{"id":5482,"date":"2013-11-29T10:02:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T18:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=5482"},"modified":"2016-03-16T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T18:15:08","slug":"was-the-animated-series-wacky-races-originally-intended-for-a-live-action-game-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/11\/29\/was-the-animated-series-wacky-races-originally-intended-for-a-live-action-game-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Was the Animated Series Wacky Races Originally Intended for a Live Action Game Show?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/tv-legends-revealed-history\/\">here<\/a> to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">TV URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Wacky Races was originally going to be a game show.<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned in <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/08\/18\/was-a-vibrator-one-of-the-gadgets-in-penelope-pitstops-compact-pussycat\/\">a previous installment of TV Urban Legends Revealed<\/a>, Hanna-Barbera had a short-lived animated series in the late 1960s called Wacky Races, which featured a group of colorful personalities all racing against each other.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wackyraceswallpaper1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B0002MFGDW&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The main villain on the show was Dick Dastardly and his sidekick, Muttley (who had a distinctive laugh\/snicker)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/20060203-dick_muttley.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An interesting aspect about Wacky Race is to look at the producers behind the program.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at Hanna-Barbera&#8217;s TV series, you will not find very many joint productions. They basically handled their properties on their own.<\/p>\n<p>On the same token, Heatter-Quigley Productions (a company formed by TV writers Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley) also tended to handle their properties on their own.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but their programs were entirely different genres.<\/p>\n<p>Hanna-Barbera did cartoons, while Heatter-Quigley produced game shows. <\/p>\n<p>Their most famous game show was Hollywood Squares&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hollywood_squares.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>So why, then, did Hanna-Barbera and Heatter-Quigley co-produce Wacky Races?<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nIt was because Wacky Races was ORIGINALLY intended to be a game show!<\/p>\n<p>As the show fell through, it is a bit unclear exactly what the show would have entailed, but it seems like it would have worked around animated sequences where contestants would bet on the results of the races (presumably more involved than that, as that alone is a pretty sorry excuse for a game show).<\/p>\n<p>Eventually it was determined that the property would work better as a straight animated series, and that&#8217;s the way they went, but Heatter-Quigley maintained a co-ownership of the Wacky Races characters, something that likely factored into the next legend.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, Wacky Races has come out with more than one video game version of the show, so I suppose a game show isn&#8217;t that far afield!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/wackyraces.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B00161I5J0&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The legend is&#8230; <\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is &#x62;&#99;ro&#x6e;&#x69;n&#64;&#x6c;&#x65;&#103;en&#x64;&#115;re&#x76;&#x65;&#97;l&#x65;&#x64;&#46;co&#x6d;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Wacky Races was originally going to be a game show. As mentioned in a previous installment of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[1749],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1qq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3851,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/08\/18\/was-a-vibrator-one-of-the-gadgets-in-penelope-pitstops-compact-pussycat\/","url_meta":{"origin":5482,"position":0},"title":"Was a Vibrator One of the Gadgets in Penelope Pitstop&#8217;s Compact Pussycat?","date":"August 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. 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