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Speed Buggy is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on CBS from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975.

Production[link]

Sixteen 30-minute installments of Speed Buggy were produced in 1973. The show was so successful 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). It was then picked up by the USA Network for their Cartoon Express shows from 1982 to about 1990. Unlike most cartoon series' produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, Speed Buggy did not contain a laugh track.

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 storylines, including "Out of Sight"("X Marks the Spot") and "Island of the Giant Plants"("A Greenthumb is not a Goldfinger"). "Hidden Valley" was similar to Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space episode "Warrior Women of Amazonia".

Plot[link]

This show followed the adventures of an anthropomorphic, fiberglass Dune Buggy, Speed Buggy (voiced by Mel Blanc), his driver Tinker (voiced by Phil Luther, Jr.), 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 trademark quotes were always "Roger-Dodger!" and "Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!" Though Speed Buggy—nicknamed Speedy by his friends—had a mind of his own, much like 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.

Episodes[link]

Cast[link]

• Michael Bell - Mark
• Mel Blanc - Speed Buggy
• Arlene Golonka - Debbie
• Phil Luther, Jr. - Tinker

Additional voices[link]

• Chris Allen -
• Ron Feinberg -
• Virginia Gregg -
• Jim MacGeorge -
• Sidney Miller -
• Alan Oppenheimer -
• Mike Road -
• Charles Martin Smith -
• Hal Smith -
• John Stephenson -
• Janet Waldo -

Trivia[link]

• A different voice actor portrayed "Tinker" in the first two episodes. It is unclear if the credited voice of Phil Luther, Jr. voiced the first two or the last 14 shows. It is also unclear why the change was made.

In popular culture[link]

• Speed Buggy and the gang guest starred in a September 29, 1973 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "The Weird Winds of Winona"; it was the only time that Mark, a Native American, was shown in a darker skin color.
• In 1975, Charlton Comics published a 9-issue series Speed Buggy comic book.
• In 1977, Speed Buggy and Tinker also competed in the "Laff-A-Lympics" as part of "The Scooby Doobies" team (where Tinker was voiced by Frank Welker) on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.
• On cable, repeats of this show aired on USA Cartoon Express in the 1980s and, from 1992 to the present day, Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang.
• Speed Buggy appeared in a joke flashback in Stroker and Hoop, in which they think back to when they had caught a criminal named Beeffinger.
• Speed Buggy appeared at the end of an Johnny Bravo episode, "Bravo Dooby Doo" voiced by Frank Welker. He finds Johnny Bravo tied to a tree near the road and asks Johnny to hop in.
• Speed Buggy made a guest appearance in an episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, in the episode Jenny accidentally knocks Sheldon into the street, at that point Speed Buggy who is coming down the road sees him and he makes a turn, but ends up crashing into a fire hydrant.
• A statue of Speed Buggy is seen in a race car stadium in a episode of Invader Zim.
• Speed Buggy made a cameo appearance in the Animaniacs episode "Yakko goes bananas".
• Speed Buggy also features in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law episode "High Speed Buggy Chase" with Speed Buggy voiced by Maurice LaMarche, Tinker voiced by Chris Edgerly, and Debbie voiced by Nika Futterman. Speed Buggy was arrested for speeding and Harvey Birdman had to represent him.
• Speed Buggy makes a cameo as one of the combatants of the good imaginary characters in the South Park episode "ImaginationLand Part III using a mounted buzz saw as a weapon.
• Speed Buggy appears in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" voiced by Frank Welker. He and his team appear alongside several other Hanna-Barbera mystery teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's where all of the teen sleuths are kidnapped by Lord Infernacus, leaving Scooby-Doo Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, Captain Caveman, and The Funky Phantom to solve the mystery.
• Speed Buggy also appears in the basement of the mansion in the video game Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers on the Game Boy Color.
• Speed Buggy is mentioned in the Futurama episode "Love and Oracle" (series 6 episode 17) where Fry becomes a police officer and aspires to become a real investigator like Sherlock Holmes or Speed Buggy.

DVD release[link]

On January 11, 2011, Warner Bros. released Speed Buggy: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and only in the US.^[1]

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.

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.wbshop.com/Speed-Buggy-The-Complete-Series-Collection/1000188124,default,pd.html

External links[link]

• Speed Buggy at the Internet Movie Database
• Speed Buggy at TV.com
• Cartoon Network: Dept. of Cartoons: Speed Buggy - cached copy from Internet Archives

Jean-Yves Blondeau
Born	Jean-Yves Blondeau 1970 (age 41–42) Aix-les-Bains, France
Nationality	French
Other names	Rollerman
Alma mater	École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art
Occupation	Designer
Known for	Inventing the 31-wheel roller suit
Parents	Paul Blondeau Micheline Blondeau
Website
www.buggy-rollin.com

Jean-Yves Blondeau (born 1970, Aix-les-Bains), also known as "Rollerman", is a French designer who is best known for inventing the 31-wheel roller suit.

Biography[link]

Jean-Yves Blondeau was born in 1970 in Aix-les-Bains, Savoy, France to Paul Blondeau and Micheline Blondeau. He has four brothers and a sister.^[1]

Buggy rollin[link]

Jean-Yves Blondeau is the inventor of the 31-wheel roller suit (also known as the wheel suit or buggy rollin). This suit places a number of rollers (similar to those found on rollerblades) on most of the major joints, the torso, and the back.^[2] The wearer can ride in a variety of positions (upright, prone, supine, on all fours, etc.) at speeds of up to 70 mph (116 km/h) in downhill.^[3] He has been featured on television shows in several countries on all continents. The buggy rollin wheel suit can be practiced on any similar surface as roller skate.^[4][5]

He carried out the roller suit as part of his graduation project at the industrial design school École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art (also known as the Olivier de Serres) in Paris. The study theme was: "systems that underline the sensations caused by the displacement of the human center of gravity in relation to support points in order to move into space". The research phase lasted for 6 months, followed by 1 month of synthesis and 2 months for producing the prototype. Then followed a year of secret patent application writing, finally published in June 1995.^[6]

Since then, six generations of buggy-rollins have been elaborated. They include different creations from the most basic kneepad with rollers to the most sophisticated one called "Super Rollin Bionic Woman" (SURBO). The prototypes have evolved into safer, more comfortable and easier machines that can be adapted to all different morphologies.^[6]

Two of his suits can be seen in a short scene partway through the end credits of the 2008 Jim Carrey film Yes Man.^[4] Two other suits were featured in a commercial for Mennen filmed in South Africa and intended for distribution in South America in 2010.^[7] He also featured in a commercial for Megapass, a broadband telecommunication service in South Korea.^[8] In 2011 he took part in Stan Lee's Superhumans TV program.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Inline speed skating
• Road skating

References[link]

External links[link]

• Buggy Rollin Official Website
• Jean-Yves Blondeau at YouTube