Peter Peachfuzz


Captain Peter “Wrongway” Peachfuzz was a supporting character on the animated television programs Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, now known collectively as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. He made his debut in Jet Fuel Formula, the first Rocky & Bullwinkle story arc, originally broadcast late 1959 and early 1960.
According to the narration of Jet Fuel Formula, Peachfuzz was, from his youngest days, an incompetent sailor. As a child, even his toy boats sank. At the age of 18 he joined the Navy. He was awarded numerous medals, all of which were donated by the enemy. Sailing the wrong way through the Panama Canal and becoming the only captain of an icebreaker in the South Seas earned him the nickname "Wrongway". After receiving a large inheritance from an aunt, he purchased and took command of the S.S. Andalusia. His crew considered mutiny but decided rather to install a dummy control room, so that Peachfuzz would think he was in command, while the crew actually controlled the ship from another location. Unfortunately, Peachfuzz took a wrong turn and wound up in the real control room. In another episode Peachfuzz tried to dive overboard to help Rocky save Bullwinkle but, being Peachfuzz, he only succeeded in diving up and back onto the ship.
In Upsidaisium, it is revealed that Peachfuzz eventually sailed his ship up Wall Street, whereupon the S.S. Andalusia was given a permanent street address: 17½ Wall Street. In an effort to get rid of him, his board of directors arranged for him to get a government job counting penguin eggs because "we couldn't find any place further away." However, the secretary, a niece of the captain, mistyped the order and as a result Peachfuzz is made head of G.2, the main spy agency. As "the muddle-headed head" of G.2, Peachfuzz demonstrates more examples of his usual incompetence when he tries to confiscate telephone books and sets up dozens of pairs of spies ; likewise in Greenpernt Oogle, it is revealed that, having attacked the Supreme Court Building, he is reassigned to the one place felt fit for a man who is wrong all the time: the Weather Bureau. For a time he replaced the Greenpernt Oogle as the chief adviser for New Greenpernt, with the instructions to do the opposite of what he said. The Goof Gas Attack story arc mentions Peachfuzz as being an alumnus of Waxahatchee Normal School.
Peachfuzz's voice was provided by "Disney Legend" Paul Frees. At first he spoke with a high-pitched squawk reminiscent of a stereotypical cartoon parrot, but soon adopted another voice based on that of Ed Wynn.
According to Jay Ward's widow Billie Ward, the captain was named for Rocky and Bullwinkle producer Peter Piech.

Other appearances

In addition to appearing in several Rocky & Bullwinkle story arcs, Peachfuzz appeared in the supporting feature The Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club.
Peachfuzz makes his return after nearly 50 years in Dreamworks Animation's 2014 short film, Rocky and Bullwinkle. He was voiced by Stephen Stanton. In the short, he served as the officiant and DJ at the wedding between Bullwinkle and a robotic female moose controlled by Boris Badenov.
In the 2018 reboot The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the character has been reimagined as being renamed Director Peachfuzz, an African-American woman who is the head of a secret government organization called S.H.H. She is a major antagonist-heroine. She is also more competent and ill-tempered than the original Peachfuzz.