Constantly at odds with each other in a series of thirty-five animated cartoons produced by Warner Brothers from 1949 through 1966, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote still entertain audiences with their familiar escapades in the southwestern desert. The premise of all the cartoons is the same: Wile E. Coyote tries without success to capture the Road Runner. The Road Runner proves wilier than the crafty but bumbling coyote, whose traps inevitably backfire as the bird escapes with his signature "beep-beep" farewell.

The two characters first appeared in the 1949 cartoon short Fast and Furry-Ous, created by director Chuck Jones (1912–2002) and story-man Michael Maltese (1908–1981). Their second cartoon, Beep, Beep, appeared in 1952. The cartoon "Beep Prepared" was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961. The Road Runner cartoons are reminiscent of other Warner Brothers animated shorts that feature combative characters, like Bugs Bunny...