September 17, 1949: Wile E. Coyote & the Road Runner Debut

September 17, 1949, 75 years ago: Warner Brothers releases the cartoon Fast and Furry-ous, introducing the characters of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

In his book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, Chuck Jones claimed that he and the artists 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!'"
2. "No outside force can harm the Coyote, only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products."
3. "The Coyote could stop anytime, if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: 'A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.' – George Santayana)."
4. "No dialogue, ever, except 'Beep-Beep!'" (In cartoons not involving the Road Runner, the Coyote spoke. For example, telling Bugs Bunny that he was a genius. Which he was not.)
5. "The Road Runner must stay on the road, otherwise, logically, he would not be called a Road Runner."
6. "All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters, the Southwest American desert."
7. "All materials tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation."
8. "Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy." (Sometimes, something would fall on top of the Coyote. My father called that “Coyote Sandwich.”

1. "The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures."

One running gag involves the coyote trying, in vain, to shield himself with a little parasol against a great falling boulder that is about to crush him. Another involves him falling from high cliffs, after momentarily being suspended in midair, as if the fall is delayed until he realizes that there is nothing below him. (This would later be used on The Flintstones.) The rest of the scene, shot from a bird’s-eye view, shows him falling into a canyon so deep that his figure is eventually lost to sight, with only a small puff of dust indicating his impact.
 
The Coyote is notably a brilliant artist, capable of quickly painting incredibly lifelike renderings of such things as tunnels and roadside scenes, in further (and equally futile) attempts to deceive the bird. However, the Road Runner would run into this fake tunnel, as if it were real. When the Coyote tried it himself, he would crash into it with a SPLAT!
 
From the "My Entire Childhood Was a Lie" Department: Coyotes are faster than roadrunners – and, in real life, "roadrunner" is always one word, not two like with the cartoon character. The top speed of a coyote is 43 miles per hour; of a road runner, 26.
 

From 1967 to 1974, the Western Hockey League had a team named the Phoenix Roadrunners. From 1974 to 1977, a team with that name played in the Western Hockey League. In 1997, the NHL gave Phoenix a team, which would eventually named the Arizona Coyotes. They moved to Salt Lake City this year.