Look Before You Beep is a compilation of the bumpers seen on The Road Runner Show in 1966-1968. The Footages were provided by Jon Cooke, owner of a website, GoldenAgeCartoons. It was first edited by Mathew Hunter, owner of the website, Too Looney!. But then another editor gave the cartoon another upgrade. By providing extended credits (including the director credit falling into the gorge), a proper Merrie Melodies Intro and Outro Sequences and added an ending, Ian Neumann (aka LooneyTunerIan), gave the cartoon a new look.
One Title Card of Look Before You Beep
Plot[]
The opening scene is identical to that of Hairied and Hurried, with the exception of a brief scene freeze. Wile E. Coyote (hungrii-houndibus) tries to catch the Road Runner (quickius-birdius) using various schemes which turned out to be skits from the Road Runner show.
1.) The first attempt Wile E. tries is a trip-wire shotgun trap. When the Road Runner approaches the trap, he does not set it off, but instead snaps the wire in half. When Wile E. tries to figure out what when wrong, the back of the shotgun gets hooked off and blasts Wile E. in the face.
2.) Next, Wile E. tries drawing a picture of himself and the Road Runner. The Road Runner gets attracted to this and goes to see Wile E.'s drawing. Wile E. shows him the picture, and the Road Runner is impressed. But it turns out to be trap as Wile E. grabs the Road Runner, but then the Wile E. Coyote drawing aims his gun at Wile E.'s behind and blasts him in the butt. Wile E. then erases the drawing of himself and walks off as the Road Runner runs away.
3.) Wile E. reads some instructions of his latest ACME product, a Bingo Cannon:
- Load
- Hold Lanyard Firmly
- Shoot
- BINGO! Road-Runner Stew
Wile loads up his bingo cannon just as the Road Runner approaches. But before he could fire the cannon, the Road Runner, who runs by really fast, causes some dust clouds to cover the scene. And when the clouds were gone, Wile E. fires the cannon, but then he notices that the gun of the cannon was plugged up by a cork. The cannon fires the cork out, but then it takes Wile E. for a ride backwards really fast until he crashes into the wall of a butte. However, even though he was not hurt, and although he had a small rock that bonked his head, he heard the sound of a distant object falling. When he looked up, he saw that a much, bigger rock falling right onto him. The Road Runner taunts Wile E. and then runs off.
4.) Wile E. has set up a water drinking container at the bottom of the cliff to use as bait to lure the Road Runner. On top of the cliff, Wile E. is looking through his binoculars to see the Road Runner coming; the binoculars shot goes downward to confirm. Standing next to him was a boulder, perched at the edge of the cliff he was on. When he sees the Road Runner coming and taking a drink out of the container, he pushes the boulder off the cliff. And as the boulder begins to fall, Wile E. decides to go down and see the Road Runner get crushed. But while he was looking, he doesn't notice the Road Runner sneaking up behind him. The Road Runner then nods at the audience before giving Wile E. a beeping surprise, which sends him soaring over to the boulder's spot of impact. When Wile E. notices the boulder coming down towards him, he gets out an umbrella and prepares himself for what's to come. When the boulder hits Wile E., it knocks over the water container, which topples over into the crater where Wile E. got crushed by the boulder. Now Wile E.'s head was stuck in the bottle, and more importantly fully filled.
5.) Giving it a second try from "Stop! Look! And Hasten!", Wile E. attempts to chase the Road Runner down on a motorcycle again. The first time he tries it, the Road Runner zooms by and causes the whole bike to break apart. Feeling embarrassed, Wile uses a spare motorcycle that he has in case of an accident. Wile E. chases the Road Runner up a hill, and then up the side of a cliff, and then up a natural arch, upside down. As soon as they stop at a ledge, Wile E. gets off his motorcycle and attempts to grab the Road Runner. The Road Runner beeps at Wile E., who looks down and notices that they're both upside down. Before Wile can get down, just as he was getting back on his motorcycle, both he and the motorcycle fall to the ground. However, the Road Runner was still standing, upside down.
6.) The Road Runner sees a sign that says, "STAND HERE", which is pointing at the spot to stand on. The Road Runner stands on the spot, but it turns out the spot was actually a bull's eyes of a target! Wile E. has ordered an ACME Rocket Launcher Kit (preferably a missile launcher kit to be more precised.) Wile E. is looking out at the target, in which the Road Runner is standing on, when he sees him standing in the center, Wile E. throws the switch of the Rocket Launcher's control panel to fire the missile up in the air. When Wile E. wasn't looking, the missile comes back down in the same spot it was launched from and impacted into the ground, blowing up Wile E. It turns out Wile E. has had his target sequencing set up all wrong, so he took the sign away and the Road Runner ran on.
7.) Deciding to give the Road Runner a taste of his own medicine, Wile E. dons a Road Runner costume, to which he could fool the Road Runner, instead he sees a smaller version of himself. Both feeling confused, Wile E. decides to become the Road Runner, while the Mini-Wile E., somehow beeping exactly like the Road Runner, takes off after him. But then Wile E. stops running and just shrugs to the audience, having no idea what was going on before Mini-Wile E. knocks him over, causing his Road runner's head costume to pop off. Wile E. then knew that the Road Runner disguised as his miniature self.
8.) Wile E. has ordered a robot coyote from the ACME Robotics Division. He starts up the robot by giving orders to chase and catch the Road Runner and bring him back. When the Road Runner passes by, Wile E. activates the robot as it chases off after the Road Runner. The Road Runner running fast, could not outrun the robot as it instantly catches him. But as soon as the robot was bringing the Road Runner back to Wile E., the robots runs him over, releases the Road Runner and gently pets him on the head. The robot was actually a Road-Runner Lovebot.
9.) Wile E. customizes a sky rocket by adding wheels on both sides. Wile E. lights the fuses and prepares himself to blast off after the Road Runner. But when the Road Runner passes by, the rocket does not blast off. When Wile E. goes to check out the problem, the rocket instantly blows up.
10.) Now reading a book on TRAPS, Wile E. discovers a page where he can dig up a hole to catch the Road Runner. Wile E. begins digging his pothole trap and tries to make it as deep as he can. But as he was digging, he dug straight through the ground of a cliff he was digging through. When he came out through the other side, he instantly starts falling and lands on the roof of a passenger car of a train. He looks at the audience and shrugs, but not looking at where he was going, Wile E. gets knocked off the train when he hits the top of a tunnel. When he falls down on the railroad track, he hears the Road Runner coming from inside the tunnel. As soon as Wile E. gets himself back up, he prepares to catch the Road Runner, only to be run over by another train that was going the other way out of the tunnel. The Road Runner zips out of the tunnel, beeps and then runs off back into the tunnel.
11.) Now trying a sneaky, snarling tactic, Wile E. hides under a manhole and waits for the Road Runner to come. When practices his snarling attack, Wile E. is instantly run overed by an incoming delivery truck. The Road Runner beeps at Wile E.s who was unconscious, from within the sewers.
12.) Wile E. is now driving an ACME Jet Car to try and keep up with the Road Runner. When the Road Runner passes by, Wile E. attempts to speed up using the jet tanks from within the car. However, the upper part of the jet car then flies off of its base and sends Wile E. soaring into the air. As he was flying, Wile E. crashes into the side of a cliff, then falls down to the road in front of a tunnel, only to be smacked on the back by an incoming bus, driven by you know who! (MEEP-MEEP!)
13.) Wile E., donning tennis sporting gear and a tennis racket, is practicing his tennis skills with some Grenades by blowing up a cactus and a rock formation. When he hears the Road Runner coming, he decides to launch one his way. But then the Road Runner zips off and comes back with his own tennis racket. The two them play grenade tennis until the grenade gets caught in Wile E.'s racket. When Wile E. attempts to gently put the racket down, the grenade explodes anyway. The racquet is spinning around over his neck.
14.) Wile E. is rigging a phone booth to a giant TNT canister. When the Road Runner comes by, Wile E. decides to sneak off and make a phone call using another phone he installed as a detonation device. The Road Runner steps inside of the phone booth and hears the phone ringing. The Road Runner knocks the phone off of its placeholder and beeps into the phone before taking off. Wile E. goes over to the phone booth, only to find out that no one was there. When Wile E. tries to hang up, the phone booth explodes.
15.) In his last attempt, and more importantly, the last skit, Wile E stashes dynamite into two underground manholes on the road. Wile E. attempts to blow up the Road Runner when he passes by. But however, he miscalculated that the dynamite he stashed was in two parts of an outcropping-like bridge. And as soon as the Road Runner runs by, the dynamite blew up the two ridges causes the rock and Wile E. to fall down. After getting up out of his crater, he doesn't notice that he had his detonator with him. Exhausted, Wile E. attempts to sit down, only to get blown up again when he sits on the plunger of the detonator. The explosion LITERALLY blows his pants off, revealing his undies. Embarrassed by this, he tried to pull up his fur. He fails to notice the Road Runner zips up behind him, beeping at him one more time, which causes him to jump out of his pants and back into the crater. The Road Runner then runs off.
The compilation ends with the words "The END" falling down to the bottom of another gorge. The cartoon then irises out as soon as words hit the ground, which then fades in to the traditional "That's all, Folks!" ending that was used in the 1950-60's.
Credits:[]
Produced by: David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng
Story: David Detiege and Tom Dagenias
Footages Provided by: Jon Cooke
Edited By: Matthew Hunter and Ian Neumann
Music: Bill Lava, Carl Stalling (bits used at end)
Animation: Bob Matz, Manny Perez, Warren Batchelder, Norm McCabe, Don Williams, Dale Case, Ted Bonnickson
Layouts: Maurice Noble and Dick Ung
Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard and Tom O'Loughin
Effects Animation: Harry Love
Film Editor: Lee Gunther
Directed by Robert McKimson
Video[]
- "Look Before You Beep" at SuperCartoons.net
Gallery[]
Gallery (Alternate version)[]
