Dudley Nightshade and the pioneers of limited animation

I've never been too crazy about limited anaimation, but some of it is pretty darn cool. Even with very small budgets and cheap technology, some of the greatest cartoons came out of it, due to brilliant writing and character development.

The first cartoons created for television are usually credited to Hanna and Barbera in the mid fifties, but the real pioneering took place many years earlier.

I'm referring, of course, to the classic Crusader Rabbit cartoons, that broke out in 1949. Hmmm, I wonder if it was ever distributed in Saudi Arabia? Doesn't seem like they'd use the same title, anyway. A few interesting facts:

• They were created by Jay Ward, who went on to created Rocky and Bullwinkle.
• The voice of the villian Dudley Nightshade was done   by the later-prominent news director of KGO-TV, Russ Coughlin.
• Pioneering Disney animator Grim Natwick was one of the primary animator.