Adventures of the Road-Runner
Encyclopedia
Adventures of the Road-Runner is an animated film, directed by Chuck Jones
and co-directed by Maurice Noble
and Tom Ray. It was the intended pilot for a TV series starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner
, but was never picked up until four years later when Warner Bros. Television
produced The Road Runner Show
for CBS
from 1966 to 1968 and later on ABC
from 1971 to 1973. As a result, it was split into three further shorts. The first one was To Beep or Not to Beep
(1963). The other two were assembled by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
in 1965 after they took over the Looney Tunes
series. The split-up shorts were titled Road Runner a Go-Go
and Zip Zip Hooray!.
The short revolves around Wile E. Coyote reviewing his past attempts at catching the Road Runner (in the form of stock footage from previous Coyote/Road Runner shorts), and making new, revised plans to catch him - which go just as wrong, if not more so than the first attempts. In a mostly unrelated story, as two children (one of them is Ralph Phillips
) watch the Coyote on television, Ralph is talking about how much trouble he has concentrating on things and gets caught up in his daydreams (re-using footage from Jones' earlier short, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z
in the process). The two stories briefly link up when the Coyote directly addresses the kids on why he wants to eat the Road Runner. This sequence features a television commercial
for "The Acme
Batman
Suit! The only Batman uniform worn by bats!", which is newly narrated stock footage from Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z
(coincidentally, a few years after the cartoon's first showing, WB would acquire DC Comics
- publishers of the Batman comics).
The short also contains what would most likely have been the series' opening sequence, closing sequence and theme song (titled Out on the Desert) of the hoped for series. When Jones later produced the Tom and Jerry
series, the format of the Coyote reviewing his past adventures would be copied in the short Shutter Bugged Cat
, which Tom Ray also directed.
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
and co-directed by Maurice Noble
Maurice Noble
Maurice Noble was an American animation background artist and layout designer whose contributions to the industry spanned more than 60 years. He was a long-time associate of animation director Chuck Jones, most notably at Warner Bros. in the 1950s...
and Tom Ray. It was the intended pilot for a TV series starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...
, but was never picked up until four years later when Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
produced The Road Runner Show
The Road Runner Show
The Road Runner Show was an animated anthology series which compiled theatrical Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, which were produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons between 1948 and 1966. The Road Runner Show ran for two seasons on CBS , and then on ABC...
for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from 1966 to 1968 and later on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
from 1971 to 1973. As a result, it was split into three further shorts. The first one was To Beep or Not to Beep
To Beep or Not to Beep
To Beep or Not to Beep is a Merrie Melodies animated short starring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. Released December 28, 1963, the cartoon was written by Chuck Jones and John Dunn, and directed by Jones ....
(1963). The other two were assembled by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981. They produced theatrical cartoons, animated series, commercials, title sequences and television specials. Notable among these is The Pink Panther film titles and cartoon shorts and the Dr....
in 1965 after they took over the Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
series. The split-up shorts were titled Road Runner a Go-Go
Road Runner a Go-Go
Road Runner a Go-Go is one of 3 cartoons reused from the unsold pilot Adventures of the Road-Runner ....
and Zip Zip Hooray!.
The short revolves around Wile E. Coyote reviewing his past attempts at catching the Road Runner (in the form of stock footage from previous Coyote/Road Runner shorts), and making new, revised plans to catch him - which go just as wrong, if not more so than the first attempts. In a mostly unrelated story, as two children (one of them is Ralph Phillips
Ralph Phillips
Ralph Phillips may refer to:*List of Looney Tunes characters#Ralph Phillips*Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, American criminal*Ralph S. Phillips*Ralph Phillips Lowe, former Governor of Iowa...
) watch the Coyote on television, Ralph is talking about how much trouble he has concentrating on things and gets caught up in his daydreams (re-using footage from Jones' earlier short, From A to Z-Z-Z-Z
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z is a 1953 animated cartoon short by Chuck Jones in the Looney Tunes series. It was released by Warner Bros. in 1954.-Plot:The cartoon begins with an exterior shot of a school classroom. Through the windows, children are visible at their desks. They are learning arithmetic by rote...
in the process). The two stories briefly link up when the Coyote directly addresses the kids on why he wants to eat the Road Runner. This sequence features a television commercial
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
for "The Acme
Acme Corporation
The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail catastrophically at the worst possible times...
Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
Suit! The only Batman uniform worn by bats!", which is newly narrated stock footage from Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z
Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z
Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z is a 1956 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Looney Tunes series featuring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner .-Plot:...
(coincidentally, a few years after the cartoon's first showing, WB would acquire DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
- publishers of the Batman comics).
The short also contains what would most likely have been the series' opening sequence, closing sequence and theme song (titled Out on the Desert) of the hoped for series. When Jones later produced the Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
series, the format of the Coyote reviewing his past adventures would be copied in the short Shutter Bugged Cat
Shutter Bugged Cat
Shutter Bugged Cat is a 1967 Tom and Jerry cartoon, produced in the Chuck Jones era. The story was supervised by Tom Ray. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera received a special director's credit, though the two did not contribute any work towards the cartoon .- Plot:Tom watches clips of him attempting...
, which Tom Ray also directed.
Tastes of the Road-Runner
The Coyote described the different tastes of the Road-Runner to the two kids (and the audience) as thus:- BananaBananaBanana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
Front Head Feather - AsparagusAsparagusAsparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
Front-Center Head Feather - PapayaPapayaThe papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
Back-Center Head Feather - Liquorice Back Head Feather
- VanillaVanillaVanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...
Base Feather - Sponge cakeSponge cakeSponge cake is a cake based on flour , sugar, and eggs, sometimes leavened with baking powder which has a firm, yet well aerated structure, similar to a sea sponge. A sponge cake may be produced by either the batter method, or the foam method. Typicially the batter method in the U.S. is known as a...
Head and Beak - CeleryCeleryApium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
Cheek and Upper Neck - Candied yamYam (vegetable)Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...
Upper Tail Feather - CaramelCaramelCaramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream, custard and coffee....
Middle Tail Feather - SalamiSalamiSalami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent...
Middle Neck - TamaleTamaleA tamale — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa , which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating...
Neck Base - Chop sueyChop sueyChop suey is a Chinese dish consisting of meat and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce...
Base Tail Feather - NoodleNoodleThe noodle is a type of food, made from any of a variety of doughs, formed into long thin ribbons, strips, curly-cues, waves, helices, pipes, tubes, strings, or other various shapes, sometimes folded. They are usually cooked in a mixture of boiling water and/or oil. Depending upon the type, noodles...
Stomach - Pork chopPork chopA pork chop is a cut of pork cut perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and usually containing a rib or part of a vertebra, served as an individual portion.-Variations:...
Thighs - Wisconsin Cheddar cheeseCheddar cheeseCheddar cheese is a relatively hard, yellow to off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting cheese, produced in several countries around the world. It has its origins in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset....
Knee - Double martini (very dry)MartiniMartini may refer to:* Martini , a popular cocktail* Martini , a brand of vermouth* Martini , a Swiss automobile company* Martini , a French manufacturer of racing cars...
Leg - BratwurstBratwurstA bratwurst is a sausage usually composed of veal, pork or beef. The plural in German is Bratwürste....
Leg Shin - Yorkshire puddingYorkshire puddingYorkshire Pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, England. It is made from batter and usually served with roast meat and gravy.-History:...
Back Toe - PistachioPistachioThe pistachio, Pistacia vera in the Anacardiaceae family, is a small tree originally from Persia , which now can also be found in regions of Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Sicily and possibly Afghanistan , as well as in the United States,...
Front Toes