THE ROAD RUNNER SHOW
(CBS, September 10, 1966-September 7, 1968,
ABC, September 4, 1971-September 2, 1972)
Warner Bros.
Television, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
(CBS, September 10, 1966-September 7, 1968,
ABC, September 4, 1971-September 2, 1972)
With the rise of television and the
changing habits of moviegoers, the shorts business was no longer as profitable
for Warner Bros.; especially not when they’ve
found success licensing their back catalog for television broadcast with The
Bugs Bunny Show. They made the decision to shut down their animation division
in 1962, with their last project being the animated sequences of the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
In its place arose DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises (DFE), which was formed by former WB director/composer/producer
Friz Freleng and former head
of WB animation David H. DePatie
and ended up being populated by many former WB animators. As a gesture from the
studio—where DePatie’s father, Edmond, was a vice
president and general manager—DFE was allowed to rent the former animation
studio and use all of its equipment very cheaply. After dabbling in commercials
and industrial films, DFE soon found theatrical success by producing the
animated titles for The
Pink Panther and the resulting series of shorts from United Artists.
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| David DePatie and Friz Freleng with the character that put their studio on the map, The Pink Panther. |
WB, however, found itself with a
new problem: their supply of shorts would soon fall short of the demand on
television. WB proceeded to contract DFE to produce new Looney Tunes
and Merrie
Melodies shorts; the majority of which saw Daffy Duck paired up
against Speedy
Gonzales. Freleng would direct the initial batch, and veteran director Robert McKimson would handle
the remaining ones. Not having enough manpower to handle their current
workload, DFE would subcontract animation studio Format Productions to
produce a new series of shorts starring The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
 |
| Wile E. Coyote riding a rocket to get his mitts on Road Runner. |
The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote were created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese for the 1949 short Fast and Furry-ous. Their shorts typically depicted the efforts of the devious and hungry Coyote attempting more and more elaborate schemes—usually with gadgets supplied by the Acme Corporation—to capture the speedy Road Runner and make him into dinner. However, those schemes often failed; resulting in the coyote experiencing some kind of painful comeuppance. Jones created them as a parody of MGM’s Tom and Jerry series, and as a result the characters almost never speak beyond the Road Runner’s “beep beep!” sound provided by background artist Paul Julian after he imitated a car horn. The adventures typically took place in desert scenery inspired by the Southwestern United States.
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| Wile E. shoots up his plane's prop in "Just Plane Beep". |
The Format shorts were directed by Rudy Larriva, who had worked under Jones at WB, while McKimson directed an additional two shorts in the series with DFE. Known as the “Larriva Eleven”, the Format shorts were notable for being of poorer quality when compared to the DFE shorts; characterized by constantly reused animation and pre-composed music cues rather than a dynamic score, as well as ignoring Jones’ rules for the series.
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| Wile E. gives chase on a giant robot he constructed in "The Solid Tin Coyote". |
In 1966, WB launched their third anthology series on television: The Road Runner Show. This series would feature primarily the shorts starring the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. To help round out the half-hour, shorts from series starring other characters were used. The most featured Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird, which had a similar theme set in a domestic setting, and were often the second short shown during each half hour. The third short starred a rotating cast of characters, including the love-crazed skunk Pepé Le Pew; speedy mouse Speedy Gonzales; rivals Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog; and southern loudmouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn. Despite appearing on title cards, no shorts featuring Yosemite Sam were ever included. Additionally, since they had their own shows, none featuring Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig were included either.
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| Wile E. attempts to use hypnosis in "Boulder Wham!" |
The Road Runner Show debuted on CBS on September 10, 1966; scheduled against The Bugs Bunny Show on ABC. Each episode contained new bridging sequences between the shorts, showing further attempts of the Coyote failing to capture the Road Runner. They were animated by an uncredited McKimson and used Bill Lava’s stock music cues from the Format productions; as well as Julian’s archived Road Runner voice. The series’ theme was composed by Barbara Cameron, while the title cards used a shorter version of Lava’s rendition of the Looney Tunes theme, “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”. Clips from the shorts Chaser on the Rocks, Hip Hip-Hurry! and Wild About Hurry were featured in both the opening and closing title sequences of the show, but were not among the shorts included for broadcast.
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| Wile E. done in by shoddy tunnel construction in "Shot and Bothered". |
In 1968, CBS acquired the broadcast rights to The Bugs Bunny Show and decided to combine it with The Road Runner Show for an hour-long programming block. The new The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (titled “Show” on-screen) debuted on September 14, 1968. It kept both shows’ original intros intact with a new bridging segment of Bugs (Mel Blanc) introducing the Road Runner, again animated by McKimson. The other new material from both shows were edited and combined to link the now seven shorts featured in each episode. By 1971, CBS decided to reduce the airtime dedicated to the Looney Tunes and excised all of The Road Runner Show components; restoring The Bugs Bunny Show to its original half-hour format.
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| Karate gone wrong in "Hairied and Hurried". |
With the shorts now available, ABC snatched up The Road Runner Show. It would debut on September 4, 1971 in a reassembled form with some edits made to remove the more mature material (smoking, some of the violence against the Coyote, adult-oriented comments, etc.). The revived series would run for a year before leaving ABC’s schedule for the 1972-73 season. After The Bugs Bunny Show returned to ABC for two years, it came back to CBS where it was again combined with The Road Runner Show in 1975 to form a new The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. A half-hour The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show also aired on Tuesday nights from April through June in 1976. In 1977, the Saturday version adopted the Show title when it was expanded to 90 minutes. It expanded to two hours in 1982 to incorporate shorts from the recently-cancelled The Sylvester & Tweety, Daffy & Speedy Show before returning to 90 minutes in 1983. For its final year beginning in 1984, a new intro was created utilizing clips from the various cartoons in order to accompany the new theme song, “It’s Cartoon Gold”, written by John Klawitter and composed by Steve Zuckerman.
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| Road Runner gives chase in an old clunker in "Highway Runnery". |
ABC would regain the broadcast rights to Looney Tunes, where they would continue on until the end of the millennium as The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour and finally The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. Bugs and the Road Runner would team up again in 1979 for the theatrically-released The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie; comprised of theatrical shorts directed by director Jones with new Bugs Bunny bridging sequences. The characters themselves would go on to appear as part of other Looney Tunes media, headlining several video games and the theatrical film Coyote vs. Acme. The first episode of the 1971 revival was included on the compilation DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Volume 2 in 2009, and again in 2018 as part of the complete collection of each volume in the series.
EPISODE GUIDE (season 1 & 2 info unknown):
New material:
“Pothole Roar” – Wile E. attempts to use a pothole to catch
Road Runner, but ends up getting run down by a truck.
“Gun Trap” – Wile E. ends up blasted by his own gun when he
investigates why it didn’t shoot after Road Runner passed.
“Grenade Tennis” – Wile E. attempts to launch a grenade at
Road Runner with a tennis racket, but Road Runner uses his own to lob it right
back at him.
“Motorcycle” – Wile E. attempts to catch Road Runner by
riding a motorcycle.
“Role-Reversal” – Wile E. disguises himself as the Road
Runner, only to end up becoming the prey when Road Runner shows up in a Wile E.
costume.
“Portrait” – A portrait of Wile E. and Road Runner as
friends draws Road Runner in close to Wile E.’s clutches with curiosity.
“Water Cooler” – Wile E. attempts to distract Road Runner
with a drink of water in order to drop a boulder on him.
“Space Rocket” – Wile E tries to use a rocket to catch Road
Runner, only to end up with it turning back on himself.
“Bingo Cannon” – Wile E. doesn’t realize that Road Runner
has already disabled his cannon by plugging it with a cork.
“Robot” – Wile E. builds a robot to help him capture Road
Runner.
“Rocket Car” – Wile E.’s rocket car ends up burning a lot of
fuel.
“Old Fashioned Trap” – Wile E. unknowingly digs his trap on
a cliffside, falling through and landing on a train.
“Exploding Phone Booth” – Wile E. attempts to lure Road
Runner into an exploding phone booth.
“Bridge Bomb” – Wile E. ends up the victim of his own trap
after lining the road with TNT.
Season 1:
Season 2:
Season 3:
“Zip ‘n Snort / The Jet Cage /
The Wild Chase” (9/4/71)
“Ready…Set…Zoom!
/ Hyde and Go Tweet / Weasel
While You Work” (9/18/71)
“Whoa, Be-Gone! /
Tweet Tweet
Tweety / Don’t Axe Me” (11/13/71)
“Tired and
Feathered / Fowl Weather / A Mutt in a Rut”
(12/18/71)
“Fast and Furry-ous / A Bird in a
Bonnet / Claws
in the Lease” (2/5/72)
