The Accidental Cartoon Producer

Bullwinkle the moose may the only cartoon character who took a back seat to the publicity for his own show. When NBC picked up The Bullwinkle Show in 1961, Jay Ward, Bill Scott and PR maven Howard Brandy sent out a seemingly endless stream of off-beat news releases and other plugs for the show, not to mention organising events that were way out of the realm of anything anyone else was doing to grab attention.

Writers succumbed to the temptation of writing about the PR campaign instead of the actual cartoons, though Ward and Scott managed to get their personal philosophies of animated comedy in the stories at times, too.

Here’s a piece from Bob Foster’s “TV Screenings” column in the San Mateo Times of November 29, 1961. The quotes about tiring an audience can be found in other newspaper stories around this time. This is one of two references I recall seeing about the “Playville Club.” Ward and Scott (and their writers) satirised key clubs of the early ‘60s, and sent out fake brochures like the Playboy Club used to make.

Jay Ward, the Delightful ‘Nut’
Jay Ward is a nut. At least that is what one must presume from his press releases, his cartoon antics and from talking to the guy. One of the real humorists of our time, Jay does the unexpected, not only now and then, but every week right on schedule.
A former real estate salesman from Oakland, and one of television's first animators, he is currently giving birth each week to some of the most subtle comedy on television in his "Bullwinkle Show" (KRON-TV, 7 p.m. Sunday).
We discussed Jay's very funny press releases previously, but they still come to our desk and have become must reading for the entire staff.
The latest was the proud announcement that Jay Ward was opening "Playville Clubs" in 86 American cities and enclosed were two skeleton keys.
Previously he sent along some of the funniest parodies on well known songs, in a book entitled "Sing Along With Bullwinkle."
The Brandy agency, I even wonder about that name, who handles Jay Ward's account can be credited with much of the humor, but knowing Jay, he must contribute quite a bit to the humor.
JAY BECAME AN animated film producer strictly by accident. He really intended to be a real estate salesman. On July 10, 1947, sitting quietly in his Oakland office, he suffered a fractured leg when a runaway truck smashed through his front window.
"I was six months in a plaster cast and had lots of time to think things over like hospital equipment and plastering. About this time I met an old air force buddy and we got together with pencil and paper to develop an animated cartoon, 'Crusader Rabbit,' made entirely in Oakland... in a garage."
THIS VENTURE obviously was away ahead of its time ... so far ahead, in fact, that San Francisco still didn't enjoy television. "Crusader Rabbit" ran for two years locally, and is still being seen around the country in syndication.
"About this time," Jay says, "we got the feeling that television wasn't ready for us yet, so I went back to the real estate office in Oakland. I still have that office, just in case of, but it's now in the Claremont hotel, Berkeley."
Jay will cheerfully admit he can't draw, but he feels that writing is the thing in cartooning. Far too often mechanics are confused with the "results." Many cartoon producers become so intrigued with the novelty of a moving drawing that they forget the prime factor, story.
"Cartoons have a basic appeal," Ward says, "but an audience will tire if presented only action without thought. Some cartoon makers go as far as to perfect animating a life-like reality. This is fine, but the story suffers in consequence. We try to use animation to tell the story, not the story to sell animation."
ACTUALLY THE "BULLWINKLE" show is either liked or disliked with a passion. The humor on the show is subtle, and aimed at lovers of subtle humor, yet the series does have an appeal for youngsters as well as grownups. Those who do not like "Bullwinkle" refuse to admit that it has any humor. Those who really like "The Moose," however, are the color set owners. The series has some of the best darn color to be found on the air.