The Weird And Wonderful Wacky Races

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Wacky Races, is an animation everyone who grew-up in the 70s and 80s remembers. Produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1968, the show originally ran on CBS. As with many Hanna-Barbera animations of the time there was only one original season of Wacky Races produced, numbering 17 episodes, containing 2 races each episode. The series was inspired by the 1965 slapstick comedy movie The Great Race. One of the original plans for the series was that the races themselves would be part of a live-action quiz show with Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley Productions, the team behind the television series Hollywood Squares. Heatter-Quigley's plan was that contestants would actually bet on which Wacky Racer would cross the finish line first. Although the game show concept was eventually scrubbed, the series still retained a Hanna-Barbera Heatter-Quigley dual production credit. Wacky Races first aired on CBS from September 14, 1968, to January 4, 1969. But the show was syndicated around the world, and shown regularly on TV during the 70s and 80s, especially in the UK.

Despite the show only running for one season, the some of the characters were used again in other Hanna-Barnrea animated 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. The Slag Brothers must have been an inspiration for 1977's Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels series. And the character of Mumbly from the eponymously entitled The Mumbly Cartoon Show (1976), looks very similar to the character of Muttley.

The Wacky Racers

#00 Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the Mean Machine: "Drat and Double Drat!" Dastardly's rocket car was arguably the fastest car in the series, as Dastardly's would repeatedly zoom to a stunning lead from far behind. However Dastardly never saw victory. His "dastardly" plans to set booby-traps, and foil the other drivers always came unstuck. Even when he did appear to win one time, he was found to have cheated. In fact in all 34 races, Dastardly only even crossed the finish line 5 times!
#1 The Slag Brothers in the Boulder Mobile: Rock Slag and Gravel Slag were the two Cavemen who drove a wheeled boulder. If their car is ever destroyed, they would sometimes reconstructed their car from scratch just by using their clubs on any large boulder that was available. Like the Grusome Twosome, the Slag Brothers could summon up creatures to help them, like a Pteranodon.  On one occasion the car was shown with a Yeti type creatures' big hairy arm and claws coming from the engine bay. They could speed up by hitting the car with their clubs.
#2 The Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe: Big Gruesome was a Frankenstein's monster, who spoke like Boris Karloff. Little Gruesome was a purple skinned vampire, who spoke like Peter Lorre. The Creepy Coupe was a hearse with a belfry which housed a dragon and various spooky characters, and always had bats circling it. Their car was able to fly short distances through use of the dragon's wings. The Gruesome Twosome were quite prone to foul play and used their range of creatures to scare off or sabotage the other competitors. Parodying the characters of George and Lennie from Of Men and Men , a technique often used in American animations, Little Gruesome was the cunning brains of the duo while Big Gruesome was the lumbering gentle giant.
#3 Professor Pat Pending in the Convert-a-Car: A scientist in a boat-shaped air-plane type car equipped with a multitude of gadgets and which can change into just about anything that moves. Among the things his car has transformed into included a motorcycle, a jetpack, a flying carpet on wheels, a forklift, an arrow, a bicycle built for two, a giant bowling-ball, and even an exact duplicate of the Slag Brothers driving the Bouldermobile. A rival of Dick Dastardly and Muttley, as far as gadgets go, although they were more defensive, or merely speed-boosting, in nature. He often used his car's gadgets to help out the other drivers if they all get caught in the same trap, such as when he used his car's de-glue gizmo to unstick everyone from a glue trap left by Dastardly.
#4 The Red Max in the Crimson Haybaler: An air-ace in a car/plane hybrid that was capable of limited flight, usually just enough to leapfrog over racers or obstacles in its path. Red Max could use his propeller as a weapon to slice other cars into pieces. The Haybaler has a mounted machine gun which is used sporadically. The machine gun can fire bullets, pepper, and other substances. The Haybaler's transformations from plane to car seems to have significantly weakened its flying ability, and Max often has to bail out when the Haybaler breaks down.
#5 Penelope Pitstop in the Compact Pussycat: The only female racer, driving a pink feminine car with personal grooming facilities that would sometimes backfire on other racers, such as shampoo foam hitting their faces. Penelope often took time during the race to maintain her appearance, which caused the other racers to lose ground when her gadgets malfunction. Penelope was a Southern belle dressed in a 1930s racing costume. Peter Perfect had a crush on her, a feeling that was mutua, and he would always try to help her. Other racers wouldn't attack Penelope, often even letting her pass by them in a act of chivalry.
#6 Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly in the Army Surplus Special: Otherwise known as the Surplus Six, the tank/jeep hybrid with a steam-roller of the front, was driven by two soldiers. Private Meekly is in charge of driving the vehicle while Sergeant Blast shouts orders. As their names suggest, Private Meekly is very meek and merely follows orders without question, while Sergeant Blast "blasts" orders in a stereotypical drill-sergeant voice. The Army Surplus Special made use of its tank facilities while racing, including its cannon, which could spin around to face forward or back, and the hatch, where Sergeant Blast rode. The Surplus Special was equipped with a supply of land mines and back-mounted thrusters. It was also capable of firing its gun backwards to propel itself forwards for extra speed.
#7 The Ant Hill Mob in the Bulletproof Bomb: The Ant Hill Mob were a gang of pint-sized mobsters led by Clyde, with Danny, Kurby, Mac, Ring-A-Ding, Rug Bug Benny, and Willy. Their car was a 1920s sedan, the Bulletproof Bomb, aka the Roaring Plenty. Their typical method of improving the speed of their car is "Getaway Power", which is achieved by extending their feet through the floor of the car and running, much like Fred Flintstone's method of propelling his "cave car".
#8 Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chuggabug: A Hillbilly who sleeps during most of the races on his rocking chair with his feet on the steering wheel, and a nervous grizzly bear called Blubber, in a wooden buggy driven by a coal-fired pot-bellied stove. The stove was prone to exploding, usually if another competitor blocks the exhaust, or Lazy Luke poured a liquid into the stove for a speed boost, which resulted in the stove also exploding. Blubber, who would constantly bite his nails and shake, would wake-up Luke, who'd says, "Blubber, what in tarnation is goin' on here?" or "What in tarnation is that?".
#9 Peter Perfect in the Turbo Terrific: A gentleman driver in a dragster,  that would often falls to bits, usually immediately following him making a remark about how reliable it is. Peter Perfect has a crush on Penelope Pitstop (whom he calles "Pretty Penny"), who often returns his affections. The Turbo Terrific was able to sprout an additional rear wheels, for extra speed.
#10 Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth in the Buzzwagon: A muscle-bound lumberjack and a beaver in a wagon made of logs, with Buzzsaws for wheels, hence its name. The buzzsaws gave the car the ability to cut through almost anything, damaging or destroying the object in the process. The vehicle also had two axes attached to each side which Rufus used to turn tight corners and boost the buzzwagon's speed, and a log on the front which was occasionally used as a single wheel if the car is forced upright onto its front bumper, after loosing its buzzsaw wheels. Which it often would. Ruffcut is able to temporarily take the lead by carving straight line shortcuts through the foliage.

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