{"title":"Perils of Penelope Pitstop","dateDebut":"1969","dateEnd":"1970","description":"Wacky races spin-off.\r\n\r\nPenelope Pitstop originated in the Wacky Races cartoon series, produced by the Hanna-Barbera Productions animation studio. In many ways a traditional \"damsel in distress\" stock character as in the old serial The Perils of Pauline, she is best remembered for shouting \"Help, help!\" (which sounded more like \"Hayulp, hayulp!\" in an affected upper-class U.S. South accent). In Wacky Races, Penelope drove \"The Compact Pussycat\", a pink, stereotypically feminine car with personal grooming facilities. She was called by the race announcer as the \"Gal of the Gas Pedal.\"\r\n\r\nAccording to Iwao Takamoto, Penelope was an afterthought in the development of Wacky Races. Joseph Barbera requested that a woman be added among the racers, so Takamoto and Jerry Eisenberg designed Penelope and her car in about two hours. \r\n\r\nPenelope also starred in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a direct spinoff from Wacky Races, but set in the 1920s. Here she displays a curious combination of ingenuity and helplessness. She often figured out clever ways to get out of perils, and was very athletic; if any sport happened to be mentioned, it was revealed that she was the women's champion in said sport in college. Nonetheless, when the villain \"The Hooded Claw\" grabbed her and held her supine over his head, she would somehow be incapable of doing anything other than yelling \"Hayulp!\", and flailing her legs helplessly above her like an upside down turtle.\r\n\r\nMore recently, she has appeared in the web-based Shockwave cartoon Penelope Pitstop GT, featuring a formidable modern-day Penelope who is physically more than a match for any male competitor. Janet Waldo reprised her role in the Wacky Races video game.\r\n\r\n\r\nCompact Pussycat\r\nIn the series, Penelope's car is called the Compact Pussycat. It is pink, with front bumpers that look like a pair of red lips. It has an umbrella on the top and is equipped with various beauty machines, making it essentially a beauty salon on wheels.\r\n\r\n\r\nReferences to Penelope in other shows and media\r\nRecently, Penelope has been referenced and spoofed in many other works of fiction. One example was an episode of ReBoot, which had a Dick Dastardly reference as well.\r\n\r\nThe show reran on syndication in the 70's.","leadImageMedUrl":"http:\/\/distro-1.retrojunk.com\/secure\/e8c1d33f864718c54dfb9721cc5d6ee36da25c24f5fccfef56d42acf30ed9a15b8e372\/image\/e0a_39b36583cc.jpg"}