Wacky Races (1968 TV series)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 109.153.91.25 (talk) at 22:33, 22 August 2017 (→‎Spin-offs and similar series). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the 1991 video game, see [[:Wacky Races (1991 video game)]]. For the 2000 video game, see [[:Wacky Races (2000 video game)]]. For the 2017 reboot, see [[:Wacky Races (2017 TV series)]].

Wacky Races
GenreRacing
Comedy
Fantasy
Written byLarz Bourne
Dalton Sandifer
Tom Dagenais
Michael Maltese
Directed byWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Voices ofPaul Winchell
Don Messick
Janet Waldo
Daws Butler
John Stephenson
Dave Willock
Narrated byDave Willock
ComposerHoyt Curtin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes17 (34 segments)
Production
ProducersWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
EditorsRichard Allen
Milton Krear
Running time20 minutes
Production companiesHanna–Barbera
Heatter-Quigley Productions
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 14, 1968 (1968-09-14) –
January 4, 1969 (1969-01-04)


Wacky Races is an American animated television series produced by Hanna–Barbera.[1] The series, inspired by the 1965 slapstick comedy film The Great Race,[2][dubious – discuss] features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America,[3] with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer."

The cartoon had a large number of regular characters, with 23 people and animals spread among the 11 race cars. Wacky Races ran on CBS from September 14, 1968, to January 4, 1969. 17 episodes were produced, with each episode featuring two different races.

Plot

The villain of the series drives a purple, rocket-powered car with an abundance of concealed weapons and the ability to fly. Dick Dastardly is an archetypal mustache-twirling villain; Muttley is his wheezily snickering dog henchman. Dastardly's usual race strategy revolves around using the Mean Machine's great speed to get ahead of the other racers, and then setting a trap to stop them and maintain the lead; but most of his plans backfire, causing him to fall back into last place. Dastardly never sees victory.

The other racers include

  • The Slag Brothers, Rock and Gravel, in a cavemen-themed racer called The Boulder Mobile;
  • The Gruesome Twosome, who are monsters in The Creepy Coupe;
  • Professor Pat Pending, a scientist, in The Convert-a-Car;
  • Red Max in a car/plane hybrid; called The Crimson Haybailer
  • Penelope Pitstop, the lone female, in a 1930s racing costume in The Compact Pussycat;
  • Sergeant Blast, and Private Meekly in an army tank/jeep hybrid with a small steamroller wheel attached to the front, called The Army Surplus Special;
  • The Ant Hill Mob, gangsters, in The Bulletproof Bomb;
  • Luke, a hillbilly, and Blubber Bear, in The Arkansas Chugabug;
  • Peter Perfect, a gentlemanly racer, in The Turbo Terrific; and finally
  • Rufus Roughcut, a lumberjack, and his companion Sawtooth in The Buzzwagon.

Production

One of the unused plans for the series was that the races would be part of a live-action quiz show made by Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley Productions in which contestants would bet on which Wacky Racer would cross the finish line first. Although the game show concept was eventually scrapped, the series still retained a Hanna-Barbera/Heatter-Quigley dual production credit.

In 1988, a made-for-TV movie, Around the World with the Wacky Racers, was planned as part of Hanna-Barbera's Superstars 10 series of TV movies, but it never got past the concept stage.

Voice cast

Episodes

Episode # Episode title Original airdate
WR-1 See-Saw to Arkansas (35–1)

Creepy Trip to Lemon Twist (35–2)

9/14/1968
WR-2 Why Oh Why Wyoming (35–3)

Beat the Clock to Yellow Rock (35–4)

9/21/1968
WR-3 Mish-Mash Missouri Dash (35–6)

Idaho a Go-Go (35–5)

9/28/1968
WR-4 Baja-Ha-Ha Race (35–11)

Real Gone Ape (35–8)

10/5/1968
WR-5 Scout Scatter (35–7)

Free Wheeling to Wheeling (35–10)

10/12/1968
WR-6 By Rollercoaster to Upsan Downs (35–9)

The Speedy Arkansas Traveler (35–12)

10/19/1968
WR-7 The Zippy Mississippi Race (35–15)

Traffic Jambalaya (35–17)

10/26/1968
WR-8 Hot Race at Chillicothe (35–16)

The Wrong Lumber Race (35–18)

11/2/1968
WR-9 Rhode Island Road Race (35–19)

The Great Cold Rush Race (35–13)

11/9/1968
WR-10 Wacky Race to Ripsaw (35–20)

Oils Well That Ends Well (35–21)

11/16/1968
WR-11 Whizzin' to Washington (35–22)

The Dipsy Doodle Desert Derby (35–24)

11/23/1968
WR-12 Eeny, Miny Missouri Go! (35–14)

The Super Silly Swamp Sprint (35–23)

11/30/1968
WR-13 The Dopey Dakota Derby (35–27)

Dash to Delaware (35–26)

12/7/1968
WR-14 Speeding for Smogland (35–28)

Race Rally to Raleigh (35–25)

12/14/1968
WR-15 Ballpoint, Penn. or Bust! (35–30)

Fast Track to Hackensack (35–29)

12/21/1968
WR-16 The Ski Resort Road Race (35–33)

Overseas Hi-Way Race (35–34)

12/28/1968
WR-17 Race to Racine (35–31)

The Carlsbad or Bust Bash (35–32)

1/4/1969

Race results

The show gave the results of each race at the end of each episode, (the first, second, and third placings are given by the narrator, and we sometimes saw some or all of the other cars cross the finish line). The show never indicated a particular scoring system or way to determine who won the Wacky Races as a whole. The cumulative totals for first, second, and third-place finishes for each contestant are presented below:[4]

Contestants Car Name Car # 1st 2nd 3rd Top 3
The Slag Brothers The Boulder Mobile 1 3 8 3 14
Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth The Buzzwagon 10 3 6 4 13
The Ant Hill Mob The Bulletproof Bomb 7 4 5 2 11
The Gruesome Twosome The Creepy Coupe 2 3 3 6 12
Penelope Pitstop The Compact Pussycat 5 4 2 5 11
The Red Max The Crimson Haybaler 4 3 4 3 10
Professor Pat Pending The Convert-A-Car 3 3 2 5 10
Luke and Blubber Bear The Arkansas Chuggabug 8 4 1 4 9
Peter Perfect The Turbo Terrific 9 4 2 2 8
Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly The Army Surplus Special 6 3 1 0 4
Dick Dastardly and Muttley The Mean Machine 00 0 0 0 0
Grand Totals 34 34 34 102

Spin-offs and similar series

Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Mob were spun off into another cartoon series in 1969 titled The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. In the same year, Dick Dastardly and Muttley were given a spin-off series titled Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The series is sometimes mistakenly known as Stop the Pigeon, after the show's working title and theme song. Both series ran for two seasons.

In 2006, the pilot for a spin-off series titled Wacky Races Forever was produced for Cartoon Network.[5] The series depicted a roster of both new and returning racers competing against each other. Penelope Pitstop and Peter Perfect had married and created Perfect Industries, the corporate sponsor of the new Wacky Races, whereas their children Parker and Piper competed in the race. Other characters included the Slag Brothers, Professor Pat Pending, a teenage version of the Gruesome Twosome, and Dick Dastardly and Muttley (working for a new villain named Mr. Viceroy, who sought to steal Perfect Industries). The series was not picked up by Cartoon Network for the reasons that the traditional humor the pilot had was not what newer generation of kids want.

In 2016, DC Comics launched a comic series called Wacky Raceland. It is a dark and gritty re-imagining of the series set after the apocalypse in a similar vein to the Mad Max franchise.[6] The comic ran for six issues from May to December 2016.

A new Wacky Races reboot was released on Boomerang's SVOD service in Spring 2017.[7] It also aired on the Boomerang channel in June 2017.[8]

Video games

Various video games based on the series have been produced.

Later in 2007, another game called Wacky Races: Mad Motors for the PlayStation 2 was released by Blast Entertainment on June 12. A new video game for the Wii and Nintendo DS consoles titled Wacky Races: Crash and Dash was released on June 27, 2008. This game was developed by Eidos.[9]

Home Media releases

A three-disc DVD release of the complete series was made available in Japan on August 10, 2001, and had both English and Japanese audio. In Britain Warner released a three-disc set with no extra features, which was only available in Virgin Megastores. The complete box set of Wacky Races was released on July 31, 2006 as an HMV exclusive but is essentially the standard Volumes 1–3 with no extras. The Australian release of Volume 1 and 2 was made available in 2005 and Volume 3 released in 2007.

Warner Home Video released the entire series, with commentaries and other extras, in a DVD box set on October 26, 2004.

A two and a half-hour VHS video was made available in 1996.

All 34 episodes can be purchased on the iTunes Store.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date Additional Information
Wacky Races – The Complete Series 34 October 19, 2004

On February 14, 2017, Warner Archive re-released Wacky Races: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection as a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release.[10]

Non-English language titles

  • Argentina: Los Autos Locos (The Crazy Cars)
  • Brazil: Corrida Maluca (Crazy Race)
  • Croatia: Uvrnute trke (Whirlpool races)
  • France: les Fous du volant (Madmen at the wheel)
  • Germany: Autorennen Total (Total car race)
  • Hungary: Flúgos futam (Wacky race)
  • Italy: Wacky Races/Le Corse Pazze (The Crazy Races)
  • Japan: チキチキマシン猛レース – Chikichikimashin mō rēsu (Chitty Chitty Machine Fierce Race)
  • Poland: Odlotowe wyścigi (Wacky Races)
  • Portugal: A Corrida Mais Louca do Mundo (The World's Craziest Race)
  • Romania: Curse Trăsnite (Crazy racing)
  • Serbia: Уврнуте трке (Whirlpool races)
  • Spain: Los autos locos (The mad cars)
    • Galcian: Os autos tolos (The crazy cars)
    • Catalan: Els cotxes esbojarrats (The crazed cars)

The cars and characters in other media

Life-size working replicas of the vehicles have been built in the UK and appear annually at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with new additions each year. 2008 saw the last of the cars (the Ant Hill Mob in the Bulletproof Bomb 07) added to the collection, making a complete set.[11]

  • Goodwood Festival of Speed Wacky Races Replicas
  • Mean Machine #00
    Mean Machine #00
  • Boulder Mobile #1
    Boulder Mobile #1
  • Creepy Coupe #2
    Creepy Coupe #2
  • Convert-a-Car #3
    Convert-a-Car #3
  • Crimson Haybailer #4
    Crimson Haybailer #4
  • Compact Pussycat #5
    Compact Pussycat #5
  • Army Surplus Special #6
    Army Surplus Special #6
  • Turbo Terrific #9
    Turbo Terrific #9

In 2006, the car manufacturer Vauxhall launched a TV commercial for the British market, parodying Wacky Races with a similar setup featuring Corsa cars. The commercial made several references to the cartoon as well as utilizing the show's theme music and Muttley's iconic laugh.[12]

The English adult comic Viz had a one-off parody strip called "Wacky Racists" with David Irving as Dick Dastardly, Unity Mitford as Penelope Pitstop and comedian Bernard Manning as Muttley.[13]

In 2013, the car manufacturer Peugeot launched a TV commercial for the Brazilian market, featuring the cartoon characters in a real-life universe.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Wacky Races – The Complete Series". DVD Talk. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  2. ^ John V. Schmidt. "September 14th, 1968". Hot Ink. Retrieved December 9, 2013.[unreliable source?]
  3. ^ Only three of the 34 rallies took place outside the Contiguous United States: one entirely within Baja California; one across a substantial portion of Canada evidently along or near the Trans-Canada Highway; and one across the Canada-US border from Saskatchewan to Oregon.
  4. ^ "Complete List of Wacky Races Cars and Drivers". Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  5. ^ Wacky Races Forever – Unaired Pilot
  6. ^ Beedle, Tim. "Hanna-Barbera Beyond: Flintstones, Scooby and More Are Getting Comic Book Reimaginings". dccomics.com.
  7. ^ http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/boomerang-cartoon-streaming-subscription-time-warner-turner-wb-1202003660/
  8. ^ http://kidscreen.com/2017/03/20/boomerang-takes-ott-content-outside-of-the-us/
  9. ^ "Wacky Races: Crash and Dash". Computerandvideogames.com. March 12, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  10. ^ "Official Warner Archive Info, Artwork for MOD 'Complete Series' Set".
  11. ^ "VIDEO: Wacky Races take over at Goodwood". Chichester Today. Retrieved October 21, 2010. [dead link]
  12. ^ "Opel/Vauxhaull Corsa commercial". YouTube. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  13. ^ "Wacky Racists". Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  14. ^ "Peugeot 208 Corrida Malula (60-second version)". peugeotbrasil. April 16, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  15. ^ "Peugeot 208 Corrida Malula Versao Estendida (90-second version)". peugeotbrasil. May 8, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.

External links

Look up Appendix:Hanna-Barbera in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Template:Prime time animated television series

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