Thoughts on Warner Brothers Bugs and Daffy
In Lilly’s Angel (Book 1 of Fangs & Halos), Lilly has spent 105 years in a tomb in New Orlean’s St. Louis 1 Cemetery. She “died” in 1900, the madam of the “sporting house” she worked in thought she did after Lilly entertained a regular customer named Marcus Lancaster for the evening.
By 2005, when Lilly was found by the Enforcer angel Sullivan, she had missed so much change in the society. During a discussion, she tells him of seeing a very short Vitascope film in America’s first movie theater that was in New Orleans.
When at Johnny White’s Bar on Bourbon during their walk after escaping the cemetery, Lilly sees herself on the television. This is the very first television she’s ever seen.
Once she is with Arianne, she is shown how to turn on the television in her room and the first thing she watches is a Warner Brothers Cartoon, one with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. This is one of my favorite cartoons, I could sit and watch them over and over.
When it came to make the decision, I watched a couple of hours of cartoons and settled on the 1951 through 1953 cartoon hunting trilogy that has the episodes Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit! Duck! My description about it in Lilly’s Angel points to both the ‘hunting season’ posters that say “Rabbit Season” and “Duck Season.”
Most of the time you can find these on the internet but they’re only partials. The version I watched years ago had pieces of all three put together, with the signs at first and ending with “you’re despicable.” This is the version described in the book. It’s an homage to the cartoons I loved as a kid and one of the things I would make sure to share with someone like Lilly who had never seen such a thing.
The various television shows over the years began to use various cartoons, mainly shortened to fill out things like The Bugs and Daffy Show on Saturday mornings. There was nothing better than sitting at the table and watching any of the Warner’s characters cartoons such as Roadrunner and Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, and Sylvester and Tweety.
Even in high school in the 1970s, it was very common for me to have the TV on and watching not only Warner’s cartoons but things like Jonny Quest, SuperFriends, and Scooby-Doo.
Some places had a weekday afternoon cartoon slot between 3 and 5pm—the time school let out until the parents wanted to take over the TV for their news fix. Yes, this is a memory of three broadcast channels and you had to change the channel with a dial—no remotes for us!
Eventually, all cartoons that were made prior to 1980 were censored for various racial stereotypes, scenes with smoking, drinking, suicide, and other things. Vaulted editions of cartoons that would be totally messed up from censoring so much content, like the Censored Eleven, have had very limited play, mainly in documentaries about the era they represent. None have been released in home video, even though a pending release was announced at the New York Comicon in 2010, no release has happened.
The last weekend with Saturday morning cartoons on broadcast (non-cable) television came on October 4, 2014 and with it, the fun of my childhood.
My love of the Warner Brothers cartoons has been life-long. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know who Bugs Bunny was. I also watched While I enjoy the Disney animated films, my very favorite have to be the Warner’s cartoons. And I love Animaniacs too, just wish they had more episodes. (which, if you’ve lived under a rock since the 1990s, click on the link below in the references to see some info on it.)
References
Notes From Wikipedia About The Hunter Trilogy
Rabbit Fire is a 1951 Looney Tunes (reissued as a 1960 Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies) cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. Directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese, the short is the first film in Jones’ “hunting trilogy”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_Fire
Rabbit Seasoning is a 1952 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. It is the sequel to Rabbit Fire, and the second entry in the “Hunting trilogy” directed by Jones and written by Michael Maltese (the only major difference in format between them is that Rabbit Fire takes place during the spring, while Rabbit Seasoning takes place in autumn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_Seasoning
Duck! Rabbit! Duck! is the sequel to Rabbit Seasoning, and the third (along with Rabbit Fire) and final entry in Jones’ “hunting trilogy” (the only major difference in format between this film and the others is that it takes place during the middle of winter). Produced by Eddie Selzer for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., the short was released to theaters in 1953 by Warner Bros. Pictures. This is the only film in the trilogy where Bugs does not crossdress. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck!_Rabbit,_Duck!
Other Page Links About Items Discussed
Videos
Other Mentioned Cartoon Videos
Roadrunner and Coyote — (Warner Brothers)
Foghorn Leghorn—Leghorn Swoggled (1951—Warner Brothers)
Pepé Le Pew — (a compilation—Warner Brothers)
Sylvester and Tweety Bird — The Best of Sylvester and Tweey (Compilation—Warner Brothers)
Jonny Quest — The Top 5 Jonny Quest Episodes (Compilation- Hanna-Barbera 1964)
SuperFriends — (Hanna-Barbera and National Periodical Publications/DC Comics–1973)
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! — (Hanna-Barbera Productions 1969)