The Wacky World of Tex Avery

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox television The Wacky World of Tex Avery (French: Le Monde fou de Tex Avery) is an animated television series created by Robby London and co-produced by DIC Productions, L.P., Les Studios Tex SARL, Milimetros, M6 and Telcima.

Both the series and the titular character were named after Tex Avery, an animator who is known for his work at Warner Bros., MGM and Walter Lantz Productions. The creator describes the show as "homage to the brilliant, hilarious and groundbreaking animator Tex Avery and the wonderful squash-and-stretch cartoons of his era". The series was first broadcast on French channel M6 on September 3, 1997, and later debuted in syndication in the United States on September 29, ending after one season on November 30 the same year. In the following years since it debuted, The Wacky World of Tex Avery has been panned as an "insult" to the cartoonist’s legacy, and was only a minimal hit in international territories where Tex Avery’s actual works were lesser known.

Segments

The series' episodes contain three shorts derived from one of seven segments.

Tex Avery

This segment series centers on a cowboy named Tex Avery who saves the day and his love interest, Chastity Knott, from his nemesis, Sagebrush Sid. He was inspired by the Red Hot Ryder character from Buckaroo Bugs, created by Bob Clampett (a fellow animator at Termite Terrace in the 1930s). The theme song is "Home on the Range". If a Tex Avery segment is present in an episode, it is always the first segment.

Pompeii Pete

Pete is a diminutive bumbling Roman centurion from Pompeii who was buried in lava from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and two thousand years later breaks free from his preserved state in the modern world. His over-interpretive behavior constantly foil the schemes of sleazy conman, Dan. He was loosely inspired by Shorty from the Famous Studios era of Popeye the Sailor and Manuel from Fawlty Towers, borrowing some inspiration from Encino Man. The theme song is "Tarantella Napoletana".

Einstone

This segment series centers on a brilliant caveman, Ughbert Einstone, who is the world's first inventor. He tries to teach his friends how to be civilized through the use of his inventions. This segment is inspired by The First Bad Man, with Einstone's name being a play on Albert Einstein. The theme song is "If You're Happy and You Know It".

Genghis & Khannie

Genghis the lion is a warlord who leads his barbarian army across the world to conquer in the name of his emperor and often crosses paths with a female panda cub named Khannie who tends to thwart his plans through her innocent behavior. The duo's names are a play on Genghis Khan, while Genghis's design is based on the lion from Slap Happy Lion with his voice being modeled after Sean Connery and Khannie's personality being inspired by Shirley Temple and Tweety.

Freddy the Fly

A playful, obnoxious, and uncultured housefly named Freddy bothers an obese, lazy and exceedingly short-tempered billionaire named Amanda Banshee, whose continuous excessive attempts to get rid of him often involve the most extreme of ways. Freddy was inspired by Homer the Homeless Flea, a character created by Rudolf Ising that Avery later used in What Price Fleadom, and comedian Red Skelton's character, Freddy the Freeloader. Freddy and Banshee each have their own themes; Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 for Freddy and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons for Banshee.

Maurice & Mooch

This segment series centers on a young chicken named Maurice Squab who outwits Mooch, a fox constantly trying to eat him. Maurice's design is based on the canary from King-Size Canary, with his personality influenced by Junior Pig from One Ham's Family. Maurice speaks with a Swedish accent; Mooch has a New York accent, with a voice modeled off Jimmy Durante. The segment's theme is "Home! Sweet Home!".

Power Pooch

A normal dog gains superpowers after licking a superhero's shoe and becomes a superhero himself, albeit an incompetent one. Along with his cat sidekick, Little Buddy, Power Pooch fights the forces of evil, such as Doctor Hydrant and his henchman, Boney the bone. This segment is inspired by Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse, and Joe Harris' Underdog, as well as Doug TenNapel's Earthworm Jim.

Cast

• Billy West - Tex Avery, Sagebrush Sid, Freddy
• Kathleen Barr - Chastity Knott
• Ian James Corlett - Ughbert Einstone and Pompeii Pete
• Phil Hayes - Power Pooch
• Terry Klassen - Maurice Squab
• Maurice LaMarche - Mooch, The Emperor, Mr. Squab, The Narrator and Doctor Hydrant
• Scott McNeil - Amanda Banshee
• Cree Summer - Khannie
• Lee Tockar - Genghis and Little Buddy
• Alec Willows - Dan

Episodes

Current prints of the series would have Michel Trouillet, Paul F. Quinn and Daniël Shwall credited as the writers, having been credited on French prints before. This article goes by the writer credits as seen in the original English prints for the show, seen in the original US airings of each episode. Template:Episode table Template:Episode table

Development

In October 1995, DIC Entertainment announced they would be opening an animation office in France in partnership with Hampster Productions (which at the time, was 33% minority-owned by DIC's majority owner Capital Cities/ABC), and that their first project would be called Tex Avery Theater. DIC also acquired the rights to use Avery's name and likeness through his estate in order to produce the series. The package of 195 7-minute cartoons would have been made available starting in October 1996. In March 1997, the studio was opened up and was named Les Studios Tex, which DIC was a shareholder, with DIC launching the show as The Wacky World of Tex Avery in syndication in the fall of that year.

A logo of the studio that appears after the end credits of Archie's Weird Mysteries, shows a prototype design of Tex Avery that was scrapped, with a purple arc hat, while riding a horse. The same prototype design also appears in the French dub.

Home media releases

France

In July 2003, TF1 Video through the TF! Video label released a 2-DVD boxset of the series, which contained 48 cartoons (24 cartoons each). Another boxset was released in January 2004, containing 64 cartoons (32 cartoons each).

In April 2011, AV Video released a boxset containing the first 24 episodes, with 72 cartoons all on the 3 DVDs.

United States

In 2003, Sterling Entertainment released three VHSs/DVDs of the series titled Power Pooch to the Rescue, Pompeii Pete in the 21st Century and Tex Rides Again, each containing nine cartoons from their respective segments. On the DVD versions, three bonus cartoons are featured with other characters from the show, like Freddy the Fly. The Tex Avery and Pompeii Pete DVDs were re-released in 2007 by NCircle Entertainment.

In February 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment released The Wacky World of Tex Avery- Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. The four-disc set features the first 40 episodes of the series and includes a bonus episode of Bump in the Night. Additionally, "Rodeo, Rodeo, Where for Art Thou Rodeo? / The Dis-Orderly / A Bird in the Brain is Worth Two in the Bush" appears as a bonus episode on Gadget Boy's Adventures in History: The Complete Series Region 1 DVD.

The show at one point was available on Hulu, and has since been removed from the service. It is currently available on Tubi and Fandango at Home.

Later syndication

After the show's run on M6 in France, the show re-aired on Télétoon In March 2002, and on Canal+ Family and Gulli in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

In Italy, the show was shown to Mediaset in 1999. The Italian dub of the show is also broadcast to Telebimbi, a Canadian Category B-exempt Italian language specialty channel.

In the United States, The Program Exchange syndicated the series primarily on Fox and UPN stations from 1997 to 2004. In 2010, the program re-aired in the United States for the first time in a decade, where it was a part of the weekday morning Cookie Jar Toons programming block on the now-defunct digital subchannel This TV. The show was removed from the lineup on September 26, 2011. Most episodes of the show were also available on Hulu and Jaroo.com. These prints plaster the DIC logo with the 2008 Cookie Jar logo. As of 2022, episodes 1-52 are available on Tubi. In 2025, the show began airing on MeTV Toons, where episodes 53-65 aired for the first time on American television since the end of its syndicated run for nearly 15 years.

Reception

The Wacky World of Tex Avery has been critically panned for its animation, humor and pacing. In his book Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows, David Perlmutter described the show as an "insult" to the titular cartoonist, writing that it lacked the masterful way Avery himself employed and often transcended the limits of his material.

See also

• The Tex Avery Show
• List of television shows notable for negative reception

External links

• Template:Trim/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck
• The Wacky World of Tex Avery on RetroJunk