Peabody's Improbable History

Peabody's Improbable History

The cartoons center on Mr. Peabody, who graduated from Harvard at age three and has been a business magnate, inventor, scientist, Nobel laureate, gourmand, and two-time Olympic medalist. In the first episode, Peabody meets an orphan named Sherman, saves him from bullies, and adopts him after a court appearance involving the President and the government. Peabody invents the Wayback Machine, which he upgrades, and he and Sherman travel to meet various historic figures and assist with their problems.

Each installment ends with Peabody delivering a pun related to the time-traveling trip, such as "Marie Antoinette could have avoided trouble by making an edict for the people to eat cake, but she could not have her cake and edict too." The series comprises 91 episodes that aired in 1959 and 1960, covering figures like Napoleon, Lord Nelson, Wyatt Earp, King Arthur, Franz Schubert, Lucrezia Borgia, Sir Walter Raleigh, Robert Fulton, Annie Oakley, Jesse James, the Wright Brothers, George Armstrong Custer, Alfred Nobel, Marco Polo, Richard the Lionhearted, Don Juan, William Tecumseh Sherman, the First Kentucky Derby, P. T. Barnum, Stanley and Livingstone, Louis Pasteur, Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe, Ponce de León, Leonardo da Vinci, John L. Sullivan, Paul Revere, Confucius, Nero, Captain Matthew Clift, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Peter Cooper, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Pony Express, Stephen Decatur, Alexander Graham Bell, Commander Peary, Pancho Villa, Lord Francis Douglas, Sitting Bull, Christopher Columbus, the French Foreign Legion, Guglielmo Marconi, Scotland Yard, John Holland, Louis XVI, Francisco Pizarro, Daniel Boone, William Shakespeare, Zebulon Pike, the First Golf Match, William Tell, James McNeill Whistler, Ferdinand Magellan, Ludwig van Beethoven, Calamity Jane, Cornwallis' Surrender, the First Indian Nickel, Jules Verne, Casanova, Lawrence of Arabia, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Paul Reuter, Johannes Gutenberg, Buffalo Bill, Hans Christian Ørsted, Leif Ericson, John Sutter, Sir Isaac Newton, Kit Carson, and the First Caveman.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (film)

An animated feature film based on the characters was developed at DreamWorks Animation from 2007, directed by Rob Minkoff. Initially announced with Robert Downey Jr. as Mr. Peabody, the role was later taken by Ty Burrell, with Max Charles voicing Sherman. The film's release date shifted multiple times, finally arriving on March 7, 2014.

The cast included Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Ariel Winter, Allison Janney, and Stephen Tobolowsky. The story focuses on Mr. Peabody and Sherman's personal lives, leading to time-travel mishaps with the WABAC machine that threaten the space-time continuum. Unlike the original segments, Mr. Peabody treats Sherman as a beloved son adopted as an infant, the machine has an autonomous aircraft function, and a third character, Penny, is introduced as Sherman's rival and later friend and love interest.

The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show

An animated television series premiered on Netflix in October 2015, taking the form of a talk show hosted by Mr. Peabody and Sherman with historical guests. The series draws from the 1960s short segments in its hand-drawn animation and comedy, while incorporating elements from the 2014 film. Chris Parnell voices Mr. Peabody, and Max Charles reprises Sherman. The show explores Peabody's family, including his foster parents in the first season's ninth episode and his distant Uncle Duke in a time travel adventure in the fourth season's sixth episode.

Other appearances

In The Simpsons' fifth Halloween special, Homer Simpson travels through time with a magic toaster and meets Mr. Peabody and Sherman, who correct his claim of being the first non-Brazilian time traveler. The characters Kang and Kodos later appear as Peabody and Sherman due to Homer's time meddling. In Time Squad, the character Otto is modeled on Sherman and Larry partially on Peabody. The Family Guy episode "The Kiss Seen Around the World" parodies the format with Peter and Brian Griffin traveling to see Christopher Columbus, with Brian as Mr. Peabody and Peter as Sherman.

A dog resembling Mr. Peabody appears as a racer in the Wander Over Yonder episode "The Time Bomb." Peabody and Sherman made a small cameo in the first chapter of Moosebumps! in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The 1985 film Back to the Future includes a 1955 character named Otis Peabody with a son named Sherman, who are hostile toward Marty McFly. The Wayback Machine internet archive is named after Mr. Peabody's WABAC machine.

The comic series Gold Digger features a villain, Dr. Alfred Peachbody, and his trained attack-boy Benji, who attempt to change history, first appearing in a story about sabotaging the inventor of the dog whistle.