The Perils of Penelope Pitstop was a series that Hanna-Barbera Productions produced in 1969. It was a spin-off of Wacky Races, another Hanna-Barbera series that ran from 1968 to 1970. Perils was patterned after the silent classic serial The Perils of Pauline.
Every episode ended in a cliffhanger with Penelope in peril and crying for help – usually because of the evil The Hooded Claw. Her rescuers were the Ant Hill Mob – a bunch of short gangster types. With their leader Clyde, Dum Dum, Pockets, Snoozy, Softy, Yak Yak and Zippy seemed to owe a little to a certain group of seven dwarfs.
One would have thought that with the whole Women’s Liberation movement going on in the late sixties that Hanna-Barbera could have come up with a stronger heroine but I guess not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27FlXGA7R50
