Wile E. Coyote

Maurice LaMarche (Looney Tunes: Reality Check and Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor)
James Arnold Taylor (2014)
J.P. Karliak (2015-2020)
Eric Bauza (2018)
Keith Ferguson (2022-present)
Jeff Bergman (The Wiggles Show)

### Debut

Fast and Furry-ous

**Wile E. Coyote** is a *Looney Tunes* character created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese.

He debuted with his frequent adversary, Road Runner, in 1949's "Fast and Furry-ous". To date, 48 cartoons have been made featuring these characters (including the computer-animated shorts), most of which were directed by Chuck Jones. In each cartoon, to try to catch his prey, rather than his natural guile, Wile E. Coyote utilizes elaborate plans and absurdly complex gadgets, often from ACME, but he fails every time.

Wile E. appears separately as an adversary of Bugs Bunny in five cartoons from 1952 to 1963: "Operation: Rabbit", "To Hare Is Human", "Rabbit's Feat", "Compressed Hare", and "Hare-Breadth Hurry". While he is usually silent in the regular *Coyote / Road-Runner* shorts, in these solo outings, he speaks with a refined, ego-maniacal, almost English-sounding accent provided by Mel Blanc.

## Creation

Chuck Jones based Wile E. Coyote on Samuel Clemens' book *Roughing It*, in which Samuel describes the coyote as a "long, slim, sick, sorry-looking skeleton" and a "living, breathing allegory of the desire to want. He's *always* hungry." Chuck Jones added that he created the *Coyote/Road-Runner* series as a means of parodying traditional "cat-and-mouse" cartoons like *Tom & Jerry* (which the director was to work on later in his career, ironically enough).

Wile E. Coyote's name is an obvious pun on the word "wily." His middle initial, "E", is said to stand for "Ethelbert" in one issue of *Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies Comics*, but its cartoonist did not intend to make it part of the official continuity, making his middle name non-canon to the show. Early model sheets for the character prior to his debut in the 1949 cartoon "Fast and Furry-ous" identify him as "Don Coyote," a pun on *Don Quixote*.

As Chuck Jones himself was never shy to point out, he stated that he based Wile E. Coyote partly on his own failure in using tools or doing repairs at home.

## Scenery

The desert scenery in the first two *Roadrunner* cartoons was designed by Robert Gribbroek and was quite realistic. In most later cartoons, the scenery was designed by Maurice Noble, who made it far more abstract.

From 1951 to 1954, the scenery was semi-realistic, with off-white skies (possibly implying overcast/cloudy weather conditions). Gravity-defying rock formations appear in "Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" A bright yellow sky made its debut in the 1956 cartoon "Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z", but was not used consistently until "There They Go-Go-Go!" was released later that same year.

"Zoom and Bored" introduced a major change in background style. Sharp, top-heavy rock formations became more prominent, and warm colors (yellow, orange, and red) were favored. Bushes were crescent-shaped. Except for "Whoa, Be-Gone!", whose scenery design harked back to Guided Muscle in certain aspects (such as off-white sky), this style of scenery was retained as far as "Fastest with the Mostest".

"Hopalong Casualty" changed the color scheme, with the sky reverting to blue, and some rocks becoming off-white, while the bright yellow desert sand color is retained, along with the 'sharp' style of rock formations pioneered by "Zoom & Bored". The crescent shapes used for bushes starting with "Zoom & Bored" were retained, and also applied to clouds. In the last scene of "War & Pieces", Wile E. Coyote's rocket blasts him through the center of the Earth to China, which is portrayed with abstract Oriental backgrounds.

The eleven Format Films cartoons used a style of scenery similar to "Hopalong Casualty", and its successors, albeit less detailed and with small puffy clouds rather than crescent-shaped ones, and with a pale light blue sky as opposed to a rich blue sky previously used.

"Freeze Frame", a direct-to-television cartoon originally shown as part of the 1979 CBS special *Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales*, depicts Road Runner taking a turn that leads the chase into mountains and across a wintry landscape of ice and snow.

"Soup or Sonic", a direct-to-television cartoon originally shown as part of the 1980 CBS special *Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over*, depicts a notable change in background style, incorporating the abstract art style of the later Road Runner cartoons and the "realistic" colors from the first two Road Runner cartoons. The sky is reverted to a rich blue color, and some rocks seen in the background are purple.

"Chariots of Fur" used a style of scenery similar to "Hopalong Casualty", and its successors, albeit slightly less detailed and with no visible clouds in the sky.

"Whizzard of Ow" used a style of scenery similar to "Zoom and Bored" and "Fastest with the Mostest", but with a more extensive use of golden yellowish hues, especially in the sky and the rocks.

The CGI shorts such as "Coyote Falls" revert back to the realistic-styled scenery as seen in the first two Road Runner shorts, albeit slightly more detailed with noticeable textures, and the blue sky having a combination of red, pink, purple and yellow gradients in the clouds (possibly implying sunrise or sunset timeframes).

## ACME

*Main article: ACME*
Wile E. Coyote often obtains complex, ludicrous gizmos from a mail-order company, the fictional ACME, which he hopes will help him catch The Road-Runner. The devices invariably fail in improbable and spectacular ways. Whether this is a result of operator error or faulty merchandise is debatable. Unfortunately, Wile E. Coyote usually ends up soiled in soot by an explosion, squashed flat by a boulder, or at the bottom of a canyon (some shorts show him suffering a combination of these fates). Occasionally, ACME products do work quite well (e.g. the Dehydrated Boulders, Bat-Man Outfit, Rocket Sled, Jet Powered Roller Skates, or Earthquake Pills). In this case, their success often works against Wile E. Coyote. For example, The Dehydrated Boulder, upon hydration, becomes so large when it crushes him, or upon Wile E. Coyote finding out that the fine print on the warning label for the Earthquake Pills states that they are not effective on road runners, right after he swallows the whole bottle, thinking they're ineffective. Other times, he uses items that are implausible, such as a superhero outfit, thinking he could fly wearing it (he cannot).

How the coyote acquires these products without money is not explained until the 2003 Comedy/Adventure film *Looney Tunes Back in Action*, in which he is an employee of ACME. In a *Tiny Toon Adventures* episode, Wile E. Coyote makes mention of his protégé Calamity Coyote possessing an unlimited ACME credit-card account, which might serve as another possible explanation. Another suggestion is that Wile E. Coyote is a "beta tester" for ACME. Wile E. Coyote also utilizes war equipment such as cannons, rocket launchers, grenades, and bayonets which are "generic," non-ACME products. In a Cartoon Network commercial advertising *Looney Tunes,* they ask Wile E. Coyote why he insists on purchasing products from the ACME when all previous contraptions have backfired on him, to which he responds with a wooden sign (right after another item blows up in his face): "Good line of credit."

In "Fast and Furry-ous", Wile E. orders "Fleet Foot" brand as well as ACME and Ace products. In "Rushing Roulette", "Ajax" was used instead of ACME. In "To Beep or Not to Beep", there was the Road Runner Manufacturing Company. In another short, the names "A-1" and "Ace" are used. And in another, there was an Excelsior product.

## Laws & Rules

As in other cartoons, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote must follow the laws of cartoon physics. For example, The Roadrunner has the ability to enter the painted image of a cave, while the Wile E. Coyote cannot (unless there is an opening through which he can fall). Sometimes, however, this is reversed, and The Road Runner can burst through a painting of a broken bridge and continue on his way, while the Wile E. Coyote will instead enter the mirage painting and fall down the precipice of the cliff where the bridge is out. Sometimes Wile E. Coyote is allowed to hang in midair until he realizes that he is about to plummet into a chasm (a process occasionally referred to elsewhere as "Road-Runnering", or a "Wile E. Coyote" moment). Wile E. Coyote can also overtake rocks (or cannons) which fall earlier than he does, and end up being squashed by them. If a chase sequence happens upon a cliff; The Road Runner is not affected by gravity, whereas Wile E. Coyote will, unfortunately, realize his error eventually and fall to the ground below. A chase sequence that happens upon railroad tracks will always result in Wile E. Coyote being hit by a train. If Wile E. Coyote uses an explosive (for instance, dynamite) that is triggered by a mechanism that is supposed to force the explosive in a forward motion toward its target, the actual mechanism itself will always shoot forward, leaving the explosive behind to detonate in Wile E. Coyote's face. Similarly, a complex apparatus that is supposed to propel an object like a boulder or steel ball forward, or trigger a trap, will not work on The Road Runner, but unfortunately, always will on Wile E. Coyote. For instance, The Road Runner can jump up and down on the trigger of a large animal trap and eat bird seed off from it, going completely unharmed and not setting off the trap; but when Wile E. Coyote places the tiniest droplet of oil on the trigger, the trap snaps shut on him without fail. At certain times, Wile E. Coyote may don an exquisite ACME costume or propulsion device that briefly allows him to catch up to The Road Runner. This will always result in him losing track of his proximity to large cliffs or walls, and The Road Runner will dart around an extremely sharp turn on a cliff, but Wile E. Coyote will rocket right over the edge and fall to the ground.

In his book *Chuck Amuck: The Life & Times of an Animated Cartoonist*, Chuck Jones claimed that he and the animators behind the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons adhered to some simple but strict rules:

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "beep, beep." This rule was broken in "Clippety Clobbered", "Chaser on the Rocks", "Tired and Feathered", "Highway Runnery", "Out and Out Rout", "Sugar and Spies", "Whizzard of Ow", and in several CGI shorts of *The Looney Tunes Show*.
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of ACME products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time. This rule was broken at the end of "Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" when a pack of hungry coyotes go after Wile E. in the female roadrunner suit, and in "Flash in the Pain", where Sylvester points to Granny a coyote is in the house, which leads her to chase him, and makes her hit him repeatedly, with Tweety joining the party.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he wasn't a fanatic.
4. No dialogue ever, except beeping and yowling in pain. Through this rule, the only way either the Coyote or Road Runner communicate to each other or the audience is by holding up picket signs. This rule was broken in "Zoom at the Top" where Wile E. says "ouch".
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner. This rule is broken in "Beep, Beep", in a sequence where Wile E. Coyote chases Road Runner into a cactus mine. This also occurs in "Fastest with the Mostest", when Wile E. Coyote lures the Road Runner to the edge of a cliff. Another occurrence was in "Freeze Frame", where Wile E. lures Road Runner to a snowy mountaintop, where most of the short takes place.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert. This rule was broken in "War and Pieces" when the Coyote uses a rocket ship to go through the Earth and into China where he meets the Chinese Roadrunner.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from ACME. There were sometimes exceptions when the Coyote obtained other items from the desert such as boulders to use in his attempts. Other product brands have also been used by Wile E., such as in "Fast and Furry-ous" where he uses "Fleet-Foot" brand super-powered running shoes, and in "Rushing Roulette", where he uses "Ajax" brand glue.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy (e.g., falling off a cliff). The essence of The Canyon Fall Gag.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote. This rule was broken in a comic of a DC Looney Tunes Issue, entitled, "Bird's Eye View".
11. The Coyote is allowed to catch the Road Runner but is not allowed to eat him. Wile E. Coyote does catch Road Runner in "Soup or Sonic", but is too small to eat him. There were also two CGI shorts in *The Looney Tunes Show*, where he caught the bird, but was not able to eat him because Road Runner got away in both shorts.

In a 1971 interview with Michael Barrier years after the series was made, screenwriter Michael Maltese said he had never heard of the "Rules."

## Later Cartoons

The original Chuck Jones productions ended in 1963 after Jack Warner closed the Warner Bros. Animation studio. "War and Pieces", the last Road Runner short directed by Chuck, was released in mid-1964. By that time, producer David H. DePatie and veteran director Friz Freleng, who had formed DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, moved into the facility just emptied by Warner and signed a license with Warner Bros. to produce cartoons for the big studio to distribute.

Their first cartoon to feature Road Runner was "The Wild Chase", directed by Friz Freleng in 1965. The premise was a race between the bird and "the fastest mouse in all of Mexico," Speedy Gonzales, with the Coyote and Sylvester each trying to make a meal out of his usual target. Much of the material was animation rotoscoped from earlier Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales shorts, with the other characters added in.

In total, DePatie-Freleng produced fourteen *Road-Runner* cartoons, two of which were directed by Robert McKimson ("Rushing Roulette" and "Sugar and Spies"). Due to cuts in the number of frames used per second in animated features, many of these final Road Runner features were cheap looking and jerky. Also, the music was very different and of poorer quality than the older features (a by-product of composer William Lava, who replaced the late Milt Franklyn and the retired Carl Stalling, and his music style different from his two predecessors).

The remaining eleven were subcontracted to Format Films and directed under ex-Warner Bros. animator Rudy Larriva. "*The Larriva 11,*" as the series was later called, lacked the fast-paced action of the Chuck Jones originals and was poorly received by critics. In *Of Mice & Magic*, Leonard Maltin calls the series "witless in every sense of the word." In addition, except for the planet Earth scene at the tail end of "Highway Runnery", there was only one clip of the Coyote's fall to the ground, used over and over again. These cartoons can easily be distinguished from Chuck Jones' cartoons because of the following features:

1. They feature the modern "Abstract WB" *Looney Tunes* opening and closing sequences.
2. They use the same music cues over and over again in the cartoons, composed by William Lava. Only one of those eleven cartoons, "Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner", had music that was actually scored instead of the same music cues.
3. Another clear clue is that Chuck Jones' previously described "Laws" for the characters were not followed with any significant fidelity (most notably when Road Runner maliciously harms the Coyote without going "Beep, Beep!" in cartoons such as "Tired and Feathered" and "Clippety Clobbered"), nor were the Latin phrases used when introducing the characters.
4. The animation quality is noticeably more simplistic than that of the Road Runner cartoons by Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson from the same period (almost on par to television cartoons of the time), with extensive use of recycled animation in numerous shorts such as the Road Runner emerging into the scene, Coyote chasing the Road Runner at slow speed, Coyote falling scenes, and explosions.
5. While these cartoons often utilize the new idea of a linear gag instead of blackout interchanging gags (examples being "Just Plane Beep" and "The Solid Tin Coyote"), because of the generally longer length of these gags, each of these cartoons have much fewer gags than the Chuck Jones originals; while Jones' (and even McKimson's) tend to utilize seven to twelve gags, Larriva's cartoons can have as many as six total gags and as few as three ("Run, Run, Sweet Road Runner" and "Tired and Feathered" both only use three gags).
6. Another clear clue is that Chuck Jones' cartoons do give Wile E. a reason to chase the Road Runner, which is to catch and eat the Road Runner to satisfy his unending hunger, however these cartoons barely ever give Wile E. a reason to chase the Road Runner other than to bring slapstick to the audience, as Wile E. only starts chasing the Road Runner once it goes past him.

## Wile E. Coyote & Bugs Bunny

Wile E. Coyote has also unsuccessfully attempted to capture and eat Bugs Bunny in another series of cartoons from 1952 to 1963: "Operation: Rabbit", "To Hare Is Human", "Rabbit's Feat", "Compressed Hare", and "Hare-Breadth Hurry". In these cartoons, the coyote takes on the guise of a self-described "super genius" and speaks with a smooth, generic upper-class accent provided by Mel Blanc. While he is incredibly intelligent, he is limited by technology and his own short-sighted arrogance, and is thus often easily outsmarted, a somewhat physical symbolism of "street smarts" besting "book smarts."

In "Hare-Breadth Hurry", Bugs Bunny — with the help of "speed pills" — even stands in for The Road-Runner, who has "sprained a giblet", and carries out the duties of outsmarting the hungry scavenger. This is the only *Bugs Bunny/Wile E. Coyote* short in which the coyote does not speak. As usual, Wile E. ends up falling down a canyon and fails to catch and eat Bugs.

In a later, made-for-television short, which features a young Elmer Fudd chasing a young Bugs Bunny, Elmer also falls down a canyon. On the way down, he is overtaken by Wile E., who shows a sign telling Elmer to get out of the way for someone who is more experienced in falling.

In *New Looney Tunes*, Wile E. is once again pitted against Bugs Bunny, this time depicted as Bugs' smart-aleck neighbor, with his characterization based off his "super genius" persona as seen in Wile E.'s previous outings with Bugs from the classic cartoons. In addition, he once again speaks with a smooth, generic upper-class accent provided by J.P. Karliak.

## Other Appearances

A mouse resembling a miniature Wile E. makes a brief cameo in "Claws for Alarm", where appears with a knife about to swing down at Porky Pig, only for his cowardly pet cat Sylvester to protect him at the cost of losing most of his back fur in the process.

Wile E. made a brief cameo at the end of the 1954 cartoon "Sheep Ahoy" where he appears as Ralph's replacement. He referred to Ralph as "George" and Ralph referred him as "Sam", he then starts getting punched by Fred Sheepdog who is Sam Sheepdog's replacement. Also, Wile E. appears to be shorter in height than in his other appearances and spoke more in a dopey voice with no upper-class accent.

In the 1962 pilot for a proposed television series (but instead released as a theatrical short entitled *Adventures of the Road-Runner*, later edited and split into three short subjects called "To Beep or Not to Beep", "Zip Zip Hooray!", and "Roadrunner a Go-Go", Wile E. lectures two young T.V.-watching children about the edible parts of a roadrunner, attempting to explain his somewhat irrational obsession with catching it.

Chuck Jones' 1979 movie *The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie* features all of the director's characters, including Wile E. Coyote and The Road-Runner. However, whereas most of the featured cartoons are single cartoons or sometimes isolated clips, the footage of Wile E. Coyote and Road-Runner is taken from several different cartoons and compiled to run as one extended sequence.

Wile E. Coyote and The Road-Runner have cameo roles in Robert Zemeckis' *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*, firstly in silhouette form as the elevator goes up, and later during the final scene in Marvin Acme's factory with several other Looney Tunes characters. This is one of several anachronisms in the movie, which is set two years before Wile E. and The Road-Runner debuted.

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner appear as members of the Tune Squad team in *Space Jam*. There, Wile E. rigs one of the basketball hoops with dynamite to prevent Bupkus from scoring a slam dunk. And during practice before Lola Bunny shows up, Wile E. gets his hands on a basketball, but The Road-Runner steals the ball from him and heads into a painted image. But Wile E. doesn't know it's a painted image, and he runs right into it.

Wile E. appears as an ACME employee in *Looney Tunes Back in Action*. There, his role is similar to that of Mustafa from the *Austin Powers* movies.

Wile also makes a brief cameo in *Tweety's High-Flying Adventure*, being held by the neck by Tasmanian Devil holding up a sign that says the word "mother" before they both fall in the sea.

Wile E. is an employee at Daffy Duck's store in the direct-to-video Christmas film *Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas*. He is seen staring hungrily at a vending machine but Daffy doesn't allow him to eat during work, which ultimately resulted in Wile E. getting his tongue stuck in the vending machine. By the end of the film, a reformed Daffy then hires chef Francois as Wile E.'s personal chef.

Wile E. Coyote makes a short appearance in *What's New Scooby Doo?* where he flies past the gang's van on a rocket heading after The Road-Runner. His looks are changed slightly (he has blue eyes and apparently no ears) in this scene, however, Road Runner's are the same.

In 2012, both Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner appeared in a GEICO commercial, in which the wandering gecko tries to make heads or tails of where he is. While he's doing so, he nearly gets crushed with a piano. Just after this happens, Road Runner runs up to him, says his trademark phrase, "Beep beep!" and goes on his way, leaving the gecko wondering what "beep beep" meant. Then, Wile E., chasing the Road Runner, runs up, sees the gecko and imagines him as his dinner, but while he's doing so, he gets driven into the ground by a falling ACME safe. The commercial ends with the gecko concluding, "What a strange place."

### Spin-Offs

In another series of *Looney Tunes* cartoons, Chuck Jones used the character design (model sheets and personality) of Wile E. Coyote as "Ralph Wolf." In this series, Ralph continually attempts to steal sheep from a flock being guarded by the eternally vigilant Sam Sheepdog. Like Wile E., Ralph uses all sorts of wild inventions and schemes to steal the sheep, but he is continually foiled by Sam. In a move seen by many as a self-referential gag, Ralph continually tries to steal the sheep not because he is a fanatic (as Wile E. is), but because it is his job. In every cartoon, he and Sam punch a time-clock, exchange pleasantries, go to work, take a lunch break, and clock out to go home for the day, all according to a factory-like blowing whistle. The most prominent difference between the coyote and the wolf, aside from their locales, is that Wile E. has a black nose and Ralph has a red one.

### Comic Books

Wile E. is called "Kelsey Coyote" in his comic book debut in *Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies #91* (May 1949). He only made a couple of other appearances at this time. The first appearance of Road-Runner in a comic book was in *Bugs Bunny Vacation Funnies #8* (August 1958) published by Dell Comics. The feature is entitled "Beep-Beep The Road-Runner" and the story "Desert Dessert". It presents itself as the first meeting between Road-Runner and Wile E. (whose mailbox reads, "*Wile E. Coyote, Inventor and Genius*"), and introduces Road-Runner's wife, Matilda, and their three newly hatched sons. This story establishes the convention that the Road Runner family talks in rhyme in the comics.

Dell initially published a dedicated *Beep-Beep The Road-Runner* comic as part of *4 Color Comics* #918, 1,008, and 1,046 before launching a separate series for the character numbered #4–14 (1960–1962), with the three try-out issues counted as the first three numbers. After a hiatus, Gold Key Comics took over the character with issues #1–88 (1966–1984). During the 1960s, the artwork was done by Pete Alvarado and Phil DeLara; from 1966–1969, the Gold Key issues consisted of Dell reprints. Afterward, new stories began to appear, initially drawn by Alvarado and De Lara before Jack Manning became the main artist for the title. New and reprinted *Beep-Beep* stories also appeared in Golden Comics Digest and Gold Key's revival of *Looney Tunes* in the 1970s. During this period, Wile E.'s middle name was revealed to be "Ethelbert" in the story "The Greatest of E's" in issue #53 (cover-date September 1975) of Gold Key Comics' licensed comic book, *Beep-Beep The Road-Runner*.

Road Runner and Wile E. also make appearances in the DC Comics *Looney Tunes* title. Their appearances in these comics are more similar to their cartoon shorts. Wile E., however, did speak in a few of these comics like he did when he appeared with Bugs.

### Television

Road-Runner and Wile E. appeared on Saturday mornings as the stars of their own TV series, *The Road Runner Show*, from September 1966 to September 1968, on CBS. At this time, it was merged with *The Bugs Bunny Show* to become *The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Show,* running from 1968 to 1985. The show was later on ABC until 2000, and on Global until 2001.

In the 1970s, Chuck Jones directed some *Road-Runner* short films for the educational children's TV series *The Electric Company.* These short cartoons used the Coyote and Road Runner to display words for children to read, but the cartoons themselves are a refreshing return to Chuck's glory days. These shorts were also different than the *Looney Tunes* shorts such as the Coyote suffered no physical violence since these shorts are geared towards a much younger target audience.

"Freeze Frame", in which Jones moved the chase from the desert to snow covered mountains, was part of *Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales*.

At the end of *Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny* (the initial sequence of Chuck Jones' TV special, *Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over*), Bugs mentions to the audience that he and Elmer may have been the first pair of characters to have chase scenes in these cartoons, but then a pint-sized baby Wile E. Coyote (wearing a diaper and holding a small knife and fork) runs right in front of Bugs, chasing a gold-colored, mostly unhatched (except for the tail, which is sticking out) Road Runner egg, which is running rapidly while some high-pitched "beep, beep" noises can be heard. This was followed by the full-fledged *Runner/Coyote* short, *Soup or Sonic.* Earlier in that story, while kid Elmer was falling from a cliff, Wile E. Coyote's adult self tells him to move over and let falling to people who know how to do it and then he falls, followed by Elmer.

In the 1980s and 1990s, ABC began showing many Warner Bros. cartoon shorts, but in highly edited form, because the unedited versions were supposedly too violent. Many scenes integral to the stories were taken out, including scenes in which Wile E. Coyote lands at the bottom of the canyon after having fallen from a cliff, or has a boulder or anvil actually make contact with him. In almost all W.B. animated features, scenes where a character's face is burnt and black, resembling blackface, were removed, as were animated characters smoking cigarettes, or even simulated cigarettes. Some cigar-smoking scenes were left in. The unedited versions of these shorts (with the exception of ones with blackface and other racial stereotypes) were not seen again until Cartoon Network, and later Boomerang, began showing them again in the late-1990s, early-2000s, 2009, 2010, and from 2011-2016. Since the release of the W.B. archive of cartoons on DVD, Boomerang has stopped showing the cartoons in 2007, presumably to increase sales of the DVDs. Boomerang, however, began re-airing the shorts since 2013.

Wile E. is referenced by Bugs Bunny in *Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue*; when Bugs uses a time machine, he states that he borrowed it from "some coyote".

Wile E. and Road Runner later appeared in several episodes of *Tiny Toon Adventures*. In this series, Wile E. (voiced by Joe Alaskey) is the dean of ACME Looniversity and the mentor of Calamity Coyote, while Road Runner serves as mentor to Little Beeper. In the episode *Piece of Mind*, Wile E. narrates the life story of Calamity while he is falling from the top of a tall skyscraper. In the direct-to-video film *How I Spent My Vacation*, Road Runner finally gets a taste of humiliation by getting run over by a mail truck that "brakes for coyotes."

The two also make cameos in *Animaniacs*. They are together in two *Slappy Squirrel* cartoons: "Bumbie's Mom" and "Little Old Slappy From Pasadena". In the latter, Road-Runner gets another taste of humiliation when he is outrun by Slappy's car, and holds up a sign saying "I quit" — immediately afterward, Buttons, who has been launched into the air during a previous gag, lands squarely on top of him. Wile E. appears without the bird in a *Wizard of Oz* parody, dressed in his bat-suit from a previous short, in a twister (tornado) funnel in "Buttons in Ows".

In *Freakazoid!* episode 11, "Next Time, Phone Ahead!", Wile E. and Road Runner appear in footage from the 1958 short "Whoa, Be-Gone!"

In a Cartoon Network TV ad about *The ACME Hour*, Wile E. Coyote utilizes a pair of jet roller skates to catch Road Runner and quite surprisingly doesn't fail. While he is cooking his prey, it is revealed that the roller-skates came from a generic brand. The ad said that other brand isn't the same thing.

Wile E. and Road Runner appear in their toddler versions in *Baby Looney Tunes*, only in songs. However, they both had made a cameo in the episode, "Are We There Yet?", where Road Runner appeared outside the window of Floyd's car with Wile E. chasing him.

Wile E. Coyote has a cameo as the true identity of the alien hunter, a parody of Predator, in the *Duck Dodgers* episode "K9 Quarry", voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. In that episode, he is hunting Marvin the Martian to add him to his collection of stuffed cartoon characters which include the mounted remains of Hanna-Barbera characters such as Yogi Bear, Honk Kong Phooey, Top Cat, and Huckleberry Hound. Throughout the short, K-9 constantly tries to impede the Alien Hunter from killing his master, and by the end succeeds after pushing him off a cliff in true Looney Tunes-fashion. Upon crashing, Marvin comments upon seeing the formidable Alien Hunter's demise that he prefers his adversaries to be of the feathered variety; the crushed alien hunter then takes off his helmet and reveals himself to be Wile E. Coyote and agrees with Marvin on preferring his enemies to be of the feathered variety.

In *Loonatics Unleashed*, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner's 28th-century descendants are Tech E. Coyote and Rev Runner. Tech E. Coyote is the tech expert of the Loonatics, inspired by the past cartoons with many of the machines ordered by Wile E. from ACME, and has magnetic hands and the ability to molecularly regenerate himself, inspired by the many times in which Wile E. painfully failed to capture Road Runner. Tech E. Coyote speaks but does not have a British accent as Wile E. Coyote does. Rev Runner is also able to talk, although extremely rapidly, and can fly without the use of jetpacks, which are used by other members of the Loonatics. He also has super speed, also a take off of Roadrunner. Ironically, the pair gets on rather well, despite the number of gadgets Tech designs in order to stop Rev talking. Also, they have their moments where they don't get along. When friendship is shown it is often only from Rev to Tech, not the other way around; this could, however, be attributed to the fact that Tech has only the bare minimum of social skills. They are both depicted as being smart, but Tech is the better inventor and at times Rev is shown doing stupid things. References to ancestor's past are seen in the episode "Family Business" where the other Runners are wary of Tech, and Tech relives the famous falling gags done in Coyote/Runner shorts.

Wile E. Coyote has made appearances in *The Looney Tunes Show*, *New Looney Tunes*, *Looney Tunes Cartoons*, *Bugs Bunny Builders*, and *Tiny Toons Looniversity*.

## In Popular Culture

Wile E. appeared in the *Night Court* seventh season episode "Still Another Day in the Life", in which Judge Stone found him guilty of harassment and told him to leave the poor bird alone.

In the Cartoon Network TV series *Class of 3000* episode "Westley Side Story", Wile E uses rocket shoes and howls like a real life coyote. His Latin name is "Jokis Callbackus". Later in the episode, when Kim and Kam arrive at the top of a high hill, he reappears, skating off the hill and falling to the bottom, but not before staying suspended in mid-air and bringing out a "Help!" sign. He appears one more time at the end of the episode, flying in the air on his skates while howling.

In 2009, a group of EMRTC engineers attempt to re-create Wile E. Coyote's failed contraptions on a TruTV series *Man Vs. Cartoon*.

In the *What's New, Scooby-Doo?* episode "New Mexico, Old Monster", Scooby sees both Road-Runner and Wile E. within their usual desert speed chase out the window of the Mystery Machine. After the usual failure by Wile E., it left Scooby to be saying "beep-beep?."

Road Runner and Wile E. are featured in computer-animated segments in the animated sitcom *The Looney Tunes Show*. These shorts were only included in the 1st season, but the duo still appeared throughout the series in 2D animation. Wile E. made cameo appearances in 2D format in only two episodes in Season 1, "Jailbird and Jailbunny" (only in the Merrie Melodie "Blow My Stack") and "Point, Laser Point". In Season 2, the duo appears in the episodes "Rebel Without a Glove" and "Here Comes the Pig".

Wile E. and Bugs Bunny cameo in the 2021 film *8-Bit Christmas*, via archival footage from one of the Wile E./Bugs Bunny cartoons, on the television set of the film's protagonist, Jake Doyle.

In the *Never Say Never with Jeff Jenkins* episode, "Flying High in New Mexico," Wile E. and Road Runner are briefly spotted on a hot air balloon.

Wile E. Coyote is set to appear in Season 11 of the online series Death Battle, in a fight against Tom Cat from Tom and Jerry. This episode was selected as part of the Membership program allowing Champions to vote for an episode for Season 11.

### 3-D Shorts

The characters have appeared in seven 3-D shorts. Three have been screened with features, while the rest serve as segments of the first season of *The Looney Tunes Show*.

## Voice Actors

* Mel Blanc - 1952 - 1986 "Chariots of Fur" (archive recording)
* Chuck Jones - Chariots of Fur (uncredited)
* Joe Alaskey - *Tiny Toon Adventures*, *Looney Tunes: Reality Check* (some scenes)
* Maurice LaMarche - *Looney Tunes: Reality Check* (most scenes), *Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor*
* James Arnold Taylor - *Scooby-Doo! & Looney Tunes Cartoon Universe: Adventure* (unc.)
* J.P. Karliak - *New Looney Tunes*
* Eric Bauza - *Looney Tunes World of Mayhem*
* Keith Ferguson - *Bugs Bunny Builders*
* Jeff Bergman - *The Wiggles Show*

## Filmography

*Main article: List of Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner cartoons*
## Notes

* Although Wile E. Coyote is usually silent, he makes yawning noises at the beginning of "Ready.. Set.. Zoom!", screams painfully and beeps like Road Runner in "Zipping Along", "Fastest with the Mostest", "Zip 'n Snort", "To Beep or Not to Beep" and "Chariots of Fur", pants in "Fastest with the Mostest" and "Beep Prepared", laughs in "Lickety-Splat", "Zoom at the Top" and "Chariots of Fur", cries at the end of "Zoom and Bored", and even howls like his real species in "Highway Runnery". These vocal effects of the Coyote were provided by Mel Blanc.
* The song "Dance of the Comedians" from the opera "The Barthered Bride" by Bedřich Smetana was used in some Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts.
* In "Zip Zip Hooray!", "Roadrunner a Go-Go", and in most of his appearances with Bugs Bunny- "Operation: Rabbit", "To Hare Is Human", "Compressed Hare" and "Rabbit's Feat"- Wile E. speaks in a British accent.