Speed Buggy

Arelen Golonka and Mel Blanc must have been struggling with this..sex, drugs, cards, hippies, oh my, as Judy Garland said forty years earlier.

I'm just surprised the kids didn't't sing any songs here. The other shows: Scooby/Josie/Pebbles and Bamm Bamm, then Funky Phantom, Butch Cassidy, Clue Club, and (bringing up Judy Garland's exclamation from Wizard again) Oh My, Goober.

Bad timing, bad design, no wonder it lasted for only 17 episodes one season, and characters using drug abuse (going back to the late 60s Banana Splits and Cattanooga Cats, though those early efforts were admittedly a bit better), caused HB, and later the Smurf like cartoons next decade, 1980s, to bring HB and Filmation down to the worst level anyone could. Thank god for Beavis and Butthead and the late 1920sa-early 1960s. Though I did like "Wait Till your Father Gets Home" & "Inch High Private High". :D

Speed Buggy is a wonderful cartoon show. Personally I LOVE the show. I think it is one of the best cartoons in the world. It is about this race car named Speed Buggy with whom can talk, surf, fish, and do almost anything. Speed Buggy, and his friends Mark, Debbie and Tinker usually get into an adventure during a race. Arlene Golonka (Debbie) is one reason to watch the show. Debbie is my favorite character. She can talk Speed Buggy into doing anything. And she can boss Mark and Tinker around and they do what she wants. And I would also suggest catching the 1978 Television show Taxi (which stared Judd Hirsch and Tony Danza) Arlene Golonka makes an appearance in episode #7 "High School Reunion" as Shelia Martin. She is terrific in that episode.

This was a very good enjoyable Saturday Morning cartoon show,with the expection of one flaw. For one,this was a clone from two of the most successful Hanna-Barbera cartoons of their day. First off,they took the mystery format from "Scooby Doo,Where Are You?",and secondly,bring on egotistical villains bent on destroying or conquering the world,and that came from "Josie And The Pussycats",and what do you put into the mix? Add three kids who love solving mysteries and a lovable talking car who can do anything! And what do you get? SPEED BUGGY!

Anyway,the storyline of SPEED BUGGY consists of a race-team of a group of teenage kids and their amazing talking car,who in almost every episode get into some kind of predicament or another and from there ends up being on the wrong end of the stick with some mad scientist or diabolical villain bent on taking over the world. From there the kids solve the mystery behind the problem and from there they fall into the villain's own trap with nothing but there faithful and reliable car SPEED BUGGY to get them outta a tight situation,rescue the kids and saved the day,just in time to get back into whatever race that they were in and win the championship. Neat huh? But what makes this show standout and what made this interesting to watch is none other than the voice-over of actress Arlene Golonka as Debbie,the female counterpart to the show and the one woman who was in fact ran the show keeping her male counterparts,Mark,the leader of the group,and Tinker,the mechanic in check! Debbie in fact was a woman who was in a position of authority and the only character that kept things really under control. In other words,she was the boss! Another reason that made this show interesting too is none other than the master of thousand voices,Mel Blanc as the voice of Speedy. Also to point out was that the character of Mark was the only Asian-American character that was not be type-casted as a stereotypical role.

For those who may not recognize this actress,Arlene Golonka,she was fondly-remembered for her role as Millie,the girlfriend to the Sheriff of Mayberry,Sam Jones in the series,"Mayberry RFD",which was a spin off to the successful "Andy Griffith Show",which ran for three seasons on television(1968-1971).

But getting back to the animated series,SPEED BUGGY,this was in fact a long list of "Scooby" clones that Hanna-Barbera did a lot of during the 1970's,and these were the worst that came from the studio that was in fact "Scooby and Josie" clones that ran throughout the entire decade. There were a lot of them too. From "The Funky Phantom","Jabberjaw", "Clue Club","Goober and the Ghost Chasers","Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels","Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kids","The Amazing Chan-Clan",and to an lesser extent,"The Flintstones Mysteries". This was a series that produced 17 episodes,that's right 17 episodes!!! And to make it frank,it was shown on all three major television networks(Was first shown on CBS,then NBC,and later during the end of the 70's over at ABC)throughout the entire decade in repeats from its debut in 1973 until its run in 1979,and was in fact picked up for syndication(in repeats)until 1983. It this was mostly seen on Saturday Mornings as well as Sunday Mornings until the end of the decade.

I would love to see a compilation of Speed Buggy cartoons. I would buy one in a minute! The warm memories of Southern California summer vacation afternoons watching Speed Buggy at about 3:30pm if I remember, Fun and colorful, light hearted with fun action and good adventure.

Good times...

Honk kong phooey, the Krofft superstars, The Lost Saucer, Of course, our looney tunes. If you got up reeeeal early you might catch Davey and Goliath :-)

What I'd love to see, on a late night infomercial sometime soon, is year by year, the cartoons we used to love. Have a Saturday Morning Cartoons series, and a daytime cartoon series for each year, one at a time.

Mark Perkinson

"Speed Buggy" is one of the coolest cartoons I've ever seen. Speed Buggy was this race car that could talk, and do other things besides racing. On every episode, he, along with his friends Mark, Debbie, and Tinker would always stumble into an adventure during a race which was pretty cool. I think the best part about this show is of course the title character. I wish I could've had a car like Speed Buggy. That would've been so cool. 10/10