows..

    Truely it was amazing stuff, especially the ‘Fractured Fairy Tales’ part of the show. Dudley Doo Right is still one of my heroes–amnd I especially liked that the horse got all the credit and attention from Nell.

  9. This was the best kids’ show of my time, bar none. The animation was kind of feeble, but it hardly mattered. The scripts were sharp and the voice artists (June Foray, Bill Scott, Paul Frees, Hans Conried, and William Conrad, to name a few) were the absolute tops. Everyone involved in the show seemed to know that you didn’t have to talk down to kids: if they got the joke, fine, and if not, another joke would be along in a few seconds.

    In my favorite Mr. Peabody episode, Peabody and Sherman were attempting to win an auto race in an antique car that just wasn’t fast enough. Mr. Peabody’s solution was to break the glass over the speedometer and push the needle up. If you knew how many engineering meetings I’ve attended where similar solutions were proposed, you’d never drive over a bridge again.

  10. Sorry Geof but as a fan of old time radio I have to point out that Walter Tetley was the voice of Sherman. He was also leroy on the Great Gildersleve, and Julies on the Phil Harris & Alice Faye show

  11. here is a quote from Mr Beals Wikipedia page
    “He wrote in his autobiography, Think Big, that his high voice and boyish appearance was due to a glandular problem; he did not go through puberty (much like Walter Tetley, who had provided the voice for Sherman on The Bullwinkle Show). Beals was 4 foot 7 inches tall and just under 70 pounds. Despite his short stature, he flew planes using modified controls.”

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