BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (December 18, 2006) — Chris Hayward, an Emmy Award-winning television writer who helped develop the bumbling animated Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right and other offbeat characters for the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV show, has died. He was 81.
Hayward died of cancer Nov. 20 at home, his wife, Linda, told the Los Angeles Times in Sunday editions.
Hayward contributed satire, wordplay and puns for “Rocky and His Friends,” a witty kids cartoon that built a large adult following. The show debuted on ABC in 1959 and was renamed “The Bullwinkle Show” when it moved to NBC in 1961.
Besides its titular flying squirrel and moose, the hit show featured segments including Mr. Peabody, a time-traveling dog with a pet boy, and Dudley, a klutzy hero always in pursuit of his nemesis Snidely Whiplash. Hayward also co-wrote the show’s “Fractured Fairy Tales,” sendups of classic stories and fables.
With partner Allan Burns, Hayward later helped create “The Munsters,” and in 1968 the pair received an Emmy for their work on the CBS sitcom “He & She.” After writing for “Get Smart” (1965-70), the team split up and Hayward turned to “Barney Miller,” an ABC series that satirized life in a precinct house.
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