Trivia / Wacky Races

• Acting for Two:
  • Dick Dastardly, Private Meekly and Clyde are voiced by Paul Winchell.
  • Don Messick voices Muttley, Professor Pat Pending, Gravel Slag, Bella Gruesome, Ring-a-Ding and Sawtooth.
  • Daws Butler plays Rock Slag, Tiny Gruesome, Red Max, Sergeant Blast, Peter Perfect and Rufus Ruffcut.
  • Luke and Blubber Bear are both played by John Stephenson.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Several reference books have a character in the show called The General, as voiced by John Stephenson. There was a one-shot general in the episode "The Speedy Arkansas Traveler", but the only military personnel in the regular cast were Sgt. Blast and Private Meekly.
• Defictionalization:
  • The Goodwood Festival of Speed has built working replicas of all eleven of the vehicles (minus the extraneous gadgets and hijinks, of course). They even have people dress as the various drivers (using full body costumes for characters like Muttley and Sawtooth).
  • This Brazilian commercial for Peugeot is not only clever but deadly accurate with character depictions. Muttley is the only CGI figure.
• Dub Name Change: The Mexican dub changed quite a few names, with changes ranging from Market-Based Title (the Buzzwagon became "Troncoswagen" due to Volkswagen being popular in Latin America), to Cultural Translation (the Army Surplus Special became "Super Chatarra Especial" [Super Junk Special] because army surplus is not a thing in Latin America), to Woolseyism (Red Max became "Baron Hans Fritz" and his Crimson Haybailer became "Stuka Rakuda" to emphasize his German nationality).
• Edited for Syndication: The original end credits had narration from Dave Willock playing over it, as well as a line from Dick Dastardly, explaining why Dick's mouth is seen moving in the music-only credits.
• Follow the Leader: The cartoon is pretty clearly inspired by the 1965 film The Great Race with its similar premise, similar character archetypes, and Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat turning into Hoist by His Own Petard gags.
• Fountain of Expies:
  • You'd be surprised how many Muttley clones there are. If not clones, there are those who mimic his signature laugh.
  • Thanks to the legal issues regarding Heatter-Quigley, some of H-B's Mega Crossover series like Laff-A-Lympics couldn't use Dick Dastardly, forcing H-B to create the Dread Baron instead.^note He and Mumbly would later appear in the Superstars 10 movie Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose.
• The Other Darrin: Dick Dastardly is voiced by Jim Cummings in the Sega Dreamcast video game and the Wacky Races Forever pilot, due to Paul Winchell's death. Rob Paulsen has also portrayed the character in Yo Yogi!.
• Role Reprise: While most of the voices in the Dreamcast game are soundalikes, Janet Waldo and John Stephenson reprised their respective roles as Penelope Pitstop, and as Luke and Blubber Bear.
• Referenced by...: For more references, see Wacky Racing.
  • Fellow Hanna-Barbera toon Dexter's Laboratory had the episode "Dexter's Wacky Races". They even use Hoyt Curtin's Background Music from Wacky Races as well as Ted Nichols' music from Motormouse and Autocat and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
  • The Powerpuff Girls Rule! had the cast compete in their own wacky race for the Key to the World.
  • There's also one episode of the old Gundam OVA series.
  • South Park even gets in the act in the episode "Handicar." The racers are mainly comprised of some of the episode's characters, but they even throw in Dick Dastardly and Muttley as well (both looking long in the tooth after 45-plus years).
  • The Time Bokan: Royal Revival OVA pitted its series' villains against one another for the ultimate prize of starring in the next series of the franchise.
  • Appare-Ranman! is a mix between this and its inspiration The Great Race, focusing on a Trans-America race filled with Wacky Races-inspired cars.
  • The Osomatsu-san episode "Iyami Kart" had the cast compete over who would be the protagonist of the series. Unique in that the Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat moment is done by the race's host himself so that he could win by default.
  • Pop Team Epic has a segment parodying the series that features Lawyer-Friendly Cameo versions of Dastardly and Muttley (coated in mosaic pattern) in one segment.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early on in production, the show was meant to be more of a game show (hence Heatter-Quigley's involvement), with kids as the contestants wagering on which Wacky Racer would cross the finish line first; the cartoon would than play, and whoever guessed correctly would get a prize. The quiz show angle was quickly dropped by CBS and instead they aired the show as it is.
  • There was an attempted revival of the series in 2006 called Wacky Races Forever, but it didn't get picked up; the pilot circulates online.
  • Peter Perfect's car was called the Varoom Roadster in development, and the Ant Hill Mob's car was the Roaring Plenty. They were changed, obviously, to the Turbo Terrific and the Bulletproof Bomb, but their developmental names were retained for the Gold Key Comics run.

---