Dudley Do-Right

Dudley Do-Right
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show character
First appearance	September 1961[1]
Last appearance	September 6, 1970
Created by	Alex Anderson Chris Hayward Allan Burns
Portrayed by	Brendan Fraser (movie)
Voiced by	Bill Scott (show)
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Mountie
Nationality	Canadian

Dudley Do-Right, created by Alex Anderson with Chris Hayward and Allan Burns, is the hero of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", a segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show that parodied early 20th century melodrama and silent film (the "northern"), using only a piano as a musical background.

Overview

Dudley Do-Right is a dim-witted, but conscientious and cheerful Canadian Mountie who is always trying to catch his nemesis, Snidely Whiplash, and rescue damsel in distress Nell Fenwick, his boss's daughter, with whom Dudley is deeply infatuated. He usually succeeds only by pure luck or through the actions of his horse, named "Horse". A running gag throughout the series is Nell's great affection for Horse and her disregard for Dudley.

Dudley Do-Right made a cameo in a "Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club" segment as the hero in "She Can't Pay the Rent", a play staged by Boris Badenov. Rocky and Bullwinkle also appeared as cameos in "Mountie Bear".

In the Tom Slick episode "Snow What" (September 30, 1967), a former Royal Mountie, called "Royal Mountie", is in the race. He is obviously Dudley Do-Right.

In the standard intro, Dudley is seen mounted backward on his horse.

Dudley's character and design are to a great extent a parody of the Mountie Sergeant Malone (the name varies in different productions) in Rudolf Friml's 1924 operetta, Rose-Marie, particularly as portrayed in the 1936 film version by baritone Nelson Eddy, as is demonstrated by Dudley's tendency to break into Eddy's (fortunately public domain) signature tune, "Shortnin' Bread." (The film adaptation further connects the two, with the song "Indian Love Call" from the same musical being a recurring theme in that film.) To a lesser extent, Nell may be a parody of Eddy's frequent co-star, the red-haired soprano Jeanette MacDonald.

The Dudley Do-Right Show

The Dudley Do-Right Show is an animated television series assembled by P.A.T. Film Services, consisting of cartoons produced by Jay Ward Productions and Total Television that aired Sunday mornings on ABC-TV from April 27, 1969, to September 6, 1970. Each half-hour show included two segments each of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties" and "The World of Commander McBragg", along with one segment each of "Tooter Turtle" and "The Hunter". Dudley Do-Right was a Jay Ward production, while the other segments were products of Total Television. Both companies used Gamma Productions, a Mexico-based animation studio.

The U.S. syndicated version of The Dudley Do-Right Show, called Dudley Do Right and Friends, follows the same format but features different episodes. The syndicated package features "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", "The World of Commander McBragg", "The King and Odie", and "The Hunter". The latter two originally appeared as part of King Leonardo and His Short Subjects, a series that aired between October 15, 1960, and September 28, 1963, on NBC-TV. Twenty-six new segments of both series were produced for CBS-TV's Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales in 1963, and these later segments are included in the syndicated Dudley Do Right and Friends.

Actors (voice overs) included:

• Bill Scott — Dudley Do-Right
• June Foray — Nell Fenwick
• Hans Conried — Snidely Whiplash
• Paul Frees — Inspector Fenwick/Narrator
• William Conrad did several (but not all) of the narrations.
• Evan Cox - cameo in The Actors Challenge

Segments

One segment originally seen on The Bullwinkle Show, "Stokey the Bear", was withheld from all reissues of the series because the U.S. Forest Service objected to the image of a bear that started forest fires, even though he'd been hypnotized by Snidely to do so. The segment was finally released on home video in 2005.

Film

A live-action film was released in 1999, starring Brendan Fraser (as Dudley), Sarah Jessica Parker (as Nell), Alfred Molina (as Snidely), and Robert Prosky (Inspector Fenwick). The movie received extremely negative reviews and was a box-office failure. Despite its budget of $70 million, it grossed less than $10 million domestically.^[2]

Theme park attraction

Dudley Do-Right is the theme of a log flume attraction at the Islands of Adventure theme park titled "Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls". Guests enter a queue themed to resemble a theater, with Dudley, Nell, Snidely, and Horse presented as actors. Riders board cartoon logs and journey "into" the story, where Snidely has cruelly captured Nell Fenwick. Horse and Dudley make their first appearance in front of a cyclorama backdrop, theatrically "charging" to the rescue.

The ride system contains three drops, the last and steepest of which is seventy-five feet. It is a hybrid flume/coaster that utilizes steel track to not only shoot guest-filled logs down the final drop, but under the water's surface and over a bunny hill. The ride system was designed and built by Mack GmbH and opened in 1999.

In popular culture

• Prince and The New Power Generation's 1991 single Gett Off includes the lyric "Dudley do no wrong tonight if Nell just let him kick it".
• In an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly in Seanbaby's section "The Rest of the Crap" in which that month's topic was a Captain N: The Game Master parody, Seanbaby quotes Simon Belmont that Captain N "talks like Dudley-Do Right".
• In the episode "Midnight Rx" of The Simpsons, Homer goes to a Canadian drug store called "Dudley Do Drugs".
• The athletic bands of Michigan State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Akron perform the theme song at home games while the students simulate riding a horse. The theme song is played by the Wichita State Basketball Band for the opening and second half tip-offs at Wichita State basketball games.
• The theme music for Dudley Do-Right is derived from Franz von Suppé's overtures Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and Light Cavalry as well as the prelude to Act III of Richard Wagner's opera, Lohengrin.
• In one episode of the TV series Due South, the Canadian Mountie hero Benton Fraser is called "Dudley Do-Right". In another, a gun smuggler claims that Fraser will hunt him to the end of the Earth. His accomplice replies, "That doesn't happen. This is real life, not Rocky and Bullwinkle."
• In the film Canadian Bacon, a character replies, "Nice try, Dudley," to a Mountie.
• Sarah Vowell refers to Dudley in Cowboys v. Mounties from her book, The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2002).
• In the episode "Mild Mannered" of the TV series Warehouse 13, agent Pete Lattimer sardonically says of a suspect in his investigation, "You know, Dudley Do-Right was first on the scene at all three locations".
• The mascot for the hockey team of Mount St. Charles Academy of Woonsocket, RI is Dudley Do-Right.
• "Do-Right" is the nickname of native Californian (San Jose) leisure rapper/hip hop vocalist John Dudley.
• In the superhero-themed novel Soon I Will Be Invincible, former supervillain Lily sarcastically calls superhero Corefire "Dudley Do-Right".
• In Oakland's social reality the normal was insane, as the insane= normalcy. Dudley DoRight & the Danger Rangers defined living between the 'Matrixs grasp during intimate sessions throughout the Oakland \ Yay Area in 1964 throughout 1968. Alaska became the band's stomping grounds with few long distance runs becoming tiresome and "the suggestion" of the Alaska Department of Correction being convincing reasons to leave Berkeley. Returning to the Bay in 1980, "the main man of the band", Charles "Pete" Armson traded his instruments (he was a true natural musician, playing over 5 instruments with a high degree of prowess) for a motorcycle full-time.

References