Mister Peabody

Hector J. Peabody (mostly referred to as Mr. Peabody) is an anthropomorphic cartoon dog who appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s television animated series The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, 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. From 2015 to 2017, he appeared in a television series based on the film.

Hector J. Peabody
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends character
First appearance	1959
Created by	Ted Key
Voiced by	Bill Scott (1959–1960) Jeff Bennett (1998)[1] Ty Burrell (2014) Chris Parnell (2015–present)[2]
In-universe information
Species	Dog
Gender	Male
Relatives	Sherman (pet boy)
Nationality	American

Mr. Peabody's first name is never given or referred to in the cartoons, but in an animated promotion for the Rocky & Bullwinkle Savings Stamp Club he tells Sherman that it is "Hector".[3]

Peabody's Improbable History

Plot

The cartoons are about Peabody, who is the smartest being in existence, having graduated from Harvard at age 3 ("Wagna cum Laude"). Peabody has accomplished many things in his life as a business magnate, inventor, scientist, Nobel laureate, gourmand, and two-time Olympic medalist.[4] Peabody becomes sad and lonely and decides to adopt his own human as a son. In an alley, he meets Sherman (voiced by Walter Tetley), a 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 not to call him "Daddy" and to call him by his name, "Mr. Peabody", or, when speaking informally, "Peabody".

Believing that boys need running room, Peabody invents the WABAC 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 proved lightning was electricity, but Peabody and Sherman discover that they cannot interact with the past. Peabody makes some more adjustments, turning the WayBac 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 Mr. Peabody making a bad pun.

Mr. Peabody's face and voice caricature Clifton Webb, whose role as Mr. Belvedere is a similarly pompous, authoritarian, know-it-all character.

Episodes

This is the list of 91 episodes which aired in 1959 and 1960:[5][6]

1. "Show Opening" (featuring Ben Franklin)
2. "Napoleon"
3. "Lord Nelson"
4. "Wyatt Earp"
5. "King Arthur"
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 Cooper"
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. "Christopher Columbus"
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"

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.[7] 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.[8] Robert Downey Jr. was announced to voice Mr. Peabody,[9] but in March 2012, was replaced by Ty Burrell.[10] Max Charles, the actor who plays young Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man voiced Sherman.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] The film was produced by Alex Schwartz and Denise Cascino, and written by Craig Wright.[13]

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.[10]

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

Main article: The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show

An animated television series, starring Mr. Peabody and Sherman, premiered in October 2015, on Netflix.[14] It takes the form of a talk show named The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show, with Mr. Peabody and Sherman hosting historical guests.[14] 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.[14] Mr. Peabody is voiced by Chris Parnell, while Max Charles reprises his role as Sherman from the film.[14] In this series, Peabody's family is further explored, with his foster parents appearing in the first season's episode nine, and his distant Uncle Duke appearing in a time travel adventure in the fourth season's episode six.

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 claims he is the "first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time". He then comes across Mr. Peabody (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) and Sherman (voiced by Nancy Cartwright). Mr. Peabody then corrects Homer, saying he is actually the second. Sherman then agrees with him, only for Mr. Peabody to respond with "Quiet, you." The characters Kang and Kodos later take on Peabody's and Sherman's appearances (though still in their helmets and with their tentacles) 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).
• He and Sherman made a small cameo in the first chapter of Moosebumps! in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Tribute

• The 1985 film Back to the Future included a 1955 character named Otis Peabody with 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 time machine 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

1. "Voice Of Mr. Peabody - Rocky and Bullwinkle". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 6, 2017. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources
2. https://variety.com/2015/digital/news/mr-peabody-and-sherman-netflix-show-dreamworks-animation-1201557948/
3. BrianRetro (August 2, 2012). "Rocky and Bullwinkle Stamp Club". YouTube. Event occurs at 3:50. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
4. "Story Overlay". Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
5. "Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Vol.1". iTunes. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
6. "Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Vol. 2". iTunes. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
7. CAFFEINATED CLINT (November 20, 2007). "Exclusive Interview : Jeffrey Katzenberg". Moviehole. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
8. "Gregg Taylor Named DreamWorks Animation's Head of Development and Alex Schwartz Named Producer of Mr. Peabody & Sherman". DreamWorks Animation. January 24, 2012. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2012.
9. Breznican, Anthony (2011-01-17). "EXCLUSIVE: Robert Downey Jr. to star in 'Peabody and Sherman' for DreamWorks Animation". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
10. "Ty Burrell & Max Charles Take On Lead Roles in Dreamworks Animation's Mr. Peabody & Sherman in 2014". DreamWorks Animation. March 16, 2012. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
11. McClintock, Pamela (June 11, 2012). "Stephen Colbert, Allison Janney Join Voice Cast of 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
12. "The Hollywood Reporter".
13. DreamWorks Animation (September 9, 2012). "New Distributor Twentieth Century Fox Unveils DreamWorks Animation's Release Slate Through 2016". DreamWorks Animation. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
14. Spangler, Todd (August 6, 2015). "Netflix Reboots 'Mr. Peabody and Sherman' in Series from DreamWorks Animation (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved October 3, 2015.

External links

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