The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (July 2007) |
| The Perils of Penelope Pitstop | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 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 producers | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Camera setup | Single camera |
| Running time | 21 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 13, 1969 – January 17, 1970 |
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop was 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 for two seasons, with 17 half-hour episodes produced.
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 anachronistically in the then-contemporary 1960s, the characters and settings of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop were strongly reminiscent of the 1920s.
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 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.
The Hooded Claw (who, ironically, has neither a hood nor a claw), aided by his pair of identical henchmen, the Bully Brothers, 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, the jungle, Baghdad and the North Pole.
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 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 were:
- Clyde - the leader, a caricature of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar.
- Dum Dum - played stupid.
- Pockets - able to bring out useful objects to get the Mob out of trouble, even ones of ridiculous size.
- Snoozy - the dozy one, sleeping through moments of emergency.
- Softy - cried at any possible emotional or stressful moment; whether those moments were happy or sad was irrelevant.
- Yak Yak - the talkative one, made a kind of 'yuk yuk' laugh, no matter how disastrous the news he was imparting.
- Zippy - a fast runner and a fast talker.
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", which was articulate and seemed to have a mind of its own.
The Complete Episode Guide
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.
DVD Release
On May 10, 2005, Warner Home Video released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.
| Cover Art | DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.jpg | Perils of Penelope Pitstop- The Complete Series | 17 | May 10 2005 |
|
Trivia
- 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.
- Although Penelope is very smart, she never sees that Sylvester Sneekly is in fact her enemy, the Hooded Claw.
- The Wacky Races series is never mentioned in the series: not by Penelope, nor by the Ant Hill Mob.
- The Compact Pussycat from Wacky Races is never seen in the series. Instead of that vehicle, Penelope usually drives a green sports car.
- Penelope is a size 9. This was mentioned in two episodes, "Hair-Raising Harness Race" and "Big Bagdad Danger".
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop in popular culture
- The 1984 Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "The Power of Love" contains the line "I'll protect you from the Hooded Claw...".
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