Now here's a real rarity (via David Gerstein on Facebook). The site QuispQuake Reaction has posted a promotional Christmas record for Capitol Records featuring Tweety and Sylvester (voiced by Mel Blanc) teaming up with radio personality, Baby Snooks. This short record concludes with our favorite cat and canary singing a duet of "Jingle Bells".
Here's a little something our pal Charles Brubaker shared with me on Facebook. This is a set of Looney Tunes stickers from 1993 that broke the trend of using stock clip art and actually seems to have taken poses from the actual cartoons. If you grew up in the 90's, chances are you or someone at your school had these plastered on binders and other stuff. They were everywhere!
Guess what we found? That's right folks, more Looney Tunes commercials! And wouldn't you know it...one of 'em's got Wile E. Coyote in it!
First up, a 1993 British commercial for Walker's Looney Tunes chips. Wile E., via footage from "Zipping Along", tries the "induce a person to jump off a cliff" hypnotism bit on comedian Greg Proops.
And, another Walker's LT tie-in, presumably made around the time of "Space Jam":
Next, a "blooper" segment featuring Foghorn Leghorn. Not sure where it came from, presumably Cartoon Network.
Finally, a 1977 commercial for LT Pepsi glasses at Hardee's restaurants.
Most Looney Tunes fans are familiar with Chuck Jones' 1976 TV special "Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals". It combined the orchestral music of Camille Saint-Saëns and the poetry of Ogden Nash with animation of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, as well as abstract animated musical segments.
It seems there was another "Looney" interpretation of "Carnival", done as a live performance with the West Coast Symphony in 2004. Joe Alaskey performed introductions to the musical pieces as Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian and Yosemite Sam. Someone recorded it (or at least most of it), and it's a real gem.
The following public service announcements were a regular sight during kid shows' commercial breaks on local stations throughout the 1980s and well into the 1990s. In the clips below, Bugs tells us of the dangers lurking in the kitchen, from pots of boiling water to dangling power cords; Daffy gives two kids a "burn-prevention quiz"; and Tweety reveals how the bathroom could be the most dangerous room in the house. These spots were actually excerpts taken from a 22 minute film made for the Shriners Burns Institute in 1982 called "An Ounce of Prevention". The new animation was produced by Hal Geer and directed by Gerry Chiniquy.
I have a lot of Looney Tunes stuff. Much of it has been featured here before...but I thought it might be fun to round up a whole bunch of it and make a cool still life photo. It doesn't seem like much when it's scattered around on various shelves, in cabinets, boxes, drawers, etc...but put it all together, and it's a Misce-Looney-Ous explosion! Oh, believe me, there's more. "Thisth isth JUSSSTHT a thample, Ruggles!" Click the pictures to make them larger and see closeups of different sections.
Let's take a trip back to happier times, way back to the 1990's when you could walk into your local shopping mall and max out your credit cards buying Looney Tunes junk.
A production company sent to cover the 1994 grand opening of the Warner Bros. Studio Store in the Florida Mall in Orlando, FL has uploaded a vintage, slickly edited video of the events of that day on YouTube. Embedding has been disabled, so you will have to click here to view it. Not only does it offer a glimpse of the store's interior and merchandise, but also appearances by a gang of costumed Looney Tunes characters, a marching band, and even basketball star Shaquille O'Neal.
You will also want to check out this Flickr page filled with images of WB Store catalogs and merchandise (the above picture of the now-worthless gift certificate above came from that page).
The Looney Tunes GPS voices for TomTom devices have been mentioned on the blog before. Now a "behind-the-scenes" commercial has recently been uploaded by the TomTom folks.
Jerry Beck on Cartoon Brew has a short post today on the return of Looney Tunes merchandise. This includes this set of 4GB USB flash drives that I didn't know were available. This first series includes Tweety, Sylvester, Taz, and Speedy Gonzales. More details at the company's website.
Jerry's post also mentions the series of Looney Tunes Mr. Potato Heads which we mentioned in this Misce-Looney-ous posting from a few weeks back and a series of LT laplander hats available at Hop Topic stores.
Since you loyal Misce-Looney-Ous readers seem to have enjoyed the cartoon commentaries I've done in the past, I thought you'd be glad to know that I purchased a new computer microphone. It sounds MUUUUCCCCH better than the old one, and I don't have to do as much editing to get the recordings to sound decent. That means you'll be hearing a lot more of me talking over cartoons!
If you haven't checked out the Looney Tunes page at Zazzle.com, you're in for a treat. It's almost impossible to find a t-shirt or a coffee mug with a Looney Tunes character on it in a store these days, but thanks to Zazzle, you can actually customize your own online and have it shipped straight to you. It may be the only place in the world to get a Claude Cat t-shirt like mine:
There are all kinds of wonderful images featuring characters familiar and obscure, in all sorts of artistic styles and poses. Whoever put together the library of artwork clearly cared. Careful, it's not cheap...but I'm a satisfied customer just the same!
Here's a short bit from a 1961 episode of The Bugs Bunny Show. Bugs and Sylvester, both munching on Post Alpha-Bits, are introducing a commercial featuring a Post postman character (the actual ad they are introducing isn't in the video below).
Welcome to a new and possibly recurring series here on Misce-Looney-ous, the Coloring Book Revue. There are hundreds of Looney Tunes-themed coloring books floating around out there and I thought it may be fun to showcase some of them here. Instead of starting off with the good covers, this first post will show some of the more bizarre covers I have come across. For some reason I am oddly fascinated with these coloring book covers of the 1970s and 1980s. It's like a glimpse of the Looney Tunes characters in some sort of weird, alternate dimension.
If you have any Looney coloring book covers (the good, bad, or ugly) you'd like to share... e-mail them to looneyblog at yahoo dot com.
Below are some of the faux magazine covers in honor of Bugs' 51 1/2th anniversary that flash on the screen at the start of the 1991 short "Blooper Bunny" (including one for Better Holes and Gardens which wasn't in the final cartoon).
Here's an odd piece of Warner artwork recently posted on the Van Eaton Galleries website. It appears to be model cel from an unmade Speedy Gonzales cartoon featuring Speedy and an enemy named Butch Catsidy (who looks like the Tasmanian Devil, suggesting that Bob McKimson was going to be involved with this production). Does anyone have any other information?
Here's a promotional film from 1951 for Capitol Records starring Mel Blanc titled "Wanna Buy a Record?". Mel is a frustrated record salesman who gives a reluctant customer (played by Billy May) a tour of the Capitol Records facilities. Sadly, the last five minutes seem to be cut off from this version on YouTube.
I don't know when I'll return to Las Vegas, but one thing I am sure I'll make a point to visit the next time I am there is The Chuck Jones Experience which is scheduled to open next month in the Circus Circus casino. According to the press release, "The Chuck Jones Experience, [will utilize] the art, writings and films of Jones, will nurture that spirit of creativity in an environment that is playful, lively, inspirational and educational. The project is being developed by Jones’ grandson, Craig Kausen, Jones’ daughter, Linda Jones Clough, and a group of Chuck Jones fans who have believed in and supported its creation for years."
You can take a sneak peek at the construction on their official Facebook page. Here's hoping that we'll have some coverage of this amazing looking attraction here on Misce-Looney-ous someday!
Speaking of Vegas, a Bugs item was recently featured on an episode of the History Channel reality series, Pawn Stars - which is about the daily dealings of a pawn shop in Las Vegas. The item this guy (below) brought in to sell was a promotional poster from Bugs' 50th birthday (circa 1990) signed by Friz Freleng and Mel Blanc.
An expert was brought in and deemed the piece authentic and valued it at about $500.00. After some haggling, the pawn shop bought the poster for $300.00.
Yeah, not exactly the most groundbreaking item, I know. It's still kind of neat that it was featured on a popular television show and, hey, it fits right in here on Misce-Looney-ous. At the time of this writing, the episode can be viewed on the History Channel's website (Bugs poster segment starts at the 14 minute mark).
Earl Kress is not a household name to most people. But If you love cartoons, you have more than likely encountered his work. He was a writer, historian, voice actor, archivist, puppeteer, and animation fan. I read a number of obituaries and remembrances today that called him a "renaissance man". That's an accurate label.
As an Emmy Award-winning writer, Earl crafted memorable and hilarious stories for "Tiny Toons", "Animaniacs", "Taz Mania", "Pinky and the Brain", and many others for Warner Bros.. He also worked on the Disney feature "The Fox and the Hound", and numerous Hanna-Barbera cartoons in the 1980's and 90's including "New Yogi Bear", "Yogi's Treasure Hunt", and new "Wacky Races" (Aka "Fender Bender 500") cartoons for the short-lived variety show "Wake, Rattle and Roll". He also wrote for "Transformers", "Ghostbusters" and "Fat Albert", worked on "The Muppets", and most recently worked on new "Tom and Jerry" cartoons and direct-to-DVD movies.
Earl Kress was instrumental in restoring and preserving much of the classic Hanna-Barbera library, tracking down lost footage, credits, music and supplemental material and making sure the DVD releases of the H-B cartoons were done properly. In fact, Kress was widely regarded as the foremost expert on Hanna-Barbera. He knew every character, every show, and not only knew all of the names in the credits, but knew many of them personally. He was a fan, student and personal friend of Daws Butler, and could do most of Butler's character voices spot-on.
But writing some of the finest cartoons ever produced for television and serving as an invaluable preserver and historian of classic animation that inspired him wasn't enough for this man. He was also a comic book writer, penning stories for Bongo Comics' "The Simpsons" series and DC's "Looney Tunes". His stories in the latter are more faithful to the original Warner cartoons than a lot of modern animated revivals, and they're also funny as hell. Earl also wrote the theatrical Looney Tunes short, "Little Go Beep".
Here are a couple of DC Looney Tunes stories he did:
"Pronoun Trouble"
This story could be easily mistaken for a bit of unused material from the classic Chuck Jones Bugs/Daffy/Elmer Fudd trilogy.
This story from 2006 marked the first (and only) time that the popular "Mary Jane and Sniffles" segment from the golden age Looney Tunes comics ever appeared in modern Looney Tunes comics, or any other medium.
"Deflate Of The Art" "Duck Dodgers", a Cartoon Network TV series based on the perennial Chuck Jones classic short of the same name, inspired a number of comic book stories in the DC "Looney Tunes" series. Presumably it was supposed to be given its own comic book series, but Warner Bros. and D.C. instead chose to publish these stories in the flagship Looney Tunes book. Earl Kress wrote several of these stories, including this one, and it should be noted that the comics in general were often funnier than the Tv show.
Earl Kress's appearances on the Internet radio program "Stu's Show" were always fascinating, and his devotion to getting classic cartoon voice actors interviewed and their stories told was clear.
I never got the chance to meet Mr. Kress in person, but I encountered him often online. He was a frequent contributor to the Golden Age Cartoons forums as "Daws Butler, Jr.", and I befriended and eagerly followed him on Facebook. While he was always willing to answer a question about his own work or that of his mentors, he never bragged about his own achievements.
But he had a lot to brag about. Earl passed away on September 19, 2011 from cancer. He left us too soon, but he contributed more to the field of animation and cartoons in his 60 years of life than many have in longer lifetimes. He preserved the legacy of his forebears and created quite a legacy of his own. That’s All, Folks. And Doooon’t youuuu forgeeeeet him!
Yesterday one of those "You Might Also Like..." boxes directed me to an old post featuring a 1969 comic book adaptation of the first Bunny and Claude cartoon. Sadly, the images were no longer working. I got curious to see if I still had them kicking around... and I did! So, if you visit this ancient post, you too can read the comic story again.
For a comparison, here's the original cartoon from 1968.
You may have noticed that something new has been added. I installed a little widget that magically suggests somewhat related posts from the vast Misce-Looney-ous archives. It's a fun way to kill some time revisiting the old articles by Matt and myself. Be warned, you'll probably run into some broken images or long-dead YouTube links along the way.
What would happen if you crossed our favorite cat and canary with a classic 1980s video game? A YouTube user created a parody video that answers that very question. I can just picture Sylvester sitting on the sofa with his Zapper gun...
Next, on a totally unrelated note, is our annual look at this year's crop of Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments featuring Looney Tunes characters. They aren't exactly the most exciting, featuring yet another Taz and Tweety.
Where's Bugs? Well, the Hallmark folks have again saved him for a "limited edition" ornament (titled One Funny Bunny) which will debut during the weekend of October 8-9.
Who remembers when TNT aired cartoons? Way back in the late 1980s and into the 1990s?
Back in those days before there was a Cartoon Network, TNT devoted a good-sized chunk of their daily schedule to cartoon showings... including 90 minutes every weeknight! Their flagship cartoon compilation show, Bugs Bunny and Pals, showcased the entire Turner-owned cartoon library (WB pre-48 shorts, MGM, Popeye, and DePatie-Freleng).
I recently came across this unusual ad from 1990 that I had never seen before. TNT actually put together a commercial for their cartoon block which was aimed at adult viewers.
Quick... which well-known cartoon character is famous for muttering the immortal words "Sufferin' succotash!"? You know the answer. Everyone does. Everyone except whoever wrote the question/answer for this episode of the 1980's game show, Press Your Luck. Apparently they caught the goof and at the end of the show tacked on a bit where Sylvester himself (Mel Blanc, of course) calls host, Peter Tomarken, to set the record straight.
NOTE- After the 30 second mark in the video below, skip ahead to the 1 min, 20 sec mark for the Sylvester call.
Here's a Target commercial for a back-to-school sale at Target from 1993, featuring TV actor Joey Lawrence and a few other animated faces. Notice the trading card promotion at the end...did any of our loyal readers collect any of those?
Earlier this week, Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, died at age 81. Blanc, of course, was a centerpiece to the planned celebration. Blanc's son, Noel, who has been a longtime understudy to his father, will attend scheduled festivities, including a Hollywood party and parade. But there are still some unexpected kinks.
The father and son recently filmed a yet-to-be-aired TV commercial for Oldsmobile. It was scheduled to be part of the familiar "This is not your father's Oldsmobile," ad campaign. The ad has Mel and Noel riding in an Oldsmobile along with several of Warner Bros.' animated characters whose voices Mel created--including Bugs Bunny.
On Wednesday, the Blanc family gave Oldsmobile permission to go ahead with plans to air the commercial this fall. But Oldsmobile officials gathered in Detroit with Leo Burnett ad agency executives Wednesday to discuss whether the ad should be re-shot--or at least re-edited.
As a bonus, here's another commercial. We've posted this one before (a LONG time ago), but here it is again in higher quality. Bugs and Elmer in a 1992 ad from the UK for Weetabix.
Here's another 1970's TV spot, this time for a giveaway that must have been popular. In 1970, Crest/Scope gave away Looney Tunes puppets. I have seen these at flea markets for years, but rarely intact (usually only the rubber heads survive).
I still don't have much to say about the new Looney Tunes Show. However, now available at Walmart to tie-in with the new CN series are Mr. Potato Heads dressed as Bugs, Daffy or Taz. How could we not document these things here at Misce-Looney-ous?
Two interesting pieces of artwork have been posted for sale at the Van Eaton Galleries website. I wanted to post them here before they disappeared. They reveal some concepts for characters from the Warner-Seven Arts era that never got off the drawing board (the era that gave us Cool Cat, Merlin Mouse, Bunny & Claude, among others). We know about the aborted Keystone Kops series and we've posted about a Lil' Abner TV series that never was. Here we see art for "Super Snooper" (which appears to be a secret agent spoof) and "Jolly Roger" (a pirate who reminds me a little of Yosemite Sam).
Here's something we haven't posted in a while: a commentary!
I tried a new way of doing these (different software) and it looks like the old way, though kind of a hassle, yielded better quality. But you'll at least get the idea. Enjoy!
Hey, we're back! You know what that means! We must have found another Road Runner commercial. This one is a 1987 car commercial from Australian for the Holden Barina.
A website called Critical Past has posted an animated 1945 United States Navy training film from the WB cartoon studio which can be viewed here. It is called "Flight Safety: Dive Bombing Crashes" featuring an old curmudgeon named Grampaw Pettibone. While not big on gags like the US Army Private Snafu shorts were, it is always interesting when a piece of previously unknown classic Warner animation turns up.
UPDATE: Jerry Beck has more information on Cartoon Brew.
(Thanks to Termite Terrace poster, WoodpeckerWoody, for posting a link on the GAC Forums).
I don't know when I'll return to Las Vegas, but one thing I am sure I'll make a point to visit the next time I am there is The Chuck Jones Experience which is scheduled to open next month in the Circus Circus casino. According to the press release, "The Chuck Jones Experience, [will utilize] the art, writings and films of Jones, will nurture that spirit of creativity in an environment that is playful, lively, inspirational and educational. The project is being developed by Jones’ grandson, Craig Kausen, Jones’ daughter, Linda Jones Clough, and a group of Chuck Jones fans who have believed in and supported its creation for years."
