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43-440: Speed Buggy is an American animated television series , produced by Hanna-Barbera , which originally aired for one season on CBS from September 8, 1973, to December 22, 1973. With the voices of Mel Blanc , Michael Bell , Arlene Golonka , and Phil Luther Jr., the show follows an orange anthropomorphic dune buggy who alongside teenagers Debbie, Mark, and Tinker, solves mysteries while participating in racing competitions around

86-459: A Planet " and " The Practical Joker ". The "rec room" in the latter episode is now seen by many within Star Trek fandom as the genesis of the holodeck . In the 1980s, Menville contributed to a number of Saturday morning series, including The Smurfs , The Real Ghostbusters , and Kissyfur . Among his last projects before his death in 1992 was the episode "Opah" of the live-action Land of

129-411: A four disc set. Set in an assortment of locations around the world, the series follows three teenagers (Mark, Debbie, and Tinker) and a talking dune buggy as they partake in various adventures. Speed Buggy, the dune buggy, was designed by Tinker and participates in racing competitions in order to collect winner's trophies. During their travels, the crew often defeats villains and crooks in order to save

172-543: A four-disc set. In retrospective reviews, critics saw the series as similar to the Scooby-Doo franchise. Aubrey Sitterson of Geek.com included Speed Buggy on their unranked list of "favorite Scooby-Doo knockoffs". He noted similarities between Speedy and Scooby-Doo's "Mystery Machine", and joked that Tinker is "basically just Shaggy in a jumpsuit". However, he hinted that Speed Buggy ' s success could have been derived from its shared storylines as seen on Josie &

215-482: A full-scale stagecoach , with no wheels, was physically animated, along with an animated moving camera, frame-by-frame for a complex robbery scene. The film, with its other elaborate animated sight gags , was a hit short film at midnight movies in the early 1970s. They followed this with two more 35 mm short films, Sergeant Swell (1972), and Captain Mom (also 1972), the first a spoof of " Northwestern " stories and

258-474: The Academy Award -nominated Stop Look and Listen , an innovative stop-motion pixilation experiment in which the main characters "drive" down city streets in invisible cars. Disney and other Hollywood studios saw little use for the technique, and so the pixilation technique became largely forgotten after McLaren moved on to using other animation techniques for later films. But Menville and Janson revived

301-500: The Scooby-Doo franchise, The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973). Several comparisons were made between the show and other works created by Hanna-Barbera. David Mansour, author of From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century , wrote in his book that Speed Buggy shared several characteristics with Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! . He speculated that Mark

344-458: The 1960s and 1970s as performed by alternative rock artists. The Netflix animated series Saturday Morning All Star Hits! parodies the mid-1980s to early 1990s era of Saturday-morning animation, such as Thundercats , Care Bears , ProStars , and Denver, the Last Dinosaur . The science fiction animated series Futurama also spoofed 1970s and 1980s Saturday-morning cartoons in

387-640: The 1970s, these groups exercised enough influence, especially with the U.S. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission , that the television networks felt compelled to impose more stringent content rules for the animation houses. In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission was openly considering a ban on all advertising during television programming targeting preschoolers, and severe restrictions on other children's program advertising, both of which would have effectively killed off

430-504: The 1990s. Such examples included Disney's Disney Afternoon in syndication, Fox 's Fox Kids , UPN 's UPN Kids , CBS 's CBS Saturday , The WB 's Kids' WB , and Amazin' Adventures (later Bohbot Kids Network) in syndication. From 1992 however, the "Big Three" traditional major networks and their affiliates began replacing their Saturday-morning animated programming with weekend editions of their morning magazines . and live-action teen-oriented series. Multiple factors contributed to

473-550: The DC comic book The Flash/Speed Buggy Special . The characters make a brief cameo at the end of the second episode of Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? , which also is a crossover with The Funky Phantom . Speed Buggy and Tinker both appear in the HBO Max original series Jellystone! with Tinker voiced by Dana Snyder . The characters appeared in the 2021 CW special Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now! Saturday-morning cartoon In

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516-598: The Lost , for which he was nominated for the Humanitas Prize in Live-action Children's programming . His final project was writing an episode of Batman: The Animated Series , but Menville died before the episode could be written. Brynne Stephens wrote the teleplay for the 1993 Batman episode " Birds of a Feather " based on Menville's story, for which he received a story credit on the completed episode. Menville

559-734: The Masters of the Universe and continuing with such series as The Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . These were heavily criticized by ACT, but were nevertheless successful. As well, several more lighthearted series appeared, popularized by Hanna-Barbera’s The Smurfs and Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies . These included series based on popular video games , such as Saturday Supercade . Despite increased competition from cable television networks (such as Nickelodeon , Cartoon Network , and Disney Channel ), Saturday-morning and weekday cartoon blocks continued to remain popular in

602-528: The Pussycats . Similarly, Harris from The A.V. Club agreed and wrote that the main difference between the two shows was that Speed Buggy "substitut[ed] racing for rock 'n' roll". He also claimed that the main character "confirm[ed] that sidekicks don't always have to be animals". Speed Buggy and the Scooby-Doo gang would be featured in a crossover episode ("The Weird Winds of Winona") in the second installment of

645-627: The Teen Angels . The characters in Speed Buggy would also be featured in a 1973 Milton Bradley board game, where players would race Speed Buggy and other buggies in a fictionalized version of Baja California . Speed Buggy would also make cameo appearances in later cartoons, including Johnny Bravo , My Life as a Teenage Robot , Invader Zim , the 2020 Animaniacs series , South Park , Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law , and Futurama . In 2018, an updated version of Speed Buggy appeared in

688-544: The USA. Gulf Oil soon hired them to do a series of pixilation commercials for its "no-nox" gasoline, which allowed them to increase the production value of their films. They graduated to 35 mm with their next short film, 1970's Blaze Glory , a spoof of cliche western movies in which heroes and villains rode around the Old West, without horses. Menville played the title character. It was an ambitious and elaborate short film, in which

731-480: The United States, The CW continued to air non-E/I cartoons as late as 2014; among the "Big Three" traditional major networks, the final non-E/I cartoon to date ( Kim Possible ) was last aired in 2006. This era continues to be satirized and/or spoofed in popular culture. The tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits was released in 1995, featuring covers of Saturday-morning cartoon themes from

774-535: The United States, the generally accepted times for these and other children's programs to air on Saturday mornings were from 8:00 a.m. to approximately 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone . Until the late 1970s, American networks also had a schedule of children's programming on Sunday mornings, though most programs at this time were repeats of Saturday-morning shows that were already out of production. In some markets, some shows were pre-empted in favor of syndicated or other types of local programming . Beginning in

817-421: The age of 19 with aspirations of becoming an animator. There, he got a job with Walt Disney Productions and served as an assistant on the 1967 film The Jungle Book . Unhappy with the climate at Disney , Menville soon branched out into writing, and began a long working partnership with his friend Len Janson . During the mid-1960s, Menville and Janson co-produced a series of short live-action films, among them

860-518: The all-but-forgotten technique, introducing it to a new generation. They followed Stop Look and Listen with their 1967 short film Vicious Cycles , a comedy shot in 16 mm , featuring a gang of hard-core bikers intimidating a motor scooter club. Menville played the head of the scooter club. Clips from the film were featured in a 1970 summer television series on the ABC network called The New Communicators and made Menville's pixilation technique famous in

903-453: The change, among them the introduction of people meters that children found difficult to operate in the mid-1980s, an increasingly competitive market fueled by the multi-channel transition , a boom in first-run syndicated content and the introduction of home video and video games , increasing restrictions on advertising and educational content mandates , and broader cultural changes stemming from an increase in no-fault divorces and

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946-503: The channels had purchased syndication rights. It was speculated that the series acquired a fan base due to its frequent rotation on American television, often replacing quickly-cancelled new cartoons. Critical response to Speed Buggy was generally positive; some critics enjoyed its shared themes with Josie & the Pussycats and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! , while others found it unmemorable and derivative. It has since been released on DVD as part of Warner Bros.' Archive Collection on

989-418: The director and Art Scott was the associate producer. Iwao Takamoto , the main producer, expressed in his posthumous 2009 autobiography that the creation of Speed Buggy occurred due to the success of his other productions Josie & the Pussycats and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! . He wrote that his participation in the series was partly because he enjoyed getting "[his] hands on a show whenever [he] felt it

1032-417: The end of the post-World War II baby boom . Attempting to pair the newscasts with the remaining cartoons was largely unsuccessful because the two program formats drew widely different audiences that did not lend themselves to leading in and out of each other , leading to viewership oddities (such as NBC's children's block having an average viewership age of over 40 years old); by the late 2010s, all of

1075-498: The episode " Saturday Morning Fun Pit ". Chuck Menville Charles David Menville (April 17, 1940 – June 15, 1992) was an American animator and writer for television. His credits included Batman: The Animated Series , Land of the Lost , The Real Ghostbusters , The Smurfs , Star Trek: The Animated Series , and Tiny Toon Adventures . Menville was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana , but moved to Los Angeles at

1118-469: The format; the commission ultimately dropped the proposal. The networks were encouraged to create educational spots that endeavored to use animation and/or live-action for enriching content, including the Schoolhouse Rock! series on ABC which became a fondly-remembered television classic. With the 1970s came a wave of animated versions of popular live-action prime time series as well, mainly with

1161-486: The major American networks had shifted to live-action documentary programming, ostensibly targeted at teenagers to meet the educational mandates but less likely to cause a clash with the newscasts. This documentary programming also benefited from having less restrictive rules for advertising compared to programming targeted to children. Saturday-morning and Sunday-morning cartoons were largely discontinued in Canada by 2002. In

1204-471: The mid-1960s, the Saturday-morning timeslot would feature a great deal of series appropriate for children, although most of these were reruns of animated series originally broadcast in prime time and adventure series made in the 1950s, as well as telecasts of older cartoons made for movie theaters . Later in the decade, the slot would be dominated by superhero and action cartoon series, influenced by

1247-541: The other a spoof of superheroes . The later film was mostly live action with a minimum of their now-trademark pixilation animation technique, and failed to garner a large audience, but by then Menville and Janson had established themselves as a creative force within Hollywood animation production circles. In the mid-1970s, the team began a stint at Filmation , during which they brought their irreverent style to Star Trek: The Animated Series , writing two episodes: " Once Upon

1290-528: The program alongside other cartoons such as Tom and Jerry , The Jetsons , and Dexter's Laboratory . The episode "Speed Buggy Went That-a-Way" was featured on the Warner Bros. Presents DVD compilation Saturday Morning Cartoons – 1970's Volume 1 and released on May 26, 2009. As part of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment 's Archive Collection , the complete Speed Buggy series was made available on DVD as

1333-520: The series was successful and had a large fan base because it aired on all three major television networks in the 1970s. During the 1980s, the series was rerun as part of the USA Network 's USA Cartoon Express block, and Cartoon Network has broadcast Speed Buggy on several occasions since its initial launch in 1992. As part of a Valentine's Day event in February 2007, sister channel Boomerang aired

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1376-573: The show on their list of "15 Forgotten Cartoons from the Early 1970s You Used to Love". On a more negative note, author David Perlmutter found Hanna-Barbera's use of "humanized automobiles" to be too predictable and repetitive. Speed Buggy would not be the last time Hanna-Barbera incorporated automobiles into animation. Both Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch and Wonder Wheels also featured cars that were able to talk and act like humans. Perlmutter grouped

1419-504: The show was inspired by the 1968 Walt Disney Pictures film The Love Bug and the Speed Racer anime franchise. Several of the storylines originated on another Hanna-Barbera series, Josie and the Pussycats . Speed Buggy lasted for one season with a total of sixteen episodes. Despite its short run, it was broadcast on the Big Three television networks years after its original run as

1462-487: The success of Space Ghost . These were heavily criticized by parents for their violence. By 1972, most action programming had been removed from the Saturday-morning slot, following pressure from parents' lobbying groups such as the Action for Children's Television (ACT). These groups voiced concerns about the presentation of commercialism , violence, anti-social attitudes and stereotypes in Saturday-morning cartoons. By

1505-530: The three shows together, calling them a "trilogy". Wonderbug , an occasional live-action segment on ABC's The Krofft Supershow (1976-1978), featured three teenagers and a talking dune buggy and often drew comparisons to Speed Buggy and The Love Bug . Also compared to the show was Adult Swim 's Mike Tyson Mysteries , with Rolling Stone ' s James Montgomery calling it an ode to classic cartoons like Speed Buggy , Scooby-Doo , and Captain Caveman and

1548-402: The voices of the original casts, as well as imitations of the highly successful Scooby-Doo combining teen characters and talking animals with supernatural mystery stories. By 1982, under President Ronald Reagan , the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had loosened programming and advertising regulations, leading to the era of "half-hour toy commercials", starting with He-Man and

1591-424: The world, such as diamond thieves, car-obsessed doctors, and evil pirates. Known as the "Speed Buggs", the group of three teenagers is able to activate Speed Buggy through the use of a portable walkie-talkie . Several episodes in the series feature reworked versions of storylines from Hanna-Barbera's Josie and the Pussycats . The series features the following four main characters throughout its run: Speed Buggy

1634-410: The world. The series was produced by Iwao Takamoto , executive produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and directed by Charles A. Nichols . The series was originally developed under the working titles Speed Bug and Speed Buggs before Speed Buggy was settled on. Takamoto was less involved with the series due to the trust he had in storyboard and animation artist Bob Singer . The concept for

1677-528: Was broadcast from February 4, 1978, to September 2, 1978, and September 18, 1982, to January 29, 1983. It also played on both ABC and NBC , when they acquired syndication rights for the series. ABC aired it at noon (EST) from September 6, 1975, to September 4, 1976. When NBC abruptly canceled McDuff, the Talking Dog on November 20, 1976, Speed Buggy aired in reruns from November 27, 1976, to September 1977. According to The A.V. Club ' s Will Harris,

1720-620: Was copyrighted in November 1975; it was composed by Hoyt Curtin under the supervision of Paul DeKorte. Besides the leading roles, other voice actors involved with the series include Mike Road , Hal Smith , John Stephenson , and Janet Waldo . Speed Buggy was broadcast on CBS as part of their Saturday morning children's lineup between September 8 and December 22, 1973. Before being cancelled, it continued to air regularly until August 31, 1974. After its original run, CBS included reruns of Speed Buggy in their children-oriented television blocks; it

1763-628: Was developed with the working titles Speed Bug and Speed Buggs . The show's concept was partly inspired by the 1968 Walt Disney Pictures film The Love Bug and the Japanese Speed Racer franchise. It was hinted by author David Hofstede that the "Chugga-Boom" vehicle in Hanna-Barbera's The Perils of Penelope Pitstop served as a prototype for the vehicle in Speed Buggy . Executive produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera 's Hanna-Barbera Productions , Charles A. Nichols served as

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1806-449: Was necessary"; however, he was ultimately less involved with the show due to his trust with Bob Singer , an animation artist for Hanna-Barbera productions at the time. Jack Mendelshon and Chuck Menville were the two head writers for the episodes. Several other writers contributed to the series, including Lars Bourne, Len Janson , Joel Kane, Jack Kaplan, Woody Kling , Norman Maurer , and Larry Rhine. The main title theme for Speed Buggy

1849-522: Was the " Freddy -esque handsome brain", Debbie was the " Daphne -esque pretty girlfriend", and Tinker was the "Shaggy-esque mechanic and driver". Furthermore, he considered Speed Buggy to be one of the most "famous dune buggies of pop culture" alongside the buggies in The Funky Phantom , The Banana Splits , and the Big Jim toy line. In a retrospective view of older cartoons, the staff at MeTV included

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