Reader Mail Spectacular, Part 3

Our "Reader Mail" weekend continues.

Greg Method sent us some photos and information about another tie-in Warner Bros. did for their short-lived "Tweety's Global Patrol" concept. It was a live stage show performed in the Six Flags amusement parks in early 1990s:

I also looked up info on Six Flags' "Tweety's Global Patrol" stage show. I couldn't find much on it; just a mention of it in the Six Flags Great America guide book from the 1992 season (no artwork, unfortunately). What I do remember, though, was it primarily used rewritten pop songs such as "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and "The Twist" ("C'mon baby, do the Recycle Twist!"). The costumed characters involved were Bugs, Daffy, and Sylvester. Tweety was interestingly enough not an actor in a costume but rather an in-scale puppet (complete with his Global Patrol ranger hat), situated inside a giant bird cage in the back of the set against the stage curtain. And of course, two adults, a male and female member of Tweety's Global Patrol, were also involved with the show. The plot centered on the guys trying to get a rather stubborn Sylvester to start recycling. Eventually, through the magic of song, Sylvester proudly declares that he's had a change of heart. IIRC, Jeff Bergman provided all the voices on a prerecorded tape, and of course the two humans spoke and sang live.






Greg also sent along some prizes that were packaged in the Tyson Looney Tunes frozen dinners:

A while ago you guys were asking if anyone had anything from the Tyson frozen meals. I knew I had kept a few items, so I dug a little into my boxes and found them.

I have "Wile E. Coyote Goes out of This World!", a mini activity book that invited kids to rub a penny on blank spots of the pages to reveal different planets that Wile E. was interacting with. This seems to have been from the 1990 assortment of meals, and on the back there's a list of the other "Magic Fun Books" available in the other meals.







I also have three different trivia activity cards that were included in the meals in 1991. These were two-piece items, composed of a card with questions and answers on the front and back and a sort of dual-sided envelope with a window near the top that one would slide the card through to reveal one question at a time. All one had to do to see the answer was turn the whole thing over, where a window on the reverse side revealed it. Each trivia card offered two different sets of questions, one about a specific Looney Tunes character and another about a general topic. The ones I have feature Bugs (with the other questions being about presidents), Daffy (with questions about the human body), and Sylvester (science).

Reader Mail Spectacular, Part 2

Alex Sentenat sent us a Road Runner-themed commercial to add to our ever-growing collection:

"I'd like to share with you this ad from Brazilian TV featuring our fast, feathery friend, the Road Runner. It's for a courier service by the name of Sedex (not to be confused with Fedex, although I don't know if they could be an international division.) "

Alex also wrote about his feelings on the later Rudy Larriva RR shorts as well as his search for commercials from a RR and Coyote ad campaign for the Yellow Pages:

"Among Termite Terrace's esteemed stable of characters, I personally enjoy the Coyote & Road Runner 'toons the most, as I'm sure a good number of toon fans out there (including a select group of Harvard's past and present illuminati), and I'll admit, I even keep a soft spot in my heart for the Rudy Larriva-produced ones from the 60's, so don't feel too guilty for harping on them so much. I hadn't been aware of the existence of the 60's shorts until I'd seen them on "The Bugs Bunny Show" back in the late 70's. Even if some 'toon critics agree that the 60's versions were nothing more than cheapjack imitations of the classic characters all LT fans have come to recognize and endear themselves to, I will say that, at least, the 60's "Wile E." was somewhat less "ugly" in appearance (the stereotype that's usually applied to all coyotes in general, although even nature lovers would agree that real-life coyotes have a beauty all their own) than Chuck Jones' more popular version. In fact, in certain scenes where, i.e., he's in a state of wanderlust over how a certain Acme product performed to expectation, he shows a kind of "cute" side of himself. Maybe it was just unintentional on Larriva's part, but that's just one reason I found this particular coyote to be so charming, I guess, as well as for moments of utter failure where I can't help but feel heartfelt sympathy for the poor creature.

On that note, let me get back to my reason for posting. In one of those articles concerning the desert deuling duo, you focused on the many TV ads of the past that featured Wile E. & RR. Coincidentally, I've been busy searching videoblog sites all over for a particular ad campaign that featured them. It was for Pennsylvania Bell's Donnelly Directory, which were shown on certain stations in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and perhaps other markets throughout Pennsylvania (I particularly recall watching them on Philadelphia's then CBS affiliate, Channel 10). The campaign even included printed ads in Yellow Pages directories, and billboard ads, featuring Wile E. As far as I can fathom, it is possible that other states at the time also had their own Donnelly Directories. So, chances are, I'm willing to bet someone out there has either an old Donnelly hiding somewhere in their attic, in a crawlspace,or in an office desk, or even an old Yellow Pages with a Donnelly ad in it, or, much hopefully, an old VCR tape with at least one of the TV ads. I'd sure appreciate it if you could help me out in this search. Who knows? You guys might have better luck than me. At any rate, I'll keep forging ahead undaunted."

Reader Mail Spectacular, Part 1

I have been cleaning out the ol' Misce-Looney-ous e-mail box the past couple days and have found a lot of great stuff submitted by our faithful readers over the past few months that we just haven't had to chance to showcase yet (but have been meaning to!).

First up, a follow-up to the post about the Looney Tunes Collector Dolls from the WB Stores from Chris Ferguson:

Attached is a photo of the three Looney Tunes Collector Dolls (Rocky, Mugsy and Junyer) I mentioned on your blog. The only other one I had bought was Gossamer, but after seeing the photo of the others, I wish I had picked up more when the Warner Bros. store still existed. I have fond memories of going to those stores; they were much better than Disney stores (although Disney stores used to have cooler stuff than they do now). I guess I didn’t pick up the rest of the “dolls” because I’ve always been more interested in the “supporting characters” of the Looney Tunes cartoons (i.e., Beaky Buzzard, Charlie Dog, Claude Cat, Henery Hawk, Marc Antony, Ralph Phillips, etc., etc.). Man, wouldn’t be cool to have a Ralph Phillips figure, with changeable costumes.

But, I digress. Hope you like the Collector Dolls photo.



Speaking of the late, great Warner Bros. Studio Stores, Dan Cunningham sends us this photo of a large promotional banner he recently sold on eBay that was used to promote the release of the Sylvester & Tweety postage stamp in 1997:



Keep checking back all weekend for more reader submitted stuff.

Wile E. vs. Energizer Bunny

From 1994, Wile E. attempts to catch the unstoppable Energizer bunny...



Thanks to Michael Bailes for sending us the link.

Speedy Gonzales...Latino music video star?

Hispanic hip-hop group "Kumbia All Stars" (aka "Kumbia Kings") have remade the Pat Boone classic "Speedy Gonzales"...in Spanish with a club beat. As if that wasn't odd enough, they have the Speedy character in the video, in some nice new animation.

KUMBIA ALL-STARZ(SPEEDY GONZALES)

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Beep Burp

Here's another ad for a product I have never heard of. Obviously not from the United States, it's a commercial for a soft drink called "Trina" featuring the Road Runner and a trio of Coyotes. No idea when it was made (looks like it was probably mid-90s).



This brings the number of Road Runner-themed commercials featured on this blog to approximately 8,000.

Sylvester & Tweety Show

Here is the rarely seen intro to CBS' short-lived Sylvester & Tweety show from 1976. Thanks to "ReyFamily" for posting this clip. (Warning - turn down the volume on your computer, the clip's audio is kind of loud)