The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Perils of Penelope Pitstop | |
|---|---|
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| Format | Animated series |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Paul Lynde Don Messick Janet Waldo Paul Winchell |
| Narrated by | Gary Owens |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Running time | 21 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Picture format | NTSC |
| Original run | September 13, 1969 – January 17, 1971 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera (now known as Cartoon Network Studios) that premiered on CBS on September 13, 1969. The show lasted one season, with 17 half-hour episodes produced.
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[edit] Background
The title was a reference to a silent movie era melodrama cliffhanger movie serial, The Perils of Pauline. Although the show's predecessor, Wacky Races, appeared to be set in the then-contemporary 1960s, the characters and settings of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop were strongly reminiscent of the 1920s. Adding to the cliffhanger serial feel, episodes typically started with a recap such as "Last time we left Penelope, she was in the clutches of the Hooded Claw". There was never a two part or longer episode, so these recaps never referred to any real episodes, making every episode seem like the last in a non-existent series. This served as a way to jump directly into action or to the end of an adventure in another country with little explanation, allowing the short cartoon to contain simply the chase and rescue part of the story.
The series was a spin-off from Wacky Races and featured race car driver Penelope Pitstop (voiced by Janet Waldo). She wore a bright pink auto-racing outfit, with red tights and white go-go boots. Pitstop was constantly chased by a villain called the "Hooded Claw", aka Sylvester Sneekly (voiced by an uncredited Paul Lynde), who wanted to get rid of her in order to get her inheritance.
Also from the Wacky Races was the Ant Hill Mob, a group of crooks, who, with their brave car, Chugga-Boom, acted as heroes and were constantly rushing to Penelope's rescue. But their attempts to save her almost always ended in disaster for themselves, and Penelope was often left to her own devices. Their friendship with Penelope was non-existent on Wacky Races. On Wacky Races, Clyde (of the Ant Hill Mob) once gave Penelope directions he claimed would get her back to the race, but were actually directions to the La Brea Tar Pits. Why they teamed up as Penelope's friends and guardians is never explained.
The Hooded Claw, aided by his pair of identical henchmen, the Bully Brothers (both voiced by Mel Blanc), concocted needlessly Goldbergian plots to kill Penelope (such as a device to drop her from an aircraft, cut her parachute, and then have her drop into a box of wildcats). While the Mob often rescued Penelope, as often as not she needed to rescue the Mob from the unintended effects of their attempts to rescue her. While Penelope was curiously helpless whenever The Hooded Claw grabbed her, once he left her tied up for his fiendish plans to take effect, she was quite resourceful and ingenious, often coming up with spontaneous inventions to escape her peril.
Penelope was always in a different part of the globe for every peril. Mainly she was in America, but she did go to locations such as Egypt, England, the jungle, Baghdad and the North Pole. These settings were painted by background artist Walter Peregoy.
Just like in other spin-off series, like Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines, the Wacky Races series is never mentioned, not by Penelope, nor by the Ant Hill Mob. Plus the Compact Pussycat from Wacky Races is never seen in the series. Instead of that vehicle, Penelope usually drives a green sports car, or any other vehicle that she finds, or even Chugga-Boom.
The opening and closing musical theme for the show, was borrowed from one of the themes from "Wacky Races"
[edit] The Hooded Claw
The Hooded Claw was the main villain and the alter ego of Sylvester Sneekly, Penelope Pitstop's guardian. In the event of her death, Sneekly stood to inherit Pitstop's fortune. Aided by his henchmen, the Bully Brothers, he tried to kill Penelope so he could get her fortune for himself. She never suspected his intentions, however, because he performed his nefarious deeds only in his costumed persona, The Hooded Claw.
The Hooded Claw is referenced in the 1984 Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "The Power of Love", which contains the line "I'll protect you from the Hooded Claw...".
[edit] The Ant Hill Mob
Penelope was often rescued from peril by the Ant Hill Mob, a group of seven diminutive gangsters with exaggerated personality traits, clearly owing quite a bit to the characters of the Seven Dwarfs in the Walt Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They keep in storage cop costumes just in case. They were:
- Clyde - the leader, a caricature of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar; he is often irritated by the mob's slip-ups or when the mob misinterperate his instructions; his catch phrase is "oh, brother!". He was voiced by Paul Winchell.
- Dum Dum - (Ring-A-Ding in Wacky Races) played stupid; his catch phrase is "here we come, Penelope". He was voiced by Don Messick.
- Pockets - able to bring out useful objects to get the Mob out of trouble, even ones of ridiculous size. He was voiced by Don Messick.
- Snoozy - the dozy one, sleeping through moments of emergency; but despite sleeping on the job, he's always aware of what's going on at the present time and always dreams up an good idea; he also sometimes confirms Softy's chime-ins. He was voiced by Don Messick.
- Softy - cries at any possible emotional or stressful moment; whether those moments were happy or sad was irrelevant; he often chimes in mother memories. He was voiced by Paul Winchell.
- Yak Yak - the talkative one, made a kind of 'yuk yuk' laugh, no matter how disastrous the news he was imparting. He was voiced by Mel Blanc.
- Zippy - a fast runner and a fast talker. He was voiced by Don Messick.
The Ant Hill Mob had previously appeared in Wacky Races alongside Penelope Pitstop, although of all seven Mob members, only Clyde kept his Wacky Races name here. The Mob's original Wacky Races car, the Bulletproof Bomb was replaced by "Chugga-Boom" (voiced by Mel Blanc), which was articulate and seemed to have a mind of its own.
Also, in the first sketches of the series, Penelope was supposed to have a younger brother named Johnny Pitstop, who would help the Ant Hill Mob saving her from the clutches of the Hooded Claw. In those same sketches, Dick Dastardly and Muttley were supposed to be Johnny Pitstop's personal bodyguards, using once again their car, The Mean Machine. This was all in the first sketches, and never make out in the final works.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Voices
Other voice artists in the series included Don Messick as some of the Mob (except Clyde and Softy, who were voiced by Paul Winchell, and Yak-Yak, who was voiced by Mel Blanc) and assorted other voices, and Gary Owens as the narrator. Writers included Warner Brothers veteran Michael Maltese.
[edit] DVD release
On May 10, 2005, Warner Home Video released the complete series on DVD in R1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perils of Penelope Pitstop- The Complete Series | 17 | May 10, 2005 |
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[edit] The Perils of Penelope Pitstop in other languages
- Portuguese: Os Perigos de Penelope Pitstop
- Brazilian Portuguese: Os Apuros de Penelope Charmosa
- Spanish: Los Peligros de Penélope Glamour
- Italian: Le peripezie di Penelope Pitstop
- Polish: Perypetie Penelopy Pitstop
- German: Die Gefahren der Penelope Pitstop
