Wacky Races
I was watching television last Saturday morning. Don’t ask my why, I just was. After a few minutes, I came to realize just how far our television entertainment has sunk. Saturdays used to be set aside for cartoons and that sort of thing. I wasn’t too sure what I was watching, but I quickly turned it off. Then I got to thinking about those good old cartoon series I used to watch. A few keystrokes later, and I came a cross today’s Warped site.
The date was September 14th, 1968. It was a Saturday, and one of the most popular cartoon series ever hit the nation’s television screens. The characters were very memorable. The was Dastardly and Muttley, Penelope Pitstop, Professor Pat Pending, and the Ant Hill Mob. I am, of course, talking about the Wacky Races.
The Wacky Races was a huge success when it premiered on that date. It was another of long cartoon hits by the team of Hanna-Barbera. It spawned two spin-off series, and was popular with merchandisers for toy and cereal box tie-in. The concept was simple. Eleven teams of strange and outlandish characters race each other in equally outlandish race courses, the winner being awarded the title “The World’s Wackiest Racer”. The series was inspired by the Blake Edwards 1966 film “The Great Race”.
This is a pretty cool and nostalgic site. It would be great to see cartoons with this much innocence and entertainment value populate Saturday mornings again, but I am afraid that won’t happen. Until then, at least we have the Internet.
http://www.hotink.com/wacky/
