Fender Bender 500 (partially found episodes of "Wacky Races" reboot animated series; 1990s)

The show's logo.

Status: Partially Found

Fender Bender 500 is a series of cartoon shorts originally from a show called Wake, Rattle, and Roll (later renamed to JUMP, Rattle, and Roll). This segment features iconic Hanna-Barbera characters racing one another around the world in real-life locations such as Cape Canaveral, Washington DC, Texas, London, Ireland, Russia, Brazil and Kenya; it is a 1990s update of the classic Wacky Races series from 1968. ^[1] The segment would normally feature 9 teams of 2, including:

Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo in the Jellystone Jammer,
Wally Gator and Magilla Gorilla in the Swamp Stomper,
Top Cat and his friend Choo-Choo in the Alley Cat,
Winsome Witch and her cat Lucky in the Sonic Broom,
Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss in the Half-Dog Half-Cat Halftrack,
Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy in the Lucky Trucky,
Quick Draw McGraw and his partner Baba Looey in the Texas Twister,
Pixie and Dixie, the Mice Twins, in the Cheddar Shredder,
And, returning from Wacky Races, Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the Dirty Truckster.

It is historically significant as it would be the last time that Top Cat and Dick Dastardly would be voiced by their original actors, Arnold Stang^[2] and Paul Winchell^[3] respectively, before their passings.

Release History

It was originally broadcast as a segment of Wake, Rattle and Roll^[4], a Hanna-Barbera produced live-action children's show. The first season was aired in syndication and then afterward moved to the Disney Channel and re-named Jump, Rattle and Roll^[5]. The Fender Bender 500 segments also aired as part of TV Mayhem in the UK^[6].

The only commercial home video release was in Japan where the majority of episodes were released on both VHS^[7] and Laserdisc in six volumes.^[8] ^[9] These sets were missing the episodes Unfathomable 500 and The Yukon Win It 500 which were exclusive to a laserdisc box set of Wacky Races. ^[10]

Availability

Out of the 50 episodes produced 18 have currently been found in English ^[11] and 40 episodes have been found in Japanese ^[12]^[13] Currently six episodes are unavailable publicly in any language.

In March 2020, Volume 3 of the Japanese release was preserved by YouTube user Alan Grant ^[14]. In May 2023 volumes 1, 2 5 and 6 were preserved by YouTube user RailRon ^[12] All of which were later preserved by Archive.org user RyanKeim13^[13]

The majority of the English language episodes are currently considered lost media. In May 2021, a folder containing all episodes available at the time, was uploaded to Mega.^[15]

#	Episode Title	Episode Status
01	The Nippon Tuck 500	Found (Japanese dub)
02	The Cow Sow & Plow 500	Found (Japanese dub)
03	The Calypso 500	Found (Japanese dub)
04	The Philly Freedom 500	Found
05	The Hup, Two, Three, Four 500	Found
06	The Frances a Lot 500	Found (Japanese dub)
07	The Wooden Shoe Like to Win 500	Found (Japanese dub)
08	The Rocket Gibraltar 500	Found (Japanese dub)
09	The Bombay Flambe 500	Found (Japanese dub)
10	The Way Down Under 500	Found (Japanese dub)
11	Fondue 500	Found (Japanese dub)
12	The Kenya Win It 500	Found
13	The Fettuccini 500	Found (Japanese dub)
14	Monumental 500	Found
15	The High Stakes 500	Found
16	The Great Golden Gate 500	Found (Japanese dub)
17	The Highland Fling 500	Found (Japanese dub)
18	Rush to Rushmore 500	Found (Japanese dub)
19	Pound for Pound 500	Found
20	The Great Greek 500	Found (Japanese dub)
21	The Log Jammer 500	Found (Japanese dub)
22	The Clambake 500	Found (Japanese dub)
23	We'll Get Bayou 500	Found (Japanese dub)
24	The Funhouse 500	Found (Japanese dub)
25	Space Race 500	Found
26	The Wicki Wacki 500	Lost
27	Big Apple 500	Lost
28	The Panda-Monium 500	Lost
29	The Tumbleweed 500	Found
30	The Jungle Bungle 500	Lost
31	Silver Screen 500	Lost
32	Sheik to Sheik 500	Found
33	The Cotton Pickin 500	Found (Japanese dub)
34	The Oom-pa-pah 500	Found (Japanese dub)
35	The Fountain of Youth 500	Found (Japanese dub)
36	The Fiesta Fantastica 500	Found (Japanese dub)
37	The Big Top 500	Found
38	The Russian Around 500	Found
39	The Dash to Nashville 500	Found (Japanese dub)
40	The Trans-Transylvania 500	Found
41	The Run Down to Ghost Town 500	Found (Japanese dub)
42	The Go for the Gold 500	Found (Japanese dub)
43	The Golden State 500	Found (Japanese dub)
44	The Hit'n Mississippi 500	Found
45	The Alligator Alley 500	Found (Japanese dub)
46	The Brazilian Million 500	Found (Japanese dub)
47	The Emerald Isle 500	Found (Japanese dub)
48	The Nile a Minute 500	Found
49	Unfathomable 500	Found
50	The Yukon Win It 500	Lost

References

[1] Hanna Barbera Wiki: Fender Bender 500

[2] Behind The Voice Actors: Arnold Stang

[3] Behind The Voice Actors: Paul Winchell

[4] Youtube: Wake Rattle and Roll, Full Episode

[5] Jump Rattle and Roll, Disney Channel Promo

[6] TV Mayhem: Episode 1

[7] Amazon Japan: VHS Listing

[8] LaserDisc Database's listing on Fender Bender 500.

[9] National Diet Library Listing (Japan)

[10] Wacky Races Laserdisc featuring two episodes " Unfathomable 500" and "The Yukon Win It 500" unavailable separately.

[11] YouTube playlist of Fender Bender 500 episodes currently available in English. (Updated Nov 2023)

[:0-12] 12.0 ^12.1 Episodes of Fender Bender 500, uploaded by YouTube user RailRon. (Updated May 2023)

[:1-13] 13.0 ^13.1 Five volumes of the Japanese home release uploaded Archive.org (Updated July 2023)

[14] Laserdisc Volume 3, six Japanese episodes uploaded. (Updated March 2020)

[15] A MEGA folder containing all current found episodes (Updated May 2021).

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Fender Bender 500 (partially found episodes of "Wacky Races" reboot animated series; 1990s)

Contents

Release History

Availability

See Also

References