Peter Puck is a

hockey puck A hockey puck is either an open or closed disk used in a variety of sports and games. There are designs made for use on an ice surface, such as in ice hockey, and others for the different variants of floor hockey which includes the wheeled skate ...

-shaped

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

character. The puck, whose animated adventures appeared on both '' NBC's Hockey Game of the Week'' and CBC's ''

Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...

'' during the 1970s, explained

ice hockey rules Ice hockey rules define the parameters of the sport of ice hockey. The sport is governed by several organizations including the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the National Hockey League (NHL), Hockey Canada, USA Hockey and others. ...

equipment Equipment most commonly refers to a set of tools or other objects commonly used to achieve a particular objective. Different job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and ...

and the sport's

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

to the home viewing audience. The voice of Peter Puck was provided by

Ronnie Schell Ronald Ralph Schell (born December 23, 1931) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared on the May 28, 1959, episode of the TV quiz ''You Bet Your Life'', hosted by Groucho Marx. Schell demonstrated a comic barrage of beatnik jive t ...

. The animation was produced by

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

studios. Nine episodes, each approximately three minutes long, were broadcast between periods of

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

hockey games.

Origins

The brainchild of NBC executive and

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

season ticket holder Donald Carswell, who conceived the idea and scripted first drafts of the initial episodes, Peter Puck was developed for the television network in partnership with Hanna-Barbera. Designed to help introduce and popularize ice hockey among non-fans (especially children), Peter Puck became an instant and enduring hit with existing hockey fans. When the network stopped carrying NHL games in 1975, NBC sold Peter's rights back to Hanna-Barbera, which later sold them to

Brian McFarlane Brian McFarlane (born August 10, 1931) is a Canadian television sportscaster and author. He is also the Honorary President of the Society for International Hockey Research. He is the son of writer Leslie McFarlane. He is best known as a broad ...

, a member of the network's NHL broadcast team (and the son of

Leslie McFarlane Charles Leslie McFarlane (October 25, 1902 – September 6, 1977) was a Canadian journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and filmmaker, who is most famous for ghostwriting many of the early books in the very successful ''Hardy Boys'' series, using the ...

, also known as first of many to assume the pen name "

Franklin W. Dixon Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate (now owned by Simon & Schuster). Dixon was also the writer attributed for the ''Ted ...

" and pen the ''

Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterpa ...

'' books). McFarlane subsequently wrote three children's books using the character: ''Peter Puck: Love That Hockey Game'' (1975), ''Peter Puck and the Stolen Stanley Cup'' (1980), and ''Peter Puck's Greatest Moments in Hockey'' (1980).The Peter Puck Story
, retrieved August 9, 2013

Comeback

Peter Puck made a comeback during the

2007 NHL Playoffs The 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs of the National Hockey League began on April 11, 2007. The sixteen teams that qualified, eight from each conference, played best-of-seven series for conference quarterfinals, semifinals and championships, and then t ...

, as retailers began selling a line of

retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

apparel with the Peter Puck logo. That same year, Peace Arch Entertainment released the entire series to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

. Since December 2007, the original Peter Puck has been shown during the first intermission of

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

games broadcast on

Leafs TV Leafs Nation Network (formerly Leafs TV) was a Canadian English language Category B regional specialty channel owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. Leafs Nation Network broadcasts programming related to the Toronto Maple Leafs Natio ...

. The clips are seen in their original form, with outdated rules and references omitted. For the 2009–10 NHL season, Peter Puck returned to the CBC.

References

Peter Puck Comeback?

External links

Hockey Hall of Fame: Peter PuckFang's Bites: Videos of the Week - Peter Puck
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puck, Peter Hanna-Barbera characters National Hockey League on television NBC Sports CBC Sports Canadian culture