Why a 1959 Rocky and Bullwinkle
cartoon was banned from TV

Blazing Reader,

A segment from the second episode of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show was banned after it first aired in 1959.

It featured the incompetent Constable Dudley Do-Right (and his highly competent horse) of the RCMP. But it wasn't the RCMP that banned the skit. It was the U.S. Forest Service who requested the segment be removed because it showed "Stokey the Bear" being hypnotized by the evil Snidely Whiplash to start a forest fire.

What were they afraid of? That Smokey the Bear would go rogue and start saying: "Only I can initiate forest fires."

Seems like a silly reason to ban a silly show. I'm curious to know if forest fires increased with the release of the segment on home video by Sony Wonder and Classic Media in 2005.

On the subject of mounties and censorship, did you catch my blog post on Tuesday about how Constable Dudley Do-LEFT has been sending out postcards calling for the burning of my novel, Much Ado About Corona? You can read (and share it) here: https://blazingpinecone.com/blog/dudley-do-left/

John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.