“In the wild and wooly West of old, new towns sprang up overnight. And in most Western towns, the biggest challenge of all was, who is the fastest gun alive?” a narrator declares at the opening of a Quick Draw McGraw cartoon, going on to state, “Cash rewards attracted quick-triggered bounty hunters, such as Quick Draw McGraw, the real fastest gun alive.”
The character then appears on screen, and the narrator asks, “Mr. Quick Draw?”
“Yup,” Quick Draw answers, adding, “Not much of a line, but that’s how I read it.”
Just one example of the sharp humor in Hanna-Barbera’s foray into TV Westerns, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, one of their many popular series, which debuted sixty five years ago this fall. In a nice turn of events, the main character is a cowboy, and the sheriff, who was an anthropomorphic horse. His sidekick/deputy, Baba Looey, was a burro who sported a sombrero.
“Considering the success of The Huckleberry Hound Show and its Emmy win, the next series was much anticipated,” said Greg Ehrbar, author of Hanna-Barbera: The Recorded History and host of The Funtastic World of Hanna and Barbera podcast. “Hanna-Barbera delivered even sharper animated comedy shorts, each based on a popular live-action TV format — Westerns, domestic sitcoms, and detective shows – but given the kind of visual gags exclusive to cartoons.”
It’s no surprise that the humor in Quick Draw is spot on, as writer Michael Maltese was behind it. Maltese, an animation legend, worked extensively with Chuck Jones at Warner Bros. on such masterpieces as One Froggy Evening (1955) and What’s Opera Doc? (1957).
From the main character’s catchphrase, “I’ll do the ‘thinin’’ around here, and doooon’t you forget it!” to a bloodhound named Sniffles, who loved dog biscuits so much that when he ate them, he literally floated on air, The Quick Draw McGraw Show displayed Maltese’s genius.
This is also seen in Quick Draw’s alter-ego, El Kabong, a masked avenger who would “kabong” bad guys on the head with a guitar and was a parody of similar, Zorro-like characters.
Like Hanna-Barbera’s hit Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show included two other cartoon segments. One was Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, which focused on the exploits of father and son dogs – the dad, who thinks a lot of himself, and the son, who constantly looks up to his dad, no matter what misadventure he may get them into.
There was also Snooper, a detective cat, and his sidekick, Blabber, a mouse, who both work for the Super Snooper Detective Agency.
“The Quick Draw McGraw Show was even more steeped in satire than Huck’s show,” said Greg. “Quick Draw cartoons lampooned Western tropes. Snooper and Blabber even went so far as to duplicate the opening of Boris Karloff’s Thriller series in one episode. While the Augie Doggie segments were more based in family comedies, as well as the Warner shorts starring Sylvester and his son, it had a sly element of eccentricity and fantasy.”
The Hanna-Barbera stock company of voice actors did their usual stellar work on The Quick Draw McGraw Show. Daws Butler was the MVP of the show and provided the voice of Quick Draw, Baba Looey, Augie Doggie, Snooper (for which he provided a perfect impersonation of comedian Ed Gardner from the hit radio show Duffy’s Tavern), and Blabber. Actor Doug Young provided the voice of Doggie Daddy in another spot-on impersonation, this time of Jimmy Durante.
These characters have become many of the iconic pillars of the Hanna-Barbera Studio in the sixty five years since The Quick Draw McGraw Show debuted on September 28th, 1959. The series remains a standout among the many hours of television entertainment Hanna-Barbera has provided.
“Another TV cartoon series premiered the same year as Quick Draw – Rocky and His Friends,” noted Greg. “Jay Ward entered the satirical door that Hanna-Barbera opened and took it to a fever-pitch level. It eclipsed the gentler, more leisurely spoofery of Huck, Quick Draw, Snoop, and Blab. But it’s important to remember that they broke through and got cartoons like this on TV first.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
I enjoyed these cartoons back when they were on television in the 1960s. I also marvel at how much expression and character development they could get into these simply animated cartoons using clever shortcuts in animation to get the gag across. And of course you have to give credit to the voiceover talent throughout these cartoons. Like the theatrical cartoons of old, it was the voiceover talent that actually added lifeblood to these characters. Even the supporting players in these cartoons were a lot of fun. I especially liked Augie doggy and doggy daddy. Hey, he could even communicate with little men from Mars! So much fun and so much great fantasy. The comedy was always there.
To date, only 4 episodes of the Quick Draw McGraw Show have been released on DVD. These are on the 60’s Volume 1 and 60’s Volume 2 sets of “Saturday Morning Cartoons.” Each of these sets contains 2 episodes of the show. The choices are stellar, for the most part, some of the best of the series. And each set contains one El-Kabong cartoon. Like many fans, I eagerly hope for a complete series release someday.
An important character that emerged out of the Quick Draw series was Snagglepuss, the pink mountain lion with theatrical aspirations. In some early appearances, he is something of a villain and his coloring is orange, brown, or a kind of orangey-brown. Later, of course, he got his own series as part of the Yogi Bear Show. Voiced by Daws Butler (most agree in imitation of Burt Lahr) he is as strong a personality as the headliners Huck, Yogi, and Quick Draw, and of course in many later series and TV features, they interacted together.
Baba Looey, Quick Draw’s sidekick, has been often overlooked, probably due to his stereotypical Spanish accent, which at the time had been brought into vogue largely through the popularity of Desi Arnaz and the I Love Lucy TV series. Of course, the name is derivative of Desi’s hit song Babalu. At the time, it wasn’t considered offensive. Baba Looey often acts as unofficial link between Quick Draw and the television audience, as he frequently pauses to look at the camera and offer commentary. Of course, each of the characters does this from time to time.
Doug Young’s Doggie Daddy voice was so spot-on that my father used to tell me it was Jimmy Durante providing the voice. And when the show was still airing in reruns, the actor was enjoying a kind of renaissance through his appearances in cereal commercials. So, it’s little wonder that some people thought it was the real thing. Later on, Daws Butler took over the voicing of Doggie Daddy for the Pinocchio record album and in specials and series such as “Yogi’s First Christmas.” And like his predecessor, Daws delivered a rich impression of the comedian’s voice.
The Snooper and Blabbers are great sendups of detective stories. Modern viewers may not catch all of the sly digs embedded in the cartoons, but there are plenty of tropes and shows that get parodied, from Dragnet to Racket Squad and beyond. And out of this series emerged one of several “creepy” Hanna-Barbera families–Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist, who for a few years were a regular backup feature in the Flintstones comic book.
The spinoff characters and supporting characters alone could practically fill a book. To say nothing of the TV parodies of westerns, cop shows, and formulaic “daddy’ comedies. To study the originals side by side with the cartoon representations could likewise fill a volume. Here’s hoping that the Quick Draw show will continue to be appreciated, celebrated–and made available to fans!!!
There was also something of Baba Looey playing Sancho Panza to Quickdraw’s Don Quixote, what with his occasional sly asides taking down Quickdraw’s grandiosity.
With regard to Snuffles the biscuit-loving hound dog, there was “product placement” in that the biscuit box was labeled “Gro-Pup T-Bones,” a brand of dog biscuit sold at the time by Kellogg’s, the original sponsor. Later, for syndication, the box label was blanked out.
Are El Kabong and “Queeksdraw” (Baba Looey’s pronunciation of the name) racist?
“The Lion Is Busy” (with Snooper and Blabber) is a great example of the early Snagglepuss-as-antagonist. Also of note about Quick Draw’s show is that it was nominated for an Emmy as well.