| Genre: | Anthology |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Channel: | CBS (1966–1968) ABC (1971–1973) |
| Num Seasons: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 26 |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Company: | Warner Bros. Television DePatie-Freleng Enterprises |
The Road Runner Show is an American Saturday morning animated anthology series which compiled theatrical Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, which were produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons between 1949 and 1964. Several of the shorts, especially the ones produced from 1965 onward, were produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises after Warner Bros. closed their animation studio. DePatie–Freleng Enterprises provided the animation for the show's intro, closing credits as well as the wrap-around bumpers.[1] [2]
From 1966 to 1968, The Road Runner Show initially ran for two seasons on CBS.[3] [4] From 1968 to 1969, CBS combined The Road Runner Show with The Bugs Bunny Show to produce The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. The Road Runner and the Coyote more often shared at least an hour with Bugs Bunny on CBS.[5] In 1971, ABC picked up The Road Runner Show and ran for two seasons until 1973, when the network dropped the show due to its excessively aggressive scenes. Later on, CBS re-acquired the show and aired them as reruns under The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour until the mid-80s.[6]
Each show would feature one Road Runner/Coyote cartoon, with a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon in the middle segment, and other WB animated character(s) in the third segment (usually Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales, Pepé Le Pew and Hippety Hopper). The intro of every cartoon was replaced with a simple title card, along with the shortened version of William Lava's arrangement of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down.
The show aired in Albania on Bang Bang and Çufo, and in Hungary on M1 and RTL Klub. In Indonesia, The Road Runner Show was first aired on RCTI shortly after its launch in 1989 until 1990, and on TV7 (later rebranded as Trans7) between 2006 and 2008. In the Philippines, it was also formerly Aired on RPN 9 from 1988 to 1990.
The theme song was written and performed by Barbara Cameron. In 1999, it was covered by the Mexican band Chicos de Barrio and was later parodied in Histeria! featuring Father Time and Big Fat Baby. It has also been covered by Barenaked Ladies, and Barbara Cameron re-recorded the theme with her son, Jazz violinist Doug Cameron (with Paul Julian's iconic Beep-Beep and other sound effects from the shorts used on the recording) for his Different Hats album in 2008. An instrumental version was used as the theme song for the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote segments of The Looney Tunes Show.