| Wacky Races | |
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| Written by |
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| Directed by | |
| Voices of | |
| Narrated by | Dave Willock |
| Composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 17 (34 segments) |
| Production | |
| Producers | |
| Editors |
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| Running time | 21 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 14, 1968 – January 4, 1969 |
| Related | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Wacky Races is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with Heatter-Quigley Productions. It aired on CBS as part of its Saturday-morning schedule from September 14, 1968, to January 4, 1969 and then reruns the next season.[1] The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America,[2] with all of the drivers hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer".[3] The show was inspired by the 1965 comedy film The Great Race.[4] This was the only non-game show produced by Heatter-Quigley; the show was intended as a game show in which children would guess the winner of each race, and those who answered correctly would win prizes, but CBS dropped these elements during development.[5]
The cartoon had many regular characters, with 23 people and animals on the 11 race cars. After its network run on CBS, Wacky Races ran in syndication from 1976 to 1982. Seventeen 20-minute episodes were produced, with each of them featuring two 10-minute segments.
The series spawned numerous spin-offs featuring Dick Dastardly through the years, the most similar in theme being "Fender Bender 500" in 1990.
In 2017, the series was remade as a reboot airing on Boomerang. It aired on Cartoon Network on August 13, 2018.
- ^ "Wacky Races – The Complete Series". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on December 27, 2022. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
- ^ Only three of the 34 rallies took place outside the Contiguous United States: one entirely in the Baja California peninsula; one across a substantial portion of Canada evidently along or near the Trans-Canada Highway; and one across the Canada-U.S. border from Saskatchewan to Oregon.
- ^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 305–306. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 890–891. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ^ Saturday Morning “Car”-toon: The 55th Anniversary of “Wacky Races”