When Jay Ward launched the “Rocky & Bullwinkle” cartoon TV show in 1959, he didn’t have a huge budget for fancy animation.

So he compensated for that with a daring new innovation — great writing. (How’s that for a concept?)

Thursday, Nov. 19, marks the 50th anniversary of the squirrel and the moose, one of the oddest (and funniest) couples in show biz.

The original cartoons survive on disc, and the franchise has weathered the years well, despite a fairly terrible movie version in 2000 that included a supporting cast of live actors (Robert De Niro among them.)

Ward filled Rocky and Bullwinkle’s world with wonderfully wacky characters, including the Russian spies,  Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale.

He also rounded out the show with segments featuring Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right, dog genius Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman, and fabled storytellers Aesop and Son. And let’s not forget those wry, dry “Fractured Fairy Tales.”

So take a moment Thursday to relish your memories of our heroes’ mountaintop shack at Frostbite Falls., Minn., and the heroes’ relentless pursuit of the cherished Kerwood Derby.

My personal favorite is still Bullwinkle’s mystical incantation: “Eenie Meenie Chili-Beanie, the spirits are about to speak.”

And let us never forget that a little imagination is more powerful than billion-dollar special effects.

(Illustration credit: Classic Media.)

“Santaland Diaries,” writer David Sedaris’ wry memoir about his stint as one of Santa’s elves at Macy’s in New York, has proved so popular that there are two Sonoma County productions of the one-man stage show this season.

“Santaland Diaries” first aired in 1992 on National Public Radio, and was later adapted as a solo play by Joe Mantello.

A downtown Santa Rosa production, directed by Argo Thompson and starring David Yen (above), had a successful run last December and reopens this month at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park.

“I think the thing that is great about this show is that it helps us to laugh at all the things about the season that really drive us nuts, while still managing to convey the message of the holiday season,” Yen said.

Meanwhile, the longtime Russian River area troupe, Pegasus Theater, plans its own production in Guerneville, directed by Buzz Bense and starring John Rowan (below) as Sedaris’ crusty elf, Crumpet.

The details for both productions follow:

“THE SANTALAND DIARIES”

Who: Crazy Elves Productions.
When:  Nov. 27 to Dec. 13, with perfomances at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park.
Admission: $21-$24.
Information: 588-3400, spreckelsonline.com.

Who: Pegasus Theater.
When: 8:30 p.m. Dec. 5; 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 20.
Where: Sonoma West Inn and Spa, 14100 Brookside Lane, Guerneville.
Admission: $15.
Information: pegasustheater.com, 522-9043.

Look for some stunning visual effects when Mendocino College presents “Silk,” a live dance performance,  several times later this month.

The production will feature circus-style acts by Pendulum Dance Theatre of Portland, Oregon and contemporary dances by the Mendocino College Repertory Dance Company.

The show will open with “Shadows of the Silk Road,” a medley showcasing four contemporary dances choreographed by Mendocino College dance professor Leslie Saxon West and her students.

The pieces were inspired by West’s three-week trip to China in April of this year.  Dances by other faculty choreographers and guest performers will round out the first half of the program.

Members of Pendulum Dance Theatre of Portland will follow with “Nine,”  which opens with dancers climbing hand over hand up colorful silk streamers hanging from the rafters.

Once in the air, the dancers will wrap themselves in cocoons of silk, emerging to perform ballet-like acrobatics.

You can see “Silk” at 8 p.m.  Nov.  20-21 and 2 p.m. Nov. 22 at Mendocino College, 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.

Advance tickets cost $10, or $8 for 12 and under, 65 and older); all tickets cost $2 more at the door. 468-3079.

For the past decade, playwright and director Janey Hirsh and the American Dream Theatre have combined a love of musical comedy with a fierce interest in history to produce a string of quirky original shows with settings ranging from the Great Depression to the Black Plague.

American Dream Theatre’s next production is “Native Spirits,” billed as “an original musical serio-comedy,” opening Nov. 20 in Graton.

Hirsh offers this synopsis:

“When an Idaho motel haunted by the ghost of Chief Joseph, (the Nez Perce chief made famous in the book ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,’ among others) is snowed in for two days with a variety of guests, including a folk-rock band and a New Age self-help guru, the resulting lively culture clashes are both hilarious and poignant.”

The show includes seven new songs, and runs through Dec. 6 at the
Graton Commmunity Club, 8996 Graton Road in Graton.

Show times are are 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, with a 2 p.m. matinee on  Dec. 6.

Tickets cost $15 each,  or two for $25.  For information or reservations, call 538-7543 or 478-1994.

Reed Martin, above, and Austin Tichenor of the Reduced Shakespeare Co. are coming to the aid of the Santa Rosa Junior College theater department as it copes with statewide education budget cuts.

Martin, who grew up in Sonoma and still lives there, and Tichenor, his longtime writing and acting partner from Los Angeles, will perform their new show, “Completely Hollywood (abridged),” Feb. 10 at the college, before going on to open the show in Washington, D.C.

“The Reduced Shakespeare Co., with Reed and Austin and everybody, has volunteered to do this benefit peformance for the Santa Rosa JC theater arts department,” said Leslie McCauley, artistic director of the department.

“What we want to make clear is that this is the Reduced Shakespeare Co. performing. This isn’t us performing their material, which happens so often in the county,” she added.

“It’s one night only, and of course, we’re hoping to sell out Burbank Auditorium, so we can offset some of the budget cuts,” McCauley said.

Since 1989, Martin has performed all over the United States and in England with the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and co-wrote the last five of their six hit shows, which condense huge topics — Shakespeare’s complete works, the Bible or all of American history — into a single two-hour performance.

The benefit performance of “Completely Hollywood (abridged)” will be at 8 p.m. Feb. 10 Burbank Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College, 1501 Mendocino Ave. Tickets: $30. 527-4343, www.santarosa.edu/theatrearts.

When John Flansburgh and John Linnell started their alternative rock duo in 1982, they took on an ambitious name — They Might Be Giants.

Indeed the band has grown, and currently includes Marty Beller, Dan Miller and Danny Weinkauf.

But the group got big in other ways, winning two Grammy Awards and scoring a long string of hits, including “Birdhouse in Your Soul” and a new version of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).”

The band’s name comes from the title from a 1971 film starring George C. Scott as a man who thinks he Sherlock Holmes, with Joanne Woodward as his psychiatrist, Dr. Watson.

The film also alludes to the novel “Don Quixote,” and the hero’s delusion that windmills are evil giants.

They Might Be Giants will perform at the Fillmore at 9 p.m. Nov. 13. 1805 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. $26.50. (415) 346-6000, livenation.com.

Santa Rosa writer and filmmaker John Harden (at right above) and his writing partner, Skot  Christopherson of South San Francisco (left), won an award the Austin Film Festival’s annual screenwriter’s  competition in Austin, Texas, last Saturday (Oct. 24).

Harden and Christopherson, both 47, won in the science fiction category  for their script, titled “The Sensitivity Program,” which Harden describes as “a futuristic, genderbending take on the women in prison genre.”

The two writers will split the $2,500 cash prize, but the real value lies in the filmmakers they met at the festival, Harden said.

“Next we’re fielding the contacts that were made at the Austin Film Festival, which were substantial, and waiting to see what else comes in,” Harden said.

Harden’s animation and short film work has appeared at Utah’s Slamdance Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and has been shown on the Public Broadcasting System.

“I’ve been to a lot of festivals, all over the world, really, and won some awards,” Harden said.

Last March, Harden won one of three Sonoma County Artist Awards, presented by the Arts Council of Sonoma County, which came with a $5,000 grant.

“It helps,” Harden said.

Want to see good art by local artists? Have you thought about a trip to Graton?

The  Graton Gallery is housed in a quaint storefront on the tiny town’s central block, defined by a stop sign at either end, just off Highway 116, just north of Sebastopol.

Run by a small core of partners, all artists, the gallery likes to feature the county’s best, while having some fun with its exhibits.

Case in point:  ‘Good Dog, Bad Dog,’ a show of evocative and often whimsical art by painters Mylette Welch and Ann Martin Garland, and sculptor and assemblage artist Monty Monty, opens Tuesday (Oct. 27) and runs through Dec. 6.

It’s a talented trio. Welch (shown above) has a particular reputation for combining her love of canines with a comic touch. (She named one of her pet pugs “Toaster,” because she says he looks like one.)

The details — Address:  9048 Graton Road, Graton. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. daily except Mondays. Reception: 3-6 p.m. Nov. 1. 829-8912, gratongallery.com.

For a beleaguered high school literature student, there are few reading assignments quite as welcome as John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.”

It’s easy to read, tells a powerful story and (compared to many of the great novels) it’s blessedly short.

But even for those motivated partly by short attention span, this tale of two men on the road in search of work makes a lasting impression.

And if you’re not in a reading mood at the moment, you still can experience the story.

Barter Theatre of Virginia, a professional drama company founded in 1946,  brings its traveling stage production of Steinbeck’s story to Wells Fargo Center at 8 p.m. Oct. 29.

It’s easier than ever now to relate to the story of George and his hulking, childlike friend, Lennie,  as they wander Depression era America looking for work and hoping to save enough to buy their own place someday.

All poor Lennie wants to do is tend some rabbits, and pet them sometimes, but not too hard.  The big guy doesn’t know his own strength.

The details: 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa.  $20-$35.  wellsfargocenterarts.org,  546-3600.

Current technology makes it possible for almost anyone to make a CD now, and the recent crop includes some new stuff from some of the area’s best.

So here’s a quick list of relatively new releases you might want to check out:

* “The  Granadina Collection,” by longtime Salmon Creek composer and guitarist, Moro. http://www.moromusic.com/granadina.htm.

* “If Not Now, When?,” straight-ahead rock and roll worthy of much more famous names, but all original, by Danny Sorentino and the Sorentinos. www.thesorentinos.com.

* Singer-songwriter Teresa Tudury’s “Such Fine Things,” co-produced by Tudury and Doug Jayne of Santa Rosa’s Last Record Store on Jayne’s Jackalope label. www.jackaloperecords.com.

* “A Strange Kind of Blue” by David T. Carter, whose Trailer Park Rangers rank among the more popular live bands in the county. www.davidtcarter.com, www.trailerparkrangers.com.

If you know of others that belong on the list, feel free to add them.