Fractured Fairy Tales | Switchpak Poison Death Apples!
Fractured Fairy Tales were Saturday morning cartoons – called segments or shorts – that appeared during The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The show appeared on network television from 1958 to 1973, and most older Gen Xers will recall both with affection.
Long before Politically Correct Bedtime Stories invaded America,
we got our kicks from Fractured Fairy Tales
Mr. Peabody’s, Aesop and Commander McBrag
There were actually several Rocky and Bullwinkle bookends including Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History, Aesop and Son, Bullwinkle’s Corner (watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat!) and Commander McBrag. As a kid, I loved them all and still do, but looking back, they could be kind of disturbing.
Disturbing Cartoons
As the opening indicates, the fairy tales are crushed by some grim reality or turn of events. They’re basically classic tales told in comic fashion so they don’t have to reach too far in the re-tellings to be too devastating. For example, In a Son of Rumplestilskin episode the daughter of the king pretends like she’s shooting herself in the head with a gun. Nice. (By the way, the elf, a “funny little man in a green suit,” acts and talks an awful lot like Sponge Bob.)
Of all the Rocky and Bullwinkle segments, I think I liked the Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History the most, but they all bring back such great memories of my Gen X childhood! I’d get up early on Saturday mornings, pour myself a bowl of Super Sugar Crisp, Lucky Charms or Cap’n Crunch, and watch show after show after show. The later it got, the more disinterested I became with the lineup.
Oh I loved the Fractured Fairy Tales. I also loved the Aesop stories. I too remember being nowhere except in front of the TV from Saturday morning until about noon or so. It was awesome. My parents actually worked for Hanna Babera on many of the cartoons I would watch so it was a thrill to see their names in the credits too. They later also worked for Filmation. But oh how I miss those days. The programs today just are no equal to the ones we had then.
That is really cool that your parents BOTH worked for Hanna-Barbera! What did they do? I agree – the programs today are not equal. Sometimes, I’m aghast at the slow moving digital “animation.” Serious junk.
Did you note in the intro of the fractured fairy tale that you have embedded in your post the year detailed — 1959?