The Kwicky Koala Show: Tex Avery’s Final Cartoon

Some cartoons are famous. The Kwicky Koala Show is one of those shows almost nobody remembers, which is a shame, because it has one of the best backstories in all of Saturday morning animation.

Here is the hook: it was one of the last things the legendary Tex Avery ever worked on.

Avery is the wild mind behind so much of what made golden-age cartoons feel fast, loud, and gag-packed, from his early days at Warner Bros to his long run at MGM.

He came out of retirement to help Hanna-Barbera build this show, and he died in 1980 while it was still in production.

So when The Kwicky Koala Show hit CBS in 1981, it played like a time capsule from animation’s golden age, dropped right into the middle of a very different decade.

Let me walk you through it.

A Fast, Funny Package From 1981

The Kwicky Koala Show was not built around a single star. It was an anthology, or what the studio called a package show, and that was a go-to format for Hanna-Barbera in the early 1980s.

Instead of one story, you got four short segments, each with its own cast and its own flavor of comedy:

• Kwicky Koala: the headliner, a fast-moving koala who keeps slipping away from a hungry wolf.
• Crazy Claws: a wisecracking wildcat dodging a fur trapper in a national park.
• Dirty Dawg: a street-smart junkyard dog and his rat pal ducking the local cop.
• The Bungle Brothers: two hopeless beagles chasing showbiz fame in short filler bits.

Bundling these together let the studio keep a fast, gag-heavy rhythm going for the whole half hour. If one segment’s style did not grab you, the next one was only minutes away.

One odd little detail I love: Kwicky is an Australian animal, but he talks with a flat American accent.

The show was even animated in Australia, which is a fun bit of trivia for a series about a koala.

The Tex Avery Influence

Here is where the show gets special, and where a lot of write-ups get the facts wrong.

You will sometimes read that this was the last show Hanna and Barbera ever created. That is not right. The pair kept making cartoons for decades afterward.

The “final” story belongs to someone else: Tex Avery. Hanna-Barbera brought him out of retirement in 1979, and The Kwicky Koala Show became one of the last projects he touched before his death in 1980.

That single fact changes how you watch it.

The Master’s Final Touch

Avery helped invent the language of the fast cartoon. Impossible speed, exaggerated reactions, sight gags stacked on sight gags, and characters who bend the laws of physics for a laugh.

You can feel that sensibility all over the show:

• Kwicky does not run from the wolf so much as vanish, popping from one spot to the next in a blink.
• Crazy Claws fires off Groucho Marx one-liners while his trap-happy foes eat the slapstick.
• Every segment runs on the same engine: a calm little underdog running circles around a frustrated bad guy.

That last part is pure Avery. He loved pitting a cool, unbothered hero against a villain who tries way too hard and loses every time.

Why It Felt Like a Time Machine

By 1981, most Saturday morning cartoons had drifted toward softer, cheaper, more formula-driven fare.

The Kwicky Koala Show went the other way. It looked and moved like something from the golden age of theatrical shorts, back when studios like MGM were cranking out wall-to-wall gags.

That is exactly why it stood out. Dropped into the 1981 lineup, it felt less like a new show and more like a lost classic that had been sitting in a vault since the 1950s.

Meet the Segments and Their Stars

Each segment leaned on a simple chase or hustle, with a strong voice cast doing the heavy lifting. Here is who you are watching.

Kwicky Koala, the Speedy Sweetheart

Kwicky is the heart of the show. He is a soft-spoken, sleepy-eyed koala with a taste for eucalyptus and a knack for staying two steps ahead of trouble.

He barely reacts to danger. He just grins, blinks away at top speed, and lets his enemy faceplant into the nearest wall.

If that reminds you of Avery’s own Droopy, you are onto something. Kwicky is basically Droopy with a turbo button: the same deadpan calm and refusal to panic, but built for speed instead of slow-burn punchlines. He was voiced by the show’s writer, Bob Ogle.

Wilford Wolf, the Foiled Foe

Every speedster needs someone to leave in the dust, and that is Wilford Wolf.

Wilford is all scheme and no success. He cooks up elaborate plans to catch Kwicky, and every one of them backfires in his face. He is far more clown than threat.

Fun detail: Wilford looks a lot like an older Hanna-Barbera character named Mildew Wolf, and voice actor John Stephenson plays him with a Paul Lynde style delivery, which gives him a perfectly smug, whiny edge.

Crazy Claws, the Wisecracking Wildcat

Crazy Claws might be the most purely Avery character in the whole lineup.

He is a fast-talking wildcat who escapes trouble with a mix of razor claws and rapid-fire insults, all delivered in a Groucho Marx voice by Jim MacGeorge.

His targets are the bumbling fur trapper Rawhide Clyde and his dog Bristletooth, with a hapless park ranger named Rangerfield usually catching most of the slapstick. It all plays out in a national park, and nobody ever comes close to catching him.

Dirty Dawg and Ratso, the Junkyard Hustlers

Dirty Dawg is a scruffy junkyard mutt with big plans and bad luck.

He and his none-too-bright rat sidekick, Ratso, spend their segments scheming for a better life, or at least a decent meal, while dodging the law. Frank Welker voices Dirty Dawg with a Howard Cosell style sportscaster delivery, which is a strange and wonderful choice for a cartoon dog.

Quick note, since this trips people up: Dirty Dawg’s partner is Ratso the rat, not a rabbit. He is a rodent through and through.

Officer Bullhorn, the Relentless Cop

Standing between Dirty Dawg and any kind of success is Officer Bullhorn.

Bullhorn is the straight-laced lawman forever chasing the duo out of trouble. His by-the-book seriousness bounces nicely off their chaos, and like every pursuer on this show, he almost never wins.

The Bungle Brothers, Vaudeville’s Worst Act

Rounding out the show are the Bungle Brothers, two beagles named George and Joey who dream of vaudeville stardom.

Their bits are mostly short filler pieces that run between the other segments, and the joke is always the same: they attempt some big showbiz act, and it falls apart in spectacular fashion. Michael Bell and Allan Melvin voice the pair.

The Cult Following of an Overlooked Classic

Why It Only Lasted One Season

For all its charm, The Kwicky Koala Show lasted just one season, and the reasons are a mix of timing and bad luck.

The biggest blow was losing Tex Avery during production. He was the creative compass for the whole thing, and without him steering it, the show never got the guiding hand it needed.

The timing did not help either:

• Old-fashioned, gag-driven comedy was falling out of fashion on Saturday morning.
• Within a couple of years, toy-driven cartoons would take over the schedule.
• A throwback to the 1950s, however charming, was a tough sell to networks chasing the next big trend.

So it quietly wrapped after a single season, more admired now than it ever was at the time.

Modern Rediscovery

The good news is that the show never fully disappeared.

Here is where fans are finding The Kwicky Koala Show today:

• Warner Archive put out a complete series DVD in 2016, the first time the whole run was collected.
• The segments have aired as filler on Boomerang over the years.
• Clips and full episodes circulate on YouTube and fan archives.
• The characters keep popping up in newer shows, from Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law to the reboot series Jellystone.

There is also something about the pacing that feels weirdly modern. In an age of short clips and quick punchlines, a show built on speed and rapid-fire gags fits right in. Kwicky would have thrived on a phone screen.

The Full Episode Guide

Want to go deeper? Here are the episodes from the show’s three main segments.

Kwicky Koala Episodes

1. Sink or Swim
2. Robinson Caruso
3. In a Pig’s Eye
4. Robin Hoodwink
5. Kwicky Goes West
6. Collector’s Item
7. The Incredible Lunk
8. Race to Riches
9. Kangaroo Kapers
10. Double Trouble
11. Around the World in 80 Seconds
12. Kwicky’s Karnival Kaper
13. Scream Test
14. Disguise the Limit
15. Museum Mayhem
16. Cabin Crazy

Crazy Claws Episodes

1. Crazy, It’s Cold Outside
2. The Claws Conspiracy
3. Crazy Challenges
4. Clyde’s Birthday Surprise
5. The Ice Rage
6. Claws Encounters of the Worst Kind
7. Lookout Crazy
8. Crazy Camping
9. Gold Crazy
10. See Saw Claws
11. Choo Choo Crazy
12. Bearly Asleep
13. Old Blowhard
14. Snow Biz
15. Claws Ahoy
16. Rattletrap Rawhide

Dirty Dawg Episodes

1. Pigskin Pooch
2. Dirty’s Debut
3. Dirty Dawg’s Faux Paw
4. Calling Dr. Dirty
5. Lo-Cal Pals
6. A Close Encounter of the Canine Kind
7. Pie-Eyed Pooch
8. Dirty Money
9. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Zoo
10. Urban Cowdawg
11. Dirty-O and Juliet
12. Sea Dawg Dirty
13. Little White Lie
14. The Great Dirtini
15. Disco Dawg
16. Marathon Mutt

The Bungle Brothers segment ran as short one-minute fillers rather than full episodes, so those bits were sprinkled between the other three throughout the season.

A Fitting Send-Off for a Legend

The Kwicky Koala Show will never top a list of the most important cartoons ever made.

It ran for one season and slipped quietly out of the spotlight.

But as a final bow for Tex Avery, it is a lovely one.

The speed, the sight gags, the cool little heroes and the losers who chase them, it is all there, one more time.

If you have never watched a koala disappear with a “beep,” track down an episode.

You will get a fast, funny half hour, and a small piece of animation history hiding inside a forgotten Saturday morning show.