Today's the day!

It's October 30! The fifth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection is available right NOW at your favorite retail establishment. Go out today and buy a copy (or two or four) and support quality classic cartoon DVD releases like these.

All the details (list of cartoons & extras) can be found here.

You can order a copy from Amazon.com via this link here.

Between cartoon viewings, be sure to join the party over on the Golden Age Cartoons Forums and discuss the release in the annual Golden Collection Talkback Thread.

Halloween Party Pops

A few years ago, something as minor as the Looney Tunes characters appearing on a bag of cheap Halloween candy wouldn't have been anything noteworthy. However, these days any Looney Tunes merchandise of any variety seems to grab my attention... and new LT merchandise that doesn't rely on stock decade old clip-art poses is even more rare. So, here is a bag of "Costume Party Fun Pops" made by Adams and Brooks, Inc. from this year. That's the same company that made the Pepe Le Pew "Luv Pops" Matthew wrote about back in February. I am assuming that's original artwork of Bugs, Daffy, Taz and Tweety dressed for Halloween. I should note that even though Bugs and Daffy are on the outside of the bag, only Taz and Tweety were worthy enough to get their own "Fun Pops" inside.

Countdown to Vol. 5 - Part 4

Only five more days 'till Volume 5.

Coming a little later than the previous collections, the 4th LT Golden Collection was released on November 14, 2006. While the set kicked off with the annual disc of Bugs Bunny cartoons many were surprised by the discs devoted to director Frank Tashlin and another featuring nothing but Speedy Gonzales cartoons. Even without a single Pepe Le Pew short in sight on this set, WB put together the following "romance" themed trailer...

Looney Tunes Halloween

Now that the horrible "Howl-Oween Special" has scarred you for life, here's a selection of Halloween-themed Warner cartoons, some of which were used in that awful thing. Watching these on their own is a MUCH more enjoyable experience!

"It's an Ill Wind"


"The Great Piggy Bank Robbery"

Daffy Duck - The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946)
Uploaded by TYKUN

"Scaredy Cat"


"Bewitched Bunny"


"Hyde and Go Tweet"


"Water, Water, Every Hare"


"Broom Stick Bunny"


"Transylvania 6-5000"



"A Haunting We Will Go"


"Night of the Living Duck"

Unhappy Howl-o-ween

We Looney Tunes fans may not agree on everything, but there is at least one thing I think everyone can agree on.  Bugs Bunny's Howl-o-ween Special is awful.  It is so awful it reaches whole new levels of awfulness.  While I will readily admit most of the "cut-and-paste" LT television specials of the 1970s and '80s are in no way great, I still get that feeling of nostalgia whenever I see one.  It takes me back to a time as a kid when seeing a cartoon special on primetime television really was something special.  CBS would usually pair up one of these Bugs specials with a Peanuts or Garfield special.  Yet, even as a kid I thought Howl-o-ween was horrible..  You get the impression that whoever slapped this show together didn't even TRY to have it make any sense (Witch Hazel's house apparently has the ability to change in every scene? Hazel turns herself into Count Bloodcount(!)? ...etc.) and DePatie-Freleng apparently had a budget of about $6.95 for the animation of the new connecting scenes.  Thanks to the miracle of in2TV you can enjoy (?) this special for yourself.

Trick or Tweet

More costume fun for Halloween...

Kids WB is kaput

Yeah, I know this is old news ... Kids WB, the Warner Bros. Saturday morning animation block, will be ending next year. The block launched in 1995 with the rest of the WB Network. It began as a showcase for WB's library of classic and contemporary cartoon shows including, of course, the classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (Chuck Jones' Michigan J. Frog from "One Froggy Evening" was the mascot for the entire network --- someday we'll get around to doing a blog post of various WB network promos featuring the frog). I won't get into the whole history, mostly because I haven't paid much attention to the "Kids WB" programming since about 1997. Judging by the fact they are closing up shop, I guess everyone else in America did the same. Here's a write-up over on Wikipedia. After awhile programming execs discovered they could make quick cash by dumping stuff like Bugs Bunny and playing stuff like Pokemon non-stop. I think everyone knew the block's days were numbered since the WB Network itself went off the air, becoming "The CW" network, about a year ago. This webpage over on my LT & MM website chronicles the Looney Tunes history on Kids WB.

Here is a video of the opening to The Bugs 'n Daffy Show (not to be confused with Cartoon Network's Bugs and Daffy Show). Featuring a rather catchy original theme song sung by Billy West (Bugs) and Joe Alaskey (Daffy).

Here are a couple random promos featuring the Looney Tunes characters (among others, seen via recycled and redubbed animation)...

Crank Dat Road Runner

How do you get a hit song on the radio these days? Simple, repetitive hip-hop beat? Check. Rapping your name over it? Check. Spark a dance craze with the goofy moves in your video? Check. Suck so bad you spark a whole wave of parodies that are better then the original? Double check.

Rapper Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)" is so ubiquitous that the Youtubers have created so many parodies it's unbelievable. There seems to be a "Crank Dat (Everything)" now. There's crank dat Spiderman, crank dat Batman, crank dat SpongeBob, crank dat Bill Clinton, Crank dat Super Mario, Crank dat Chipmunks...you get the idea.

But one clever group of hip-hoppers has redone the song with new lyrics, and its actually kind of catchy. Here's a video someone did for "Crank Dat (Roadrunner)" by "Concrete Boyz".

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Countdown to Volume 5 - Part 3

The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 3 was released on October 25, 2005. The contents of this third volume seemed to be aiming more towards the adult collector (as noted on the packaging). We got a Porky disc with a good amount of black-and-white entries and a disc full of Hollywood caricature cartoons.

First, I can't be the only one who immediately thought of this clip as soon as they saw the trailer for Vol. 3...

Second, it's amusing to note that the clips of "Porky Pig's Feat" used in the Volume 3 trailer were from the redrawn version.

Third, I still don't get this cover art featuring a toothless Bugs holding onto some unknown girl??

Back from vacation/ cool bedspread

Well, I'm back from my week-long vacation, and what a vacation it was. My parents and I went to our old favorite place...the New Jersey shore. It was sort of a 50th birthday present to my mom, who grew up in Pennsylvania. To top it off, my dad snagged tickets to see Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden in new York City...ironic that I was creating a Looney-themed music video of a new song by the guy and had NO idea what my dad had planned for us!

Anyway, the house my folks rented had a fun addition to the room I stayed in. It was clearly designed as a kids' room by the owners, and had a bedspread featuring a certain gang of cartoon characters...






The bedspread was, apparently, from 1996, and used old drawings and model sheets rather than the standard publicity poses of the era...one of the only Looney Tunes items I've ever seen that did that.

To see more of the bedspread, check this out:

More bedspread picts

Another interesting LT-related fact...Avalon, NJ is home to a wonderful fish market called "Sylvester's", (the founders' last name was "Sylvester") which, sadly, was not open at this time of year. But there's an infamous story about a Warner Bros. executive who vacationed there in the late 1980s, who threatened to sue if they didn't remove their wonderful sign featuring the iconic Looney Tunes "puddy tat". the Sylvester family obliged, and by the early 90's, the sign (and great drawings on the take-out menu I remember coloring as a kid) were gone. I last visited Sylvester's about 3 years ago, and they still had a stuffed Sylvester doll perched on the rafter inside...in "quiet defiance", as an employee pointed out.

Here's a photo, from the Sylvester's website, of the old sign, circa 1986:

Countdown to Volume 5 - Part 2

November 2, 2004 brought us the second volume of the LT Golden Collection. This set featured discs devoted to Tweety and the Road Runner, most likely because those cartoons had already been prepared for DVD release in non-US markets (Japan, for example, already had their own series of Tweety DVDs for awhile before the first Golden Collection was ever released in the United States). Even though it wasn't even mentioned in the trailer below, the newly created short, "Daffy Duck For President", was a big selling point that was really played up online (a special website was set up just to promote the short... which is actually still online to this day).

That is probably the only time in history you'll ever hear the phrases "masterful documentary" and "Bugs Bunny's All-Star 50th Anniversary produced by Lorne Michaels" in the same sentence...

More Costumes

If you have read this blog enough, you may have the urge to dress up in Road Runner and Coyote costumes for Halloween... or, at least, cheap plastic Road Runner and Coyote costumes...





Thanks to reader Yokota for sending us the pictures.

Countdown to Volume 5 - Part 1

Jerry Beck has posted another teaser for the upcoming Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 5 DVD set which is being released on Tuesday, October 30. I am sure all of the regular readers of this blog are excited. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I thought it'd be fun to count down to the release of the fifth volume by looking back at the "trailers" Warner Home Video put together for the first four volumes.

The first Golden Collection was released way back on October 28, 2003. For awhile it seemed like Warner Home Video had no idea how to handle releasing the Looney Tunes onto DVD. There were doubts that a 4-disc set aimed at collectors would even sell at all. Luckily, folks like George Feltenstein and Jerry Beck were put in charge and made the first Golden Collection a huge success.

Let's take a look at the original trailer WB Home Video put together to promote this first release. You do get the impression that they still didn't know who they were marketing this set for (note the mention of "Games and Much More!" among the extras on the DVD... seriously.)

Searching for Cartoon Gold?

If you were ever curious about the history of the "It's Cartoon Gold" theme song used for just one season on CBS' Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show from 1984-5, my friend Kevin McCorry has been in contact with the song's creator John Klawitter and has posted some interesting history about the revised theme song on his Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show website (scroll down to the 1984-5 section for the new information). Also posted is an excellent audio MP3 of the theme, courtesy of Klawitter, from the original recording session (it is minus the LT character voices that were mixed in later).

Is there anybody alive out there?

Bruce Springsteen's new album, "Magic", was number one in the nation the other day. Its major hit, "Radio Nowhere", lamenting the sad state of radio these days, is full of powerful images, as many of the Boss' songs tend to be. After hearing it, I was able to create a music video out of it that uses classic LT cartoon clips to illustrate the lyrics. It was one of the quickest such videos I've ever done, thanks to Jon's help in suggesting some clever bits.

Bruce thinks radio is lonely these days? Try being a classic cartoon fan watching TV!




And just for kicks, here's a wonderful video someone else made featuring Springsteen and Looney Tunes: using "Dancin' In the Dark."

ANOTHER Road Runner commercial

In recent years, Time Warner Cable has used the Road Runner as their mascot...since their cable internet service (of which I happen to be a customer) is fast. They seem to have branched out and started an online car-buying service called beepbeep.com as well...here's an ad for the California region.

Was that really all, folks?

Today marks the third anniversary of the final Looney Tunes broadcast on Cartoon Network (October 3, 2004). That final broadcast included a mere three cartoons, showings of "Speedy Ghost to Town", "Dr. Jerkyl's Hyde", and "Bewitched Bunny".

Let's mark the anniversary with the opening to what turned out to be the Looney Tunes' last hurrah on television, Cartoon Network's Looney Tunes Show:

Misce-Looney-ous' Halloween Costume Suggestions

'Tis the season to be thinking about your Halloween costumes. As a public service, here some costume suggestions for Looney Tunes fans. Enjoy!









Stay tuned for more costume ideas throughout the month. If you have any costume images feel free to e-mail us.

The Empire Strikes Quack

Found on Youtube...Duck Dodgers meets Star Wars: