Fred “Tex” Avery began his animation career at Winkler Pictures in 1928. By the time Avery finished his work with major cartoon studios, including Warner Bros., MGM, and Walter Lantz, he had created some of the most iconic animated characters ever seen, pairing them with surrealistic and often sexual themes throughout the 1940s and 1950s. His absurdist cartoons, in which characters usually broke the “fourth wall” or altered reality, left audiences marveling at his genius when not convulsed with laughter. Yet, his final years found Avery toiling at the most banal and pedestrian of animated series, which he did not even live to see completed.

After working on commercial advertising and briefly running his own animation studio, Avery retired in 1978. He was tired, in poor health, and haunted by both a divorce and the suicide of his son. By then, the days of animated theatrical shorts were long over, replaced by limited animation TV fare.

However, in 1979, Avery was given an offer by his former MGM stablemates, William Hanna and Joe Barbera. Recalling Avery’s heyday at that studio, they hired Avery to helm a new series of his own creation for the Hanna-Barbera studio with CBS as the broadcaster. Knowledgeable animation fans reacted with excitement, hoping that Avery could rekindle his former brilliance. Avery developed a character named “Quicky Koala”, and hopes ran high.

Disappointment followed, for several reasons. CBS adhered to strict accountability regarding the show’s content during a time when anything that merely suggested licentiousness or violence could not air. These edicts immediately deprived Avery of two of his stronger comedic tools. Another factor was the limited range of animation that, by 1979, had become the standard practice at Hanna-Barbera. Avery, who headed a brilliant team of animators at MGM, groused to fellow animator John Dunn that the quality and production methods of modern cartoons, especially ones made for TV, were hideous. Finally, Avery’s style of comedy was poorly adapted to the simplistic edicts followed by Hanna-Barbera. While all of this may have been true, Hanna-Barbera found itself hamstrung by economic and network realities.

Tex Avery belonged to a time when the theatrical cartoon still flourished, and the content and sensibilities of those classic, revered shorts were vastly different. Chuck Jones once reminisced that “We made these cartoons for ourselves.” Not so in 1979.

Avery died while Quicky Koala was still in production. He created a cartoon about a Koala, voiced by writer Bob Ogle, who could avoid danger by what appeared to be teleportation; smear animation was never utilized (possibly due to expense). Danger came in the form of Wilford Wolf, voiced by John Stephenson, who seemed to want to capture Ouicky as either a collectible or to keep as a pet. Many of the 16 episodes produced had a very Chuck Jones-style flavor to them. Wilford used various ruses, traps, and machines the Wile E. Coyote might have employed. All of them were futile, since Quicky could instantly disappear and appear again at will.

Both characters were retreads. Bob Ogle used a voice that was very similar to that of Bill Thompson, the original voice of Droopy in the theatrical shorts. Wilford Wolf strongly resembled Mildew Wolf, a character who appeared in a segment of H-B’s Cattanooga Cats (1969-1971). For Wilford, John Stephenson approximated the voice of Paul Lynde, who had played Mildew.

When Quicky Koala premiered on September 12, 1981, Avery was already gone. Hanna and Barbera changed the name of his creation to Kwicky Koala, and the show was henceforth known by that name. Avery was developing a character called Cavemouse (based on Hanna and Barbera’s beloved Jerry Mouse) for The Flintstone Comedy Show when he collapsed in the studio parking lot, ravaged by lung cancer.

Kwicky Koala followed soon afterwards. Kwicky was cancelled on December 26, 1981, after 16 episodes. Although Tex Avery’s legend lives on in the memories of hardcore animation buffs, Kwicky Koala, as one of Avery’s final works, is a footnote in Saturday Morning history.