Friday, June 10, 2011

Questions You've Never Asked: Did Quick Draw McGraw Ever Ride a Horse?

The answer is NO, he didn’t! Hanna-Barbera’s Quick Draw McGraw was never seen riding a horse, over the three original seasons (1959-1961) of his animated series!

Indeed, he might have been the only western star in the entire history of entertainment who never rode (or even interacted with) a horse… a tiny midget horse he was once assigned to capture for a circus (“Bronco Busting Boobs”), notwithstanding.


Sure, he drove a stagecoach in his opening and closing show credits but he was never ON a horse itself. He usually walked into town, or drove a jeep (!), and once he even rode an elephant!

Tsk! Tsk! What would Marshall Matt Dillon think!


Probably for the same reason Goofy didn’t walk Pluto on a leash, I guess…


Then again, Huckleberry Hound WAS a dogcatcher once upon a time…


Cartoons… who can figure ‘em!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And Minnie Mouse had a pet cat.

Joe Torcivia said...

Yes, indeed, Anon!

That’s an aspect of anthropomorphic characters I’d have loved to “play with”.

As, in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories # 718 (2011), when I had a scientist brag that he’d “…actually built a BETTER MOUSETRAP!” -- and, because he was in Mickey’s presence add “No offense, Mr. Mouse!”

I also loved the later Daffy Duck cartoon “Suppressed Duck” (1965) where Daffy goes BEAR HUNTING, after so many years of trying to avoid “Duck Season”! It’s all good!

Anonymous said...

IIRC, Quick Draw and his sidekick were shown on horseback in an issue of Archie Comics' Hanna Barbera Presents in the mid-1990's. But maybe comic book adaptations are not considered canon.

Anonymous said...

And then there was the infamous cover of Gemstone's Mickey Mouse and Friends #280 in September 2005. As for Daffy, he tried to avoid duck season by convincing Elmer that it was really rabbit season, so I guess he did not object to hunting as long as he himself was not the huntee.

Joe Torcivia said...

Interesting point. Are comics to be considered Hanna-Barbera canon?

If you were to ask me, I’d say to consider the Dell and Gold Key comics only, certainly throw out the Charltons, allow the Marvel issues (mostly because they were written by Mark Evanier), and take the Archie and DC issues on a case-by-case basis.

Everyone will have their own view on this.

Pembroke W. Korgi said...

He DID ride a horse in the TV movie, The Good, The Bad, and the Huckleberry.

Joe Torcivia said...

Hmmm… Ya might just have me on a technicality, “Pem ol’ Pal”! (Might I presume to call you “Mr. Pem”? A reference any VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA fan should get… but I digress!)

I have no doubt he did, if you say so, but for too many reasons to list here, I pretty much “throw-out” anything done with classic H-B characters after… oh, let’s say the early ‘70s – and even that can be something of a stretch.

So, my only defense, having seen all the original Michael Maltese written cartoons, and read the Dell and Gold Key Comics would be… Hey, who knew?