Mr. Peabody

Mister Peabody
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show character
Created by	Ted Key
Portrayed by	Bill Scott (TV) Ty Burrell (film)
In-universe information
Species	Dog
Gender	Male
Relatives	Sherman (adopted son)
Nationality	American

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, while Sherman was voiced by Walter Tetley.

Plot

Sherman and Mr. Peabody enter the WABAC machine

The cartoons are about Peabody, a beagle 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. One day, Mr. Peabody becomes sad and lonely and decides to adopt his own human son. In an alley, he meets Sherman, a dorky, glasses-wearing, orange-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."

Peabody realizes that boys need running room and so invents the WABAC machine as a birthday gift for Sherman. He and Sherman then go back in time to see a Roman speaking in Latin; Peabody then adds a translator circuit to the machine so that everyone seems to speak English and see the Roman again finding out he is a used chariot salesman. Their next trip is to see Ben Franklin flying his kite, but Peabody and Sherman discover that they cannot interact with the past, so Peabody makes some more adjustments, turning the WABAC from a time machine into a "should-have-been machine." This results in the past they visit being totally cockeyed (including anachronisms and famous people behaving totally out of character).

Episodes

This is the list of 91 episodes which aired in 1959 and 1960:

1. "Show Opening" (featuring Ben Franklin)
2. "Marie Curie"
3. "Lord Nelson"
4. "Wyatt Earp"
5. "Little Richard"
6. "Franz Schubert"
7. "Lucrezia Borgia"
8. "Sir Walter Raleigh"
9. "Robert Fulton"
10. "Annie Oakley"
11. "Jesse James"
12. "The Wright Brothers"
13. "George Armstrong Custer"
14. "Alfred Nobel"
15. "Marco Polo"
16. "Richard the Lionhearted"
17. "Don Juan"
18. "William Tecumseh Sherman"
19. "First Kentucky Derby"
20. "P. T. Barnum"
21. "Stanley and Livingstone"
22. "Louis Pasteur"
23. "Robin Hood"
24. "Robinson Crusoe"
25. "Ponce de León"
26. "Leonardo da Vinci"
27. "John L. Sullivan"
28. "Paul Revere"
29. "Confucius"
30. "Nero"
31. "Captain Matthew Clift"
32. "Vasco Núñez de Balboa"
33. "Peter The Great"
34. "The Battle of Bunker Hill"
35. "The Pony Express"
36. "Stephen Decatur"
37. "Alexander Graham Bell"
38. "Commander Peary"
39. "Pancho Villa"
40. "Lord Francis Douglas"
41. "Sitting Bull"
42. "Charlie Chaplin"
43. "The French Foreign Legion"
44. "Guglielmo Marconi"
45. "Scotland Yard"
46. "John Holland"
47. "Louis XVI"
48. "Francisco Pizarro"
49. "Daniel Boone"
50. "William Shakespeare"
51. "Zebulon Pike"
52. "The First Golf Match"
53. "William Tell"
54. "James McNeill Whistler"
55. "Ferdinand Magellan"
56. "Ludwig van Beethoven"
57. "Calamity Jane"
58. "Cornwallis' Surrender"
59. "The First Indian Nickel"
60. "Jules Verne"
61. "Casanova"
62. "Lawrence of Arabia"
63. "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
64. "Paul Reuter"
65. "Johannes Gutenberg"
66. "Buffalo Bill"
67. "Hans Christian Ørsted"
68. "Leif Ericson"
69. "John Sutter"
70. "Sir Isaac Newton"
71. "Kit Carson"
72. "The First Caveman"
73. "Geronimo"
74. "The Great Wall of China"
75. "The Marquis of Queensbury"
76. "Jim Bowie"
77. "Edgar Allan Poe"
78. "Charge of the Light Brigade"
79. "The Royal Mounted Police"
80. "The First Bullfight"
81. "The Building of The Great Pyramid"
82. "John James Audubon"
83. "Mata Hari"
84. "Galileo"
85. "Wellington At Waterloo"
86. "Florence Nightingale"
87. "Henry the VIII"
88. "The First Indianapolis Auto Race"
89. "Captain Kidd"
90. "The Texas Rangers"
91. "Cleopatra"

Adaptations

Film

Main article: Mr. Peabody & Sherman

An animated feature film based on the characters of Mister Peabody and Sherman had been in development at DreamWorks Animation since 2007. 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. Robert Downey, Jr. was announced to voice Mr. Peabody, but in March 2012, was replaced by Ty Burrell. Max Charles, the actor who plays young Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man voiced Sherman. 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, Mr. Peabody's nemesis; 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. 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. The film was produced by Alex Schwartz and Denise Cascino, and written by Craig Wright.

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.

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.

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.

• In the Family Guy episode "The Kiss Seen Around the World", Peter and Brian travel back in time to see Christopher Columbus. The two don similar looks to Sherman and Mister Peabody; the flashback also parodies the format of the show, with the two going back in time and Brian (the dog) teaching Peter (the human).

Tribute

• The 1985 film Back to the Future had a character named Otis Peabody and a son named Sherman, which was tribute to the animated characters. Unlike the famed duo, this Sherman and Mr. Peabody are hostile towards Marty and his time travel.

External links

• Peabody's Improbable History on Toonopedia
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