Mweep-Mweep There goes Road Runner

A look at the story behind Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner and their long-lasting relationship.

Road Runner

Image Copyright

Road Runner cartoon, or to give it its full title, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was one of the first cartoons I can remember from my 1970 and 1980s memory. First released in 1948 as cartoon shorts in theatres and named Fast and Furry-ous, it was an instant success.

Initially created by the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodie’s combination, each episode has the devious and ever-hungry coyote attempt to eat the Road Runner in an ever-increasing range of unsuccessful attempts and, on the rare occasion when he does manage to catch his prey, it will be sure to backfire ending with Coyote getting injured.

Creation

The Wiley E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons (to give them their full name) were based on the famous traditional ‘cat and mouse’ comics such as Tom and Jerry. Initially starting in 1948, Coyote was based on Mark Twain’s book Roughing It, where a coyote was described as a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton… that is always hungry. Chuck Jones (co-creator of the characters with Michael Maltese) said that he created the Coyote character in the Twain book and on the appearance of fellow animator Ken Harris.

Michael Maltese set the template for their adventures with the characters staring in 16 theatrical cartoon shorts (shown in cinemas), initially attempting to be a parody of Tom and Jerry but becoming famous in their own right.

Coyote played a separate role, too, appearing in five shorts from 1952-1963 as the antagonist of Bugs Bunny where he speaks, which he rarely does in his cartoon. Interestingly Mel Brooks provided the voice for Coyote here, giving him a refined, distinguished voice. As for Road Runner, he has the distinctive ‘beep-beep and the ‘cork-popping’ tongue sound, both voiced by Paul Julian. Watch a classic

Characters

Wiley E. Coyote

Shrouded in puns, Coyote’s full name is Wile E Coyote (a pun on the word wily), with the E standing for Ethelbert. It is said in one of the Looney Tunes Comic books. However, his original name was Don, another pun on Don Quixote. Forever outwitted by Road Runner, he takes on more elaborate ways to catch his prey, constantly failing at the last minute and often being injured in the process.

Road Runner

Road Runner is very different from the actual bird, looking more emu than the road runner. Paul Julian voices him as he can make his voice sound like a car horn. Interestingly, he is often uncredited in cartoons and shorts but is rumoured to say that the voice is closer to mweep-mweep, not beep-beep. With speed and guile Road Runner constantly outwits Coyote leaving him hungry and in despair.

The scenery and plot line for each episode mostly stays the same. The scenery is based on the deserts in the South West of the USA and was initially designed by Robert Gribbroek, then in later cartoons, by Maurice Noble. This gives the familiar backdrop to the Coyote chasing Road Runner.

Road Runner would never harm Coyote except with his mweep-mweep noise, which typically happened when Coyote was under an overhanging rock. Harm came to Coyote from the traps and devices he bought, always from Acme(see below), scenery (boulders and cacti being favourites), and the occasional train.

Each episode started with Coyote often being upbeat in his pursuit of Road Runner but always ended in defeat at the hands of Road Runner through dynamite, boulders, Acme products etc. but ended in defeat for Coyote.

Coyote is a brilliant artist, capable of quickly painting incredibly lifelike timings of such things as tunnels and road scenes in futile attempts to deceive Road Runner.

One running gag involves the coyote trying, in vain, to shield himself with a tiny umbrella against a great falling boulder that is about to crush him. He may also slip from high cliffs after being suspended mid-air—The fall is delayed until he realises nothing is below him. The rest of the scene is then a bird's-eye view, showing him falling into a canyon, his figure eventually lost, with only a tiny plume of dust indicating his impact.

Acme corporation

Coyote often bought his various devices and gadgets from a mail-order company named Acme Corporation. These invariably failed spectacularly and unexpectedly, keeping the audience guessing.

In late 1982, the National Lampoon published a three-part series detailing a lawsuit Wile E. filed against the Acme Corporation over the faulty items they sold him in his pursuit of the Road Runner. Road Runner appeared as a witness for the plaintiff, but the coyote still lost the claim!

Spin-Offs

In another series of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons, Chuck Jones used the character design of Wile E. Coyote as "Ralph Wolf". Ralph continually attempts to steal sheep from a flock guarded by the eternally vigilant Sam Sheepdog. As with the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote series, Ralph Wolf uses all kinds of wild inventions and plots to steal the sheep, but the sheepdog always beats him.  

Wile E. Coyote debuted his comic book, a Henry Hawk story in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies #91 (May 1949). He only made a few other appearances and did not have an official name yet. The first appearance of the Road Runner in a comic book was in Bugs Bunny Vacation Funnies #8 (August 1958). This feature is titled "Beep Beep the Road Runner". It introduces the Road Runner's wife, Matilda, and their three newly hatched sons.

On television Road Runner and the Coyote, it started on Saturday mornings in its TV series, The Road Runner Show, from September 1966 to September 1968, on CBS. It was then merged with The Bugs Bunny Show to become The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show from 1968 to 1985. The show was later seen on ABC until 2000 and  Global until 2001.

In the 1980s, ABC began showing many Warner Bros. shorts, although in a highly edited format. This was to reflect cultural changes, so Coyote was no longer shown smoking cigarettes or creating a ‘black face’ with his various explosions to reflect society better.

Since the release of the WB library of cartoons on DVD, the cartoons gradually disappeared from television; some think this was done to increase the sales of the DVDs. These wouldn’t be seen again until Boomerang began showing them again in the 1990s and early 2000s. Cartoon Network began to air them again in 2011, and the shorts were afterwards moved to Boomerang, where they remain.

Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote feature in 3D computer-animated cartoons on the Cartoon Network, and Road Runner began making appearances when the series was renamed New Looney Tunes in 2017. Wile E. Coyote also appears in the TV series Wabbit, voiced by JP Karliak, in a similar vein to his previous pairings with Bugs Bunny. Finally, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner appear in their cartoon shorts in the HBO Max streaming series Looney Tunes Cartoons.

As for films, 2020 saw a 3D movie being developed where Coyote -v- Acme was going to be developed using the short story by Ian Frazier. This was based on a story where Coyote was taking a lawsuit against the Acme Corporation for the damage caused to Coyote by the malfunctioning devices. The release date at the time was 1^st July 2023, but we will have to wait and see.

Fun Facts

·        Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler recorded a song called ‘Coyote’ on his 2002 album The Ragpickers Dream based on the character

·        Twister Sister’s music video ‘Were Not Gonna Take It was based on the cartoon

·        By 2020, fifty cartoons had been made featuring the characters, with the majority of them by one of the cartoon’s originators Chuck Jones.

·        In 2013, Wile E. Coyote was on the list of the 60 Nastiest Villains of all time

·        The E in Wile E. Coyote stands for Ethelbert

·        The cartoon originally started in1948

·        Road Runner’s wife is called Matilda