The eagle-eyed Bob Yannes emailed me this weekend about a Wilkes-Barre reference he remembers from the popular Rocky & Bullwinkle character Boris & Natasha.If you were like me and spend most of your childhood morning watching Miss Judy on WNEP's Hatchy Milatchy, the cartoons that they showed (Rocky & Bullwinkle and Underdog, just to name two) were the highpoint of your day---especially the cliffhangers that never seems to get resolved, no matter how many days you watched.
Before reruns on shows like Hatchy Milatchy, the characters of Rocky & Bullwinkle first appeared on Rocky & His Friends, which ran from 1959 to 1960. A year later in the fall of 1961, the newly-titled The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (AKA The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show) premiered and ran until 1973. Lots of other regular characters began to appear in both series, including the bubbling spies Boris and Natasha.
Bob Yannes told me of one direct reference to Wilkes-Barre in the original incarnation of the R&B series Rocky & His Friends when the character of Boris (voiced by Paul Frees) was assigned to the fictional town of Moosesylvania, which is someplace no one in their right mind would want to go (for details on Moosesylvania itself, click here). When he learns of his assignment, Boris begs his superior not to send him:
Boris: Send me to Siberia, send me to Wilkes-Barre, but NOT Moosesylvania!!!!!!!
I'm not sure if it's a compliment or not when one groups Siberia with Wilkes-Barre, but what can I say?
Mr. Yannes also wrote me told me that, in one of the episodes of The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Boris & Natasha have the following exchange:
Natasha: Boooooris, I didn't know you went to college. Penn State?
Boris: No. State Pen.
Episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle are available on both DVD and VHS from libraries throughout Lackawanna County. To check our catalog, click here.
A GREAT BIG OL' THANK YOU again to Bob Yannes for this kickin' reference.
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