Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner

History

Conception

Jones based the coyote on Mark Twain's book Roughing It, in which Twain described the coyote as "a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton" that is "a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry." Jones said he created the Wile E. Coyote-Road Runner cartoons as a parody of traditional "cat and mouse" cartoons such as MGM's Tom and Jerry. He also cites Frank Tashlin's 1941 adaptation of The Fox and the Grapes as inspiration due to its use of blackout gags. Jones modelled the coyote's appearance on fellow animator Ken Harris.

The coyote's name of Wile E. is a pun of the word "wily". The "E" stands for "Ethelbert" in one issue of a Looney Tunes comic book. The coyote's surname is routinely pronounced with a long "e" ( ky-OH-tee), but in two cartoon shorts, To Hare Is Human and Rabbit's Feat, Wile E. is heard pronouncing it with a diphthong ( ky-OH-tay). Early model sheets for the character prior to his initial appearance (in Fast and Furry-ous) identified him as "Don Coyote", a pun on Don Quixote.

The Road Runner's "beep, beep" sound was inspired by background artist Paul Julian's imitation of a car horn. Julian voiced the various recordings of the phrase used throughout the Road Runner cartoons, although he was not credited for his work on screen. According to animation historian Michael Barrier, Julian's preferred spelling of the sound effect was either "hmeep hmeep" or "mweep, mweep."

In the main series, Wile E. does not speak, instead portrayed as a mute character who communicates with the use of signs. However he does speak in a few cartoons; when he does, he has a notably upper-class American accent, and often refers to himself as a genius or super-genius. The 1965 short Zip Zip Hooray! is his first speaking appearance, in which he explains his desire to eat the Road Runner, and in another 1965 short, Road Runner a Go-Go, he explains how he sets up his cameras in the desert. He also speaks in the first four cartoons where he is pitted against Bugs Bunny—Operation: Rabbit, To Hare is Human, Rabbit's Feat, and Compressed Hare.

With their formulaic humor, sparse backgrounds and no dialogue, Road Runner shorts could be produced in three weeks or less. When Jones wanted to make a more ambitious cartoon he would sometimes schedule a Road Runner film alongside it to save time and money.

Scenery

The desert scenery in the first three Road Runner cartoons, Fast and Furry-ous (1949), Beep, Beep (1952), and Going! Going! Gosh! (also 1952), was designed by Robert Gribbroek and was quite realistic. In most later cartoons the scenery was designed by Maurice Noble and was far more abstract, especially after 1955. It is based on the deserts of the Southwestern United States.

Laws and rules

In his book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, Chuck Jones wrote that he and the artists behind the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons adhered to some simple but strict rules:

"The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going 'Beep-Beep!'"

"No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products."

"The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: 'A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.' — George Santayana)."

"No dialogue ever, except 'Beep-Beep!'"

"The Road Runner must stay on the road — otherwise, logically, he would not be called a Road Runner."

"All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert."

"All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences, must be obtained from the Acme Corporation."

"Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy."

"The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures."

These rules were not always followed, and in an interview years after the series was made, Michael Maltese, principal writer of the original 16 cartoons, stated he had never heard of these or any "rules" and dismissed them as "post-production observation".

Running gags

In many of the shorts, a cartoon typically starts with Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner in a desperate attempt to catch him, only for the Road Runner to zip away at breakneck speed, much to the Coyote's surprise and utter amazement. Also, most pre-1965 shorts assign each character fake Dog Latin names such as "Carnivorous Vulgaris" for the Coyote and "Acceleratti Incredibilus" for the

Road Runner, as do a few shorts from 1979 to 2000.

One notable running gag involves the Coyote falling from high cliffs; after momentarily being suspended in midair, as if the fall is delayed until he realizes that there is nothing below him. The rest of the scene, shot from a bird's-eye view, shows him falling into a canyon so deep that his figure is eventually lost to sight, with only a small puff of dust indicating his impact. In Chuck Jones' cartoons the coyote usually tumbles or falls face up. Either way, he is more fully animated than in his D-FE-era falls, which always show him falling face down and stiff. The Format Productions cartoons cheapen the falls even more by showing the coyote already most of the way down when the overhead shot begins.

The coyote is a brilliant artist, capable of quickly painting lifelike renderings of such things as tunnels and roadside scenes, in further (and equally futile) attempts to deceive the bird. Additionally, another running gag involves the coyote trying, in vain, to shield himself against a great falling boulder that is about to crush him.

Wile E. Coyote often obtains various complex and ludicrous devices from a mail-order company, the fictitious Acme Corporation, which he hopes will help him catch the Road Runner. The devices invariably fail in improbable and spectacular fashion.

In August, September and October 1982, the National Lampoon published a three-part series chronicling the lawsuit Wile E. filed against the Acme Corporation over the faulty items they sold him in his pursuit of the Road Runner. Even though the Road Runner appeared as a witness for the plaintiff, the Coyote still lost the suit.

Later cartoons

The original Chuck Jones productions ended in 1963 after Jack L. Warner closed Warner Bros. Cartoons. War and Pieces, the last short featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, directed by Jones, was released on June 6, 1964. By that time, David H. DePatie and director Friz Freleng had formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, moved into the facility just emptied by Warner, and signed a license with Warner Bros. to produce cartoons for the big studio to distribute.

The first DePatie–Freleng cartoon to feature the Road Runner was The Wild Chase, directed by Freleng in 1965. The premise was a race between the bird and "the fastest mouse in all México", Speedy Gonzales, with the Coyote and Sylvester the Cat each trying to make a meal out of their respective usual targets. Much of the material was animation rotoscoped from earlier Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales shorts, with the other characters added in. Additionally, the studio produced two cartoons (Zip Zip Hooray! (1965) and Road Runner a Go-Go (1965)) that reuse footage from Chuck Jones' 1962 television pilot Adventures of the Road Runner, with the original audio kept intact. DePatie-Freleng went on to produce 13 more Road Runner cartoons. Two of these shorts were produced in-house and were directed by Robert McKimson (Rushing Roulette (1965) and Sugar and Spies (1966)), while the remaining eleven, directed by Rudy Larriva, were outsourced to Format Films.

Format's Road Runner cartoons, nicknamed the "Larriva Eleven", were characterized for their poorer production quality when compared to DePatie-Freleng, with animation often being reused in nearly every cartoon. The music was also of poorer quality, as the soundtrack (composed by Bill Lava) was relegated to the use of pre-composed music cues rather than a proper score, the only exception to this being Run Run, Sweet Road Runner (1965) as it was produced with a proper soundtrack. In addition, except for the planet Earth scene at the end of Highway Runnery (1965), there was only one clip of the Coyote's fall to the ground, used over and over again. Jones' previously described "laws" for the characters were not followed with any significant fidelity, nor were Latin phrases used when introducing the characters. These 11 shorts have been considered inferior to the other Golden Age shorts, garnering mixed to poor reviews from critics. Leonard Maltin, in his book Of Mice and Magic, calls the shorts "witless in every sense of the word".

All these Road Runner cartoons can be easily distinguished from Chuck Jones' Road Runner cartoons because they utilize the "Abstract" WB logo opening and closing sequences, which ironically was the original idea of Jones himself.

Post-theatrical appearances

The Road Runner and the Coyote appeared on Saturday mornings as the stars of their own TV series, The Road Runner Show, from September 1966 to September 1968, on CBS. At this time it was merged with The Bugs Bunny Show to become The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show, running from 1968 to 1985. The show was later seen on ABC until 2000, and on Global until 2001.

In the 1970s, Chuck Jones directed some Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner short films for the educational children's TV series The Electric Company. These short cartoons used the Coyote and the Road Runner to display words for children to read.

In 1979, Freeze Frame, in which Jones moved the chase from the desert to snow-covered mountains, was seen as part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales.

At the end of Bugs Bunny's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny (the initial sequence of Chuck Jones' TV special Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over), Bugs mentions to the audience that he and Elmer Fudd may have been the first pair of characters to have chase scenes in these cartoons, but then a pint-sized baby Wile E. Coyote (wearing a diaper and holding a small knife and fork) runs right in front of Bugs, chasing a gold-colored, mostly unhatched (except for the tail, which is sticking out) Road Runner egg, which is running rapidly while some high-pitched "Beep, beep" noises can be heard. Earlier in that story, while kid Elmer was falling from a cliff, Wile E. Coyote's adult self tells him to move over and leave falling to people who know how to do it and then he falls, followed by Elmer. This short was followed by the full-fledged Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote short Soup or Sonic.

In the 1980s, ABC began showing many Warner Bros. shorts, but in highly edited form. Many scenes integral to the stories were taken out, including scenes in which Wile E. Coyote landed at the bottom of the canyon after falling from a cliff, or had a boulder or anvil actually make contact with him. In almost all WB animated features, scenes where a character's face was burnt and black, some thought resembling blackface, were removed. The unedited versions of these shorts (with the exception of ones with blackface) were not seen again until Cartoon Network, and later Boomerang, began showing them again in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since the release of the WB library of cartoons on DVD, the cartoons gradually disappeared from television, presumably to increase sales of the DVDs. However, Cartoon Network began to air them again in 2011, coinciding with the premiere of The Looney Tunes Show (2011), and the shorts were afterward moved to Boomerang, where they have remained to this day.

3-D shorts

The characters appeared in seven 3-D shorts attached to Warner Bros. features. Three have been screened with features, while the rest serve as segments in season 1 of The Looney Tunes Show. A short called Flash in the Pain was shown on the web in 2014, but was not shown in theaters until 2016, when the movie Storks premiered.

Coyote vs. Acme

In late 2018, it was announced that Warner Bros. Pictures were developing a live-action animated film centered on Wile E. Coyote titled Coyote vs. Acme, produced by Warner Animation Group, with The Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay on board to produce. The film is said to be based on The New Yorker short story "Coyote v. Acme" by author Ian Frazier. Published in 1990, the piece imagined a lawsuit brought about by Wile E. Coyote against the Acme Company who provided him with various devices and tools to aid in his pursuit of the Road Runner. The devices frequently malfunctioned, leading to the humorous failures, injuries, and sight gags for which the Road Runner cartoons are known. Jon and Josh Silberman were originally set to write the screenplay. On December 18, 2019, it was reported that Dave Green would direct, and seeking a new writer, with Jon and Josh Silberman instead co-producing alongside McKay. However, by December 2020, McKay departed the project, while the Silbermans left their roles as producers and resumed their screenwriting roles, with Samy Burch, Jeremy Slater, and James Gunn set to write its screenplay. Gunn would have also co-produced alongside Chris DeFaria. It was later announced that the film was scheduled to be released on July 21, 2023.

In February 2022, it was announced that professional wrestler John Cena would star in the film. In March 2022, Will Forte and Lana Condor joined the cast. On April 26, 2022, it was taken off the release schedule with Barbie taking its original date. Despite its completion by November 9, 2023, it was announced that its theatrical and public release would be cancelled, with the company taking an approximately US$30 million tax write-off. Consistent with its long-term production issues and delays, Green later expressed his views on the decision:

I am beyond proud of the final product, and beyond devastated by WB's decision. But in the spirit of Wile E. Coyote, resilience and persistence win the day.

However, four days later, the decision was reversed. Later that day, it was reported that Warner Bros. would instead allow the film's crew to shop out to other possible distributors, with Apple TV+, Netflix, and Amazon MGM Studios among its potential buyers. Due to the company's handling of the matter, U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro called for a federal investigation regarding the film's initial cancellation and tax-write off plan, stemming from possible violations of antitrust guidelines.

Spin-offs and other media

The coyote appears separately as an occasional antagonist of Bugs Bunny in five shorts from 1952 to 1963: Operation: Rabbit, To Hare Is Human, Rabbit's Feat, Compressed Hare, and Hare-Breadth Hurry. While he is generally silent in the Wile E. Coyote – Road Runner shorts, he speaks with a refined accent in these solo outings (except for Hare-Breadth Hurry), beginning with 1952's Operation: Rabbit, introducing himself as "Wile E. Coyote, (Super) Genius", voiced by Mel Blanc. Hare-Breadth Hurry in particular stands out as the short uses the framework of a typical Road Runner cartoon, but with Bugs as the substitute since the former had "sprained a giblet cornering a sharp curve the other day."

In another series of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons, Chuck Jones used the character design (model sheets and personality) of Wile E. Coyote as "Ralph Wolf". In this series, Ralph continually attempts to steal sheep from a flock being guarded by the eternally vigilant Sam Sheepdog. As with the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote series, Ralph Wolf uses all sorts of wild inventions and schemes to steal the sheep, but he is continually foiled by the sheepdog. In a move seen by many as a self-referential gag, Ralph Wolf continually tries to steal the sheep not because he is a fanatic (as Wile E. Coyote was), but because it is his job. In every cartoon, he and Sam Sheepdog punch a timeclock and exchange pleasantries, go to work, stop what they are doing to take a lunch break, go back to work and pick up right where they left off, and clock out to go home for the day and exchange pleasantries again, all according to a factory-like blowing whistle. The most obvious difference between the coyote and the wolf, aside from their locales, is that Wile E. has a black nose and Ralph has a red nose.

Comic books

Wile E. Coyote was called Kelsey Coyote in his comic book debut, a Henery Hawk story in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies #91 (May 1949). He only made a couple of other appearances at this time and did not have his official name yet, as it was not used until 1952 (in Operation: Rabbit, his second appearance).

The first appearance of the Road Runner in a comic book was in Bugs Bunny Vacation Funnies #8 (August 1958) published by Dell Comics. The feature is titled "Beep Beep the Road Runner" and the story "Desert Dessert". It presents itself as the first meeting between Beep Beep and Wile E. (whose mailbox reads "Wile E. Coyote, Inventor and Genius"), and introduces the Road Runner's wife, Matilda, and their three newly hatched sons (though Matilda soon disappeared from the comics). This story established the convention that the Road Runner family talked in rhyme, a convention that also appeared in early children's book adaptations of the cartoons.

Dell initially published a dedicated "Beep Beep the Road Runner" comic as part of Four Color Comics #918, 1008, and 1046 before launching a separate series for the character numbered #4–14 (1960–1962), with the three try-out issues counted as the first three numbers. After a hiatus, Gold Key Comics took over the character with issues #1–88 (1966–1984). During the 1960s, the artwork was done by Pete Alvarado and Phil DeLara, from 1966 to 1969, the Gold Key issues consisted entirely of Dell reprints. Afterward, reprints combined with new stories began to appear, initially drawn by Alvarado and De Lara before Jack Manning became the main artist for the title. New and reprinted Beep Beep stories also appeared in Golden Comics Digest and Gold Key's revival of Looney Tunes in the 1970s. During this period, Wile E.'s middle name was revealed to be "Ethelbert" in the story "The Greatest of E's" in issue #53 (cover-dated September 1975) of Gold Key Comics' licensed comic book Beep Beep the Road Runner.

The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote also make appearances in the DC Comics Looney Tunes title. Like the theatrical shorts, Wile E. remained silent in his appearances with the Road Runner in the DC comics, but did speak when he was paired with another character, like Bugs Bunny.

In 2017, DC Comics featured a Looney Tunes and DC Comics crossovers that reimagined the characters in a darker style. The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote had a crossover with the intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo in Lobo/Road Runner Special #1. In this version, the Road Runner, Wile E., and other Looney Tunes characters are reimagined as standard animals who were experimented upon with alien DNA at Acme to transform them into their cartoon forms. In the back-up story, done in more traditional cartoon style, Lobo tries to hunt down the Road Runner, but is limited by Bugs to be more kid-friendly in his language and approach.

Video games

Many Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner-themed video games have been produced:

Filmography

The series consists of:

49 shorts, mostly about six to nine minutes long, but including four web cartoons which are "three-minute, three-dimensional cartoons in widescreen (scope)".

One half-hour special released theatrically (26 minutes).

Four feature-length films that combine live action and animation.

1 Re-edited from Adventures of the Road Runner by Chuck Jones and with new music direction from Bill Lava

2 Re-edited from Adventures of the Road Runner by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises

3 These cartoons were each shown with a feature-length film. Chariots of Fur was shown with Richie Rich, Coyote Falls was shown with Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Fur of Flying was shown with Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, and Rabid Rider was shown with Yogi Bear. Flash in the Pain was shown at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 10, 2014.

Feature films

Space Jam (1996)

Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

Voice actors

Wile E. Coyote

Mel Blanc (1949–1989)

Paul Julian (imitating the Road Runner in Zipping Along, Ready, Set, Zoom!, The Road Runner Show bumper and Road Runner's Death Valley Rally)

Joe Alaskey (Tiny Toon Adventures, Judge Granny)

Keith Scott (Spectacular Light and Show Illuminanza, The Looney Tunes Radio Show)

Bob Bergen (Bugs Bunny's Learning Adventures)

Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy)

Dee Bradley Baker (Duck Dodgers)

Maurice LaMarche (Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor)

Jess Harnell (The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!)

James Arnold Taylor (Scooby Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe)

JP Karliak (New Looney Tunes)

Martin Starr (Robot Chicken)

Eric Bauza (Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem)

Keith Ferguson (Bugs Bunny Builders)

The Road Runner

The voice artist Paul Julian originated the character's voice. Before and after his death, his voice was appearing in various media until 1994, other voice actors have replaced him at that time. These voice actors are:

Mel Blanc (1964 Greeting Card Record, The New Adventures of Bugs Bunny (1973), Four More Adventures of Bugs Bunny (1974), one beep in Bugs Bunny's Magic World, Mel Blanc Voice Watches, Looney Tunes Talking Character Wall Clock)

Jeff Bergman (Tiny Toon Adventures (in the episode "Animaniacs"))

Keith Scott (Road Runner Roller Coaster commercial, The Looney Tunes Radio Show)

Dee Bradley Baker (Looney Tunes: Back in Action)

Joe Alaskey (Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor)

Seth MacFarlane (The Cleveland Show)

James Arnold Taylor (The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!)

Kevin Shinick (Mad)

Seth Green (Robot Chicken)

Unknown (Scooby-Doo and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Universe: Arcade)

Eric Bauza (Ani-Mayhem, Fast and Furry-ous, Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem, Looney Tunes Cartoons, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Bugs Bunny Builders, Tiny Toons Looniversity, Acme Fools, Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports, Coyote vs. Acme)

In popular culture

In 1959, Bo Diddley recorded a song titled "Road Runner" with the female background singers singing "beep-beep". The song was released in 1960.

The pictorial sleeves for Junior Walker & the Allstars' 1966 album Road Runner and the single "(I'm a) Road Runner" depict a running bird similar to the Road Runner character.

A clip from the cartoon Whoa, Be-Gone! was featured in the 1974 Steven Spielberg film The Sugarland Express, during a scene at a drive-in theater.

In the Fraidy Cat episode "Choo-Choo Fraidy", Fraidy Cat meets a coyote named Smile E. Coyote who prefers to not eat Fraidy and instead goes after an overweight jogging roadrunner, clearly parodying the iconic duo.

The 1979 Western comedy film The Villain is a tribute to the cartoons, reconstructing several famous gags in live action.

There are two scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of The Shining where Danny Torrance and his mother, Wendy Torrance, are watching The Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Show. The chase between Danny and his father, Jack Torrance, is even reminiscent of the Road Runner cartoons, with the former putting his escape tactics (which he learns from watching the cartoons) to good use, and the chase ending with the latter frozen in ice, in a similar manner to Wile E. Coyote's failed attempts to catch the Road Runner. Both Danny and Wendy also watch the cartoon Rabbit's Feat in Mike Flanagan's 2019 adaptation of Doctor Sleep.

A Wile E. Coyote doll is seen amongst Elliott Taylor's toys in the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

The music videos for Twisted Sister's signature songs "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" were based heavily on the cartoon.

The Dutch Euro disco/Italo disco duo Video Kids' song "Sky Rider", from their 1984 album The Invasion of the Spacepeckers, includes samples of the Road Runner's "beep, beep" sound throughout.

Commercial appearances

The Plymouth Road Runner was a performance car produced by the Plymouth division of Chrysler between 1968 and 1980. An official licensee of Warner Bros. (paying $50,000 for the privilege), Plymouth used the image of the cartoon bird on the sides and the car had a special horn (with "Voice of Road Runner" labels) that sounds like the character's signature "beep, beep" sound. Some engine options (notably the 426 Hemi) included Road Runner "Coyote Duster" graphics on the air cleaner. The 1970 Plymouth Superbird version of the Road Runner, arguably one of the most popular cars of the muscle car era, included a graphic of the Road Runner holding a crash helmet on its massive rear spoiler and one of its headlight covers. The commercials were directed by Alex Lovy and Robert McKimson.

From 1985 to 1987, General Motors used the Road Runner on its marketing campaign in 1985 for its Holden Barina in Australia. The campaign's slogan, "Beep Beep Barina", has since been known as a catchphrase by many Australians.

From 1994 to 1996, Wile E. appeared in a few Energizer commercials trying to capture the Energizer Bunny.

In 1995, the Road Runner became the mascot for Time Warner's cable internet service, also named Road Runner. Interestingly, one commercial involved Wile E. as the "mascot" of DSL. The Road Runner was also the mascot of Time Warner's car sales website, BeepBeep.com, and appeared in commercials on Time Warner cable systems in several television markets.

In 1996, Wile E. Coyote appeared alongside football star Deion Sanders in a Pepsi commercial.

In 1998, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner appeared in a Pontiac Wide Track commercial. Wile E. chases the Road Runner while driving the car, but the commercial ends before he can catch him.

In 2004, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner appeared (along with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck) in an Aflac commercial, in which the former is shown as being a prime candidate for the company's services. Before he plummets, taking an animated version of the Aflac duck with him, he holds up a sign reading the company's tagline, "Ask About It At Work." The commercial was directed by Frank Molieri at Acme Filmworks and animated by Bill Waldman.