Having pitted Wile E Coyote against the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny, Chuck Jones decided to slightly redesign his luckless predator and point him in the direction of a flock of sheep, being guarded by an apparently unionized sheepdog. In later cartoons, they would be named Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog, and turn out to be friends away from the "office" -- but in this debut episode, the sheepdog is "Ralph", and he and his fellow sheepdog "Fred" are the ones punching the clock. They take turns guarding the sheep from the unnamed wolf, who is a bit shaggier and huskier than Wile E in this episode, as if Jones was truly trying to create a different character. Nevertheless, the wolf suffers much the same fate as his coyote cousin, although in this episode, it's not so much his bad luck as it is the sheepdog's ability to appear on the scene in an instant. But the wolf does share one unfortunate trait with Wile E -- he shops at Acme, and the ferocious wildcat he buys to tear apart the sheepdog does what all Acme products do! There are some other very funny moments in this cartoon, such as the sheepdog's shocked expression when "time flies" (aided by that crafty wolf) -- he doesn't even get to enjoy his "bone sandwich". There's also a hilarious sequence in which the two adversaries take turns chopping off the tree branches the other is clinging to. The series would get even better, as Jones and writer Michael Maltese refined the "shiftwork" idea to include both adversaries -- but this is a very funny beginning!
Review of Don't Give Up the Sheep
