Author Topic: Wacky Races (Read 4353 times)

Dbacksfan12 · « **on:** August 15, 2007, 08:27:01 AM »

After watching an episode of Wacky Races this morning on Boomerang, I noticed in the credits that it was done in association with Heatter-Quigley.

Was this the only project that they worked duly on? How much involvement/experience did H-Q have in it?

davemackey · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2007, 08:40:44 AM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'160676\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 08:27 AM\']
After watching an episode of Wacky Races this morning on Boomerang, I noticed in the credits that it was done in association with Heatter-Quigley.

Was this the only project that they worked duly on? How much involvement/experience did H-Q have in it?
[/quote]
CBS' original plan was for "Wacky Races" to have a home contest component, which would be coordinated by Heatter-Quigley, long an active player in Saturday Morning television with shows like "Shenanigans", "Video Village Junior" and "Storybook Squares". Eventually that idea was dropped and it turned into a straight cartoon show, though Heatter-Quigley maintained a co-production credit, the only trace of the company's involvement with the show.

byrd62 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2007, 09:04:13 AM »

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'160678\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 08:40 AM\']
[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'160676\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 08:27 AM\']
After watching an episode of Wacky Races this morning on Boomerang, I noticed in the credits that it was done in association with Heatter-Quigley.

Was this the only project that they worked duly on? How much involvement/experience did H-Q have in it?
[/quote]
CBS' original plan was for "Wacky Races" to have a home contest component, which would be coordinated by Heatter-Quigley, long an active player in Saturday Morning television with shows like "Shenanigans", "Video Village Junior" and "Storybook Squares". Eventually that idea was dropped and it turned into a straight cartoon show, though Heatter-Quigley maintained a co-production credit, the only trace of the company's involvement with the show.
[/quote]

Another version of the H-Q Wacky Races story that I read online said that the original concept was to have three studio contestants--all children--determine the outcome of the cartoon auto races. Fred Silverman, who ran daytime programming for CBS in 1968, nixed that part of the concept, thinking it would encourage kids to gamble, even though no money was being wagered.

www.talkaboutanimation.com/group/rec.arts.animation/messages/147050.html

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #3 on:** August 15, 2007, 11:02:23 AM »

The DVD of the series is supposed to include a documentary about the development of the show. I'm almost tempted to buy the thing (it was a childhood favorite of mine, though I imagine today I'd find it awfully redundant) just to see what they say -- if anything -- about the Heatter-Quigley involvement.

Mike Tennant · « **Reply #4 on:** August 15, 2007, 11:19:26 AM »

For those interested, here are the credits sequences from the show. Go to the 2:05 mark to see the mention of H-Q.

uncamark · « **Reply #5 on:** August 15, 2007, 11:31:58 AM »

[quote name=\'Mike Tennant\' post=\'160690\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 10:19 AM\']
For those interested, here are the credits sequences from the show. Go to the 2:05 mark to see the mention of H-Q.
[/quote]

And the end titles don't have Dave Willock's voice-over on them (I remember something like "The Wacky Races go on, all over the world..."). Seems to me like Dick Dastardly had some dialogue on the end titles around the time the "THE END" title card falls on his car.

davemackey · « **Reply #6 on:** August 15, 2007, 12:35:01 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'160687\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 11:02 AM\']
The DVD of the series is supposed to include a documentary about the development of the show. I'm almost tempted to buy the thing (it was a childhood favorite of mine, though I imagine today I'd find it awfully redundant) just to see what they say -- if anything -- about the Heatter-Quigley involvement.
[/quote]
There's not a lot on there, IIRC (I have the DVD) about the H-Q connection, though they do talk quite a bit to the two main designers of the show, Iwao Takamoto (who has since passed) and Jerry Eisenberg. One of the more interesting aspects of the show is that Dick Dastardly's plots always seem to backfire - which is noteworthy, as one of the "Wacky Races" writers was Michael Maltese, who wrote almost all the classic Road Runner cartoons, where everything the Coyote tried blew up in his face.

[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'160692\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 11:31 AM\']
And the end titles don't have Dave Willock's voice-over on them (I remember something like "The Wacky Races go on, all over the world..."). Seems to me like Dick Dastardly had some dialogue on the end titles around the time the "THE END" title card falls on his car.
[/quote]
That was done to eliminate the references to "next week" in the end titles. When the films were first syndicated, the shows had the "next week" bleeped out, but later on the entire closing narration was removed, just about the time the shows started showing up on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

PYLW · « **Reply #7 on:** August 15, 2007, 02:04:50 PM »

Were the episodes with the "next week" references added to the DVD?

Sorry, I'm a huge closet Hanna-Barbera fan, just need to know. Wacky Races was my favorite cartoon as a kid, and I am looking to buy the DVD set.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 15, 2007, 02:15:57 PM »

[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'160720\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 01:04 PM\']
Sorry, I'm a huge closet Hanna-Barbera fan, just need to know. Wacky Races was my favorite cartoon as a kid, and I am looking to buy the DVD set.
[/quote]
No need to be closeted about that. While I liked H-B's work myself, I have no trouble admitting that I was a sucker for Filmation as well (and a great majority of the animation DVDs I have are, in fact, Filmation series).

Can't answer the other part of your question, though. I do know that when the 1967-69 SPIDER-MAN series was released, the "Next Week" titles were shorn, save for one (which wasn't even in the right episode, but it was a kick to see how it looked). That may or may not be any indication.

PYLW · « **Reply #9 on:** August 15, 2007, 02:42:52 PM »

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'160721\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 02:15 PM\'] [quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'160720\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 01:04 PM\']
Sorry, I'm a huge closet Hanna-Barbera fan, just need to know. Wacky Races was my favorite cartoon as a kid, and I am looking to buy the DVD set.
[/quote]
No need to be closeted about that. While I liked H-B's work myself, I have no trouble admitting that I was a sucker for Filmation as well (and a great majority of the animation DVDs I have are, in fact, Filmation series).

[/quote]

Yeah, I was born late in the Hanna-Barbera craze (The late 70's/80's were...not as good as the early 70's ones,) so I pretty much only got to see reruns of most of the good H-B stuff, including Wacky Races. Except for the Smurfs, they were my favorite, used to watch them every saturday morning.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #10 on:** August 15, 2007, 04:10:54 PM »

[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'160722\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 02:42 PM\']Yeah, I was born late in the Hanna-Barbera craze (The late 70's/80's were...not as good as the early 70's ones,) so I pretty much only got to see reruns of most of the good H-B stuff, including Wacky Races. [/quote]
Should I be proud, or should I just feel old, that I vividly remember watching the very first episode of Scooby-Doo when it debuted, and thinking it was the coolest thing ever?

PYLW · « **Reply #11 on:** August 15, 2007, 04:18:27 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'160734\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 04:10 PM\'] [quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'160722\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 02:42 PM\']Yeah, I was born late in the Hanna-Barbera craze (The late 70's/80's were...not as good as the early 70's ones,) so I pretty much only got to see reruns of most of the good H-B stuff, including Wacky Races. [/quote]
Should I be proud, or should I just feel old, that I vividly remember watching the very first episode of Scooby-Doo when it debuted, and thinking it was the coolest thing ever?
[/quote]

Hey, it's better than me: I remember vividly watching the very first episode of "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" when it debuted, and going "...uhh..."

I've always liked Scooby.

Have the DVD sets somewhere in my DVD shelves, along with the "Scooby Doo Movies" somewhere.

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 15, 2007, 04:23:31 PM »

Sorry for delving off topic here...but...

I saw that Target has DVD sets for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Season 3 and Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt.

Are these the same thing, just renamed, or are they in fact, two different things?

PYLW · « **Reply #13 on:** August 15, 2007, 04:28:23 PM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'160737\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 04:23 PM\'] Sorry for delving off topic here...but...

I saw that Target has DVD sets for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Season 3 and Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt.

Are these the same thing, just renamed, or are they in fact, two different things? [/quote]

The 1978 episodes of "The Scooby-Doo Show" were released as season three of "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?". The 1976 episodes of "The Scooby-Doo Show" were released on the Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour DVD set. This leaves the 1977 episodes as the only ones not on DVD yet. This Scooby Doo series had the same cast, but a different weird theme song.

Tim L · « **Reply #14 on:** August 15, 2007, 09:20:08 PM »

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'160734\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 04:10 PM\']
[quote name=\'PYLW\' post=\'160722\' date=\'Aug 15 2007, 02:42 PM\']Yeah, I was born late in the Hanna-Barbera craze (The late 70's/80's were...not as good as the early 70's ones,) so I pretty much only got to see reruns of most of the good H-B stuff, including Wacky Races. [/quote]
Should I be proud, or should I just feel old, that I vividly remember watching the very first episode of Scooby-Doo when it debuted, and thinking it was the coolest thing ever?
[/quote]

I got you there Matt:I have been a huge Hanna-Barbera fan since the mid-1960's..In the later years of the Huckleberry Hound/Yogi Bear/Quick Draw McGraw originals on Channel 5 in Cleveland..as well as Peter Potamus, Magilla Gorilla, Atom Ant. etc..