Of Frostbite Falls and Whatsamatta U.

Hokey smokes! Cartoon characters are livening up nighttime television again, but we’re not talking about those TV greenhorns “The Simpsons.”

We’re talking about veterans Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel, who have been around since 1959. So kids who watched back then are now old enough to be up Fridays at 11 p.m. and Saturdays at midnight, when KTTV airs episodes of “Rocky and His Friends” and “The Bullwinkle Show,” all under the title Rocky and Friends.

The “friends” in the title include Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman, and Dudley Do-Right and Snidely Whiplash.

A couple of voices in the cast go a long way: June Foray is Rocky, Natasha and Nell Fenwick, and co-producer Bill Scott is Mr. Peabody, Dudley Do-Right and Bullwinkle (who sounded so much like Clem Kaddidlehopper that Red Skelton reportedly complained).

Moose and Squirrel started their television careers on ABC’s weekday afternoon lineup on “Rocky and His Friends.” They moved to “The Bullwinkle Show” on Sunday evenings on NBC from 1961-62.

Some of the writers would go on to later glories: Allan Burns to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Lloyd Turner to “All in the Family” and Chris Hayward to “Barney Miller.”