Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch is a 30-minute cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired for one season on NBC from September 7, 1974 to August 30, 1975. It aired on Saturday morning from 8:30-9:00 a.m., opposite the popular The Bugs Bunny Show. This was the first and only Hanna-Barbera series that has no humans and animals in it. The series focuses on Wheelie, a red Volkswagen Beetle, and his girlfriend Rota Ree, a pun on both the "rotary engine" and Ruta Lee. Wheelie made his living as a professional and quite successful racing and stunt car. Wheelie did not talk, unlike the other characters in the show, but emoted by honking and displaying symbols across his windshield showing his inner thoughts such as a heart for love or a lightbulb for an idea. Wheelie could also produce any form of prop needed from his trunk through the use of special mechanized hands, much like Inspector Gadget would later.

Wheelie's regular nemesis were a 4-member motorcycle gang called the Chopper Bunch which included the leader Chopper, (who was jealous of Wheelie and had a spiked motorcycle helmet for a head) Revs, (a sputtering three-wheeled motorcycle who often mixed up his words) Hi-Riser, (who was tall in body but shorter in brains) and Scrambles.(a small minibike who acted more like a good kid caught up in the wrong crowd) Scrambles would constantly try to warn Chopper that his plans were about to backfire only to be rebuffed, "Muffle it, Scrambles!" and ended up taunted his sullen leader once they inevitably did: Scrambles: "Itoldja! Itoldja!" Chopper: "I know! I KNOW!"

The cartoon show features the voices of Frank Welker as Wheelie and Chopper. Don Messick as Scrambles. Lennie Weinrib as Hi-Riser. Paul Winchell as Revs. And Judy Strangis as Rota Ree.