Quick Draw McGraw, or just Quick Draw, is a fictional anthropomorphic horse and the main protagonist and title character of The Quick Draw McGraw Show. He is depicted as wearing a red cowboy hat and light blue bandana. He was voiced by Daws Butler. All 45 of his cartoons that originally aired between 1959 and 1962 were written by Michael Maltese, known best for his work at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio.
History
Quick Draw was usually depicted as a sheriff in a series of short films set in the Old West. Quick Draw was often accompanied by hisdeputy, a Mexican burro called Baba Looey (also voiced by Butler), who spoke English with a Mexican accent and called his partner "Queeks Draw". In the Spanish American version, Quick Draw (Tiro Loco McGraw) speaks in a very English-influenced accent, and Baba Looey (Pepe Trueno, or Pepe Luis in some episodes) speaks in a very Mexican accent, so it was clear that Quick Draw was the alien, and there was no need to adapt any feature of the story. In the Brazilian version, however, Quick Draw speaks in adrawling Portuguese which along with his hispanized name (Pepe Legal) would suggest he was either a Texan-American or Mexican cowboy.
Quick Draw satirized the westerns that were popular among the American public at the time. His character was well-intentioned, but somewhat dim.
Another featured character was Snuffles, the bloodhound dog who would point to his mouth and "ah-ah-ah-" when he wanted a biscuit, then hug himself, leap up in the air, and float back down after having eaten one. In several cases when Quick Draw did not have a dog biscuit to offer, or if he tried to give Snuffles the reward cash for capturing an outlaw, Snuffles would either shake his head and say, "Uh-uh," or grunt to himself and mumble "Darn cheapskate!" In his first appearance, Bow-Wow Bandit, he was trying to find Quick Draw's assistant Baba Looey, who was kidnapped by a bandit that thinks that he has a tattoo of a map on his back. When he wasn't called Snuffles, Quick Draw sometimes called him dog deputy.
El Kabong
In certain cases, Quick Draw would also assume the identity of the masked vigilante El Kabong (a spoof of Zorro, known in the Spanish-dubbed version as "El Caba-Zorro" or "El Relámpago"). His introduction went as follows – "Of all the heroes in legend and song, there's none as brave as El Kabong" – As El Kabong, Quick Draw would attack his foes by swooping down on a rope with the war cry "OLAYYYYEEEE!" and hitting them on the head with an acoustic guitar (after shouting "KABOOOOOONG!") which is always referred to as a "kabonger", producing a distinctive kabong sound and usually destroying the guitar in the process. The "guitar" was usually drawn as a four stringedquatro. On the cartoon's soundtrack, the "kabong" sound effect was produced by a foley artist striking the detuned open strings of a cheap acoustic guitar. (Without any of the obvious cartoon theatrics, this would also be reprised by several professional wrestlers, most notably Jeff Jarrett and The Honky Tonk Man, referred to then either under El Kabong's name or as the "Acoustic Equalizer").
Trivia
- In the 2013 direct-to DVD film, Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, there is a person in the Hanna-Barbera convention that cosplays as Quick Draw.