Prime-time television would seem to be the natural place for the
sophisticated, adult humor of Warner Brothers' classic cartoons, as was
exemplified by the success of the 1960-2 Bugs Bunny Show that aired
on Tuesday evenings on ABC. However, in the mid-1960s, the Warner Brothers
cartoons had become established as children's entertainment. By 1968,
executives at CBS were convinced that animated material, no matter how
violent and no matter what the original intended audience, belonged on
Saturday morning. However, the beloved characters of Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies had enduring adult appeal, and with the popularity of
prime-time television variety specials in the mid-1970s, it must have
seemed fitting to network programmers that the greatest "showmen" in
animated cartoon history should return to prime-time television for their
own special performances.
No doubt another factor in persuading network executives to give to Bugs Bunny a return engagement in prime-time was the success of the poignant Charlie Brown/Peanuts television specials. Cartoon characters, appearing in holiday-related, half-hour features, could be relied upon to garner respectable ratings and advertising revenue. Further, with the reduction of regular series episodes per season to below 26, specials were needed to fill the gaps in the 52 weeks that constituted a television season.
Bugs' first foray onto prime-time television in a special feature was the Chuck Jones-directed Carnival of the Animals, which aired on Nov. 22, 1976. Consisting of entirely new animation, this rather stylish prime-time television special was deliberately cast in the successful mold of Jones' popular musical cartoons, "Baton Bunny" and "Long-Haired Hare", and combined the familiar showbiz rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck with Ogden Nash poetry.
New animation was quite expensive, and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' stalwart Dave Detiege and Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show producer Hal Geer, impressed by the thematic similarities in certain vintage cartoons, assembled them into single-story television specials with newly animated bridging sequences. But whereas the original Bugs Bunny Show contained classic cartoons in their entirety and kept the bridging to a minimum so as to not tamper with the integrity of the cartoons themselves, producers of the Bugs Bunny television specials had no qualms about altering the vintage cartoon plots to fit into often half-baked stories.
This was not an instant decision. The first two television specials that utilized classic footage retained as much as possible a format that allowed the vintage animation to "breathe". Bugs Bunny's Easter Special used the premise that Granny needs someone to "stand in" for a bedridden Easter Bunny. Granny and Bugs go through the Warner Brothers production lot, visiting the sets where cartoon characters are acting in their classic roles in such famous cartoons as "Hillbilly Hare" and "Knighty Knight Bugs" or screening their prior work in "Tweety's Circus" and "Birds Anonymous". The Bugs Bunny Easter Special's success (Video Movie Guide gives it five stars!) is probably due to the fact that classic cartoon directors Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson (this was probably McKimson's final work with Bugs and the Looney Tunes gang before his death), and Gerry Chiniquy were directors for the bridging story.
The Star Wars phenomenon prompted the compiling of all of Chuck Jones' Marvin Martian cartoon shorts into Bugs Bunny in Space. Three Bugs cartoons pitting the bunny against the casually belligerent alien were shown in their entirety, accompanied by clips from "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" and "His Hare-Raising Tale". All of these cartoons logically fitted together in a special, and no new animation or contrived bridging was deemed necessary.
Next was A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court, Chuck Jones' newly animated and rather bland return to the days of knights and roundtables- a premise far more entertainingly lampooned in Jones' "Knight-Mare Hare" and Friz Freleng's "Knights Must Fall" and "Knighty Knight Bugs". Most noteworthy was that this was the first time that Chuck Jones worked with Yosemite Sam.
Starting with Bugs Bunny's Howl-Oween Special, the Bugs Bunny/Looney
Tunes television specials settled into a format in which excerpts from
as many as eight cartoon classics were reduced in length and inserted
into a slapdash story with sometimes tenuous relation to a holiday. In the
1978-9 television season, Bugs Bunny prime-time specials became a tri-monthly
fixture on CBS. They were most prolific between 1979 and 1982.
Opinion of cartoon fans is divided about these specials. But Warner Brothers and CBS ought to be commended for maintaining a presence for Bugs and the other Looney Tunes characters in prime-time television. Several of the specials are watchable as showcases for the vintage cartoons, and it is fun to think about how thematically similar cartoon shorts could be packaged and to ponder on why certain films were used and others were not, in the assembling of these specials.
Some cartoons, no matter how similar in mood or theme, just do not fit together into a single, larger story. The most obvious example is Bugs Bunny's Howl-Oween Special. First, it is night when clips from "A-Haunting We Will Go" and "Broom-Stick Bunny" are seen; then, when Bugs goes into a city to obtain a sample of his doctor's "tea", it is day, as seen in cobbled together scenes from "Hyde and Hare" and "Hyde and Go Tweet" (Jekyll's laboratory apparently spans several stories of his house); then, after Bugs transforms into a monster by means of Hyde formula (with a daylight scene from "Hyde and Hare"), he returns to Witch Hazel, and it is night again. In a scene from "A Witch's Tangled Hare", Hazel is shown outside, stirring her cauldron. She magically transforms Bugs back to normal, but Bugs has brought a bottle of Jekyll's concoction with him, and Hazel later changes into Count Bloodcount (for footage from "Transylvania 6-5000") after drinking the formula. So, now Hyde formula is a gender-bender! Most ludicrous is that Hazel's home starts as a rundown house ("Broom-Stick Bunny"), changes to a castle ("A Witch's Tangled Hare"), becomes a house again ("A-Haunting We Will Go"), then is a castle ("Transylvania 6-5000"), and finally is a house for closing footage from "Bewitched Bunny". Hazel also is supposed to be responsible for the spooks that Sylvester and Porky experience in clips from "Scaredy Cat" and "Claws For Alarm" when they drive into Hazel's territory (a decrepit house supposedly down the street from hers).
The better specials were those using introductions by Bugs and nephew Clyde in Bugs Bunny: All-American Hero and by actor Denver Pyle (The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Dukes of Hazzard) in How Bugs Bunny Won the West, to vintage footage. Although the cartoons for these specials were cut in some cases by half and assembled into a larger story, the narration seemed to piece them together coherently, and the different settings did not present a problem. All were presented in a historical context.
Two gems in this output of television specials were Bugs Bunny's Looney
Christmas Tales and Bugs Bunny's Busting Out All Over, both of
which contained three all-new cartoon shorts, including two Road Runner
cartoons, "Freeze Frame" and "Soup or Sonic", marking the return of the
speedy bird and his persistent pursuer, Wile E. Coyote, under the direction
of their talented creator, Chuck Jones. All of the cartoon shorts in these
two specials were later added to the package of cartoons available for
broadcast on the Saturday morning Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show,
Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour, and Bugs Bunny & Tweety
Show.
1979's Bugs Bunny's Valentine featured Elmer Fudd as Cupid (an idea borrowed from Frank Tashlin's 1945 cartoon, "The Stupid Cupid"), showing to Bugs examples of his work, with clips from "The Super Snooper", "Little Beau Pepe", "Of Rice and Hen", and "Hare Trimmed". Cupid Fudd then "does his stuff" on Bugs at the race track ("The Grey-Hounded Hare").
The Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special, also of 1979, had the plot of Bugs encountering Granny, who is selling flowers on a sidewalk, and they posit the importance of mothers and the white-plumed baby-deliverer. The stork is sober when he first appears, but is completely drunk after clips from "Apes of Wrath" and "Stork Naked"! Clips also included "Quackodile Tears", "Bushy Hare" (without "Nature Boy"), and "Goo Goo Goliath".
Yet another special from 1979 was Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet.
Bugs is a diet doctor who helps patients Sylvester (with clips from
"Trip For Tat" and "Canned Feud") and Millicent, the large, female bunny
from "Rabbit Romeo", by explaining the dietary habits of other animals
including the Tasmanian Devil ("Bedevilled Rabbit") and Wile E. Coyote
("Beep, Beep!" and "Stop, Look, and Hasten").
In 1978, NBC had obtained the rights to broadcast Daffy Duck cartoons on its Saturday morning Daffy Duck Show and therefore had access to enough classic material to assemble a prime-time television special of its own. Daffy Duck's Thanks-For-Giving Special (1981), though having very little to do with Thanksgiving, was a fairly effective reworking of "The Scarlet Pumpernickel". Daffy is "pitching" story ideas to the top mogul at Warner Brothers. The only mention of Thanksgiving was in a brief introduction in which Daffy wonders how he can gainfully exploit various holidays, finally saying that Thanks-For-Giving would be the day whereupon everyone would thank him for all of the memories that he has given to them over the years. Also, Warner Brothers' mogul J. L. explains that he wants a "Thanksgiving Day special" and not Daffy's proposed Duck Dodgers sequel. Chuck Jones' sequel to "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century", initially requested by George Lucas to accompany The Empire Strikes Back as a theatrical short but canceled prior to release, "turned up" in this television special as Daffy's idea for an ideal motion picture. He tries to presuade J. L. of the worth of his proposal, through badly redubbed footage from "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", by recalling clips from his past films, "Drip-Along Daffy" and "Robin Hood Daffy". For the second act, Daffy recalls the time that J. L. "had the duck get married", with a nearly complete showing of "His Bitter Half". In the early 1990s, when this special was rebroadcast on CBS, it had its references to Thanksgiving removed and was retitled Daffy Duck in Hollywood.
An earlier NBC Daffy special, the April 1, 1980 Daffy Duck Easter Special, contained three first-run, currently produced cartoon shorts, none of which really on par with the new cartoons on CBS' Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales and Bugs Bunny's Busting Out All Over.
1980's The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special had clips from numerous
crime-themed cartoons linked together with a somewhat amusing spoof of
the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series with Porky as
Hitchcock. A la The Fugitive, Bugs has been accused of a crime that
he did not commit (seen through a hodgepodge of clips from the bank robbery
scenes of "Bugs and Thugs" and "Baby Buggy Bunny"). Escaping jail ("Big
House Bunny"), Bugs tries to "clear his name", pursued by detective Elmer
Fudd. He rides a train (for clips from "All Abir-r-rd"), flies an airplane
("Hare Lift"), and "holes up" in the desert ("Operation: Rabbit"). In the
end, it is revealed that it was really the host, Porky Pig, who committed
the crime!
Bugs Bunny: All American Hero (1981) was basically "Yankee Doodle Bugs" expanded to contain clips from the cartoons, "Ballot Box Bunny", "The Rebel Without Claws", "Bunker Hill Bunny", "Dumb Patrol", and "Southern Fried Rabbit", as Bugs explains to his little nephew, Clyde, the great moments of history on the day before Clyde's big history test.
Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television (1982) had Bugs being appointed
the head of a failing television network, QTTV. Here, he views ideas for new
programs, such as a game show (clip from "The Ducksters"), a Dragnet
spoof (clip from "Tree Cornered Tweety"), etc.. Surprisingly, no
"Honey-Mousers". Finally, Bugs is asked to be the guest on "This is a
Life?".
The era of the animated prime-time television special was 1976-1982. Very few cartoon specials were produced in the 1980s; Charlie Brown's gang's heyday had passed, and by this time, they were appearing in infrequent specials far removed from the sophistication of A Charlie Brown Christmas. After Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television was aired on Jan. 11, 1982, no first-run Looney Tunes television specials were seen for awhile.
Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show producers Kathleen Helppie-Shipley and Steven S. Greene, along with the team of Greg Ford and Terry Lennon (who directed "The Duxorcist" and "Night of the Living Duck"), helmed a special using quick musical cuts from classic cartoons and weaving them into an interesting competition between Bugs and Daffy, competing video disc jockeys. Bugs Vs. Daffy: Battle of the Music Video Stars (1988) contained a wide variety of music clips, involving cartoon shorts with Bosko and a black-and-white Porky Pig, World War II cartoons, and more.
They were also responsible for 1989's Bugs Bunny's Wild World of Sports, another enjoyable television special, involving the Sportsman of the Year Awards at the Arthur Q. Bryan Pavilion. Clips of all sorts of sports were shown: badminton ("Bad Ol' Putty Tat"), boxing ("To Duck or Not to Duck"), wrestling ("Bunny Hugged"), high diving ("High Diving Hare"), golf ("My Bunny Lies Over the Sea"), and weight-lifting (the Atomcol scene from "Muscle Tussle").
1991's Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster (yet another Ford/Lennon effort) had the story of Bugs hosting an outdoor concert of classical music for an audience consisting of some familar faces: Mr. Meek from "The Wise Quacking Duck", the two castaways from "Wackiki Wabbit", the Three Bears (Stan Freberg returned as the voice of Junior for this cameo), and Sam and Granny (in "Hare Trimmed" style). The program included "Baton Bunny" (the bothersome fly became a running gag here), "The Rabbit of Seville", and "What's Opera, Doc?", plus Daffy and Porky's version of "The William Tell Overture" and Sylvester's Hungarian Rhapsody rendition recreated from "Back Alley Op-Roar" from The Bugs Bunny Show.
After 1992's Bugs Bunny's Creature Features, an excellent television premiere for the two late-1980s theatrical cartoons, "The Duxorcist" and "Night of the Living Duck", the Warner Brothers cartoon television specials disappeared from broadcast on the traditional three U.S. networks but were available on pre-recorded videotape and broadcast on Cartoon Network- all except for the 1986 documentary, Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary Special, which only aired twice, on Jan. 14, 1986 and July 24, 1987 (as The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Jubilee) and Bugs Bunny in Space.
Bugs Bunny's Lunar Tunes was never broadcast on television, but was
released directly onto home videotape. This time, the linking footage had
Bugs being kidnapped and brought to space by Marvin Martian and K-9. Bugs
must defend Earth on courtroom charges that Earthlings are casting aliens in
a negative light, and if Bugs loses, Marvin will effect an apocalyptic
punishment on Earth. Marvin shows clips from "Duck Dodgers in the 24
1/2th Century", "Hare-Devil Hare" (a pre-1948 title on loan from Turner),
"Martian Through Georgia", and "Rocket-Bye Baby" as evidence. Bugs, in
defense, uses clips from "The Hasty Hare" and "Hare-Way to the Stars".
Finally, another noteworthy television special was the hour-long Happy
Birthday, Bugs!: Fifty Looney Years (1990), which utilized a blend of
cartoon clips, interviews, celebrity comments, and talk show spoofs to
illustrate Bugs' long career. Also, there was a subplot of an angry Daffy
protesting the event. It also included a salute to Mel Blanc, who died in
1989, and a fast-paced collection of cartoon clips set to music for "50
Years of Bugs Bunny in 3 1/2 Minutes".
CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS All new animation combined with live action as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck accompany musician Michael Tilson Thomas in a performance based upon the music of Camille Saint-Saens and the poetry of Ogden Nash. Premiered on CBS: Nov. 22, 1976. Production Design by Herbert Klynn. Produced, Written, and Directed by Chuck Jones. Renamed Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals on home videotape. BUGS BUNNY'S EASTER SPECIAL The Easter Bunny is sick, and Granny recruits Bugs to help to deliver baskets of eggs. A surprise ending reveals the Easter Bunny to be a certain duck. But Bugs and Granny tell us in unison, "We knew it was Daffy all the time!" Includes "Knighty Knight Bugs", "Hillbilly Hare", "Bully For Bugs", "Tweety's Circus", "Birds Anonymous", "For Scent-imental Reasons", "The Rabbit of Seville", "Little Boy Boo", "Robin Hood Daffy", and "Sahara Hare". Premiered on CBS: Apr. 7, 1977. Executive Director: Hal Geer. Supervising Director: Friz Freleng. Directed by Robert McKimson and Gerry Chiniquy. Story by Friz Freleng and David Detiege. Music by Doug Goodwin. 60 minutes. Renamed Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies on home videotape. BUGS BUNNY IN SPACE The only special to contain no new animation. To "cash in" on the current Star Wars craze, a compilation of science fiction cartoons, featuring complete versions of "Hare-Way to the Stars", "The Hasty Hare" and "Mad as a Mars Hare", with clips from "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century" and "His Hare-Raising Tale". Premiered on CBS: Sept. 6, 1977. A CONNECTICUT RABBIT IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT Daffy Duck is King Arthur, Porky Pig plays a varlet, and Bugs is a wise-guy Connecticut Wabbit in this all-new special. The villains are Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam. Premiered on CBS: Feb. 23, 1978. Produced, Directed, and "Plagiarized" by Chuck Jones. Music by Dean Elliot. This was rebroadcast and released to videotape as Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court. BUGS BUNNY'S HOWL-OWEEN SPECIAL The complete 1966 Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales cartoon, "A-Haunting We Will Go", with clips from eight other classics: "Broom-Stick Bunny", "Hyde and Hare", "Hyde and Go Tweet", "A Witch's Tangled Hare", "Transylvania 6-5000", "Scaredy Cat", "Claws For Alarm", and "Bewitched Bunny". Premiered on CBS: Oct. 26, 1978. Producer: Hal Geer. Directed by David Detiege, Abe Levitow, and Maurice Noble. Story by Cliff Roberts. Music by Harper McKay. HOW BUGS BUNNY WON THE WEST In live-action, actor Denver Pyle tells how Bugs and Daffy pioneered the Wild West, with excerpts from "Bonanza Bunny", "Wild and Woolly Hare", "Aqua Duck", "Drip-Along Daffy", "Barbary Coast Bunny", and "14 Carrot Rabbit". Premiered on CBS: Nov. 15, 1978. Executive Producer/Director: Hal Geer. New Animation Director: Jim Davis. Written by Marc Sheffler. BUGS BUNNY'S VALENTINE Elmer Fudd is a "stupid cupid" who zaps the wabbit with the love bug. Includes the complete "Hare Trimmed" and clips from eight other classics, including "The Grey-Hounded Hare", "Hare Splitter", "Little Beau Pepe", "The Super Snooper", "Rabbit Romeo", "Wild Over You", and two others. Premiered on CBS: Feb. 14, 1979. Executive Producer/Director: Hal Geer. Animation Director: Jim Davis. Renamed Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers on home videotape. THE BUGS BUNNY MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL Bugs has a "run-in" with a pixilated stork in the bridging sequence of this tribute to mothers. Mostly complete showings of "Stork Naked" and "Apes of Wrath", combined with clips from "Bushy Hare", "Goo Goo Goliath", "Mother Was a Rooster", and "Quackodile Tears". Premiered on CBS: May 12, 1979. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Directed by Jim Davis. Story by Hal Geer. Music by Harper McKay. BUGS BUNNY'S THANKSGIVING DIET Bugs Bunny is a diet doctor who prescribes the following cartoons: "Rabbit Every Monday", "Stop, Look, and Hasten", "Guided Muscle", "Beep, Beep!", "Tweet Dreams", "Trip For Tat", "Birds Anonymous", "Canned Feud", and "Bedevilled Rabbit". Premiered on CBS: Nov. 15, 1979. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Directed by David Detiege. Story by Jack Envart and Hal Geer. Music by Harper McKay. BUGS BUNNY'S LOONEY CHRISTMAS TALES Three all-new cartoons: "Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol" (Freleng), "Freeze Frame" (Jones), "Fright Before Christmas" (Freleng). "...Christmas Carol" retells the classic holiday tale with Yosemite Sam as Scrooge. "Freeze Frame" has Wile E. chase the Road Runner through the ice and snow. "Fright Before Christmas" features the Tasmanian Devil finding his way to Bugs' house and dressed as Santa Claus. Premiered on CBS: Nov. 27, 1979. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Bugs Bunny sequences Produced and Directed by Friz Freleng. Road Runner sequence Produced and Directed by Chuck Jones. Written by Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, John Dunn, and Tony Benedict. Sequence Directors: Tony Benedict, Bill Perez, David Detiege, and Art Vitello. Voices by Mel Blanc and June Foray. Music by Doug Goodwin. DAFFY DUCK'S EASTER SPECIAL Three all-new cartoons by Freleng: "The Yolk's On You", "The Chocolate Chase", "Daffy Flies North". Miss Prissy lays a golden egg in "The Yolk's On You" which is the cause for a fight between Sylvester and Daffy. Daffy guards a chocolate factory from Speedy Gonzales in "The Chocolate Chase", and then Daffy decides to find another way to travel north for the spring in "Daffy Flies North". Premiered on NBC: Apr. 1, 1980. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Sequence Directors: Tony Benedict, Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis, and David Detiege. Renamed Daffy Duck's Easter EGG-citment on home videotape. BUGS BUNNY'S BUSTING OUT ALL OVER Three all-new cartoons by Jones: "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny", "Soup or Sonic", "Spaced-Out Bunny". Bugs recalls his youth with Elmer in "Portrait...", it is another chase between Coyote and Road Runner in "Soup or Sonic", and Marvin brings Bugs to Mars in "Spaced-Out Bunny" which also co-stars the Abominable Snowman! Premiered on CBS: May 21, 1980. Written, Produced, and Directed by Chuck Jones. Co-Director: Phil Monroe. Music by Dean Elliot. THE BUGS BUNNY MYSTERY SPECIAL Porky Pig, as Alfred Hitchcock, hosts this compilation of crime cartoons. Cartoons shown: "Bugs and Thugs", "Baby Buggy Bunny", "Big House Bunny" (minus the hanging scene), "Operation: Rabbit", "Compressed Hare", "All Abir-r-rd", "Catty Cornered", and "Hare Lift". Premiered on CBS: Oct. 26, 1980. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Directed by Gerry Chiniquy. Story by Jack Envart and Hal Geer. Music by Harper McKay. BUGS BUNNY: ALL AMERICAN HERO In an expanded version of "Yankee Doodle Bugs", Bugs relates his own version of America's glorious past to his nephew Clyde, via the cartoons, "Bunker Hill Bunny", "Dumb Patrol", and "The Rebel Without Claws", as well as clips from "Ballot Box Bunny", "Southern Fried Rabbit", and "Yankee Doodle Bugs". Premiered on CBS: May 21, 1981. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Producer/Director: Friz Freleng. Co-Director: David Detiege. Story by Friz Freleng and John Dunn. Music Composer: Rob West. DAFFY DUCK'S THANKS-FOR-GIVING SPECIAL Using the "framing device" from "The Scarlet Pumpernickel", Daffy Duck urges Warner Brothers mogul J. L. to incorporate "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century", "His Bitter Half", "Robin Hood Daffy", and "Drip- Along Daffy" into a special honoring Daffy. Premiered on NBC: Nov. 24, 1981. Executive Producer: Hal Geer. Produced and Directed by Chuck Jones. Written by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Co-Director and Lead Animator: Phil Monroe. Renamed Daffy Duck in Hollywood on some later CBS broadcasts. BUGS BUNNY'S MAD WORLD OF TELEVISION Bugs is the new head of the QTTV Network and presents "This is a Life?", along with excerpts from "The Ducksters", "Wideo Wabbit", "What's Up, Doc?", "Past Perfumance", "Tree Cornered Tweety", and others. Premiered on CBS: Jan. 11, 1982. Producer: Hal Geer. Directed by David Detiege. Story by David Detiege and John Dunn. Music by Harper McKay. BUGS BUNNY/LOONEY TUNES 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL One-hour special with celebrities (David Bowie, Steve Martin, Kirk Douglas, Cher, George Burns, Bill Murray, Eve Arden, Candice Bergen, Jeff Goldblum, Jeremy Irons, Quincy Jones, Penny Marshall, Mike Nichols, Geraldine Page, Molly Ringwald, Danny Thomas, Billy Dee Williams, and Chuck Yeager) toasting Bugs Bunny and Warner Brothers cartoons. Interviews with Mel Blanc, Friz Freleng, and Chuck Jones. Rare pencil tests and cartoon footage. Premiered on NBC: Jan. 14, 1986. Executive Producer: Lorne Michaels. Produced by Mary Salter. Directed by Gary Wels. Written by Tom Gammil, Max Pross, and Greg Ford. New animation Directed by Chuck Jones. Animated by Phil Monroe. Rebroadcast as The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Jubilee on CBS, Jul. 24, 1987. BUGS VS. DAFFY: BATTLE OF THE MUSIC VIDEO STARS Bugs Bunny is a video disc jockey on the music channel, WABBIT. Daffy Duck is his rival at station KPUT. They introduce various song sequences from old Warner Brothers cartoons, including "Sunrise in Nutsville" by the Wackylanders; "Any Bonds Today" from the war trailer; and the rock music classic, "Gee Whiz Willigans" from The Bugs Bunny Show. Bugs receives higher ratings. Clips from "Porky's Poppa", "Porky's Poor Fish", "Shake Your Powder Puff", "Scrap Happy Daffy", "Have You Got Any Castles?", "Boobs in the Woods", "Fifth Column Mouse", "The Wearing of the Grin", "Tweet, Tweet, Tweety", "Tweety's Circus", "A Scent of the Matterhorn", "Hot Cross Bunny", "Daffy Duck Hunt", "Robot Rabbit", "Yankee Doodle Daffy", "Naughty Neighbors", "Bosko's Picture Show", "Polar Pals", "The Fair-Haired Hare", and others. Premiered on CBS: Oct. 21, 1988. Produced by Steve S. Greene and Kathleen Helppie-Shipley. Story and Direction by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. BUGS BUNNY'S WILD WORLD OF SPORTS From the Arthur Q. Bryan Pavillion, the sportsman of the year award is announced. Many clips with Warner Brothers cartoon characters in sporting activities are shown. The surprise winner is Foghorn Leghorn. Clips from "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight", "Sport Chumpions", "To Duck or Not to Duck", "Bunny Hugged", "High Diving Hare", "My Bunny Lies Over the Sea", "Frigid Hare", "Lovelorn Leghorn", "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", "Little Boy Boo", and others. Premiered on CBS: Feb. 15, 1989. Produced by Steven S. Greene and Kathleen Helppie-Shipley. Story and Direction by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUGS!: 50 LOONEY YEARS A one-hour special celebrating Bugs' 50th birthday in 1990. Lots of guest stars wish birthday greetings to Bugs. Also, Whoopi Goldberg and Bill Cosby salute Mel Blanc. Includes clips from "The Iceman Ducketh", "Bunny Hugged", "No Parking Hare", "You Ought to Be in Pictures", "The Wild Hare", "Hair-Raising Hare", "A Hare Grows In Manhattan", "Rabbit Punch", "Buccaneer Bunny", "The Big Snooze", "Robot Rabbit", "Person to Bunny", "Bugs Bunny Rides Again", "Long-Haired Hare", "8 Ball Bunny", "What's Up, Doc?", "Bully For Bugs", "Rabbit Rampage", The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The Bugs Bunny Show, Tiny Toon Adventures, "Bedevilled Rabbit", "The Old Grey Hare", "What's Opera, Doc?", "Baton Bunny", "The Unmentionables", "Box Office Bunny", "Rabbit's Kin", "Hare-Um Scare-Um", "Southern Fried Rabbit", "Wise Quackers", "Big Top Bunny", "Hare-Breadth Hurry", and many others. Also included was "50 Years of Bugs Bunny in 3 1/2 Minutes". Premiered on CBS: May 9, 1990. BUGS BUNNY'S OVERTURES TO DISASTER A show of classical music, which includes "What's Opera, Doc?", "The Rabbit of Seville", "Baton Bunny", and footage of Sylvester's "tra-la-la" number from Season 1, Show 14 of The Bugs Bunny Show. New material includes Daffy and Porky's version of The William Tell Overture and audience members Mr. Meek, the Three Bears, and Sam and Granny swatting at the "Baton Bunny" fly. Premiered on CBS: Apr. 17, 1991. Produced by Kathleen Helppie-Shipley. Story and Direction by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. Classic Voice Recreations by Jeff Bergman. Special Guest Voices: June Foray, Stan Freberg. William Tell Overture Sequence directed by Daniel Haskett. BUGS BUNNY'S LUNAR TUNES Never aired on American network television, but was released to videotape. Marvin captures Bugs to defend Earth in an outer-space court on charges that Earth is defaming the character of aliens. Cartoons from which clips are shown include: "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century", "The Hasty Hare", "Hare-Way to the Stars", "His Hare-Raising Tale", "Rocket-Bye Baby", "Martian Through Georgia", "No Parking Hare", "Boyhood Daze", "Lighter Than Hare", "There Auto Be a Law", "Lumber Jerks", "A Kiddie's Kitty", and "The Hole Idea". It has aired on Cartoon Network. Produced by Kathleen Helppie-Shipley. Directed by Nancy Beiman. Concept and Story by Ronnie Schieb and Greg Ford. Classic Voice Recreations by Joe Alaskey and Jeff Bergman. Additional Voices by Katy Dierlam and June Foray. BUGS BUNNY'S CREATURE FEATURES Three cartoons are shown, with new introductions by Bugs: "The Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers", "The Duxorcist", and "Night of the Living Duck". Premiered on CBS: Feb. 1, 1992. Produced by Kathleen Helppie-Shipley. Story and Direction by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon. Classic Voice Recreations by Jeff Bergman. Daffy Duck's Musical Voice by Mel Torme.
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