"Edgar Allan Poe" is the fourth segment of the sixth episode of the third season of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. It originally aired on NBC in 1962.
Plot[]
The episode opens with Mr. Peabody showing the audience two prime examples of horror. First, he shows a book called Murders in the Rue Morgue, which completely shocked the entire world, and second, he shows Sherman's report card, which completely shocked P.S. 32. And so, Mr. Peabody explains that he and Sherman will be visiting the man who wrote Murders in the Rue Morgue and many other horror stories, Edgar Allan Poe. Sherman and Peabody then set Peabody's machine, the Way Back, to the year 1832. The place: Baltimore, Maryland. Soon enough, the two find themselves in Edgar's study.
Sherman thinks he just finished The Fall of the House of Usher, but Edgar reveals that he just finished Winnie the Pooh. Edgar can't seem to write a horror story, because all the stories he writes come out with happy endings. So, Peabody and Sherman decide to put Edgar into an environment of horror to give him inspiration. Sherman decides to take Edgar to a haunted house, which was one of several that were all over Baltimore. They soon arrive at Grizzly Manor. Suddenly, a spooky storm rolls in.
Though Sherman and Peabody are frightened when the front door opens all by itself, Edgar is not. Soon, after stepping inside, they fall down a trap door, and into a chamber filled with torture devices. Including everything from an iron lady, to the rack, to a spiked boot, and a television set. But Poe still isn't scared. Soon, a monster-like man wielding an ax walks slowly into the room, and right behind Edgar. However, before the creature can land a devastating blow and kill Edgar Allan Poe, all three of them fall down another trap door into a river.
It appears that nothing can frighten Edgar Allan Poe, and it seems true when sharks swim in and frighten Peabody and Sherman, save for Edgar, but Peabody saves them by swimming them all down to the bottom of the pool of water they landed in. Peabody spots a drain pipe, and they all swim through it until they reach Chesapeake Bay. Once they reach the shore, they find that Edgar wasn't scared one bit by their experience. Peabody asks Edgar when the mailman arrives at his house, and Edgar says 12:00 noon. So, they board a ferry boat, ride a horse and carriage, and take a trolley until they finally arrive at Poe's home. Soon, when the mailman arrives, Peabody tells Edgar to open the letter.
Once he does, he gets the fright of his life and falls to the ground. Sherman is surprised that Edgar got scared stiff, and Peabody explains that its April 15, and the letter contained his income tax report, something that can scare the wits out of anyone. Soon, Edgar's brother Richard, who is also a writer, wakes him up. Sherman asks what he wrote, and Peabody explains that he wrote an almanac, Poor Richard's Almanak, to be exact. Though Sherman corrects Peabody when he gets the name wrong at first.
Trivia[]
- When Peabody and Sherman see the title of the story Edgar just finished writing, they see the title is Winnie the Pooh. In reality, Winnie the Pooh was written by A. A. Milne.
- Edgar says the title of his next story is going to be Little Women. In reality, Little Women was written by Louisa May Alcotta.
- Murders in the Rue Morgue is an actual short story that Edgar Allan Poe wrote and had published in Graham's Magazine in 1841.
- Peabody mistakes Edgar Allan Poe's brother Richard for writing Poor Richard's Almanak, when it was actually written and published by Benjamin Franklin between 1732 and 1758.
- The Fall of the House of Usher was an actual story that Poe wrote and published in Burton's General Magazine in September of 1839.