The Kwicky Koala Show is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Hanna Barbera Pty, Ltd. that aired on Saturday-mornings on CBS from September 12 to December 26, 1981. The show is notable for being among cartoon director Tex Avery's final works; he died during production in 1980. As it was produced in Australia, the Cartoon Network and later Boomerang broadcasts were sourced from time-compressed PAL masters, rather than NTSC masters like many other Hanna-Barbera productions. Each segment has also been shown separately as filler between shows on Boomerang.
The Kwicky Koala Show contained four short segments: Kwicky Koala, The Bungle Brothers, Crazy Claws and Dirty Dawg.
Segments
Kwicky Koala
Kwicky Koala (voiced by writer Bob Ogle) is similar to Avery's Droopy, except that Kwicky can escape his pursuer Wilford Wolf (voiced by John Stephenson), who closely resembles the earlier Hanna-Barbera character Mildew Wolf (to the point that Stephenson impersonates Mildew's voice actor Paul Lynde for Wilford). The difference is that Kwicky moves at super-speed, which looks more like vanishing into thin air with an accompanying "beep" sound effect, much like Speedy Gonzales (the animation shortcut used to facilitate this often went to extremes by making Kwicky disappear from one spot and reappear instantly in the next, with no intermediate smear frames).
Episodes
The Bungle Brothers
A pair of beagles named George (voiced by Michael Bell) and Joey (voiced by Allan Melvin) seek vaudeville stardom. This segment is mostly short wraparounds.
Episodes
Crazy Claws
A wildcat named Crazy Claws (voiced by Jim MacGeorge impersonating Groucho Marx) uses his sharp wits and equally sharp claws to evade the fur trapper Rawhide Clyde (voiced by Don Messick) and his dog Bristletooth (voiced by Peter Cullen) in a U.S. National Park run by Ranger Rangerfield (voiced by Michael Bell).
Episodes
Dirty Dawg
A vagrant Labrador Retriever named Dirty Dawg (voiced by Frank Welker impersonating Howard Cosell) seeks to improve life for himself and his friend Ratso the Rat (voiced by Marshall Efron) while staying ahead of a police officer named Officer Bullhorn (voiced by Matthew Faison).
Episodes
Voice cast
- Michael Bell as George and Ranger Rangerfield
- Peter Cullen as Bristletooth
- Marshall Efron as Ratso
- Matthew Faison as Officer Bullhorn
- Jim MacGeorge as Crazy Claws
- Allan Melvin as Joey
- Don Messick as Rawhide Clyde
- Bob Ogle as Kwicky Koala
- John Stephenson as Wilford Wolf
- Frank Welker as Dirty Dawg
Additional voices
- Marlene Aragon
- Joe Baker
- Jered Barclay
- Hamilton Camp
- Henry Corden
- Jack DeLeon
- Joan Gerber
- Danny Goldman
- Bob Holt
- Annie Potts
- Paul Ross
- Bob Sarlatte
- Marilyn Schreffler
- Hal Smith
- Lennie Weinrib
Home media
A VHS release of the series was issued by Worldvision Home Video during the late 1980s, and several episodes were released on DVD by Warner Home Video as part of Saturday Morning Cartoons: The 1980s Collection, Volume 1 on May 4, 2010. The episodes on this set are "Dry Run", "Robinson Caruso", "High Roller", "The Claws Conspiracy", "Hat Dance" and "Dirty's Debut".
On October 11, 2016, Warner Archive released The Kwicky Koala Show: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 for the very first time, as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.
Other appearances
- In the Cartoon Network bumper "Sick Days", a majority of cartoon characters call in sick to work, resulting in a programming problem due to the talent shortage. The result was CN airing a 24-hour Kwicky Koala Marathon, much to the viewers' dismay.
- Kwicky Koala makes some cameo appearances in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. He appears as a tattoo in the episode "Deadomutt Part 2". He also appears in "SPF", where he, along with Dirty Dawg, appears as one of the victims of Cybersquatting, and in "The Death of Harvey" during the riots, laying in a road crater and moving his head. Additionally, Officer Bullhorn appears as a jury candidate in "Juror in Court".
- Kwicky Koala and Dirty Dawg make appearances in Jellystone! with Kwicky Koala voiced by Paul F. Tompkins and Dirty Dawg voiced by Jeff Bergman. Dirty Dawg was seen in the episode "It's a Mad Mad Mad Rat Race" where he works as a caricature artist and is an old friend of Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har.
References
External links
- The Kwicky Koala Show at IMDb
- Kwicky Koala at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015.
