Most folks know of Rocky and Bullwinkle but are unaware that the show on which Moose and Squirrel were first featured was called Rocky and His Friends. It's the form in which I first discovered those characters and the wonderful world of Jay Ward and Bill Scott. The video below is a complete half-hour episode (including commercials) the way the show was when I became an avid watcher.

It went on the air on ABC as of November 19, 1959, airing at 4:30 in the afternoon two days a week. In September of 1961, it made the jump to fringe prime time on NBC, Sunday evenings at 7 PM and this is when Dudley Do-Right became a part of the proceedings. Later on, it was syndicated in several different packages, a few of which incorporated elements of shows produced by a company called Total Television. The Total Television material (like The World of Commander McBragg) was animated by the same animation company in Mexico that animated most of the Ward product. This has caused some confusion in the marketplace as to which were Jay Ward cartoons and which were Total — but this half-hour is all Jay Ward.

You may notice in the end voice credits, there's no mention of Daws Butler. Daws was heard in the Fractured Fairy Tale and also in a commercial that used characters from Ward's Aesop & Son cartoons. Ordinarily, Charles Ruggles supplied the voice of Aesop while Daws did the Son and other roles but in this commercial, he imitated Ruggles and did both parts. At the time, Daws was voicing so many shows for Hanna-Barbera that he decided to have them leave his name off the second season of Rocky and His Friends.

Anyway, here's the format in which I first met some of my favorite characters in my favorite cartoons…

I may put a few of these up today to make up for a paucity of them here recently.   This is the episode of the game show I've Got a  Secret for March 25, 1963 which someone just posted to YouTube — and by "just," I mean less than a half-hour before I noticed it there. I have not seen this since — and these are real numbers — it aired 62 years, 6 months and 14 days ago when I was 11 years and 23 days old.

Nevertheless, the moment I saw that composer Meredith Willson was the celebrity guest, I instantly remembered what his "secret" was and I remembered the name of Mr. Somerstein who played such an important role in it. I also remembered that Mssrs. Willson and Somerstein came back on a later episode and did a kind of sequel to the stunt on this one.

I enjoy a lot of the reruns of this series, probably to a large part because I recall them as a kid. Garry Moore was a great host and the panelists were all terrific, especially Bill Cullen, who they usually had go last because he so often guessed the secret. In fact, I've seen episodes where I believe Cullen figured out the secret-to-be-guessed right away but played dumb so as to get some laughs and/or not ruin the playing of the game or have the show, which was broadcast live, run short. If you watch the whole episode, you'll see him guess the second secret the minute it's his turn.

If you do want to watch the whole episode, either click here and it will play on your screen or watch the embed below which I've configured to start with the Meredith Willson spot late in the show, then move the slider back to the beginning. There's nothing earth-shattering here; just a good example of a kind of game show that they don't make any more, where you were watching people being playful and clever instead of watching someone try to win a million dollars and a Porsche…

• The folks at IGN say "The Essential Peanuts Is the Ultimate Book for Hardcore Snoopy Fans."
• While over at AIPT, they interview Mark Evanier on curating 75 years of story magic for The Essential Peanuts.
• Comic Book Club Live quotes Mark Evanier On Essential Peanuts: "Most Of Us Have A Lucy Or Linus Or A Peppermint Patty In Our Lives."
• Geek Vibe Nation offers you a "GVN Exclusive Sneak Peek of The Essential Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, Edited by Mark Evanier," which is fine except that the book was edited by Charlie Kochman, not Mark Evanier.
• MSN features "Snoopy's 75-year evolution captured in new Peanuts comic collection."

Thanks to all who sent Best Book Birthday Wishes yesterday to note the release of one of my favorite things I've ever done. If you're a follower of this blog, you know how rare it is me to "plug" something with which I was involved. I save it for things like this.

A long list of folks deserve credit for this book existing and being as good as I'd like to believe it is. They're listed in the Acknowledgements but I'll also list them here when I can. Right now, I just want to thank the people who've written to me…and, I guess, those who've purchased it too. I'll be back later (time permitting) to say more.

Over on Comic Book Resources, Brian Cronin and I have a brief chat at why Peanuts has been part of our lives so long that there had to be a seventy-fifth anniversary edition.

I dearly appreciate your ongoing concern for my health but I got my flu shot at my doctor’s office. I don’t need a text message every twenty minutes reminding me that you have them available. Thank you.

Consider this a Head's Up! that the coming week will, like the last few days here, have a few less posts than usual. The long ones like the saga of my 2006 Gastric Bypass Surgery take longer to write and I'm also immersed in publicity stuff for my new book.

It may already be obtainable from a vendor you patronize and if you pre-ordered from Amazon, your copy is probably on a truck somewhere at this very minute.

Speaking of what I was speaking about in the first paragraph above, a reader named Trevor wrote to ask…

My question is about writing the many multi-part blog entries you have featured on the site over the decades. Do you tend to do them individually as you go along? Tell the whole story/ies in a longer writing burst and then break it up? I'm curious as to your process for all of this.

It's not much of a process. I just write one chapter ahead of myself. When Part Four is almost ready to post. I post Part Three. Some of the fun of having your own blog is trapping yourself by choice.

Writing comic books, especially "Marvel Method" if you know what that is, I always hated it when I had to do my end of the first part of a multi-issue storyline and have it go off on the assembly line to publication before I was sure what was happening in subsequent issues. Once, I even had to write the dialogue for pages 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11 (etc.) before I was sure what was happening on pages 1, 4, 5, 7, 10 (etc.).

But at least when I'm recounting a true story that happened to me, I know where it's going so I can take it as a challenge to post Part Six while I'm writing Part Eight. Which is what I'm doing at the moment.

This is the sixth in a series of I'm-thinking-two-or-three-more-but-don't-hold-me-to-this parts about a gastric bypass operation that I underwent in 2006. To read the first part, click here, to read the second part, click here, to read the third part, click here, to read the fourth part, click here and to read the fifth part, click here. Simple?

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Let us review. So around Noon on Wednesday, May 24th, I got a call from Beth, the Surgical Coordinator for Dr. Perfect, the surgeon who was going to be performing Gastric Bypass Surgery on me. This would take place, I'd thought, on July 26…just days after that year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. Beth was calling to discuss perhaps moving me up to Friday, May 26th. Instead of having the operation right after Comic-Con, I would have it less than 48 hours after that call. Which would mean plenty of time to recover from the procedure before Comic-Con.

But it would also mean a lot of hurried rearranging. The conversation went like this. As you read it, try to imagine a slowly-increasing tone of mild panic in my voice…

BETH: A patient we had scheduled for Friday afternoon has canceled. He says he's too scared. Dr. Perfect told me to find someone else from our list to put in that slot as I told him I wanted to put Mark Evanier in there. He said, "Who's Mark Evanier?" and I said, "He's the patient who made that joke about Minimally-Invasive Sex, remember? And Dr. Perfect said, "Oh, I liked him, yes. See if he can get the necessary tests done in time!"

ME: What are the necessary tests?

BETH: It pretty much amounts to a full physical — x-rays, blood draws, stress test, the works. I'm not able to find any way to get it all done here so you'd have to find some way to get it all done in time.

ME: Arrange for a full physical by Friday morning?

BETH: No, I'm afraid that in order to put you officially on the schedule for Friday, you'd have to have it all done by tomorrow.

ME: Get the whole thing done by the close of business tomorrow?

BETH: Well, actually, first thing tomorrow. Like by 9 AM, I'm afraid. I know it sounds impossible but I figured if anyone could figure out how to arrange it…

ME: Okay, okay. Can you fax me the list of what I have to get done? I'll do it. I don't have any idea how I'm going to get it done but I'm going to get it done.

She agreed to fax over the list, we hung up the call and I dialed the cell number of my great physician and friend, Dr. Preston. I caught him at lunch and blurted out what I needed. He said, "Get over to my office. If we have to, we'll keep it open late today to make sure you have all those tests!" At that very moment, my fax machine was printing out the list from Beth. As it did, I called a friend of mine, the great magician (and now, voice actress) Misty Lee.

Misty had a live magic show coming up and I'd agreed to spend Friday acting as a kind of director/consultant, helping her stage portions of the show. I explained to her what I'd been offered for that day and she instantly said, "We can get by without you. Go ahead and get the surgery!" Thank you again, Misty. I dunno if you saved my life but you sure saved me a lot of guilt for canceling on you.

I drove over to Dr. Preston's office where there was a jam-packed slate of patients that afternoon, many of them needing the x-ray facilities, the treadmill, the lab that did the bloodwork, etc. But they squeezed me in where they could. The office closed at 5 PM but the necessary technicians stayed late and around 6:30, I was handed a big manila envelope with all the required test results in it. I drove it over to the hospital where most departments were closed but I finally found someone who would accept delivery of the envelope. I then went home and made the necessary calls to cancel or postpone some other plans for Friday and the weekend that followed.

At 9 AM Thursday morning, Beth called to say, "I don't know how you did it but you did it. You're all set for tomorrow!"

She gave me instructions about where to be, when to be there and what not to put in my mouth that morning or the night before. If you've ever had a colonoscopy, you'd recognize most of the instructions.

People ask, "Weren't you afraid?" Nope, not really. I knew I was in good hands and I was probably more afraid of not doing something about my weight. Even though — Spoiler Alert! — it worked out well for me, I still stop short of recommending this procedure to anyone else. I will however recommend that if you need to do something about your weight, that you actually do something about your weight.

(I also recommend that you not forget that the story I'm telling you here took place in 2006. There is no medical procedure on this planet that is now performed the exact same way it was nineteen years ago.)

The next morning, I got up early and my great friend (then, now and forever) Jewel Shepard drove me to the hospital and gave a last hug to — as of that day — around 340 pounds of me.

Today was Returning Registration Day for next year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. A specified number of tickets were available for folks who paid attendance last year and here, according to one online report, is how long they took to sell out…

• 9:00 AM – Sale starts
• 9:32 AM – Preview Night sells out
• 10:05 AM – Saturday sells out
• 10:10 AM – Friday sells out
• 10:23 AM – Thursday sells out
• 10:28 AM – Sunday sells out

I can't vouch for those precise times but I bet they aren't far off. This is 291 days before the con starts. Amazing.

I know a few pretty famous people who don't go to this convention because other cons will pay them a hefty guarantee and/or appearance fee to attend and sell autographs and the Big One in San Diego won't make those deals.

A couple of those famous people have complained to me — as if I had a smidgen of power to change things. Still, I ask them: "Why should the con pay you to be there?" And they're shocked that I or anyone would ask such a thing.

They reply, "Do you realize how many people my name will draw in?" And of course, the reply to that is that the San Diego Con sells out in a couple hours without advertising a single guest! They don't need to advertise anyone. There are just plain no more badges to sell.

This is the fifth in a series of I-still-have-no-friggin'-idea-how-many parts about a gastric bypass operation that I underwent in 2006. To read the first part, click here, to read the second part, click here, to read the third part, click here and to read the fourth part, click here.

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As you may recall, during my hospital stay in early February of 2006, I kicked my addiction to Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, 7-Up, Sprite, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Hires or A&W Root Beer and a few others…and without even trying! I'd never liked the diet versions of any carbonated beverages so I'd quaffed the sugary versions for years and they'd contributed to a lot of my weight gain. When I gave them up forever, I also increased my daily walking regimen and cut way, way back on desserts and bread.

As a result, I began losing a pound or three a month. That ain't nothing but when you're teetering at or about a top weight around 365, you need to do better. Dr. Preston was estimating that with Gastric Bypass Surgery, I would lose somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and fifty pounds. That is, if I could actually get the damned operation. I was on Dr. Perfect's esteemed list for Mid-August and I was scheduled to meet him for the first time in Mid-April. I was also told that was probably the only time I would see him before I was being prepped to be wheeled into surgery.

I was more nervous about that pre-op visit with Dr. Perfect than I would be about the operation itself. This may sound silly but I wanted Dr. Perfect to like me, to know my name and think of me as more than just Operation #7,296 or whatever number I was for him. I'd always had very good experiences when I could feel a little bond with my doctor. That was my goal the day I arrived for the appointment at his office which was in a complex called The Center for Minimally-Invasive Surgery.

The sign on that office door gave me a certain amount of confidence. This operation would have a very big impact on my life but it would be done via Minimally-Invasive means, otherwise known as Laparoscopic Surgery. They made tiny holes in the patient, not big ones, and the whole process was…well, Minimally-Invasive.

Dr. Perfect's Surgical Coordinator greeted me cheerily. She was the person in charge of The List and she was so nice to me that I wish I could remember her name now. Since I can't, I'm going to call her Beth. She showed me on the schedule that I was penciled-in for August 11 and she said, "I may be able to move you up a week or two." She was surprised when I said, "Please don't." I still wanted to go to the Comic-Con in San Diego from July 20-23 and if my surgery suddenly got moved to those dates or just before, that would not be a good thing.

We got to talking and I asked her what the point of this appointment was. I asked, "Is it so he can get to know the patient?" She said, "No, it's strictly medical." Leaning in so only I could hear her, she added, "Dr. Perfect tends to not get too friendly with his patients. He's very, very good at what he does but if you're expecting him to become your buddy, I'm afraid that's not going to happen."

She was very nice and I found myself talking to her the way I talk to a close friend. I said, "I don't want him to go play basketball or hang out with me. It's just that….well…I usually don't feel comfortable around people until I've made them laugh at something I said, something I did." She gave me one of those "Poor Baby" looks and said — again, so no one else could hear — "I've known the doctor for quite some time. I wouldn't count on that happening." I'm sure she could see the disappointment on my face.

When I finally went into the examining room with Dr. Perfect, she seemed to be right. He was, of course, excellent at what he did but it was All Business. I said a few friendly/funny things (I thought) but got no reaction out of the man. As the two of us exited that room, I felt like I'd failed.

Dr. Perfect gave her some notes to add to their massive files on my physical condition, then he asked her, "Where's Dr. Miller? I haven't seen him all day." Beth told him, "Oh, today is his twentieth wedding anniversary. He took the day off so he and his wife could celebrate."

I suddenly heard myself saying, "Yeah, they're home having Minimally-Invasive Sex!"

Suddenly, Beth was laughing. Some other folks who'd overheard the exchange were laughing. But the amazing thing was that Dr. Perfect was laughing…a lot.

Beth flashed me a "thumbs up" sign as Dr. Perfect asked me to come over with him to another doctor in the office and he had me recount the exchange. It was, Dr. Perfect thought, the funniest thing he'd heard in years. He asked me, "How were you able come up with that so fast?" I replied, "I'm a comedy writer. It's kind of my job. It's like if someone asked you, 'How were able to take out that guy's gall bladder?'" And he laughed at that, too.

Dr. Perfect had other patients waiting so we shook hands and Beth walked me to the door. She said, "That's the first time I've seen that man laugh." Later that afternoon, she called and told me that my tentative surgery date of August 11 was now my firm surgery date of August 11.

It didn't stay my firm surgery date for long. The next day, she called to say they'd had some cancelations and that I was now scheduled for August 4. That was still after Comic-Con so that was fine. Then a few weeks later, I was set for July 26 — still after Comic-Con but just barely. I thanked Beth but I asked her, "Please don't move me up anymore. I'll be at Comic-Con in San Diego until the 23rd or the 24th." She said she understood and wouldn't move me again…

…but then around Noon on May 24th, Beth called and told me there were more changes on their calendar. Before she could tell me some new surgery date, I said, "Please…don't move me up another week. I've agreed to host twelve panels at Comic-Con and I don't want to have to cancel on them."

Beth said, "Don't worry. I'm not going to ask you to have the surgery during Comic-Con in July." She heard me exhale a sigh of relief and then she asked, "But how would you feel about the day after tomorrow?"

TV Guide didn't realize this was the debut of one of the best comedy shows ever on television and my personal favorite. They also didn't realize that none of Sid Caesar's several TV shows was called The Sid Ceasar Show or that his name was not spelled "Sid Ceasar."

Down Memory Lane with Tim Conway…

Today is the 75th anniversary of the day a comic strip called Peanuts by someone named Charles M. Schulz first appeared in, at first, just a handful of newspapers around the country.  It eventually became the most popular comic strip in the history of mankind…and that's putting it mildly.  As you may know, I have a book coming out — apparently already for sale by some vendors — with an official release date of next week.  It looks like this…

The cheapest place to buy it is apparently Amazon and here's the link that will enable you to do that. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Your Internet and this blog will be cluttered the next month or two with interviews and podcasts and publicity about it. For instance, Forbes magazine has this interview with me which is pretty good except that it makes it sound like I picked out all the strips in the book. I did not. A whole committee listed in the book made the selections and I was but one voter.

And here's a podcast with an hour of me talking about the book…and some other things. It's John Siuntre's popular Word Balloon and I've promised to return another time soon so John can ask me about other aspects of what he thinks I've done. There will be a lot more podcasts and links on this blog in the coming weeks as I make the rounds of the Internet talking Peanuts…

Which candy is the most popular handout in your state on Halloween? I'm not sure I trust the methodology of this research but here it is. Make of it as you will.

While we're on the subject of Halloween Candy: I have frequently on this blog expressed my dislike for candy corn…and I still don't like the stuff. Readers send me a lot of jokes about candy corn and they seem unaware that around nine years ago, I gave up all candy as well as cookies, cakes, donuts, pies and anything else in the dessert category. So my feelings about candy corn now aren't that different from my feelings about M&M's, Hershey Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Milky Ways, etc.

The difference — subtle though it may be — is that I can understand how people could love those other candies. I can't understand how anyone could like candy corn. It's like hearing, "Mmm…I love a delicious mouthful of hot gravel!" But until I am granted the power to rid the planet of all food items I can't imagine ever eating, this shouldn't concern you. And if I ever do gain that power, candy corn is not even in the Top 20 on my list. Number one is, of course, cole slaw. And someday, you'll thank me for that.

A nice rendition of one of my — and, I hope, your — favorite TV theme songs…