[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pp-rickshaw.jpg]]
->''"I'll get you, Penelope Pitstop!"''

Headlined by one of the most fetching females in animation, ''The Perils of Penelope Pitstop'' was one of two animated series spun off from ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''. Implied to be set between 1911 and 1930, the series was strongly influenced by ''The Perils of Pauline'', a silent movie serial.

The heiress Penelope, a classic DamselInDistress, was the ward of Sylvester Sneekly. Unknown to her, {{once an episode}} Sneekly assumed the identity of the Hooded Claw. With the aid of his identical [[CreepyTwins twin henchmen]], the Bully Brothers, the Hooded Claw caught Penelope in one DeathTrap after another, in hope of taking over her inheritance. Invariably, the Hooded Claw would explain his trap in detail to Penelope.

Although she often escaped the Hooded Claw's traps on her own, Penelope had friends in the Ant Hill Mob, a group of seven little men whose car, Chugaboom, may have been a prototype for WesternAnimation/SpeedBuggy. The InteractiveNarrator was also on her side, providing advice and encouragement. Frequently, after the Mob rescued Penelope, ''she'' had to rescue ''them'' from an unintended consequence of their heroics.

The show's voice talent included Janet Waldo as Penelope, Paul Lynde (uncredited) as the Hooded Claw, Gary Owens as the {{Narrator}} and MelBlanc.
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!!'''This series provides examples of:'''
* ActionGirl: Penelope Pitstop might have been naïve and prone to danger, but she was actually far more capable than she looked and often saved the day.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal
* AffectionateParody: Penelope and the Ant Hill Mob may have been gentle caricatures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
** It was actually lampshaded back in the first episode of ''WackyRaces'', "See-Saw to Arkansas", where the mob dressed up as the seven dwarves to give people false directions. Penelope was the first one they misdirected.
-->'''Clyde:''' If she follows my directions, she'll end up in the middle of the [=LaBrea=] Tarpits!
* AlliterativeName: Penelope Pitstop and Sylvester Sneekly.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: In 1970, GoldKeyComics had a short-lived comic series called ''The Close Shaves of Pauline Peril''. Despite resembling Penelope, Pauline Peril was a newspaper reporter whose ''editor'' wanted to kill her.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese dub has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R43W7Q8uKA8&feature=related this]] for its theme song.
* AnimatedSeries
* AntiSneezeFinger: Penelope does it to herself in episode "Tall Timber Treachery".
* {{Balloonacy}}: In "The Boardwalk Booby Trap", the Hooded Claw gets rid of the Ant Hill Mob by giving them helium balloons that cause them to float away.
* BondVillainStupidity: Seriously, only actual Bond villains show this more than Sneekly does. It's clearly the biggest reason why his plans never work.
* BoundAndGagged: It happens to Penelope OnceAnEpisode, if not more often.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: Main titles only.
* ByWallThatIsHoley: "They ''would'' forget to close the window!"
* ChainedToARailway: It's even in the credits.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: May be a little odd for ''WackyRaces'' fans seeing Penelope and the Ant Hill Mob as devoted allies (especially the aforementioned instance where [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat the Mob try to use dirty tactics on Penelope]]).
* CoatHatMask: The Hooded Claw
* ComicBookAdaptation: Penelope appeared in four issues of Gold Key Comics' ''Hanna-Barbera Fun-In'' and two issues of ''Golden Comics Digest''. The digest stories had Sylvester Sneekly as Penelope's neighbor (she owned a ranch in those stories) instead of her guardian.
* ConveyorBeltOfDoom
* CoolCar: Chugaboom
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Animation historian Jerry Beck claimed in his book ''The Hanna-Barbera Treasury'' that this series "featured the Ant Hill Mob as [Penelope's] chief rival". Probably never seen an episode before in his life (or watched WackyRaces instead).
* CrazyPrepared: Pockets seems to have a gadget for every occasion.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Both Penelope ''and'' the Ant Hill Mob. Both examples were rather haphazard and prone to getting into danger easily but were resilient and resourceful in saving the other when they were in peril (which happened ''a lot'').
* DastardlyWhiplash: The Hooded Claw.
* DeadpanSnarker: Clyde and the Hooded Claw.
* DeathTrap: At least one per episode.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: The Hooded Claw in "Wild West Peril" after Penelope makes off with his hot air balloon.
-->'''Claw:''' Help! Police!! (''covers his mouth'')...oop...what am I saying?!
* DamselInDistress: Both parodied ''and'' played straight with Penelope. (About half the time, ''she'' ends up having to rescue the Ant Hill Mob after they get in trouble trying to rescue ''her''.)
* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: In one episode, Penelope returned a fallen baby eagle to its nest.
* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: In "North Pole Peril". Only this trope excuses that.
* EvilLaugh: The Hooded Claw, in spades. His voice actor, Paul Lynde, was clearly into this specific part of the character, and delivered those evil laughs with great gusto.
* EvilPlan: Practically non-existent for the heroes. They just know that the Claw wants to kill Penelope for some weird reason.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: This show is about Penelope Pitstop. She is in peril. Many times.
* FallingChandelierOfDoom: "The Treacherous Movie Lot Plot"
* FalseReassurance: Sneekly told Penelope that, wherever the Hooded Claw was, he'd also be.
* {{Fanservice}}: Penelope.
* GenreBlindness
* GenreSavvy: In "Carnival Calamity", the Hooded Claw actually realizes that his henchmen are stupid and that he needs more effective goons. Considering he usually is the typical Genre Blind villain most of the time, this would be a momentary subversion.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Pockets was known for this. (Well, how do you think he got his name?)
* HeelFaceTurn: The Bully Brothers in the series finale, "London Town Treachery". The Claw intends to fire them after the Ant Hill Mob -- turned into miniature Mr. Hydes from a spiked tea -- put Penelope in a peril, leaving the Brothers with no alternative but to try to rescue Penelope.
** The Ant Hill Mob themselves were originally rival racers in ''Wacky Races'' that ''shot at other racers with Tommy guns'' a few times, so they probably count.
* HeyItsThatVoice: Paul Lynde provides the voice of Sylvester Sneekly and his evil alter-ego, the Hooded Claw.
** Janet Waldo plays the eponymous DamselInDistress.
** And the Narrator? Gary Owens, of course!
* TheHyena: Yak-Yak of the Ant Hill Mob.
* ImpossiblyCoolClothes
* ImprovisedParachute: In "Jungle Jeopardy" Penelope used her ''scarf'' as a parachute after jumping from a plane.
* InteractiveNarrator: One who ''completely'' favors Penelope, at that.
* IllegalGuardian
* ItsRainingMen: Or in this case a woman, as noted in ImprovisedParachute above.
* JekyllAndHyde: The Hooded Claw once rented a house from JekyllAndHyde as part of a plan to capture Penelope. After realizing there was no tea there, he improvised with some random ingredients. He planned to have the Bully Brothers capture Penelope while he distracted the Ant Hill Mob with the tea. However, the tea turned them into seven "Mr. Hyde" and they captured Penelope. To get their SentientVehicle to cooperate, they gave it some of the "tea" and it also became a "Mr. Hyde".
* LazyArtist: In many episodes in certain scenes, the straps of Penelope's helmet are colored the same as her hair.
* KarmaHoudini: Though he was a luckless villain that fell victim to his own devices a lot of times, the Hooded Claw was naturally never caught or discovered and ended nearly every episode making a VillainExitStageLeft.
* {{MacGyvering}}
* MeaningfulName: Six members of the Ant Hill Mob. It quickly becomes clear what Dum-Dum, Pockets, Snoozy, Softy, Yak-Yak and Zippy do.
** Sylvester G. Sneekly. Makes one wonder how no one (certainly not [[WideEyedIdealist Penelope]]) connected the dots.
** Penelope's surname, she being an [[WackyRaces auto race driver]] and all.
* MissingMom[=/=]DisappearedDad: We never find out what happened to Penelope's parents, or why they were crazy enough to entrust her guardianship to Sneekly.
** We can presume they're deceased, as Penelope lampshaded in the episode "The Hair-Raising Harness Race," in which she is attempting to win the Pitstop Cup in said race:
-->'''Penelope:''' Dear daddy would have wanted it that way. He paid for the cup, y'know.
* [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything The Mobsters Who Don't Do Anything]]: The Ant Hill Mob doesn't do very much mob-type stuff.
** Granted, as they're the heroes of the show, there isn't a lot mob-like they can get away with anymore, they did a bit more in ''WackyRaces'' where they were more antagonistic.
* MummyWrap: The Hooded Claw naturally mummified Penelope for one of his schemes in the Egyptian-themed episode, "Arabian Desert Danger".
* NeverSayDie: Averted in the Mexican dub.
* NoKillLikeOverkill: The Hooded Claw's traps always consisted of some kind of crazy Rube Goldberg-esque setup that would eventually lead to Penelope's death. More often than not, the Claw would always spend nearly a minute explaining how the trap works, and Penelope often takes advantage of the time it takes for the trap to go into action to save herself.
* NoNameGiven: The Bully Brothers.
* NonindicativeName: The Hooded Claw. No hood, no claw. I guess he just thought the name [[RuleOfCool sounded cool]].
** His cape and hat is hooding his identity and claw because he always grabs Penelope.
* ObviouslyEvil: The Hooded Claw in spades! He's got a giant nose, flabby chin, and a thin lanky body with a walk to match! As Sylvester Sneekly he has Devil horn hair, which indicates his true colors. Frankly I'm surprised nobody ever commented on this before.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Six of the mobsters.
* OnlyOneName: Clyde of the Ant Hill Mob.
* PaperThinDisguise: The Hooded Claw did this a ''lot'', and sometimes would wear his purple ribbon mask with them, too.
* ParasolParachute: In the first episode, "Jungle Jeopardy", a single small umbrella is enough to lower the entire Ant Hill Mob ''and'' Chuggaboom safely to the ground.
* PackedHero: In "London Town Treachery", the armored Ant Hill Mobsters are similarly canned, with their faces on the labels.
* PinkMeansFeminine
* PinkGirlBlueBoy: Penelope looooves pink; all the mobsters except Clyde wear blue suits.
** Softy has a pink hat-band however, in fact each member of the mob has a different colour hat-band.
* PowderTrail: "Jungle Jeopardy"
* PrettyInMink: In "North Pole Peril", Penelope wears a fur-trimmed coat.
* PsychoElectricEel: Two of them are used to power a DeathTrap in "The Treacherous Movie Lot Plot".
* PunyParachute: Penelope's ImprovisedParachute above.
* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: The Hooded Claw could be the poster boy for this trope.
* ShoutOut: From the debut episode, "Jungle Jeopardy":
-->'''Penelope:''' My arch enemy, the Hooded Claw!
-->'''Claw:''' Who did you expect? [[WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines Dick Dastardly?]]
* SolarPoweredMagnifyingGlass: In "Hair-Raising Harness Race", while Penelope is trapped in a shed filled with explosives, the Hooded Claw has the Ant Hill Mob bound with a rope and hanging from a tree limb. A magnifying glass is set so that the sun's rays will burn the rope and send the mob plummeting into a deep chasm.
* SouthernBelle: Penelope, natch.
* SpeedBlitz: Why do you think they call him Zippy?
* SpinOff: Of ''WackyRaces''
* StatuesqueStunner: Penelope is tall, blond ''and'' gorgeous.
** But then, The Ant Hill Mob are VERY short.
* StealthInsult: The narrator throws in a doozy after the Claw has a fit over a plan gone wrong:
-->'''Claw:''' Hey! I protest!
-->'''Narrator:''' Why not? Everyone else is.
* SternChase
* StopHelpingMe: Played with. The Ant Hill Mob often were successful in saving Penelope, but frequently got themselves in trouble in the process, requiring their rescued friend to help ''them'' out.
* StylishProtectionGear: When Penelope needs protection, it will be fashionable.
* ToBeContinued: On the original CBS run, a teaser for the next episode was presented at the conclusion of the just-aired story followed by a "To be continued next week" announcement and title card. It was retained when the show went into syndication in the late 70s; it was edited out from Cartoon Network and Boomerang runs as well as from the DVD set.
* TooDumbToLive: Why do you think they call him Dum-Dum? WhatAnIdiot!
** He certainly was the luckiest of the mob. Penelope kissed him twice.
* TunnelKing: One of Zippy's many talents.
* WalkingTheEarth
* WalkThePlank: The Hooded Claw attempts to force Penelope to walk the plank in "Arabian Desert Danger". And, yes, the incongruity of forcing someone to walk the plank in the desert was {{Lampshaded}} by Penelope. The cannonballs were an interesting addition, though.
* WeWillMeetAgain: Done at the end of almost every episode, if not every one, with the Hooded Claw vowing to get Penelope "next time".
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: An early sketch for the series featured Penelope's little brother Johnny Pitstop and had Dastardly and Muttley as his bodyguards.
* WideEyedIdealist: Penelope would never believe that her guardian Sneekly was the Hooded Claw, even after she pointed out many times that they look just alike. In "Big Top Trap", Sneekly actually revealed to her that he was the Hooded Claw and she ''still'' didn't believe it!
** Upon seeing the episode again, one can see that Sneekly saved his butt by assuming his normal identity and volunteering his time at the circus as a quick-change artist. His getting up as the Claw was just him showing a sample to Penelope, again to cover himself. Penelope idealistically doesn't believe Sneekly would stoop to that level. Little does she know.
** Just to show how much of an idealist she is, she knows the Hooded Claw is "also" a quick-change artist, meaning she believes Sneekly and the Claw are ''two'' of that kind of artist instead of only one.
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