Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch

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Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon which aired on NBC for one season, from September 7, 1974 to August 30, 1975. It aired on Saturday morning from 8:30 - 9 am, opposite the popular The Bugs Bunny Show.

The series focuses on Wheelie (Frank Welker) and his girlfriend Rota Ree (Judy Strangis; a pun on both the "rotary engine", and Ruta Lee). Wheelie was a red Volkswagen Beetle. All characters talked in the show except Wheelie, who 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's regular nemeses were a gang of motorcycles called the Chopper Bunch, which included the leader Chopper (Frank Welker), Revs (Paul Winchell), Hi-Riser (Lennie Weinrib), and their smallest member, Scrambles (Don Messick).

The show was the subject of a seven-issue comic book from Charlton Comics, published from July 1975 to July 1976. The first three issues feature some of the earliest published artwork of John Byrne.

Since the show aired on NBC, Wheelie sometimes "imitated" the network's trademark "three-tone" signal.