Wonderbug
"Sittin' in a junkyard, waitin' to be bought up, he's a pile of cars..."
Although the Sid and Marty Krofft usually churned out fairly original shows (hat people, bugaloos, sea monster families, etc.), even they weren't above ripping off other popular shows and films (H.R. Pufnstuf drew inspiration from The Wizard of Oz; Electra Woman and Dyna Girl was pretty obviously inspired by the '60s Batman series, etc.). But perhaps their most blatant piece of plagiarism was 1976's Wonderbug, which aired for two years on The Krofft Supershow. The charmingly inane 1965 sitcom My Mother the Car instantly became a punchline of epic proportions, but three years later Disney struck gold using essentially the same premise with Herbie, The Love Bug. Suddenly living cars were cool! One-time Krofft collaborators Hanna-Barbera jumped on the bandwagon with Speed Buggy in 1973 and Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch in 1974. The living car trend continued in 1976 with Wonderbug, then resumed in the '80s with Knight Rider, Turbo-Teen, Gobots and Transformers before (ahem) running out of gas.
Wonderbug was basically a live-action version of Speed Buggy, which itself was a variation (one of Hanna-Barbera's very many variations) of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!. The show's titular character was Schlepcar, a calamitous bucket of bolts (thrown together with parts from other cars) which resembled a Dune Buggy. When teens Barry, C.C. and Susan take him from the junkyard, they discover Schlepcar turns into the amazing, flying Wonderbug when his magic horn is blown! So what are three meddling teenagers and their supercar to do? Go fight crime and injustice!
If you think you've seen C.C. (John Anthony Bailey aka Jack Baker, the black dude) somewhere else, you might have caught him on "Happy Days"... or in one of his numerous porn films. After "Wonderbug" ended he took bit roles in a few sitcoms and b-movies before turning to the adult film industry, frequently appearing in non-sexual (and the occasional sexual) roles from the early '80s until his death from bladder cancer in 1994. Co-star David Levy, on the other hand, went in a completely different direction and became a renowned psychologist while Carol Anne Seflinger pretty much fell off the map.
So here's "Down Mexico Way," one of the two Wonderbug coloring books, which includes an opening introduction by the Krofft Supershow hosts Kaptain Kool and the Kongs. Most of the characters in the book look okay, but there are times when C.C. looks a little Amos N Andy-ish and don't ask me what the artist who drew the aptly named Superchick was thinking -- Debra Clinger was much hotter than this cartoon persona! And creating an odd bit of confusion, one caption reads "Hey, Flatbush, wake up!" but the picture's of Nashville -- Flatbush doesn't even appear in the coloring book!
