The Bugs Bunny Show facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Bugs Bunny Show
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in opening
Genre	Animated Anthology Comedy
Directed by	Chuck Jones Friz Freleng Robert McKimson
Voices of	Mel Blanc June Foray Stan Freberg Hal Smith
Theme music composer	Mack David & Jerry Livingston (1960–2000) Steve Zuckerman (1984–85) Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin (1985–88)
Opening theme	"This Is It" (1960–1984, 1988–2000) "It's Cartoon Gold" (1984–1985) "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (1985–1988)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	David H. DePatie Friz Freleng William L. Hendricks Peter Morales Andrew Stein Hal Geer Steven S. Greene Kathleen Helppie-Shipley Jean H. MacCurdy Lorri A. Bond
Producer(s)	Friz Freleng Chuck Jones
Running time	Various; 22 to 66 minutes
Production company(s)	Warner Bros. Cartoons Warner Bros. Animation
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC (1960–1968, 1973–1975, 1985–2000) CBS (1968–1973, 1975–1985)
Picture format	Filmed color: (1960–1962) broadcast: B&W (1960–1972); color (1973–2000)
Original release	October 11, 1960 (1960-10-11) – September 2, 2000 (2000-09-02)
Chronology
Related shows	The Porky Pig Show The Road Runner Show

The Bugs Bunny Show is an American animated anthology television series hosted by Bugs Bunny that was mainly composed of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros. between 1948 and 1969. The show originally debuted as a primetime half-hour program on ABC in 1960, featuring three theatrical Looney Tunes cartoons with new linking sequences produced by the Warner Bros. Cartoons staff.

After two seasons, The Bugs Bunny Show moved to Saturday mornings, where it remained in one format or another for nearly four decades. The show's title and length changed regularly over the years, as did the network: both ABC and CBS broadcast versions of The Bugs Bunny Show. In 2000, the series, by then known as The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, was canceled after the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies libraries became the exclusive property of the Cartoon Network family of cable TV networks in the United States. Reruns of The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show were aired on the Canadian channels Teletoon and Teletoon's sister channel, Teletoon Retro (until 2015 when Teletoon Retro signed off). Prior to Teletoon and Teletoon Retro, CBC Television (1960–1975) and Global Television Network (1978–1982, 1990-2000) aired the show. In Australia, episodes of the show was divided into 3 networks with most episodes aired on Nine Network and some episodes were divided on Network Ten and Seven Network since its debut.

Legacy

This show is credited for keeping the Warner Bros. cartoons made during the Golden Age of American animation a part of the American consciousness. Indeed, the show ran for more than four decades, and helped inspire animators, comedians, historians, and others who watched Saturday morning television.

The "This Is It" song's fame is such that it has been used elsewhere, such as in the Canadian province of Ontario where it was used in a TV commercial promoting the various performing arts tourist attractions where artists of various disciplines sing separate lines of the song. In "The Opera," an episode from the fourth season of the US sitcom Seinfeld, Jerry sings "This Is It" to Elaine while both characters are waiting outside the theater, causing Elaine to exclaim, "You know it is so sad, all your knowledge of high culture comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons."

When Warner Bros. released its video series "Golden Jubilee", featuring the classic cartoons, the opening sequence shows the Tasmanian Devil maniacally riding a motorcycle down a city street, chased by a police car. He makes a sharp turn into a theater, where the rest of the Looney Tunes are performing to the Bugs Bunny Show tune.

The theme song for The Bugs Bunny Show would later be used for Bugs Bunny & Friends on MeTV, a show during the Saturday morning block on the network, "Saturday Morning Cartoons", which is a Comeback of Saturday Morning Cartoons.

Animated sequences produced for the show

A series of short animated scenes were produced for the show, featured "linking" moments during the fictional theater setting of the show. These scenes included:

• A frustrated Daffy Duck bickering on stage with Bugs Bunny. Daffy declares, "Last week you said you were going to introduce me next week!" Bugs replies, "Right...but this isn't next week, is it?" Daffy trips himself up and replies, "You're doggone tootin' is isn't! This is this week! And next week is uhhh...ummm...sheesh!"
• A barking sheepdog wanders into the theater, saying "Which way did he go? Where's the little bunny I saw on TV last week?" Daffy, at this time, has dressed up in a rabbit costume and is on stage pretending to be Bugs. The sheepdog pounces upon Daffy and exclaims, "At last, at last! I have caught a bunny rabbit!"
• Bugs entertains the audience by playing a guitar. An angry Yosemite Sam barges in the theater shouting, "Can't ya see I'm tryin' to sleep?!?", snatches the guitar from Bugs, and snaps all of its strings.
• Bugs demonstrates some cartoon physics, including slow motion, fast speed and "virbrating to a stop."

The show's title sequences and some of these linking material scenes from the original Bugs Bunny Show are included as bonus features on each volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD collection (with the exception of Volume 6). As the original color negatives were cut up by CBS and ABC to create later versions of the show, the linking sequences are presented on DVD using a combination of footage from both what's left of the color negatives (some of which were used in later incarnations, thus helping to preserve them) and the black-and-white ABC broadcast prints prepared in the early 1960s.

On the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, the opening to the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (with the announcer calling it the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour) and two openings to the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (the 1988 opening and the 1992 opening) were released as special features.

In 2009, an episode of the Bugs Bunny Show was released on the Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 2 set. Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s Volume 2 includes an episode of the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.

Formats

Prime Time:

• The Bugs Bunny Show, October 11, 1960 – August 7, 1962 (ABC)

Saturday Mornings:

• The Bugs Bunny Show, Mid/late August/September 8, 1968 (in color starting September 10, 1966) (ABC)
• The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, September 14, 1968 – September 4, 1971 (CBS)
• The Bugs Bunny Show, September 11, 1971 – September 1, 1973 (CBS)
• The Bugs Bunny Show, September 8, 1973 - August 30, 1975 (ABC)
• The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, September 6, 1975 – November 12, 1977 (CBS)
• The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, November 19, 1977 – September 7, 1985 (CBS)
• The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour, September 7, 1985 – September 6, 1986 (ABC)
• The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, September 13, 1986 – September 2, 2000 (ABC)

Credits

• Senior Directors: Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson
• Co-Directors: Hawley Pratt, Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis, Abe Levitow, Maurice Noble, Alex Lovy, David Detiege, Rudy Larriva, Tom Ray
• Stories, Animation, layouts, and backgrounds: Members of Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839
• Music: Carl W. Stalling, Milt Franklyn, John Seely, William Lava, William L. Hendricks, Walter Greene, Eugene Poddany, Doug Goodwin, Rob Walsh, Quinn Amper, Fred Strittmatter, Dean Elliot
• The Bugs Bunny Show Opening and Closing Theme: "This Is It" by Mack David & Jerry Livingston
• Film Editors: Treg Brown, Hal Geer, Fred Farrell, Chuck McCann, Jim Champin, Lee Gunther
• Producers: Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, David H. DePatie
• Executive Producers: Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, David H. DePatie, William L. Hendricks
• Cast: Mel Blanc, Stan Freberg, June Foray, Hal Smith, and Arthur Q. Bryan