This is a good article. Click here for more information.

Speed Buggy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about". Template:DMCA Template:Infobox television/Short description

Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.Page Template:Infobox television/styles.css has no content.

Script error: No such module "Infobox television".
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:InfoboxImage/data' not found.
The series' title card
GenreComedy
Mystery
Adventure
Created byWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Directed byCharles A. Nichols
Voices ofMel Blanc
Michael Bell
Arlene Golonka
Phil Luther Jr.
Theme music composerHoyt Curtin
ComposerTemplate:Pluralize from textHoyt Curtin
Template:Pluralize from text of originUnited States
Original languageTemplate:Pluralize from textEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes16
Production
Executive producerTemplate:Pluralize from textWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
ProducerTemplate:Pluralize from textIwao Takamoto
Running time30 minutes
Production Template:Pluralize from textHanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
ReleaseScript error: No such module "Infobox/dates".
Template:If preview

Script error: No such module "Infobox television".Script error: No such module "Infobox television disambiguation check".Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for deprecated parameters".

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.[1] 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 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 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 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 a four disc set.

Premise

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.[2] 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 the world, such as diamond thieves, car-obsessed doctors, and evil pirates.[3] Known as the "Speed Buggs", the group of three teenagers is able to activate Speed Buggy through the use of a portable walkie-talkie.[4] Several episodes in the series feature reworked versions of storylines from Hanna-Barbera's Josie and the Pussycats.[5]

Characters

The series features the following four main characters throughout its run:

Production and creation

Speed Buggy was developed with the working titles Speed Bug and Speed Buggs.[10] The show's concept was partly inspired by the 1968 Walt Disney Pictures film The Love Bug and the Japanese Speed Racer franchise.[2][15] 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.[16] Executive produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Hanna-Barbera Productions, Charles A. Nichols served as the director and Art Scott was the associate producer.[17] 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 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.[18]

Jack Mendelshon and Chuck Menville were the two head writers for the episodes.[17] Several other writers contributed to the series, including Lars Bourne, Len Janson, Joel Kane, Jack Kaplan, Woody Kling, Norman Maurer, and Larry Rhine.[7] The main title theme for Speed Buggy was copyrighted in November 1975; it was composed by Hoyt Curtin under the supervision of Paul DeKorte.[7]Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Besides the leading roles, other voice actors involved with the series include Mike Road, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, and Janet Waldo.[19]

Episodes

Script error: No such module "Episode table".

Reception

Broadcast history

Speed Buggy was broadcast on CBS as part of their Saturday morning children's lineup between September 8 and December 22, 1973.[20][21] 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 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.[22][23] 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.[22][23][24] According to The A.V. ClubTemplate:'s Will Harris, the series was successful and had a large fan base because it aired on all three major television networks in the 1970s.[11]

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.[25][26] As part of a Valentine's Day event in February 2007, sister channel Boomerang aired the program alongside other cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, The Jetsons, and Dexter's Laboratory.[27] 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.[28] As part of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Archive Collection, the complete Speed Buggy series was made available on DVD as a four-disc set.[3]

Critical response

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 BuggyTemplate:'s success could have been derived from its shared storylines as seen on Josie & the Pussycats.[5] 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".[11] Speed Buggy and the Scooby-Doo gang would be featured in a crossover episode ("The Weird Winds of Winona") in the second installment of the Scooby-Doo franchise, The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973).[29]

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 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.[13] In a retrospective view of older cartoons, the staff at MeTV included the show on their list of "15 Forgotten Cartoons from the Early 1970s You Used to Love".[30] On a more negative note, author David Perlmutter found Hanna-Barbera's use of "humanized automobiles" to be too predictable and repetitive.[31]

Legacy

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.[32] Perlmutter grouped the three shows together, calling them a "trilogy".[31] 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.[33] Also compared to the show was Adult Swim's Mike Tyson Mysteries, with Rolling StoneTemplate:'s James Montgomery calling it an ode to classic cartoons like Speed Buggy, Scooby-Doo, and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.[34]

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.[2] 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.[11]

In 2018, an updated version of Speed Buggy appeared in the DC comic book The Flash/Speed Buggy Special.[35]

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![36]

References

Citations

Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 266–267. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  3. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Speed Buggy (TV Animated)". Warner Archive Collection. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."'Captain' Moves". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. September 18, 1982. p. 2. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  5. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sitterson, Aubrey (December 12, 2015). "Our favorite Scooby-Doo knockoffs". Geek.com. Archived from the original on February 19, 2017. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  6. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  7. ^ a b c Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  8. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  9. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  10. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Speed Buggy: The Show". Cartoon Network. Archived from the original on April 29, 2001. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  11. ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Harris, Will (June 19, 2013). "Meddling Kids + Sidekick + Mysteries = Series: 13 Hanna-Barbera productions that recycled the Scooby-Doo format". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Voices of Michael Bell: Animation". Michael Bell. Archived from the original on February 19, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  13. ^ a b c Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  14. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  15. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  16. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  17. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Speed Buggy (TV)". Paley Center for Media. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  18. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.David, Nina (1975). "TV Season: 1975". TV Season. Oryx Press: 186. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference TV Guide episode 1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference TV Guide episode 16 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ a b Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  23. ^ a b Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Berman, Claire (November 3, 1975). "Saturday's Children". New York. 8 (44). New York Media, LLC: 71. ISSN 0028-7369. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Boomerang Schedule: Thursday, March 3, 2005". Cartoon Network. March 3, 2005. Archived from the original on March 4, 2005. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Boomerang Schedule: Monday, February 26, 2007". Cartoon Network. February 26, 2007. Archived from the original on February 27, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ball, Ryan (February 13, 2007). "Love Stinks! On Boomerang". Animation Magazine. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Saturday Morning Cartoons – 1970's Volume 1". Barnes & Noble. May 26, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Season 2, Episode 6: The Weird Winds of Winona". TV Guide. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.MeTV staff (June 17, 2016). "15 Forgotten Cartoons from the Early 1970s You Used to Love". MeTV. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  31. ^ a b Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  32. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  33. ^ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
  34. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Montgomery, James (October 2, 2014). "Mike Tyson on Solving Mysteries, Returning to Broadway and Punching Dinosaurs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  35. ^ The Flash/Speed Buggy Special #1 at DCcomics.com
  36. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Specials Video - Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now! | Stream Free".

General and cited references

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Template:Hanna-Barbera Lua error in mw.title.lua at line 404: bad argument #2 to 'title.new' (unrecognized namespace name 'Portal').

Retrieved from "https://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Speed_Buggy&oldid=939811"