Wacky Races (1968 TV series)

Did You Know?

• In 2018, an animated film based on Wacky Races was reported to be in development by Warner Animation Group.
• A three-disc DVD release of the complete series was released in Japan on August 10, 2001, with both English and Japanese audio tracks.

Plot

The show follows a group of themed racers who use unusual tricks to compete in cross-country races across North America. A race announcer, voiced by Dave Willock, narrates the action and interacts with the competitors. The Slag Brothers, Rock and Gravel, are cavemen who drive the Boulder Mobile, a car made of rock. They power it by hitting it with clubs and can rebuild it from bare rock using the same tools. They speak mostly gibberish with occasional clear words. The Gruesome Twosome consists of Tiny "Big Gruesome" and Bela "Little Gruesome," monsters who drive the Creepy Coupe, a horror-themed car with a bell tower containing a fire-breathing dragon, bats, and ghosts. The dragon provides a boost like a rocket assist. Professor Pat Pending is an inventor whose Convert-a-Car can transform into almost any moving vehicle. The Red Max, a pilot styled after Manfred von Richthofen with a German accent, drives the Crimson Haybaler, a car-airplane hybrid that can fly short distances close to the ground. Penelope Pitstop, the only female racer, wears a 1930s racing outfit and drives the Compact Pussycat. A Southern belle, she often prioritizes her appearance and gets into trouble, though she is a capable driver. Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly are soldiers in the Army Surplus Special, an armored car-tank hybrid. Sergeant Blast uses cannon fire from a turret to give the vehicle a temporary speed boost.

Spin-offs and similar series

In 1969, Dick Dastardly and his snickering canine sidekick Muttley got their own spin-off show, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. Some people mix up the title and call it Stop the Pigeon, which was actually the show's working name and the title of its theme song. That same year, Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Mob also spun off into their own series, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. Both of these shows only lasted a single season each. A comic book series from Gold Key Comics, based on the original Wacky Races, ran for seven issues between August 1969 and April 1972. In 1977, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels hit the airwaves, and the caveman character's design was inspired by the Slag Brothers from Wacky Races. A 1990 cartoon segment called Fender Bender 500, part of the show Wake, Rattle and Roll, reused the basic racing premise but swapped the cars for monster trucks and set the races in different locations around the world. Only Dick Dastardly and Muttley returned from the original cast; the other racers came from other Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Yogi Bear and Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy. Unlike in the original series, Dastardly and Muttley actually managed to win a few races here, though they still ended up with the fewest wins of any racer. In 2006, a short pilot for a spin-off called Wacky Races Forever was made for Cartoon Network. It featured a mix of new and returning characters. Penelope Pitstop and Peter Perfect had gotten married and founded Perfect Industries, which sponsored the new races, while their kids Parker and Piper competed. The roster also included the Slag Brothers, a mad-scientist version of Professor Pat Pending, a teenage Gruesome Twosome, and Dastardly and Muttley working for a new villain named Mr. Viceroy, who wanted to steal Perfect Industries. Cartoon Network decided not to pick up the series. In 2016, DC Comics put out a six-issue comic series called Wacky Raceland, which reimagined the characters in a dark, post-apocalyptic world similar to Mad Max. The following year, in 2017, a reboot and sequel simply called Wacky Races was released on Boomerang's streaming service and later aired on Boomerang channels worldwide. This version was produced under the Hanna-Barbera name, though only in name.

Video games

The core concept of Wacky Races, where competitors drive bizarre vehicles and employ exaggerated weapons to sabotage each other, directly influenced the kart racing video game genre that emerged in the 1990s. The franchise launched its own line of video games in 1991, beating Nintendo's Super Mario Kart, often hailed as the genre's pioneer, to market. Multiple titles followed, including the 1991 Wacky Races game, Chiki Chiki Machine Mō Race and its sequel In Space for the 3DO, another Wacky Races game in 2000, Wacky Races: Starring Dastardly and Muttley, Wacky Races: Mad Motors, and Wacky Races: Crash and Dash. In 1993, Sega put out a medal game based on the series, but it was only available in Japan and its race outcomes were purely luck-based. The PlayStation 2 title Wacky Races: Starring Dastardly and Muttley stands out because it finally lets Dick Dastardly win a race, leaving the narrator shocked or disgusted while Dastardly himself is happily surprised. Heiwa released a pachinko game called Kenken Aloha de Hawaii in 2007. That same year, on June 12, Blast Entertainment released Wacky Races: Mad Motors for the PlayStation 2. Eidos developed Wacky Races: Crash and Dash, which came out for the Wii and Nintendo DS on June 27, 2008. Banpresto released a more conventional arcade racing game in 2009, running on the Taito Type X2 hardware and distributed internationally by Gamewax.

The cars and characters in other media

In the United Kingdom, where the cartoon was especially well-loved, full-scale working copies of the vehicles have been constructed. These replicas are displayed each year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with new ones added over time. By 2008, the collection was completed when the Ant Hill Mob’s Bulletproof Bomb #7 was finished. The show has been referenced in other media. An episode of Digimon Frontier, "Trailmon vs. Trailmon," was a tribute. In 2006, Vauxhall aired a British TV ad parodying the series, using Corsa cars and featuring the theme music and Muttley’s laugh. The adult comic Viz once ran a parody strip called "Wacky Racists." Peugeot created a 2013 commercial for Brazil, later shown in Spain and Turkey, that placed the cartoon characters in a live-action setting. The series appeared in the South Park episode "Handicar." Dick Dastardly and Muttley made a cameo in the Uncle Grandpa episode "Uncle Grandpa Retires." The Buzz Wagon showed up in the OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes episode "Crossover Nexus." Dastardly, Muttley, and Penelope Pitstop were spectators in Space Jam: A New Legacy, with Dastardly and Muttley using their designs from Scoob!. The Army Surplus Special appeared in the Jellystone! episode "My Doggie Dave."