[Animation director] Chuck Jones found himself in a "Quit or you're fired" situation around 1962 when it was discovered that he moonlighted on the film "Gay Purr-Ee" for UPA. But before his departure, Jones created a pilot for a potential Road Runner TV show. The show wasn't picked up, but the pilot was released as a theatrical featurette called "Adventures of the Road-Runner."
...Parts of the new footage used in this featurette / pilot were edited into "To Beep Or Not To Beep" (1963), though Milt Franklyn's music was replaced with Bill Lava's. Years later, further footage was edited into two more shorts for TV, "Road Runner A Go Go" and "Zip Zip Hooray."
The Oscar-nominated 1953 cartoon, "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z," is also recycled here, oddly, but obviously for financial considerations to pad the episode. Dick Beals, the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer, speaks for the young Ralph Phillips and his companion.
I'm not fond of Wile E. Coyote when he talks, as he (Mel Blanc) does in this pilot, because it feels of filler material and impairs the pace and tone of the characters' cartoons. The Road-Runner and his nemesis work best as sight gag comedians. Meep meep....
"Adventures of the Road-Runner" (1962) via YouTube
"Adventures of the Road-Runner, Part 2" via YouTube
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