Speed Buggy

Speed Buggy is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on CBS from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975.

Production
Sixteen 30-minute installments of Speed Buggy were produced in 1973. The show was so successful that it aired on all three major networks. It aired first run on CBS until 1975. Reruns aired on ABC in January 1976 replacing Uncle Croc's Block, then on NBC, replacing the canceled McDuff, The Talking Dog, from November 27, 1976 until September 3, 1977 (thus completing the cycle of being on all three networks). It was then picked up by the USA Network for their Cartoon Express shows from 1982 to about 1990. Unlike most cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, Speed Buggy did not contain a laugh track.

Although closely patterned after the meddling kids characters of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, some Speed Buggy episodes were actually reworkings of Josie and the Pussycats storylines, including Captain Schemo and the Underwater City ("The Nemo's a No-No Affair"), "Out of Sight" ("X Marks the Spot"), "Gold Fever" ("Midas Mix-Up"), "Kingzilla" ("Plateau of the Apes Plot"), "The Incredible Changing Man" ("Never Mind a Master Mind"), and "Island of the Giant Plants" ("A Greenthumb is not a Goldfinger"). Additionally, the episode "The Hidden Valley of Amazonia" was similar to the Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space episode "Warrior Women of Amazonia".

Plot
This show followed the adventures of an anthropomorphic, fiberglass Dune Buggy, Speed Buggy (voiced by Mel Blanc), his driver Tinker (voiced by Phil Luther, Jr.), and Tinker's friends Mark (voiced by Michael Bell) and Debbie (voiced by Arlene Golonka). The three young adults and their car traveled from race to race, often encountering spy capers and mysteries along the way. Speed Buggy's trademark quotes were always "Roger-Dodger!" and "Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!" Though Speed Buggy—nicknamed Speedy by his friends—had a mind of his own, much like Disney's Herbie the Love Bug, he was vulnerable to commands given through a communicator/remote control device made by Tinker when he first built Speed Buggy. Speedy's friends rarely used the device to control his actions, using it mainly for its communication function, but criminals and other ne'er-do-wells would sometimes steal or duplicate the device and manipulate Speedy for their own purposes.

Voice Cast

 * Michael Bell - Mark
 * Mel Blanc - Speed Buggy
 * Arlene Golonka - Debbie
 * Phil Luther, Jr. - Tinker

Additional voices

 * Chris Allen -
 * Ron Feinberg -
 * Virginia Gregg -
 * Jim MacGeorge -
 * Sidney Miller -
 * Alan Oppenheimer -
 * Mike Road -
 * Charles Martin Smith -
 * Hal Smith -
 * John Stephenson -
 * Janet Waldo -

In popular culture

 * Speed Buggy and the gang guest starred in a September 29, 1973 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "The Weird Winds of Winona"; it was the only time that Mark, a Native American, was shown in a darker skin color.


 * In 1975, Charlton Comics published a 9-issue Speed Buggy comic book series.


 * In 1977, Speed Buggy and Tinker also competed in the "Laff-A-Lympics" as part of "The Scooby Doobies" team (where Tinker was voiced by Frank Welker) on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.


 * In the Johnny Bravo episode "Bravo Dooby-Doo" Speedbuggy makes a cameo at the end offering Johnny a ride after the Sccooby Gang ties him to a tree and leave him there.


 * Speed Buggy also features in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law episode "High Speed Buggy Chase" with Speed Buggy voiced by Maurice LaMarche, Tinker voiced by Chris Edgerly, and Debbie voiced by Nika Futterman. Speed Buggy was arrested for speeding and Harvey Birdman had to represent him.


 * Speed Buggy appears in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" voiced by Frank Welker. He and his team appear alongside several other Hanna-Barbera mystery teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's where all of the teen sleuths are kidnapped by Lord Infernacus, leaving Scooby-Doo, Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, Captain Caveman, and The Funky Phantom to solve the mystery.


 * Speed Buggy is also referenced in 2 Futurama episodes, "Law and Oracle" and "2-D Blacktop".

DVD release
On January 11, 2011, Warner Archive released Speed Buggy: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.

The first episode, "Speed Buggy Went That-A-Way", is featured on the DVD compilation Saturday Morning Cartoons: the 1970s Volume 1 released on May 26, 2009.