58 Years Ago Today This Cartoon Parodied a Classic Movie and Kicked Off A Shared Universe

Long before Fast & Furious was lighting up screens with vehicular stunts, the world celebrated a very different kind of race. In the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera had a stacked stable of cartoon characters like Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo, and Quick Draw McGraw. In most kids’ imaginations these characters all lived in different corners of the same universe. One show would eventually come along to finally unite them under a single banner. Though how that show came to be is worthy of its own Marvel-esque saga. But just as the movie Thor had to introduce Loki before The Avengers, so to did Hanna-Barbera need to introduce its own villain to the world. It would all start with a movie from legendary director Blake Edwards.

Wacky Races premiered on September 14th, 1968, on CBS. The series ran for 34 races across 17 half-hour episodes. Co-produced by Hanna-Barbera and Hollywood Squares producers Heatter-Quigley, the original pitch for the show was a hybrid live-action game show where contestants would guess who would win each animated heat. The live-action portion was abandoned, but the show continued focusing only on a series of races inspired by a then-recent Hollywood hit, The Great Race. The film was a slapstick epic that threw together eccentric drivers, elaborate vehicles, and a gloriously dishonest villain. The cartoon series followed that blueprint to a tee.

A Villainous Pair is Off to the Races

Wacky Races was unique to Saturday morning cartoons in that it didn’t have a traditional set of hero characters. Sure, there were good guys and bad guys, but that didn’t necessarily determine who would win each race. The cartoon showcased an incredible 23 racers across 11 vehicles, though the eccentric animated cars were a big part of the appeal. Some of the most memorable characters and cars included references to the pop culture of the day. The Gruesome Twosome drove the Creepy Coupe, a car that looked like the Addams Family house had crashed on top of The Munsters‘ Drag-U-La. The Slag Brothers, two cavemen covered in hair, rode in the Boulder Mobile. The pair’s look is a precursor to a later Hanna-Barbera hit cartoon, Captain Caveman. Peter Perfect drove the Turbo Terrific, whose design looks suspiciously like a single-seat version of the Duocar from SNL’s animated shorts “The Ambiguously Gay Duo.” The only female character of the show was Penelope Pitstop, a southern belle who competed in the Compact Pussycat. One pair of characters stood out to audiences more than the rest, though.

Two of the most popular racers weren’t even good guys. Dick Dastardly and Muttley were the show’s beloved heels. The team drove the Mean Machine, a vehicle that combines the aesthetics of the 1960s Batmobile and Professor Fate’s Hannibal 8 from The Great Race. The two characters would cheat through every episode of the series, with Muttley’s snickering laugh becoming the team’s signature. Much like Wile E. Coyote, their elaborate traps and plans would eventually blow up in their faces, costing them the race. They would go on to be Hanna-Barbera’s go-to bad guys. The two received a spin-off series the next year where they traded the Mean Machine for airplanes in Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The show riffed on the Coyote Vs. Roadrunner dynamic, pitting Dastardly’s Vulture Squadron against the Yankee Doodle Pigeon. Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Mob, a group of tiny mobsters that drove the Bulletproof Bomb, also got their own spinoff that paid tribute to cliffhanger serials: The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.

The Ultimate Cartoon Crossover

In 1977, Hanna-Barbera finally brought together a roster of its biggest cartoon stars for a celebrity-style competition show, Laff-A-Lympics. The show divided 45 characters across three teams: the Scooby Doobies, Yogi Yahooeys, and Really Rottens. The show combined the structure of Wacky Races with a parody of the Olympics and ABC’s Battle of the Network Stars. Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Hong Kong Phooey, Blue Falcon, and Captain Caveman were finally on-screen together facing a common enemy, though the enemy was incognito. Dick Dastardly and Muttley were unable to return due to the characters being co-owned by Heatter-Quigley, replaced by the suspiciously familiar-looking Dread Baron and Mumbly. A tie-in comic revealed that officially Baron is in-fact Dastardly’s twin brother.

The Hanna-Barbera characters would return to the race format for Yogi’s Space Race. In 1985, Yogi’s Treasure Hunt would properly reintroduce Dick Dastardly and Muttley to an ensemble competition show. The series played like a Saturday morning version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, sending a huge cast of recognizable characters around the globe in pursuit of hidden treasure.

Wacky Reboots and Racey Remakes

At Cartoon Network, there was a plan to reedit the original episodes into Wacky Races Coast to Coast in the early ’90s that actually morphed into Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Wacky Races Forever was a proposed legacy sequel series, following older versions of the original racers. Penelope Pitstop and Peter Perfect were married, while Dick Dastardly and Muttley worked for a new villain. The network passed on that revival. The Wacky Racers wouldn’t reunite on-screen until 2017 on Boomerang. The reboot brought back Dastardly and Muttley, Penelope, Peter Perfect, and the Gruesome Twosome, but replaced everyone else with new racers. The series ran for 78 episodes over two seasons.

There were also a number of comics, including a 2016 reboot called Wacky Raceland. The book reimagined the Wacky Races crew in a post-apocalyptic desert rally. The Mad Max-inspired iteration continued the series long tradition of parodying current cinematic race conditions. Since the success of F1 in theaters last year, it can’t be long before we see Wacky Races get back behind the wheel to update their race aesthetic.

The show inspired multiple kart-style racing games for the Dreamcast, PlayStation and Nintendo Wii. Despite the popularity of licensed kart racers, there hasn’t been a new Wacky Races game since 2008. WB Games recent attempt at cross-IP brawlers with MultiVersus could be a solid approach to a WB infused racer, using the Wacky Races IP as an anchor.

What started as a fun Saturday morning cartoon meant to steer clear of a brewing violence in media backlash became the launchpad of Hanna-Barbera’s most notable villains. While Wacky Races only lit the fuse, later iterations and sequels of the show would feature an explosion of characters from within the HB universe. The IP has shown it has plenty of gas over the decades, and it all started 58 years ago today. Happy Birthday, Dick and Muttley! Enjoy wheezing out your candles.

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