Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner
Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters
The duo as seen in To Beep or Not to Beep (1963)
First appearanceFast and Furry-ous (September 17, 1949; 75 years ago (1949-09-17))
Created byChuck Jones
Michael Maltese
Voiced byWile E. Coyote:
Mel Blanc (1952–1989)
Joe Alaskey (1990–2001)[1]
Bob Bergen (1998)[2]
Dee Bradley Baker (2003)[3]
Maurice LaMarche (2008)[4]
James Arnold Taylor (2014)[5]
J. P. Karliak (2015–2020, 2024–present)
Eric Bauza (2018, 2023–present)
Keith Ferguson (2022–present)
The Road Runner:
Paul Julian (1949–1994, 1996–present, vocal archives only)
Mel Blanc (1964, 1973–1974, 1978)[6][7]
Joe Alaskey (2008)[1]
Eric Bauza (2018, 2023)
(see below)
In-universe information
SpeciesWile E. Coyote: Coyote
The Road Runner: Greater roadrunner
GenderMale (both)
RelativesWile E. Coyote: Tech E. Coyote (descendant)
The Road Runner: Rev Runner (descendant)

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical short Fast and Furry-ous. In each episode, the cunning, devious and constantly hungry coyote repeatedly attempts to catch and eat the roadrunner, but is humorously unsuccessful.[8] Instead of using animal instinct, the coyote deploys absurdly complex contraptions (à la Rube Goldberg machines) to try to catch his prey. They comically backfire, with the coyote often getting injured in slapstick fashion. Many of the items for these contrivances are mail-ordered from a variety of companies implied to be part of the Acme Corporation. TV Guide included Wile E. Coyote in its 2013 list of "The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time".[9]

The characters were created for Warner Bros in 1948 by animation director Chuck Jones and writer Michael Maltese, with Maltese also setting the template for their adventures. The characters star in a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts (the first 16 of which were written by Maltese) and occasional made-for-television cartoons. Originally meant to parody chase-cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry,[10] they became popular in their own right.

The coyote appears separately as an occasional antagonist of Bugs Bunny in five shorts from 1952 to 1963: Operation: Rabbit, To Hare Is Human, Rabbit's Feat, Compressed Hare, and Hare-Breadth Hurry. While he is generally silent in the Wile E. Coyote – Road Runner shorts, he speaks with a refined accent in these solo outings (except for Hare-Breadth Hurry), beginning with 1952's Operation: Rabbit, introducing himself as "Wile E. Coyote, (Super) Genius", voiced by Mel Blanc. Wile E. Coyote additionally speaks in the 1965 short Zip Zip Hooray!, where he explains his desire to eat the Road Runner.[11] The Road Runner vocalizes only with his signature "beep, beep" sound, recorded by Paul Julian and an accompanying "popping-cork" tongue sound.[12] By 2014, 49 cartoons had been made featuring the characters (including the four CGI shorts), the majority by creator Chuck Jones.

  1. ^ a b "Joe Alaskey interview (Tiny Toon Adventures / Looney Tunes / Who Framed Roger Rabbit)". Saturday Morning Rewind. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved June 12, 2021. Since 1981, over the past 30 years, I've been doing Bugs, Daffy, and the other characters. I'm the only guy in the talent pool who has played all of the major characters, including... yes, including Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, but also Porky. You have to hunt for some of these credits, but I have done them all at one point, Hubie and Bertie, and Henery Hawk, all those characters.
  2. ^ "Looney Tunes DVD and Video Guide: VHS: Misc". The Internet Animation Database. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  3. ^ "Voice of Alien Hunter in Duck Dodgers". Behind the Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2020-08-21.
  4. ^ "Voice of Wile E. Coyote in Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor". Behind the Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2021-06-11. Retrieved 2020-08-21.
  5. ^ "Scooby Doo & Looney Tunes Cartoon Universe: Adventure". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  6. ^ "Classic Cartoon Greeting Card Records by Buzza-Cardozo" Archived 2020-06-04 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  7. ^ ""Bugs Bunny in Storyland": The Good, The Bad & the Bugs" Archived 2020-09-20 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  8. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 128–129. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  9. ^ Bretts, Bruce, Roush, Matt, (March 25, 2013). "Baddies to the Bone: The 60 nastiest villains of all time." TV Guide. pp. 14−15.
  10. ^ Schneider, Steve (1988). That's All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 222.
  11. ^ Flint, Peter (July 11, 1989). "Mel Blanc, Who Provided Voices For 3,000 Cartoons, Is Dead at 81". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 19, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2007.
  12. ^ The interviews included in the DVD commentary were recorded by animation historian Michael Barrier for his book Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age.