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P.A.T-Ward

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P.A.T. Ward
Founded 1955
President Jay Ward
Notable Works Rocky and His Friends
George of the Jungle

P.A.T.-Ward was an animation firm in Los Angeles that produced some of TV's most offbeat cartoons.

Jay Ward was a banker who began a career in animation in 1948, co-creating Crusader Rabbit with Alex Anderson. After Jerry Fairbanks took over the character and shut Anderson's studio down, Ward founded Producers Associates For Television with Bill Scott (who previously was a writer for Warner Bros. cartoons). In 1955, he created the templates for two pilots, The Frostbite Falls Review and Dudley Do-Right.

After some development, Ward sold Rocky and His Friends to ABC for weekly airing Thursday afternoons. It was a modest hit, but its literate writing was slowly winning the attention of adult viewers. General Mills was the show's sponsor. All episodes were farmed out to Gamma Studios in Mexico (the studio’s original name was Val-Mar) while many commercials, some Fractured Fairy Tales and Dudley Do-Right episodes were done in-house in Hollywood. Each of Ward's shows bore the credit for executive producer for Ponsonby Britt. No such person existed; Ward created the name as a joke.

Ward retooled Rocky as The Bullwinkle Show for NBC, and it had a two-year run in prime time followed by a nine-year run weekends. The studio created three other series--Fractured Flickers, Hoppity Hooper and George of the Jungle. Through the studio's tenure up to 1973, it produced commercials for General Mills, Quaker, and Aunt Jemima frozen waffles.

A statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle stands today in Hollywood.

A list of what Ward's studio has done:

  • Rocky And His Friends (ABC, 1959-61) - features: "Fractured Fairy Tales," "Peabody's Improbable History," "Aesop and Son" and "Bullwinkle's Corner"
  • The Bullwinkle Show (NBC, 1961-64, ABC, 1964-73) - features: "Fractured Fairy Tales," "Peabody's Improbable History," Aesop and Son," "Dudley Do-Right Of The Mounties," "Bullwinkle's Corner" and "Mr. Know-It-All"
  • Fractured Flickers (Syndicated, 1963)
  • Hoppity Hooper (ABC, 1964-66) - features: same as Bullwinkle Show plus "The World Of Commander McBragg," made by Total Television
  • Cheerios commercials with Bullwinkle and the Cheerios Kid (1964-66)
  • Cap'n Crunch cereal (1966-73) - includes permutations of product
  • Quisp and Quake cereals (1967-73) - includes permutations and additions to product
  • George Of The Jungle (1967-70) - features: "Tom Slick" and "Super Chicken"
  • King Vitaman cereal (1972)
  • Wallace The Waffle Whiffer (1972) - mascot for Aunt Jemima frozen waffles