Looney Tunes

In the early 1930's Walt Disney was the leader in the industry with his music bases animated series called Silly Symphonies. Looney Tunes was a play-on-words or variation of the same theme. It didn't take long for the regular cast of characters to become known as "Looney Toons."

Warner Bros had hoped to use the series of animated shorts to promote their music. They had acquired Bruswick Records and wanted a return on their investment. The first Looney Tunes series of shorts featured Bosko, but due to a budget dispute, Leon Schlesinger the producer of the Bosko series left the company taking the right to Bosko with him. Buddy, a rather boring version of Bosko took over the lead. Once Porky Pig joined the cast the series took off.

Porky Pig was the first of the Loony Tunes to gain star status. He stared in a huge number of shorts before finally being supplanted by Bugs Bunny. He continued to show up in the shorts as a secondary character for years after turning over the spotlight to Bugs.

I really liked Porky, and one thing that remains clear in my mind was his stuttering. He would keep stumbling over a particular word until finally replacing it with something else. "What's going on?" ended up "What's guh-guh-guh-guh happening?" Many of the Loony Tune shorts ended with Porky Pig bursting through a drum, throwing his hands wide and saying "Th-th-th-th-th-th that's all folks!"

Daffy Duck joined Porky on the big screen in 1937. He first appeared in a short called Porky's Duck Hunt. He was the first of the screwball characters to immerge in the late 1930. Up until that point most of the characters were "normal." They followed the tradtion of the averyday working man.
Daffy was different. He was a crazy vigilante who stopping at nothing to accomplish is goal. His speech impediment made him all the more adorable.

The Looney Tune Series grew in popularity in the late 1930's and continued into the 1940's. Bugs Bunny joined the cast of characters, switching over from Merrie Melodies in 1940. His first short as a Looney Toon was Buckaroo Bugs.

As Looney Tunes popularity grew, several new characters joined the cast. Along with Bugs, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Roadrunner, Pepe Le Pew, and Yosemite Sam made their debuts in the 1940's.

It was also in the 1940's that the Looney Tunes made its momentous switch from Black and white to color. The last black and white short was produced in 1943.

When Looney Tunes started appearing on syndicated television in the 1950's its popularity jumped again, but the targeted audience was no longer adults. It was children. There were a few new characters added, namely the Tasmanian Devil and Speedy Gonzalus, but the big push was over. With a new target audience, recycling the old made sense.

The transition to children's entertainment was not without its problems. A great deal of editing had to be done in the 1970's due to concerns over the violence in programs geared toward children. Scenes loaded with racial remarks, curse words, innuendoes, racial stereotypes,and extreme violence had to be removed.

The original Looney Tunes series stared in 1930 and continued until 1969 when the last short, Injun Trouble, was aired. Warner Bros. shut down their animation studios but a few more Looney Tune shorts were produced by DePatiepFreleng Enterprises. The shorts produced during this era are easy to identify. They have a different logo and the animations are not as good. The lush background prevailant in the earlier versions was gone as well. Production of the new shorts ended in 2004.

Looney Tunes are still around, enjoyed by the young and old alike. Children are entertained by them, and adults can set aside their troubles for a "short" period of time and just laugh.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in the car at the drive-in impatiently waiting for the cartoons to start. Once the cartoons were over, we would crawl in the back seat and go to sleep while the "adults" enjoyed the feature film.

The movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released in 1988. My youngest son was born in 1990 and for the first six months of his life, Roger, the baby, and I would meet in the living room at two A.M. every night. The baby fed, Roger danced, and I laughed

... a memory to cherish.