Mister Peabody

Mr. Peabody is a cartoon dog who appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s television animated series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, produced by Jay Ward. Peabody appeared in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments created by Ted Key, and was voiced by Bill Scott. In 2014, he was featured in a computer-animated film Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Since 2015, he appears in the new TV series based on the film.

Mr. Peabody's first name is never given or referred to in the cartoons, but in an animated promo for the Rocky & Bullwinkle Savings Stamp Club he tells Sherman that it's "Hector."^[2]

Peabody's Improbable History

Plot

Sherman and Mr. Peabody enter the WABAC machine

The cartoons are about Peabody, who is the smartest being in existence. Peabody has accomplished many things in his life as a business magnate, inventor, scientist, Nobel laureate, gourmand, and two-time Olympic medalist.^[3] Mr. Peabody becomes sad and lonely and decides to adopt his own human son. In an alley, he meets Sherman (voiced by Walter Tetley), a dorky, bespectacled, red-haired boy. After saving Sherman from a group of bullies, Peabody discovers that Sherman is an orphan and decides to adopt him.

After a court appearance and a talk with the President and the government, Peabody becomes Sherman's new guardian. Mr. Peabody tells Sherman to not call him "Daddy" and to call him by his name, "Mr. Peabody", or "Peabody".

Believing that boys need running room, Peabody invents the WABAC time machine as a birthday gift for Sherman. He and Sherman go back in time to see a Roman speaking in Latin; Peabody adds a translator circuit to the machine so that everyone seems to speak English. They see the Roman again and learn that he is a used chariot salesman. Their next trip is to see Ben Franklin flying his kite that discovered electricity, but Peabody and Sherman discover that they cannot interact with the past. Peabody makes some more adjustments, turning the WABAC into a "should-have-been machine". This causes past events to seem distorted and anachronistic, and famous people to behave out of character.

Each of the cartoons usually ends with a bad pun from Mr. Peabody to Sherman which resulted in a group of sour notes played on a tuba or bass trombone. Only if the pun was good was the distorted sound not heard.

Episodes

This is the list of 91 episodes which aired in 1959 and 1960:^[4][5]

Film

An animated feature film based on the characters of Mister Peabody and Sherman had been in development at DreamWorks Animation since 2007.^[6] The feature was directed by Rob Minkoff, who is known for co-directing The Lion King for Disney. In January 2011, it was announced that a 3-D computer animated film titled Mr. Peabody & Sherman would be released on March 14, 2014.^[7] Robert Downey, Jr. was announced to voice Mr. Peabody,^[8] but in March 2012, was replaced by Ty Burrell.^[9] Max Charles, the actor who plays young Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man voiced Sherman.^[9] In June 2012, it was reported that Mr. Peabody & Sherman's release date had been moved up to November 8, 2013. Stephen Colbert voiced Paul Peterson, Penny's father; Leslie Mann voiced Peterson's wife, Patty, and Ariel Winter (Burrell's Modern Family co-star) voiced their daughter Penny. Also joining the cast were Allison Janney and Stephen Tobolowsky.^[10] In September 2012, the release date was moved up for a week to November 1, 2013. It finally had an official release on March 7, 2014.^[11] The film was produced by Alex Schwartz and Denise Cascino, and written by Craig Wright.^[12]

The film focused much more on Mr. Peabody and Sherman's personal lives that prompt a series of time traveling mishaps with the WABAC machine, forcing the pair to put things on track before the space-time continuum is irreparably destroyed.^[9]

Unlike the show, Mr. Peabody treats Sherman as a beloved son, whom he adopted as an infant rather than a pet and assistant, and the machine is more futuristic with an autonomous aircraft function. Also, a third member of the team is introduced, Penny, who is Sherman's rival and later, best friend and love interest.

The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show

An animated television series, starring Mr. Peabody and Sherman, premiered in October 2015, on Netflix.^[13] It takes the form of a talk show named The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show, with Mr. Peabody and Sherman hosting historical guests.^[13] The series is inspired by the 1960s short segments, including their hand-drawn animation and comedy, and it also integrates some elements from the 2014 film.^[13] Mr. Peabody is voiced by Chris Parnell, while Max Charles reprises his role as Sherman from the film.^[13]

Appearances

Television shows

• In The Simpsons' fifth Halloween special ("Treehouse of Horror V"), in the Time and Punishment segment, Homer finds himself able to travel through time by means of a magic toaster and comes across Mr. Peabody and Sherman. The characters Kang and Kodos later take on Peabody's and Sherman's appearances due to Homer's meddling with the time stream.
• In Time Squad, the character Otto is modeled on Sherman, and Larry partially on Peabody.
• In the Family Guy episode "The Kiss Seen Around the World", Peter Griffin and Brian Griffin travel back in time to see Christopher Columbus. The two don similar looks to Mister Peabody and Sherman; the flashback also parodies the format of the show, with the two going back in time and Brian (Mr. Peabody) teaching Peter (Sherman).

Tribute

• The 1985 film Back to the Future included a character named Otis Peabody and a son named Sherman, a tribute to the animated characters. Unlike the famed duo, this Sherman and Mr. Peabody are hostile toward Marty and his time machine, mistaking Marty for an evil alien and his DeLorean car for a spaceship.
• The Wayback Machine, which records extant Internet webpages on https://archive.org (USA), is named after Mr. Peabody's WABAC machine.

References

External links

• Peabody's Improbable History on Toonopedia
• Peabody's Improbable History at the Big Cartoon DataBase