Quick Draw McGraw — Bow-Wow Bandit

Produced and Directed by Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna.
Animation – Ken Muse; Story – Mike Maltese; Titles – Art Goble; Production Supervision – Howard Hanson (no credits).
Voice Cast: Quick Draw, Baba Looey, Snuffles – Daws Butler; Narrator, Naugahyde Kid – Doug Young.
Music: Phil Green, Jack Shaindlin, Emil Cadkin/Harry Bluestone, Hecky Krasnow, J. Louis Merkur.
First aired: week of October 19, 1959 (rerun, week of April 18, 1960)
Episode: Quick Draw McGraw Show M-004, Production J-30.
Plot: Quick Draw enlists bloodhound Snuffles to rescue Baba Looey from the Naugahyde Kid.

For a one-note character, Hanna-Barbera got a lot of mileage out of Snuffles. He was over-the-top enough for audiences to laugh at him, and the studio didn’t overuse him. They probably wrung as much out of him as they could over three seasons, using him judiciously.

That was just fine with Quick Draw’s sponsor. Kellogg’s didn’t just make cereal. It manufactured Gro-Pup T-Bone dog biscuits, so it was anxious to get Snuffles as a spokes-dog and get him on television right away. This cartoon was Snuffles’ debut. It was the 30th put into production for the Quick Draw show, but aired on the fourth show. There were three cartoons per show, so numerically, the 10th, 11th and 12th cartoons put into production should have aired on this show. You can read more about Kellogg’s and Snuffles HERE.

Snuffles didn’t have a name in this episode. Quick Draw just calls him “dog” or “bloodhound.” And while fans remember him floating into the air in ecstacy after eating a dog biscuit, he doesn’t do that in this cartoon; he just hugs himself. And he mutters mock swear words to himself when he can’t have his fix for a biscuit satisfied, much like Muttley used to do years later in ‘Wacky Races’ (1968) and various H-B spin-offs.






This is another fun Quick Draw cartoon, not only because of Snuffles’ fetishism. The narrator turns interviewer and talks to the characters at the beginning. And this is the cartoon where Quick Draw mangles Baba Looey’s name as “Baba Lewis,” as if “Looey” is spelled “Louis” (as in “Saint”). The name “Naugahyde Kid” is pretty imaginative. Naugahyde was big stuff in the ‘50s for suburbanites anxious to have the latest chemically-concocted products that money could buy. So writer Mike Maltese simply modified a good Western name like “Rawhide Kid” and made a fake Western one.



The cartoon opens with a pan over a reddish and brown desert, followed by a shot of Quick Draw with his feet dragging along the dirt as he holds back Snuffles.

Narrator: In tracking outlaws over grim, bleak terrain such as you see here, it sometimes became necessary for lawmen to enlist the aid of a bloodhound. Here we see the nemesis of all outlaws, Quick Draw McGraw.

The narrator then says hello to Quick Draw, “you fearless old bandit-chaser, you.” Quick Draw faces the narrator, doffs his hat and responds. Next, we cut to the Naugahyde Kid’s secret hideout, where Baba is being prisoner.

Narrator: Say, Baba Looey.
Baba: Si. You speakin’?
Narrator: How’s the kid treating you?
Baba: Ees not too bad.

It’s a nice, polite conversation, and the narrator decides to chat with the Kid, who has just poked a gun in Baba Looey’s face. But the Kid is polite, too. He takes off his hat when spoken to.

Narrator: Oh, Naugahyde.
Kid: (surprised by narrator) Huh? Oh, good evening, sir.
Narrator: Why are you holding Baba Looey captive?
Kid: Because, sir, he has a map of the gold mine tattooed on his chest.
Baba: (annoyed) But thees ees not...
Kid: Shaddap!! (looks at camera) Uh, that’s why, sir. (hears barking) That sounds like that stupid, homely, half-baked, ridiculous, no-good, worthless, so-and-so lawman Quick Draw. (looks at camera) Oh, excuse me, sir. I forgot myself.
Narrator: That’s alright, Kid.

So the cartoon’s all set up. And the rest of it consists of run cycles, dog biscuit eating cycles, bribes/pleads to Snuffles and a few sight gag.

After Snuffles squirms in delight over the first biscuit, Quick Draw remarks “Never knowed a dog that was that crazy over dog biscuits.” The Kid fires at them from off screen. Snuffles develops one of those wavy mouths that Don Patterson liked drawing. Snuffles takes off, dragging Quick Draw over some rocks, giving us a chance to hear his Yosemite Sam/Clem Kadiddlehopper-like “Whoa!” and his usual “Oooch, oooch, ouch!”

Another biscuit. Fetch Baba Looey. Snuffles brings back the Kid instead. All the Kid can say is “Is this your dog?” before blasting Quick Draw.



No Baba Looey, no dog biscuit. Snuffles quickly retrieves Baba. Uh, oh. Just as in future cartoons, Quick Draw is out of dog biscuits (even searching his body for them). The muttering Snuffles takes “Baba Lewis” (as Quick Draw is now calling him) back to the bad guy. But the bad guy has no dog biscuits. Snuffles mutters and takes Baba back to Quick Draw, who is frying (?!) a batch.




The only problem is they taste like crap. At least Snuffles thinks so. Snuffles picks up Baba Looey and runs back and forth between the gun-firing Quick Draw and the gun-firing Naugahyde Kid. Finally, the good guy and bad guy skid to a stop at a rock where Snuffles is trying to look innocent. The two start arguing. The Kid’s going to skin Baba alive (he has that map on his chest, you know), prompting Quick Draw to say “I’ll do the skinnin’ around here!” During all this, the camera cuts to a close-up of the bottom of the rock. Baba pops his head up from the ground. “You know something?” he says to the audience. “I theenk I’ll quit when I’m ahead,” and buries himself back in the ground, with his hoof waving “Adios” to the camera.



Snuffles appeared in two more cartoons in the 1959-60 season and seven in the Quick Draw show altogether.

The music cutting is really odd in this cartoon. The music changes in mid-dialogue or mid-scene, instead of changing when the mood does. There’s a square-dance cue that’s used twice that the Capitol Hi-Q library called “Light Movement.” It’s a cue that originally came from the Sam Fox library.

0:00 - Quick Draw McGraw Sub Main Title theme (Curtin).
0:16 - SF-11 LIGHT MOVEMENT (De Francesco?) – Pan over background, Narrator talks to Quick Draw.
0:43 - CB-86A HIDE AND SEEK (Bluestone/Cadkin) – Hideout, Narrator talks to Naugahyde Kid.
1:41 - GR-472 HICKSVILLE (Green) – Snuffles barks, dog biscuit scene, gunfire
2:28 - SIX-DAY BICYCLE RACE (Shaindlin) – Snuffles pulls Quick Draw, skids to stop.
2:49 - THE HAPPY COBBLER (Krasnow) – Quick Draw on ground, another dog biscuit, Snuffles runs off.
3:31 - GR-77 CUSTARD PIE CAPERS (Green) – Quick Draw talks to audience, Snuffles brings back Naugahyde Kid, Quick Draw shot.
3:57 - GR-80 FRED KARNO’S ARMY (Green) – “No Baby Looey, no dog biscuit.”
4:05 - GR-77 CUSTARD PIE CAPERS (Green) – “Is that clear?” Snuffles disappears.
4:10 - GR-472 HICKSVILLE (Green) – “Here he comes now,” “Your dog biscuit.”
4:28 - CB-86A HIDE AND SEEK (Bluestone/Cadkin) – Quick Draw searches himself, Snuffles zips out of scene.
4:43 - rising scale music (Shaindlin) – Quick Draw calls Snuffles, Snuffles runs back and forth with Baba, skids to a stop.
5:09 - EM-107D LIGHT MOVEMENT (Green) – “I’m a bakin’ you...” Snuffles starts choking.
5:40 - SF-11 LIGHT MOVEMENT/MOUNTAINEERS' HOEDOWN (Merkur) – More Snuffles choking, Quick Draw runs after Snuffles, Quick Draw and Naugahyde argue, Baba buries himself.
7:01 - Quick Draw McGraw Sub End Title theme (Curtin).