Happy 75th Anniversary to Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny!

[Probe Droid]

On this day in 1940, Warner Bros debuted its latest Merry Melodies cartoon featuring hunter Elmer Fudd pursuing an unnamed rabbit who in the duo's follow-up outing would be called Bugs Bunny. Apparently, there were earlier incarnations of both that were similar, but most film historians consider this title the first true appearance of the characters as we'd come to know them after a few subsequent tweakings.

Those old cartoons still are as funny as hell. I salute all those behind the scenes that made them.

Happy anniversary, boys.

 

[PotionMistress]

These old classics can never be equalled!

****** LONG LIVE MERRY MELODY CARTOONS! ******

 

[Laspector]

Remember the Bugs Bunny Road Runner show on Saturday mornings in the 70s? The show was setup as a Vaudeville type show with all the Looney Toons guys doing the show and between the cartoons there was actual new cartoons made for the backstage stuff. I have never been able to find any of that "backstage" footage. That stuff is never on any of the box sets.

 

[Probe Droid]

Yeah, I remember it. "Overture, curtains light, This is it, you'll hit the heights...."

 

[Edraven99]

"Oh what heights we'll hit... on with the show, this is it!"

 

[jheilman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqKf7j43i_k&list=PL3A6F6BBA1BF9D682

 

[blakeh1]

It's funny how much of 1940 and 1950 culture filters down to you through those cartoons. Like all the celebrities they incorporated etc..

For example, I'd have never known what "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" was...

 

[Apollo]

They don't make em like they used to... :cheers

 

[crabra comander]

I had a VHS with Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and other propaganda classics...:cheers

 

[Probe Droid]

Alas, no network is brave enough to run the propaganda Bugs or Popeye, etc., cartoons anymore. The Three Stooges propaganda shorts amazingly still get aired all the time though.

 

[AJK001]

Alas, no network is brave enough to run the propaganda Bugs or Popeye, etc., cartoons anymore. The Three Stooges propaganda shorts amazingly still get aired all the time though.

I've also heard that the networks edited some of them because they felt they were too violent. I guess images of Elmer of Daffy Duck getting shot in the face with a shotgun were too much for them.

 

[0neiros]

My all time Favorite -
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjw9ms_feed-the-kitty_tv

 

[Wes R]

Remember the Bugs Bunny Road Runner show on Saturday mornings in the 70s? The show was setup as a Vaudeville type show with all the Looney Toons guys doing the show and between the cartoons there was actual new cartoons made for the backstage stuff. I have never been able to find any of that "backstage" footage. That stuff is never on any of the box sets.

I remember them showing those on saturday mornings in the 80s too vaguely.

 

[Axlotl]

I remember the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.
"Road Runner - (Beep!Beep!) - if he catches you, you're through!"

 

[drcraig13]

These were great and part of my child hood. I wish I could have them all on DVD unaltered.

 

[Riceball]

These were great and part of my child hood. I wish I could have them all on DVD unaltered.

Are you saying that they were a great part of a hood that you had as a child or the hood, as in your neighborhood, you lived in as a child?

 

[Angelus Lupus]

Y'know... the number of times Buggs 'conveniently' ended up in women's clothes, kissing Fudd, I'd be surprised if these two weren't married by now.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

Y'know... the number of times Buggs 'conveniently' ended up in women's clothes, kissing Fudd, I'd be surprised if these two weren't married by now.

Tell me you didn't think Bugs looked good in this.



Go on, lie to me.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

They couldn't even do Elmer Fudd now because someone would be offended and it would get shut down. PC crap...

 

[Probe Droid]

They couldn't even do Elmer Fudd now because someone would be offended and it would get shut down. PC crap...

Too true. On the boxed set of the old Fleischer Bros B&W Popeye cartoons there's a documentary about the various incarnations of the characters over the years. Sorry, I can't remember his name but one of the directors or someone involved in the 50s color version was approached in the 1970s to do a newer take and the producer said to him that for the new series there were 2 rules: Olive couldn't be a sex object pursued by Popeye and Bluto; and, 2, no violence, Popeye can't beat up Bluto. The old timer stared dumbfounded at the guy and said, "That's the essence of what Popeye is. If you remove those elements it's not Popeye." The old timer passed on the project, which still got made and was terrible.