Peabody's Improbable history, has a close resemblance to Rankin/Bass' Willy McBean and his magic machine. Antony Peters told me he wrote it while in the army and Videocraft International shopped it around as a series in the late 1950s. Trans-Lux television corp. bought it as a series, when it was a boy with a time machine and his parrot, who smoked a pipe. The series was never made, Arthur Rankin, Jr. Decided to make The new adventures of Pinocchio instead. Willy McBean and his magic machine was made as their first Animagic feature in 1965 (A boy and his monkey Pablo). The film was shot simultaneously with Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and used most of the same Canadian voice actors, with the addition of James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek). Not sure who came up with the idea first...Jay Ward or Videocraft International 😁 #shermanandpeabody