User Reviews

I was sitting at the computer and remembered an old show that I watched in the 1964-65 era. It was Crusader Rabbit and Rags The Tiger. I decided to look it up on this site, since this site has just about everything! Low and behold here it was. My family had just moved back from the navy base at Pensacola, Florida to Brooklyn, N.Y. to stay with my grandparents. We were awaiting housing at the military base in Keflavik, Iceland which was our next assignment. I remember for about 4-5 months getting up very early on Saturday mornings and watching "The Modern Farmer" at 5:30 A.M. since this was the only thing on T.V. Then at 6:00, on came a full hour of Crusader Rabbit. The must have played all the week's episodes at one time because you watched the entire show to 7:00. I sat there and ate my giant bowl of cereal and was glued to the set. It was great. Of course later I would be watching Fury, Roy Rogers, Sky King, etc. Then my mother would chase me out of the house to play stick-ball and handball with the old 25 cent pink Spalding rubber ball we could buy back in those days at the candy store. This was a great time for television shows back in the day. The family that lived next to my grandparent's house in Brooklyn was the Allegretti family. Their son, who was near my father's age, was Cosmo Allegretti. He was Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit on the Captain Kangaroo show. As kids we thought that was absolutely fantastic. Well anyway we were off to Keflavik for 2 years and would miss T.V. for that time. However not having T.V. and being on a base was great too. You went out and did things and everything was free or cheap. I would catch up on T.V. when I got back and sit with my cereal bowl again.

Jay Ward's undeservedly neglected opus (opii?). I loved the word play, like the villain "Dudley Nightshade" - and the frantic search for the "Kurwood Derby" - If you don't get the references, ask your parents (or grandparents... :-) I'd love to see some show up on DVD. In Boston it played on Channel 7 at 1:10PM weekdays, tucked away in between segments of the "Louise Morgan Show" - She was billed as "Boston's First Lady of Television." Her's was a coffee-table show targeting stay-at-home Mom's, and I suspect 'the rabbit' interlude was aimed at keeping the little ones from becoming too bored with the rest of the show, so Mom could spend more time with the tube. Fortunately, the humor of the 'toons worked on two levels (sort of like Big Bird's lines on Sesame Street "Ooooh, I think I strained a giblet.") So Mom (mine, anyway) enjoyed the cartoons, too.

A classic of the cartoon story is this sweet and funny series about a knightly rabbit who sets out to pass a festival of adventures, all of which are reminiscent of the knight's medieval journey to virtue and experience. A great classic that is not perfect, but a trailblazer for perfect cartoons.

Yes, Jay Ward could certainly tell the difference between boys and girls. Almost anyone can! He also knew that if he got himself a male brat and the show happened to last, pretty soon he'd have to get himself another boy. Anyway, those women's voices were great! And the show was funny, charming, and sweet--designed to be something parents and kids could enjoy together.

Okay, no one would ever claim that CRUSADER Rabbit (or any made for TV animation) was anything to compare to SNOW WHITE or FANTASIA. The economics of the situation wouldn't allow for that. The animation on these TV cartoons was as good as it had to be, not any better. Someone once dubbed them "Illustrated Radio".

CRUSADER RABBIT did set a high standard, though for the story line and format.One can see how a blueprint for future series emerged from the first story. Take colorful "funny animal" characters with memorable names. Put them into a serialized adventure story. Add plenty of humorous situations and other characters, often with names which are a play on well known people or places in the real world. Finally, use a lot of "in" jokes and humor to please older folks, not off color you understand, but on a level that the kids won't usually understand.

With CRUSADER as with so many characters since, the kids follow the story line and the adults appreciate the humor.

I'm still a fan after over a half a century.

Crusader Rabbit provided the foundation for my sense of humor, thank you Jay Ward. There was an intelligence to the humor, a sarcasm. Crusader's sidekick was Ragland T. Tiger ("What's the 'T' for? Larry, my father couldn't spell.") The silliness was founded on a logic that spanned across many age groups. I too travelled in the early morning grogginess of Modern Farmer and Mighty Mouse. But nothing ever match Crusader Rabbit for word play and sheer silliness.

This mysterious show is one of my earliest memories. I loved it so much and became so absorbed it as a child that rearrange the brain chemistry in my head. I don't know why it had such a huge impact, but he ended up being a professional animation writer because of it. However, my memory is somewhat shadowy. I was much more conscious when Rocky and Bullwinkle came along which I also obsessed over. I am certain that these shows are at the root of my strong sense of satire, absurdity, and generally smartass attitude. I think I was basically brought up by Jay Ward (sorry, Mom!) Later it was Dudley Doright and Superchicken. This was the best possible preparation for the two Ivy League colleges I attended. My basic question was whether one watched Rocky growing up, and then whether they liked Peabody and Sherman, Fractured Fairy Tales or Boris and Natasha? Easy way to become lifelong friends!

Before there was the colorful world of Rocky and Bullwinkle, there was a chessboard realm featuring a bunny and a huge tabby cat. By seeing a few screenshots, I might say that this animated series is cute and cool. But for some reason, this show is a total dark horse. I wonder why? I didn't know anything about the cartoons until check the web.

I for one enjoy stories, especially fables. I do like animals like dogs, cats, kangaroos, foxes, and rabbits. Yes, the show features a title character who is a cute white rabbit, and I guess I should enjoy it. But I don't. I was at first curious upon reading a little about the show. But when I learned who were on the microphones, my curiosity all but died out. Perhaps whoever selected the cast must be gender-blind.

While they are a complete package of cuteness and funniness, the cartoons have no sense of tradition. In other words, the show might have been fun if a boy did the bunny.

Wow. I would never believe anyone else but me was getting up before the sun rose on a Saturday morning to watch Modern Farmer when I was 5 years old. My father would hear me and look into the living room and ask me what was I watching at 5 o'clock in the morning. I would say Modern Farmer because I wanted to be a Farmer when I grew up. He would just shake his head and chuckle and go back to bed. I loved those shows. Colonel Bleep was the space cartoon with the cowboy puppet Squeek and the Caveman Scratch. Like so many Crusader Rabbit was one of my all time favorites. Then there was Mr Wizard and his great chemistry and science show. I also remember a farming game show on the weekends called Agricultural U.S.A. and very early weekday mornings before school watching Early Bird Cartoons featuring the silent stick figure cat and mice episodes from the 1920's. There was so many more. NYC TV was the best in the 50's and 60's.

Maybe he did know. In fact the difference between a guy and a girl is something even an infant can understand. But what on Earth was Jay Ward thinking when he made television cartoons? If I were the one making animated stuff, I'd do them the right way.

In 1949, Jay Ward released his first animated series in Crusader Rabbit, a show centering on an adorable rabbit knight. I wonder, why did he hire a bimbo to do the rabbit's dialog? And when the rabbit returned to the screen after a few years of hiatus, he hired another bimbo. If I were him, I'd hire young boys to be Crusader, considering young boys are less expensive to employ.

The way Ward used bimbos to be Crusader Rabbit makes me wonder if he knew the difference between a guy and a girl. When Ward went on to create his most famous series featuring a flying rodent and a dimwitted caribou, he inexplicably used a bimbo to be that soaring critter. I don't know what the heck he had in mind but the way he did things is kinda inappropriate.

What a pity that "Crusader Rabbit," Jay Ward's first wild and wacky TV animation series is all but lost to the modern world. Only five-minutes long, each segment was a splendid combination of humor, satire and comedy that was a delight for 1950's children and adults. "Crusader Rabbit" is the seminal work that led Ward to go on and produce such memorable series as "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "Dudley Do-Right," and "George of the Jungle." Can't someone get this material back into circulation on video or dvd? It is a gem in its own right as well as an important first step in the evolution of TV animation and satire.

Crusader Rabbit is a historically relevant series and harbinger of many later cartoons that didn't just make kids laugh on Saturday mornings. Despite the simplicity, the drawings are great, the story clever and the narrative simply well-structured and intelligently considered. Crusader Rabbit is timeless as well as a symbol of its time.

If you grew up in the 50's and were close enough to a big city, like I was in New York, then you were treated to Saturday morning cartoons. As a Baby Boomer, I watched Crusader Rabbit on WNBC Channel 4 From NYC. It was the first Cartoon on Saturday Morning. The theme to this show was found on AudioGalaxy. They were fun in black and white whith Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger. Jay Ward gave us many fine Cartoons that were remembered by many, but Crusader Rabbit was one of his first and best. I agrre with the other writer that it would be nice to have them on DVD or even tape. Kids today don't have what we had in the way of good wholesome cartoons.

I have great memories of this show, and thought I was the only person who remembered it. I didn't know there was a color version made in 1957 (until the mid-sixties, ALL my shows were in B&W!).

So when is somebody going to come out with a collection of this cartoon classic?

I was born after the original set (1949) of Crusader Rabbit cartoons, but the second set, in 1957, were a scream. They featured the irreverent style, chockful of puns, that made Jay Ward's later show, Rocky And Bullwinkle, such a huge hit. "The Yukon Adventure" took place in "If Anyone Can, Yukon"; characters had names like "Bilious Green" and don't forget the miserly "Titus Canby"; an episode that took place on "Nothing Atoll" with castaway Enrico Crusoe; and so on.

For some reason, the great hour-long Crusader Rabbit cartoons are unavailable. They had "punny" titles like:

If Anyone Can Yukon Sahara You Nothing Atoll Gone With the Wind-up Gullibles Travels Schmerwood Forest

And there were a few others. I would love to purchase this entire collection but they seem to be totally missing!

My sister, who is now 63, and I (60) still enjoy reminiscing about Crusader Rabbitt, which in 1952 was on in the late afternoon or early evening. She and I would rush home from playing outside, eat dinner, and frantically wash and dry the dishes so we could watch Crusader Rabbitt. After all these years I really do not remember specific details about the cartoon, but I do remember that Crusader was my hero, that I always wished the show were longer, and that there was always a cliffhanger at the end to ensure that you would watch the next day. Crusader Rabbitt, Space Patrol, and Super Circus were my favorite programs.

Ah Yes, the fantastic days of early New York TV, let see, what channels were available?? Ch 2, 4, 5,9, 11, and 13 before it was a Public Station.

Thank, gawd, I wasn't the only child to get up early to watch Modern Farmer, ha ha ha ha There was another farm related program which I can't remember the title, about an old geezer and his daughter. Then of course Crusader Rabbit, fantastic, some of the episodes can be seen on Youtube. I'm trying to figure out the theme music to Crusader Rabbit. I watched as a very young kid and then as a teenager, does anyone know if the 2nd version in the 60s used Swedish Rhapsody as the theme music or am I remembering wrong?

HI there. I love and collect classic animation. Somehow, in my entire lifetime, Crusader Rabbit eluded me. I discovered it only a day ago, when Richard mentioned the series on Leave It To Beaver (season 5 episode "Beaver's Jacket"). This review is mainly about a few reviewers earlier in this review timeline, complaining about voice actresses portraying male characters.

This has nothing to do with gender confusion. It's not uncommon for females to voice male characters in a cartoon. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. Bobby Hill is voiced by a woman. Lots of classic animal cartoon characters have a woman's talent behind them. This kind of casting decision is not a political or social statement. Females have a particular voice quality that often makes them best to portray a young boy or an animal. The lovely June Foray was perfect as Rocket J. Squirrel in "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle". To dismiss a series because a girl voices a guy is folly. It's also upsetting to see someone use the name, "Bimbo" substituted in every instance for "female". TV is not real life. Escape the real world and enjoy the show.

I managed to watch the first episode of Crusader Rabbit, "Crusader Rabbit vs Texas." It's filled with the fun, adult, irreverent humor via which I immediately identified it as a Jay Ward series. And, as such, the animation is cheerful, imaginative, and very static. TV animation, especially early animation, was on a budget and was very limited. Fortunately, the drawings are stylized and expressive and compensate for such limitations. Crusader Rabbit is whimsical for children, but written on an adult level, so the entire family can watch it and not get bored. It may seem dated to today's "sophisticated" audience, but Crusader Rabbit is a forgotten series that deserves more recognition for its significance in TV history.

I also remember and enjoyed Crusader Rabitt and Rags too, but I cannot remember the name of another show that was usually on at the same time with a space character called Tweek or Tweak. Do you remember that one? I don't remember much else except that I liked it and that it took place in outer space. I think it may have actually been shown in black and white. My guess is that it was a cartoon that was shown inside the context of another show, like Bozo the Clown or maybe Officer Joe Bolton, but it could have been a stand alone show, I'm not sure. Do you know if any clips of these old cartoons are available? I would love to show cartoons like these to my daughter and her friends.