Dudley's daddy dies

With apologies to an unknown colleague, but the headline on today's obituary for Chris Hayward, "'The Munsters' creator dies at 81," really misses the point.

Mr. Hayward was one of the creators of a vastly more important TV icon: Dudley Do-Right. He worked for the legendary Jay Ward, whose studio produced the beloved-by-baby-boomers show, "Rocky and His Friends," which later morphed into "The Bullwinkle Show."

The flying squirrel and his squirrelly sidekick moose were joined by Mr. Peabody, the cerebral dog, with his pet boy, Sherman; Fractured Fairy Tales and the dastardly duo, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. The show had its heyday in the 1960s.

I had a chance back in the 1980s to meet Jay Ward at his studio in West Hollywood. The studio wasn't doing much beyond Cap'n Crunch commercials, but Ward and his wife ran a little gift shop, selling Rocky and Bullwinkle memorabilia and trinkets. I did my Christmas shipping there for several years when I lived in L.A., and was first taken to the shop by my very dear friend, the late political cartoonist Randy Wicks.

Randy, like many cartoonists of our generation, worshipped at the feet of Ward and the others. Ward, for his part, was as gregarious and generous with his time as just about anyone I ever met. He'd invite Randy and me into the back of the shop, make coffee and talk for hours about the fine, heady days when Rocky and Bullwinkle were riding high, and we youngsters -- and most of our parents -- were riding with them. Lovely days.

"The Munsters'? Feh.