Wacky Races - The Complete Series arrived on DVD this past Tuesday, and my son and I are enjoying it immensely even as I type this up! This is the series which first starred Dick Dastardly and Muttley, who cheated their way along each race in car Double-Zero (00), "The Mean Machine".
One of the supplements on the 3rd disc in this set is "Spinout Spinoffs", which looks at the two toons that came out separately after
Wacky Races wrapped its 34-episode run. It describes how a show in development called "Stop The Pigeon" was re-engineered to include the very popular bad guys from
Wacky Races, and gave them the additional henchmen of Klunk and Zilly to help stop Yankee Doodle Pigeon, a carrier pigeon from the USA trying to deliver messages to the front line of World War I. Dick Dastardly, Muttley, Klunk, and Zilly - all voiced by returning
Wacky voice actors Paul Winchell and Don Messick - were a flying squadron reporting to America's enemies, and they used more and more bizarre planes to try to stop the pigeon from performing its missions. Anyone who likes the Road Runner/Coyote matchups would enjoy this as well.
The spinoff featurette ended with the card below, letting us know that the Hanna Barbera Classic Collection of cartoons will continue in 2005, with a release that includes all 35 episodes of
Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. Stay tuned for more info on that, just as soon as distributor Warner Home Video makes their announcement.
