Speed Buggy is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 8, 1973, to August 30, 1975, on CBS. Similar in style to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby Doo Where Are You!, Speed Buggy followed the adventures of an anthropomorphic fiberglass dune buggy, Speed Buggy (voiced by Mel Blanc); his driver, Tinker (voiced by Phil Luther Jr. in imitation of Jim Nabors' character Gomer Pyle), 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 catch phrases were always "Roger-Dodger!" and "Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!"
Though Speed Buggy (nicknamed Speedy by his friends) had a mind of his own, based on 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. - Fandom
“Roger-dodger, putt putt”
The public has always shown affection towards cars that have the ability to converse. As a result, sitcoms, action shows and family films have repeatedly used some form of chatty chassis to delight viewers. It was only a matter of time before kids had some talking transportation on Saturday mornings to enjoy, thanks to the creative minds at Hanna-Barbera and the animated Speed Buggy.
And like seemingly every other show about a conversing car, Speed Buggy proved to be a hit. Although only sixteen original episodes were produced between 1973 and 1975, the cartoon appeared on all three major networks in rerun form over the span of a decade. Speed Buggy was also regularly seen on Scooby’s All-Star Laugh-A-Lympics and remains one of the most beloved and fondly remembered animated talking cars of all time. - Retroland
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Trivia:
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 story lines, 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".
Sixteen 30-minute installments of Speed Buggy were produced in 1973. The show was a such a huge success 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). Then was picked up by the USA Network for its Cartoon Express shows from 1982 to about 1990.
Most likely due to the show's inspiration, Scooby Doo Where Are You!, the character Tinker shares many visual likenesses to Scooby's beatnik best friend, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers. Also, there are some similar character traits between Mark and Fred Jones, and Debbie appears to be very similar to Daphne Blake in multiple ways.
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. - Fandom
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