Originally broadcast from September 1968 to January 1969 on CBS network’s Saturday morning cartoons ‘Wacky Racers‘ was the greatest racing cartoon ever. That one season of crappy Hanna Barbera animation remained in syndication until 1982 and was highly influential on a generation of gearheads for three main reasons.
1.) FORMULA LIBRE
Take a look at modern IndyCar or Formula 1 racers and see how they all look similar? That’s the result of restrictive regulations the engineers are handcuffed with. It does not encourage creativity. Clearly, the sanctioning body in charge of ‘Wacky Racers‘ had an open rule-set which allowed fundamentally different answers to the question ‘How do we go faster?’ Race cars based on boats, planes and even tanks proved the right answer, depending on the road rally conditions.
2.) FAST FEMALES
Unlike professional racing series in 1968 ‘Wacky Racers’ included a female racer. Penelope Pitstop was the driver of The Compact Pussycat which was like a rolling beauty parlor that included automatic lipstick and foaming shampoo dispenser. Sexist today’s standards? Maybe. But in 1968 no women had ever competed at Indianapolis, and wouldn’t until Janet Guthrie in 1977. The very modern Penelope Pitstop was a serious competitor who took 4 wins and 11 podium finishes in the series, inspiring generations of little girls to go racing.
3) CLOSE COMPETITION
In the past few seasons of Formula 1, there’s been one driver just dominating, which is very boring to watch. By comparison, ten teams in ‘Wacky Racers’ won at least 3 races, with four teams including the Bulletproof Bomb, Compact Pussycat, Arkansas Chuggabug and Turbo Terrific actually taking 4 wins apiece. An unprecedented level of competition, even more amazing considering how unique each race car was. With the official points scoring system never made public, it’s unclear to today whether The Slag Brothers or the Ant Hill Mob were champions.
Despite running for only a season, the series was popular and was spun-off into other shows like ‘The Perils of Penelope Pitstop‘ and ‘Captain Caveman‘ but it still hasn’t gotten the live-action Hollywood treatment. The closest was this Peugeot commercial.
How odd that a French car company used an old American cartoon to promote their cars to Brazilian motorists.
Chris, I don’t know how you do it. Where did you find that Peug(can’t spell the rest) commercial?! I vaguely remember that cartoon but the racing cartoon I watched most often was Speed Racer. Go, Speed Racer, Go-o!
I barely remember the cartoon from childhood, but I remember the spinoff from ’79 called Captain Caveman quite well. A couple years ago, I bought a bunch of cartoons on DVD so my kids could watch them; Wacky Racers, Speed Racer, etc (notice the theme). Wacky racers was good because it was one and done. Never stuck around long enough to jump the shark, or bring in a Cousin Oliver (Brady Bunch) type of character.
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Watching Wacky Racers as an adult I realized what gearheads the producers must have been.
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As for Speed Racer, I never saw it as a kid, loved it as an adult with my kids, and have been watching the entire series over the past couple years. The movie is even better, though.
Really? I haven’t seen the movie. Between you and Hassan (the film buff blog), I have enough movies to watch to keep me busy for several lifetimes.
The Wachowski Brothers (who made The Matrix) also made Speed Racer and it was a massive flop but hugely influential. A lot of flickering images and lights, but if you can deal with that you may like it. Or if you are 11 years old… then you’ll definitely like it.
Well I’m a little past 11, but still a kid at heart. Sounds like an interesting film to take in. Influential flop sounds intriguing
Oh… you took my line; kid at heart.
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There’s no rush to see the movie. It’s been out for a decade. It’s a visual treat, so just make sure you got your glasses on because this one move fast.
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One detail I want to mention. As it is based on a cartoon, the filmmaker did some weird stuff with the focus. Like in certain scenes EVERYTHING is in focus. I think they shot with multiple cameras as the foreground and background are both in focus. Like they overlaid the film strips.
Thanks for mentioning that weird detail! I looked it up on IMDB. Did you realize that the original was anime? I sure didn’t. Never even heard that word until the past 10 years or so.
I don’t understand most of what I hear these days. But I have a 15 year old daughter who translates for me. Maybe anime is just Japanese for cartoon?!
Well that is a very sensible guess! Nice you have a built-in translator!
Oh yeah… the Poojoe commercial. The funny thing about social media is that we hate when the algorithm reads our minds (or attempts to). But because of the Demaras Racing YT channel, I’m on that platform plenty. And it knows what I like. And it served me up that obscure commercial.
OMG! I remember the Whacky Racers. I was a 10-year-old in love with Penelope Pitstop. I had forgotten all about it. Thanks for the memories. That is a great commercial.
That commercial is so good, I thought it was a tie-in with a Hollywood movie. Like… they took a snippet of the movie and made a car commercial out of it.
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Ah, the lovely Penelope. I too has a crush on her, my friend. And the fact that my wife looks just like her is a complete co-incidence. For more, check out The Perils of Penelope Pitstop on YT.
Peugeot. Went back and looked because nothing looked right.
My wife grew up in Europe so she is familiar with those cars, and the way to pronounce them. So, to driver her crazy, I always refer to French cars by their Americanized names Poojoe and Citron.
How am I not surprised that you enjoy driving her crazy?….
I remember the cartoon. I agree, it was the greatest racing cartoon of its time. I had never seen the commercial.
I especially like that there’s so much diversity in Wacky Racers; both cars and drivers.
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And that commercial is an odd one. Absolutely stunning visuals. I guess they sell a lot of Peugeots in Brazil!
Yes, there is a lot of diversity in the cartoon.
Loved this cartoon as a kid👍. What a great memory!
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the show too… I know I did!
Snidely Whiplash!
Yup. And famed racer Graham Hill MUST have been the inspiration.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graham_Hill_Bestanddeelnr_924-6564.jpg