Chuck Jones and 'The Rules'

Charles Martin 'Chuck' Jones was a legendary animator, cartoon artist, director, screenwriter and producer. He is noteably known for working at Warner Bros. Cartoons and producing Looney Tunes. Out of this came Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. This was a show about a road runner who was always escaping the evil plans to thwart him of Wile E. Coyote.

Chuck decided that the show needed to follow some simple rules which all further episodes would be based on. These rules were to act as a recipe to make a good show, much like thrillers have a recipe to follow to make sure it is a successful one. These are the rules that he came up with:

1. The Road Runner cannot harm or upset the coyote except going 'MEEP! MEEP'.

2. No outside force can harm the coyote, only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme Products.

3. The coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic.

4. No dialogue ever except 'MEEP! MEEP!'.

5. The road runner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called the road runner.

6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters - the Southwest American Desert.

7. All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from Acme corperation.

8. Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote's greatest enemy.

9. The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.