Dudley Do-Right

Dudley Do-Right, created by Alex Anderson, is the eponymous hero of a segment on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show which parodied early 20th century melodrama and silent film (by using only a piano as a musical background) in the form of the Northern genre.

Overview

Dudley Do-Right is a dim-witted but conscientious and cheerful Canadian Mountie who is always trying to catch his nemesis Snidely Whiplash, more often succeeding by pure luck than anything else. He romantically pursued Nell Fenwick, the daughter of Inspector Fenwick, the head of the Mountie station. However, a running gag throughout the series was Nell's interest in his horse (called Horse), to the point that she scarcely noticed Dudley's interest.

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

In the standard intro, Dudley is seen riding his horse backwards.

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, which 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 show, called Dudley Do Right And Friends, differs from The Dudley Do-Right Show, featuring most of the same recurring cartoon segments, but a different episode selection. 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.

Segments

1. The Disloyal Canadians - Whiplash smuggles stolen furs via musical instruments
2. Finding Gold
3. Mortgagin' The Mountie Post
4. Trap Bait
5. Masked Ginny Lynne - Nell dons a mask and becomes a singing "sensation" via Whiplash
6. The Centaur
7. Railroad Tracks - Whiplash ties everything and everyone to railroad tracks
8. Foreclosing Mortgages
9. Snidley Mounted Police
10. Mother Love
11. Mountie Bear
12. Inspector Dudley Do-Right
13. Recruiting Campaign
14. Out Of Uniform
15. Lure Of The Footlights
16. Bullet Proof Suit
17. Miracle Drug
18. Elevenworth Prison
19. Saw Mill
20. Mountie Without A Horse
21. Mother Whiplash's Log Jam
22. Stolen Art Masterpiece
23. Mechanical Dudley
24. Flicker Rock
25. Faithful Dog
26. Coming-Out Party
27. Robbing Banks
28. Skagway Dogsled-Pulling Contest
29. Canadian Railway's Bridge
30. Niagara Falls
31. Snidely's Vic Whiplash Gym
32. Marigolds - Dudley's allergic reaction to marigolds gives Whiplash an idea
33. Trading Places
34. Top Secret
35. The Locket
36. The Inspector's Nephew
37. Matinee Idol
38. Snidley Arrested - Whiplash becomes despondent enough to want to be arrested, only to be freed thanks to Nell

One segment originally seen on The Bullwinkle Show, "Stokey the Bear", had been withheld from all reissues of the series because the U.S. Forest Service objected to the image of a bear that started forest fires. The segment was finally released on home video in 2005.

Film

Further information: Dudley Do-Right (film)

In 1999, a live-action film starring Brendan Fraser (as Dudley), Sarah Jessica Parker (as Nell), Alfred Molina (as Snidely), and Robert Prosky (Inspector Fenwick) was released. The movie was a box-office failure, as it had an opening weekend gross (domestically) of $3,018,345, which then went on to have a "domestic total gross" of $9,974,410. The movie was made on a budget of $70 million.

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 sinisterly 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 tallest of which is 75 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

• The character is mentioned in the 1991 Tony Scott film The Last Boy Scout starring Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans. In one scene, Wayans' character accuses Willis's character of pretending to be a "Dudley f***ing Do Right" when, in fact, he is a lowlife.
• 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 reference to Dudley's frustrated pursuit of Nell.
• 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 quoted that Simon Belmont in 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" with an image of Dudley in effect of the drugs.
• The athletic bands of Michigan State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Akron perform the theme song while the students act as if they are each riding a horse at various home games, such as basketball, hockey, and football. 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 includes a small portion of Franz von Suppé's Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna.
• In the TV series Due South, the Canadian Mountie hero Benton Fraser is referred to in one episode as "Dudley Do-Right".
• In the film Canadian Bacon, a character refers to a mountie with "Nice try, Dudley."
• In the essay Cowboys v. Mounties, from the book The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell (2002).

External links

• Dudley Do-Right at the Internet Movie Database