Looney Tunes: History and Golden Age Animation

Hello and welcome to the 20th episode of Tooncast

brought to you by the GeekCast Radio Network.

I am your host TFG1Mike and today I am joined

by Ron Algarwant and Matt Robotham. Hello guys.

Hey there. Hey hey. So how are you guys? Pretty

good. We're good. Yep. Good is what we are. Sorry,

I got nothing. I saw the microphone and froze

up. We're good. Podcast, what's that? We're wonderful.

Yeah, it's a good thing this isn't an actual

radio station. Crickets, crickets. In the 20th

episode, we're going to be talking about Looney

Tunes, something that is very near and dear to

my heart, and I know that you, Al Gore, are a

fan of as well. I'm not sure how much of a fan

of Looney Tunes are you, Matt? I certainly watched

it when I was growing up. I didn't really have

the huge connection that apparently you guys

both did. But I mean, it's just something that

is always on TV at some point or another. And

when it was on, I would watch it. Oh, yeah. Very,

very, very much so. So why don't you each introduce

yourselves to our audience, because this is the

first time you've been on our show. Algar, you

can go first. OK. Well, Elgar is a pretend name,

but that is how I prefer to be addressed. I thank

you for that. I do all kinds of crap on the internet.

I do reviews of the Transformers, which apparently

never... I remember as a kid this show only lasted

a few years, but apparently it never ended because

I'm still doing these reviews something like

20 years later. What else? Oh, we do a podcast

called The Surkastic Voyage podcast, Matt and

I. We've done web comics together. I'm pretty

sure I've done just about everything, and no

one really seems to look at any of it. But yeah,

so that's me. And Matt? My name is Matt Robotham.

I do sarcastic voyage with Al, while trying not

to actually do any of the actual work. I've also

worked on our web comic, Menace of the Intraman,

and the comic that followed it. Other than that,

I haven't really done a whole lot. Well, here's

hoping that'll change in the future. So I think,

I don't think we really have any other general

chat things we want to mention. I guess I should

mention a few programming notes. I am currently,

unless you guys want to do it, I'm currently

looking for a ghost next week. uh... for the

jetsons and the flintstones and we're we're pretty

booked up actually i'm yeah and uh... i'd unfortunately

as far as the jetsons go i'd basically would

just be screaming and ranting and uh... you know

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

i i i i i i i i i i i i i i This is the only

one I really, really could watch over and over

and over again. Yeah. Rest of it, eh, whatever.

I just remember that Simpsons reference where

they had the critic on and he's like, oh great,

another stupid cartoon crossover. Hi, meet Jason,

Jason J. Sherman, the critic. All right, Simpson,

meet J. Sherman, the critic. Incidentally, on

our podcast, we have forbidden ourselves to make

Simpsons references, but now that we're on your

show, we can just talk about them. Yeah, kick

that floodgate wide open. uh... but you might

want to talk a little bit really just uh... simpson

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... yeah the great felt wars are over alright

we are going to never forget the great felt wars

never remember them either alright we are going

to get into the history lesson we'll be right

back This is inconceivable! Eh, cut. No, don't

cut. Let the cameras roll and record it for posterity

whilst I give this stupid Nimrod a severe dressing

down. Sir, you have desecrated the spirit of

show business make -believe by using real bullets.

Cut! No, don't cut! Now get rid of this stupid

thing, take your little prop gun, and stick to

the script! Cut! No, don't cut! And another thing,

expect a call from my attorneys about this unfortunate

incident. And brother, when they call, you'd

better - Eh, now can we cut? You smug son of

a - It is now time for the history lesson and

for episode 20 we travel back to the 1930s to

the 1960s with Looney Tunes. Looney Tunes is

a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which

ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969.

It preceded the Mary Melodies series and is Warner

Brothers' first animated theatrical series. The

regular Warner Brothers animation cast also became

known as the Looney Tunes, often misspelled intentionally

or not as Looney T -O -O -N -S. The name Looney

Tunes is a variation on Silly Symphonies, the

name of Walt Disney's concurrent series of music

-based cartoon shorts. Looney Tunes originally

showcased Warner -owned musical compositions

through adventures of cartoon characters such

as Bosco and Buddy. Link to Looney Tunes shorts

featured popular characters such as Bugs Bunny,

Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester

Tweedy, Marvin the Martian, Taz, Wile E. Coyote,

and the Road Runner. Foghorn Langhorne, Yosemite

Sam, Paper the Pew, Spree Gonzalez, and many

more. Originally produced by Harmon slash Ising

Pictures, Looney Tunes was produced by Leon Schlesinger

Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold

his studio to Warner Brothers in 1944. The newly

renamed Warner Brothers Cartoons continued production

until 1963. Looney Tunes were outsourced to Dupati

and Freeling Enterprises from 1964 to 1967. and

Warner Bros. cartoons reassume production for

the series final two years from 1942 to the 1960s

Looney Tunes was the most popular short cartoon

series in theaters exceeding Disney and other

popular competitors. That is the history lesson

we're going to be moving on to the general memories.

I didn't realize when I was a kid that these

things are like before I was even born. I thought

they were running concurrent as I'm growing up

in the 80s. Yeah, I would say it's to their credit

that they wrote sort of timeless gags I mean,

there's some there's some current pop culture

references in there But for the most part they

wrote some very I mean you can you can appreciate

Bugs Bunny in a dress in 2009 just like you could

in 1949 I mean that you know, yeah very very

much so You know, you know just great characters

some of the team ups and some of the the hero

slash villain team, you know mash -ups like Sylvester

and Tweety or Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales

and then later Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester.

Just the characters are really just pretty much

timeless like you said. I mean you could show

the majority of these cartoons to anyone and

they're going to laugh their ass off. Well, and

it's interesting because I've read a bit on,

like I know one particular director above all,

and I'm sure you'll come to this as you sort

of go through chronologically, but Chuck Jones

has always been sort of one of my heroes, and

one of the things he said about those series

of, you got those cartoons, there's three of

them with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer,

you know, rabbit season, duck season, those things.

He says, believe it or not, he put this much

thought into it, he says, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck,

and Elmer Fudd represent the id, the ego, and

the superego. Like, it's actually that, he's

actually put that much thought into it. And because

of that, I think they're kind of enduring, you

know, symbols, they're kind of, you know what

I mean? Like, they represent parts of the human

psyche, and it's like, whoa, nice. Basically,

those three cartoons, Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning,

and Duck Rabbit Duck, those are basically the

Star Wars trilogy for Looney Tunes. Yeah, that's

probably true. I mean, there's a lot of the same,

basically they're interchangeable. I mean, there's

the same setup and then just a lot of different

gags. But those are a lot of the, you know, Chuck

Jones basically made all of the cartoons that

everyone remembers. I mean, those and What's

Opera Doc and like Duckamuck and you know, all

the ones that when you think about Looney Tunes,

when you remember, you know, from being a kid,

you're probably thinking of a Chuck Jones cartoon

because he made sort of the most enduring ones,

I think. I completely agree. What about you,

Matt? What are your general memories of just

Looney Tunes in general? Well, my thing was it

was always the old Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show

collection. They would play that about 10 on

Saturdays. And they'd play a bunch of Road Runner

cartoons, sort of the classic Bugs Bunny getting

chased by Elmer Fudd stuff, all that kind of

thing. That's sort of what really stuck with

me back when I was a kid. Yeah, going to what

you said all about the about the Chuck Jones

thing, you know, he said that You know Bugs Bunny

will always be able to outsmart Daffy Duck and

Elmer Fudd, you know But I mean in those three

cartoons Elmer is basically portrayed as the

dumb hunter and right and you know Bugs is the

one that knows how to get hit like, you know

dressing up in a dresser dressing as as the femme

of the cartoon and he tries But Daffy loses,

and his bill will end up either upside down.

I think it's very weird if you pause any one

of those cartoons where Elmer shoots Daffy and

Bill falls off. It's very weird seeing a bill

-less Daffy duck. Yeah, it really is. He's just

got that sort of black head with the eyes and

nothing else. I think it's interesting, again,

Chuck Jones, and I'm probably going to be saying

that name a lot because the man was a genius.

But he sort of, again, defined those characters

in that way. He made Daffy the sort of petty,

greedy kind of, you know, like before him, Daffy

just kind of jumped up and down and went woo

-hoo, woo -hoo, which is funny. But, you know,

he kind of gave him a little bit of depth, something

to play off of for the other characters. And

he made, instead of bugs just kind of jumping

around, he made him sort of the underdog, sort

of like, you know, of course you realize this

means war. I mean, he was always... He always

started out in a very innocent position, then

his turf was kind of invaded, and then he fought

back. That was very much a Chuck Jones conceit

that Bugs was sort of... and it was kind of that

wartime American, you know, we're gonna stay

over here out of the way, but if you fuck with

us, then we're gonna come after you. And that

was Bugs Bunny very much, I think, embodied that

whole spirit. Oh, I completely agree. And before

we go into the characters, I actually have Bugs

Bunny saying this. So going into the characters,

I actually, it was very, even though I've spent

the, because I started doing research on this,

last Monday I started watching the Golden Collection

DVD sets, which we will be talking about later

on, but doing the research for these cartoons

is extremely hard. Well it's not it's not found

under all of it's not found under one banner

like if you look up Transformers you can get

a majority of you know the show premise the production

the cast stuff like that this I searched like

I don't know six different things looking back

at the shows that you've covered on your podcast

you've seen to tend to cover episodic shows that

aired on TV. Whereas, of course, I'm sure you

know, these started as theatrical shorts. There

is no continuity. There is no, like, there's

nothing to unite these other than the fact that

they were made by the same studio for, you know,

30 years or whatever. And so, pulling them all

into one place for DVD release or even for archiving

purposes seems, you know, seems obvious to us

now. But back then, it was almost disposable.

You'd make it, you'd put it in front of a movie,

then you'd do the next one. And, you know, it's

just seven minutes of cartoon. No big deal, you

know. Now that we have this culture that kind

of wants to preserve everything, it is a bit

of a nightmare, I imagine, for someone in your

position to have to go back and count it all,

you know? Yeah, I mean, this has probably been

the most difficult research I've done for this

show. Well, I can't imagine any other show you've

done that had over a thousand episodes. True.

I mean, I'm not complaining about doing the research.

I mean, I do it... Oh, no, doing research watching

cartoons is hardly, you know... Yeah, I'm not

complaining about that at all. I'm just saying

that... Just finding the actual information to

go along with this episode as we go was difficult.

I'm just going to pick out some of the highlighted

characters from each of the decades. In the 30s,

the first introduced were the black and white

Looney Tunes characters on Bosco. We've discussed

Bosco and Honey a bit. Honey would be his girlfriend,

I believe. We've discussed them a bit on our

own podcast. We're sort of fascinated with that

early black and white. bouncing up and down on

their knees playing the ukulele with the weird

flowers and the... Bosco was Mickey Mouse with

a full set of teeth. What a unique and wonderful

distinction. Yes, very much so. And then of course

you had Porky, Pig, Daffy Duck, and actually,

it's funny, Granny was introduced in the 1930s.

I did not know that. And those... Granny voiced

by the by the great June for it. She was actually

well She was voiced by somebody else first, I

think and then June took over I'm not not sure

though. I I can't be for certain on that You

know and and of course, you know, we can spend

a little bit of time talking about porky pig

and Daffy Porky I think my favorite porky cartoon

is you ought to be in pictures That's an early

one That's one of those go down and go out to

the studio and you got all the like the Hollywood

caricatures Am I remembering that? Yeah, it's

basically deaf. It's it's Forky and Daffy They

Daffy convinces Forky to quit animation. He goes

into the actual Oh, right, right. There's there's

some real life like there's some Roger Rabbit.

Yeah on there Yeah, he actually goes into the

real life Leon Schlesinger office actually talks

to the real Leon says he wants to rip his contract

up and and he drives to a Hollywood studio where

you actually see Mike Maltese, who was one of

the writers. He was mainly Chuck Jones' writer.

Yeah, one of the best writers. Oh yeah, very

much so. You actually see Mike Maltese, but it's

not his voice. It's Mel Blank doing a voice.

Oh, nice. Yeah, and it's like, so you want me

to let you in there? And Porky's like, he's nodding

his head. He's like, yeah, yeah. So I can lose

my job. And Porky starts nodding. Yeah, he's

like, no. And then Mike, the live action Mike

Maltese, picks up Porky's animated car and just

like tosses him out. So the whole cartoon is

basically Porky trying to get into live pictures.

and then at the end he comes back to to the slashinger

studios and says leon can i have my job back

i have worked out of your work and he had an

excellent because or he asked him to tear his

contract he tore and he said the real one and

of course as we all know daffy is always up for

himself and by he told porky to go to live you

know we're you know real movie pictures so he

can get his own animation slot at the end of

the picture it's You don't see this, it's off

screen, but you know, Porky basically goes in

there and beats the hell out of Daffy. One of

my favorite bits with Daffy is one of his very

earlier cartoons. I have a clip of it. It was

a bunch of cartoons put into one. It's called

The Corny Concerto. It's Elmer, it's Elmer Fudd

as we know him, but he's in like this, you know,

like opera, like. Oh, if I'm not mistaken, that's

meant to be like a Fantasia parody, right? Like,

with the conductor talking to the audience. Yeah,

exactly. But throughout that, throughout the

entire thing of Elmer introducing each cartoon,

his tux flap will flap up or his pants will fall

down. Right, and it does that, like, window shade

thing. But here's my favorite part about the,

it was part of the Blue Danube. wasn't that lovely

and now we will present it's basically It's a

mother swan and her three baby swans, you know

going the quack -quack and then Daffy comes up

behind them and out of character does the wah

-wah. Well one of the things I think they did

really well was incorporate the music. The music,

the scores, like I own the Carl Stalling, they

put out two Best of collections of his score

and it's fantastic stuff, but what you have in

that clip is the music sort of driving the action.

and those those quack quacks you know i mean

it sounds great here on the podcast and you can

you get it just bring the picture to your head

of you know you know exactly what's going on

i mean they were they were really good at at

melding the music and and the animation together

very very much so and in the forties you had

of course you know bugs was bugs bunny was introduced

uh... egie buzzard uh... the barnyard dog foghorn

leghorn the goofy the goofy gophers We've discussed

them a bit on our show as well. Is that actually

the name for them? I did not know that. Yeah,

we couldn't. There was much debate, and I don't

remember if this ended up on our podcast or not,

over whether they were gophers or woodchucks

or what, and if they were, in fact, homosexual.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But

I think they probably are. Well, the funny thing

about them is the reason why you would probably

think that is because they are so friggin polite

to each other. Well, that and they're very feme.

They're very, oh no, after you, oh no, I insist.

It reminds me of like, uh, Frazier and his brother,

like that. If they're not, you know, if they're

not gay, at least they've never, like, uh, gone

outside, or, you know. Now I'm just describing

us, nevermind. Wow. Oh, and I should let you

guys know, we are explicit, so if you feel the

need to curse, please go ahead. Oh, thank you.

I should have told you before we started recording.

uh... what i think i meant to ask you before

i left the first f -bomb flying michael yeah

i do not make podcasts for children but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but form but like you know like movies it

like costa blanca or something i mean i can just

see al sitting over there going quote -unquote

adult movies i think it came out of my mouth

like adult movies no not like those kind of adult

movies not adult movies you know like grown -up

movies like like i say like something like costa

blanca or something like uh... you know citizen

came you know real movie not uh... it wasn't

a It wasn't a go see the Wizard of Oz and also

see a cartoon. They were, you know, they were

in front of series movies. Cecil Turtle, who

was... I love those cartoons. The Tortoise Beats

Hare and all. Yeah, they did a few of those.

Elmer Fudd, Henry Hawk, Martian. Actually, it's

funny. I was watching one of the things on Marvin

and when they first created that character, he

didn't actually have a name. And then Chuck said

something about he was going to use his middle

name, which is Martin. And then he said, well,

I find the name Marvin very funny. So I just

call him Marvin the Marshal. Pepe Lepew, Penelope

Pussycat. Is that the one? Oh, that's. I believe

that's the Pepe Lepew's female cat victim. Oh.

Roadrunner. rocky and moxie actually it's funny

i have a clip from from rocky telling bugs to

shut up actually he's yeah he's telling he's

talking about that was really really funny uh...

silvester tweety and the three bears i don't

remember wacky worm mildly coyote and somebody

sam you're somebody sam was basically frizz freeling

animated Yeah, that was those guys. There was

a lot of that apparently, a lot of making fun

of each other. I do remember, and I don't know

if you have this in any of your notes, and I

don't want to certainly steal your thunder, but

the very famous, actually I believe the first

Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Oscar was, it was

the bullfighting one. I think it was Bully for

Bugs, if I'm not mistaken. They were told in

no uncertain terms, totally out of the blue,

they were not prompted on this. one of the Warner

Brothers or Chris Buehling or somebody came in

and said, don't make a cartoon about bullfighting.

Bullfighting's not funny. And they all looked

at each other and were like, what? Now we have

to do it again. It's funny you mention that because

I was just watching this special feature about

that before we recorded this. It was Ed something.

It was the guy that took over after Leon sold

out. But the fact that they made their first

Oscar winning cartoon is to spite their boss.

That pretty much sums those guys up to me. A

lot of these characters in the 40s are the main

ones that we know. Well the 40s is like kind

of when they came into their own I mean the wartime

period and then after that is sort of what the

golden age of And we should mention that egghead

actually egghead became Elmer In the in the 50s

thing on my information here. It says egghead

jr. I don't ever remember seeing egghead jr.

I Think it was in like one or two cartoons egghead

was uh well he had a sort of an eggish head he

had a big bulbous red nose and I think they had

one or two where he brought sort of a smaller

version of himself along. Yeah, and then of course

we need to mention along with, I mean we're going

to get into the voice actors, I need to say this,

voice actor segment, not actors. No in this case

you have no blank you have the occasional guest

Elmer was actually done by somebody else. It

was done by So yeah in the 50s I Like I was saying

I don't recognize a lot of these I recognize

Sam the sheepdog and Ralph the wolf Which those

are always really funny because I always seem

to think it's the coyote. I don't I I don't I

don't He just said it was the same It's really

a similar design, yeah. Yeah, they gave him a

red nose, basically. Morning, Sam. We have Speedy

Gonzales and Slowpoke Rodriguez. They said that

the Speedy Gonzales cartoons were really easy

to animate because it was like really, really

going fast, but it took like, I don't know, like

12 minutes per frame to do the Slowpoke thing

because he talks. he's all right we try to see

if i can get my voice in into motion here i used

to be able to used to be able to talk like marvin

the martian and give me your myelodium p .o.

thirty six space modulator i used to be there

you go i used to be able to do it i i did it

when i was younger i'm getting too old now christ

where's the kaboom there was supposed to be a

crowd okay which one you did that How? That's

almost just like it. I was a very lonely child.

Well, oh well. You'll be my friend, won't you

Marvin? Of course I will! Oh well, I also have

to put the... I don't actually know how much

audio I'm going to put in between this episode

because there's so much to go by, but Michigan

J. Frog came out in the 50s. uh... what one froggy

that is i think the single most single greatest

uh... uh... we can only on my personal opinion

uh... not a single line of dialogue in it and

it's so so fantastic i just love watching this

guy completely go insane by the end of the episode

and i love how realistic all the surroundings

are in the the frog is the only cartoony elements

of it everything else is like horrible and and

worn down and and you know miserable and then

there's the point of particular animated frog

in it's almost got like a twilight don't feel

that you know i don't very very myself uh...

it's actually funny i i'm not sure if it's at

the beginning of the end of that cartoon if you

look at where the fraud comes from out of the

building it says the trade brown building or

something like that break brown was the amazing

sound effects guy or or sound design guy for

warner brothers back then Also, in the 50s you

had Sylvester Jr., who was done well, and Tasmanian

Devil. Oh, I should mention, yeah, Witch Hazel.

Was it Broomstick? Yeah, it was Broomstick Bunny

when Bugs dresses up for Halloween as a witch,

and at the very end of it, throughout that whole

cartoon, she's like, I'm so deathly afraid of

getting pretty. At the very end, she turns into

this hot redhead or something. Magic mirror is

the ugliest one of all he's like he runs off

See I'm not sure if I really want to bring up

the whole 1960s and beyond because half the stuff

that are listed in here is people from Animaniacs

Any tunes and we've already covered those on

to cast everybody knows those characters I'm

actually surprised that they list Freakazoid

in with this bunch. I don't associate Freakazoid

with Looney Tunes. Well, I mean, I expect that

that must be a sort of an overall list of Warner

Bros. animation characters. I guess they sort

of shut their doors in the 60s and when they

started making Tiny Tunes and then Anime X and

all that, that was sort of starting the factory

back up. So I imagine it's in Warner Brothers'

best interest to say, look, it's all part of

one big legacy, but really, it's not. Well, I

mean, that character was obviously influenced

by that type of cartoon, too. So I mean, that

might be why. Right, exactly. So going into the

voice actor segment here, you have Melvin Jerome,

quote unquote, Mel blank, born May 30th, 1908,

died July 10th, 1989. And I have to say, I don't

know how old you are, Mike, but when he died,

that was actually, like, I remember that day,

believe it or not. That was pretty sad. Wow.

Yeah, I was, I guess I would have been like 14,

and I cried. I mean, I won't lie to you. There

was this really touching print ad that they put

out with, and you guys may have seen this, all

of the Looney Tunes characters gather around

a microphone with a spotlight, which was empty,

in front of a microphone, and they all had their

heads down. And the caption just says, speechless.

And that just, every time I see it, I just have

to... Yes, we will be talking about his death

a little bit later on. No, no, no, I mean, that's...

I'm sorry, sorry, I certainly don't mean to...

It's all about sharing memories and, you know,

whatever else, that's fine, but I'm just saying,

as far as... Yeah, chronologically, I'm jumping

through his back and you... He was an American

voice actor and comedian, although he began a

six -decade -long career performing in radio

commercials. Blank is best remembered for his

work with Warner Brothers during the so -called

golden age of American animation, and later for

Hanna -Barbera television productions. As the

voice of such well -known characters as Bugs

Bunny, Duffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat,

Vicky Buzzard, Twitty Bird, Foghorn Leghorn,

Yosemite, Sam Wiley, Coyote. Which, technically,

I don't know how he could get a voice credit

for Wile E. Coyote. I mean, oh wait, yeah, he

did talk. Yeah, he talked a couple of times.

Super genius. Wile E. Coyote. Super genius. Wow.

Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely, and hundreds of others,

having earned the nickname, the man of a thousand

voices, blank is regarded as one of the most

influential persons in his field. As I said,

for the career, he has got one of the longest

resumes. His resume could almost outrank Frank

Welker, which is very hard to do considering

Frank does everything. Well, I think Frank Welker

at least has the distinction of doing a lot of

incidental sound effects and things like that

for movies. animal sounds when they need you

know just just ambient sound they get him whereas

Mel Blank was I believe just sort of a straight

up voice guy so um just overall I mean just just

looking at this information as far as as far

as I see I didn't actually know that Barney Rubble

was him I knew Mel as as the Looney Tunes characters

I didn't know anything past the Looney Tunes

stuff basically all that Hannah Barbera stuff

from the Flintstones on through the sixties and

seventies. He was in there somewhere. He never

stopped working until he passed. It was unbelievable.

The guy was amazing. And it's very funny how

he actually trained his son, Noel Blank, to do

the voices and I have a voice clip of that. I'll

play it now. And when I saw that on the DVD set,

I'm like, oh my god, it's just like mirror image.

You know, the car accident thing. On January

24th, 1961, Blank was involved in a near -fatal

car accident on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Hit head -on, Blank suffered triple skull fracture

that left him in a coma for three weeks, along

with fractures of both legs and the pelvis. The

accident prompted over 15 ,000 get -well cards

from anxious fans, including some addressed only

to Bugs Bunny. A lot of voice actors and stuff

back then, you didn't know how to. It's just

like sending a letter to Santa Claus. That's

one of my favorite stories about, and I know

you're talking about my blank right now, but

this has to do with Chuck Jones again. He said

one time a kid walked up to him and his mother

said, this is Chuck Jones. He draws Bugs Bunny.

And the kid says, no, he doesn't. He draws pictures

of Bugs Bunny. Because to this kid, there is

a real Bugs Bunny in the world. And Chuck Jones

is just copying down what he looks like. Bugs

Bunny is a real being. And Chuck Jones didn't

create him. Somehow that always remind, you know,

when people say, you know, you didn't, you didn't

create them, you're just drawing them. Somehow

I always go back to chasing Amy. You fucking

tracer. When you're getting into a whole other

territory there. And here is the accident clip.

Noel told me that almost every bone in his body

was broken. He was unconscious for a long time.

Finally, a doctor got an idea because my dad

had a television in his room, and it was playing

Bugs Bunny cartoons. So the doctor went over

to the bed and clapped his hands and said, Bugs,

can you hear me? Bugs, can you hear me? My dad

goes, What's up, Doc? The first words that he

uttered were of bugs and saying, What's up, Doc?

Then he says, Porky, can you hear me? And he

would answer me, I can hear you. So he brought

him around doing the character's voices before

my dad was fully awake as himself. So I don't

know who that doctor was, but he's a certifiable

genius. It's just so, so awesome. And then of

course, as we mentioned before, he also did voice

work for Hanna Barbera. He did some ensemble

cartoon stuff like Wacky Races, Perils of Penelope,

Pit Stop. It's actually funny, Warner Brothers,

they were not going to give him a salary increase.

So he then said, okay, well, I want sole credit

for the voice characterizations. And a majority

of good 95 % of Looney Tunes cartoons say nothing

but voice characterization, no blank. There are

only a few that say other people. Yeah, there's

a couple I can think of. One of my favorites,

I believe it was a Fritz Belling cartoon, was

The Three Little Bops, which is the story of

the three little pigs as sort of jazz musicians.

And that one was narrated. I'm not even sure

if that one was narrated by Stan Freberg. Yeah,

Stan Freberg did pretty much all of the voices

in that. And that was a great one. But yeah,

for the most part, Mel Blank. And occasionally,

if you had a female voice, you'd get the great

tune for her. Chasel. Pretty much, yeah. Well,

with Chasel, I believe she was granny. She went

on to be Rocky on Rocky and Bo Winkle and Natasha.

Right. Oh, yes, exactly. She was sort of the

female. Blank also worked with Chuck Jones, who

by this time was directing shorts of his own

company, Sib Tower, 12 Later, MGM Animation,

doing vocal effects. in the Tom and Jerry series

from 1962 to 1967. Now Tom and Jerry will be

covered on Tooncast in a later episode. I do

have the Tom and Jerry Chuck Jones collection

on DVD, the two disc DVD, so I I I laugh oh -hard

at that. Blank reprised some of his Warner Brothers

characters when the studio contracted to make

new theatrical cartoons in the mid to late 1960s.

For these, Blank voiced Daffy Duck and Speedy

Gonzales, the characters who received the most

frequent use in the shorts. Later, newly introduced

characters such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic

Mouse were voiced by Larry Storch. Blank also

continued to voice Looney Tunes characters on

the bridging sequences for the Bugs Bunny show

in numerous animated advertisements. And then

of course, we get into his death, and it's just

like, what? It's kind of, and I'm not trying

to compare it, but it's kind of like, when he

died, it's like, oh my god, where are we going

to go from here with the Looney Tunes? Well,

it's kind of the end of an era, really. They

had stopped making the theatrical shorts, but

they were doing these sort of compilation movies.

It was like the Bugs Bunny Road Runner movie

and a few others that would take... those existing

sources fiction together with the news animation

that's kind of wrapped it all together in one

big story and they would get a blank back continuity

they've had other guys since then doing the voices

of billy west uh... eutorama has done on uh...

lots of other people and it did this i mean they're

good but they're not the likes of it's kind of

telling that they do a movie like space jam or

something like that it takes yeah people but

i mean i you know i don't think space jam was

as bad Right, oh, but I wasn't I wasn't saying

one way or the other I wasn't trying to reflect

the qualities based on just saying when you're

casting a movie with Looney Tunes characters

in it you don't get one guy to do all the voices

anymore because you're just not going to find

a Mel Blank. You gotta find one person to be

Sylvester and maybe Daffy Duck because they sound

kind of the same, one person to be Bugs, one

person, you know, like there just isn't that

powerhouse of a guy who can do all the voices.

Oh exactly, well you know Daffy and Sylvester

I mean, with Mel it was the same voice. All his

death he is is Sylvester sped up. The only thing

I want to really mention about his death, I found

this very, very interesting. Blank died on July

10th, 1989 at Cedars -Sinai Medical Center in

Los Angeles, California of heart disease and

emphysema. He was interred in the Hollywood Forever

Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Blank's will

stated his desire to have the inscription on

his gravestone read. That's all, folks. And I

don't know if you guys have the file pulled up,

but there is a picture with this, and it does

say that. And I think that's awesome. I mean,

that's just a great callback to all his main

work. And then, of course, his children blank

trained his son, Noel, in the field of voice

characterization while The younger blank has

performed his father's characters, particularly

Porky Pig, on some programs he has chosen not

to become a full -time voice artist. I kind of

respect that for the guy. He's not trying to

take over where his father left off. And of course

I have the list of all the characters, which

I've already named for the majority of them.

I'm just going to scroll down past those. You

know, blanks voice -overs effects in many animated

films such as Paramount's Gulliver's Travels

as an uncredited voice over as King Bombo's Shadow

of Joy to animated shorts from the Pink Panther

to most recently in Jet -X's Pooka. You know,

just a great, great voice artist. One of the

best of all time, if not the best of all time

from that era. Wait, I mean because I mean it's

it well see without looking at your your cheat

sheet there Can you name another voice actor

from that era really? From from the 30s through

the 60s. I mean, I can't no names are coming

to mind and I kind of know this stuff Yeah, yeah

is you know in so I guess we're gonna move on

to the behind -the -scenes segment There were

I believe five or six i think the only one i

left out research was robert mckimson only because

i kind of forgot about his cartoons not really

i mean i didn't really forget i just didn't i

didn't associate it with it if i'm not mistaken

bob mckimson seemed that favor uh... uh... you've

seen the samples and a lot of lot of just uh...

but she's heard him so i don't know you have

to get his freeway You had, like I said, Bob

McKimson, Bob Clampett. Wow, I almost went brain

dead there. Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, and who

was the other one? Oh, this is funny. Frederick

Bean Tex Avery. Bean Avery is his real name.

Tex sounds a heck of a lot better. Yeah, I think

we understand why he went with Tex there. Tex

Avery's style very, very famous for the wolves

on Hollywood and Vine and the eyes popping out.

The movie The Mask was basically a love letter

to Tex Avery. Chuck Jones. The majority of Looney

Tunes cartoons that are favorites of myself and

probably everyone that likes them, the majority

of them are Chuck Jones' material. And again,

if you name any of the greats, the favorites,

the ones you remember as a kid, chances are it's

a Chuck Jones cartoon. Like I say, What's Opera

Duck and Duck Rabbit Duck and One Froggy Evening

and Duck Dodgers and they're all him. Yeah, very,

very much so. And he had just, I think, one of

the best careers as far as a... Well, I believe

he started out as an animator and then he went

into... went into directing it's it's it's funny

watching his uh... has really early stuff cuz

it's very conventional almost kind of cutesy

did i think like sniffles the mouse and just

very not interesting sort of disney knockoff

and uh... the one to seem really take off and

get his own style is just amazing and uh... toward

the end of his time warner's i know he was um...

he actually would time like a uh... uh... roadrunner

cartoon uh... he would time his gags down to

the frame like it's uh... what like twenty four

frames a second he would he would figure out

okay the coyote falling for seven frames is funny

but eight frames is funny one twenty fourth of

a second made all the difference to his comedy

that's how much timing you know that he invested

in those uh... i mean it is just awesome what

this guy has done i mean i can't you know i can

look over here to like the the dvds that i have

set out and i can probably count off almost every

single cartoon that he's done that I like. I

think one of my favorites was French rarebit

where Bugs Bunny is in France and these two chefs

are fighting over who's gonna cook him first

and at the end he ends up tricking them into

turning them into rabbits and basically making

them explode inside the oven. You just don't

see that in cartoons anymore. I dare say Looney

Tunes were the animated versions of the Three

Stooges slapstick type of comedy. That's just

the way... Sure. Well, and there was, I mean,

there was some other sort of the classic vaudeville

type. I mean, there's a lot of Marx brothers

in there. That phrase of bugs that you played

earlier, you know, of course, you know, this

means war. That actually was originally Groucho

Marx. And there's a lot of that in there. There's

some Laurel and Hardy in there. There's some

Buster Keaton. Oh yeah, and I don't think that

they're ashamed about doing it either. Oh no,

I mean, people steal jokes in comedy. And if

you're Will Wheaton, you steal jokes from me

and you don't get credit. Oh boy. Yeah, I found

that out in episode two when I was listening

to it earlier. I don't mean to derail your thing

there, I'm sorry. On this show there's so many

things that I mean I almost made a George Bush

senior junior reference earlier. I stopped myself

and I almost did. And it's interesting because

that's one thing that Looney Tunes like they

did deal with more like Mature stuff, but they

never really got into a lot of politics They

never really you know they managed to kind of

keep it timeless and not you know There's not

a lot of you know FDR Truman humor in there,

which is going into the writers I'm just gonna

mention these guys because there's so much biographical

information on all of these people The ones I

remember the most obviously Mike Michael Maltese

who? Yeah, he kind of wrote the gag yeah all

those great truck Jones cartoons. We were naming

off earlier, and he loved his wordplay. There's

there's stuff like Daffy Jack and the Beanstalk

I don't remember what the name with the title

was offhand but was a Jack and the Beanstalk

cartoon with Daffy and bugs going up to Beanstalk

and Elmer's the giant and He loved Michael Maltese

loved his wordplay. It was like Daffy's running

off, and he's like I can't wait to get those

doubloons and bloons and quadruploons it's not

a lot of you know groupie little puns and there's

no way the people get it you know uh... but i

don't have uh... said here's in the mall didn't

list on here is actually warren foster i believe

warren foster wrote a majority of the robert

mckimson actually it's about the mckimson cartoons

i noticed something and i know that they mentioned

somewhere in the on on one of the dvd special

features on one of the sets i don't remember

where i always look at the at the credits, because

they're right there before the cartoon starts.

Every Robert McKimson cartoon majority of them

have his brother listed as an animated Charles

McKimson animator. That's one way to keep the

family employed. You know, one of the cartoons

that isn't, I don't think is actually on any

of these sets is one of my most favorites. I

forget if it was, I'm not sure if it was Chuck

that did it or not. It was the one with the two

mice, Hubie and Bertie. They're house hunting

mice where they go into the house of tomorrow.

It's basically Looney Tunes version of the MGM

short House of Tomorrow where they go into this

futuristic house and it has all these... And

this sweeper keeps coming out and they keep trying

to foil it. They tack down the record player

so it doesn't come up and they speed up the record

thrower so it's throwing records all over the

place. And by the end of the cartoon, Bertie,

who is the dumber one of the two, presses the

spring cleaning button and all these other sweeper

bots come out and it sends them running. I often

thought, and I don't know, maybe you can clarify,

I could have sworn that was a those two characters

are reference to uh... abit to sell big they

could very well be the uh... they did that uh...

uh... a lot there was uh... i remember when i

was like it was called the honey mousers where

was like the honeymooners in in mouse form and

there's one based on jack benny another time

there there was a lot of that so i i know they

did do a direct uh... abit costello uh... cartoon

thing with uh... abit and cat stello i do remember

that uh... the jack benny when you mentioned

was the owl jolson one where where the parents

are like i guess you're going to be an opera

singer but the kids sing an opera but he can

sing in jazz Yeah, that's a they reference that

in the very first episode of South Park actually

or Cartman had the anal probe and he zaps him

and he goes I want to sing about the moon and

that was that was a reference to that I'm trying

to resist saying this but Matt now, you know

and knowing is half the battle The other half

is killing So I think we're done with the behind

-the -scenes segment. We're going to go into

the actual show now. In the beginning, as far

as the history for the theatrical shorts, both

Looney Tunes and Mary Melodies drew their storylines

from Warner's vast music library. Also, from

1934 to 1943, Mary Melodies were producing color

in Looney Tunes in black and white. I knew that

there were black and white Looney Tunes cartoons,

but I didn't know that one was color at one point

and then one was... Yeah, I know I know there

was definitely a distinction between the two

series and also if I'm not mistaken the name

Cartoon and you may have more information on

this comes like the tune Comes from the fact

that they use these as sort of like primitive

music videos when they first came out and Disney

kind of started it with the silly symphonies

But like Warner like you say with their vast

library of pop songs if you watch those early

ones from like the late 30s early 40s they would

always work a song in and and It's weird to think

now that that's basically like the 40s version

of MTV. They were trying to make their songs

popular. I completely agree. Both series also

made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon

characters. By 1937, the theme music for Looney

Tunes was The Merry -Go -Round Broke Down by

Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin. The theme music

for Merry Melodies was an adaptation of Merrily

We Roll Along by Charles Tobias, Murray Mincher

and Eddie Cantor. I really butcher names sometimes

I didn't know but sometimes I will What interests

me really more than the actual some of the some

of the history on here as far as like it changing

Like throughout throughout its course that there

have been you know three or four different like

Looney Tunes opening and closing gags like from

1937 to 1946 every Looney Tune except for two

and if you think It ended with Porky Pig coming

out of a drum saying, that's all folks. And then

of course it changed, I don't know if it's a

rights change or studio change, but like the

logo changed, like there's a picture on here,

Looney Tunes opening WB graphic from 1964. It's

completely different from the one that we know.

It's just a pink W and a B meshed together and

says presents on a black background. Some of

the more interesting bits, I think, are down

here closer. Although cartoons are seldom seen

on mainstream TV thanks to rival theatrical screening,

in the Golden Collection DVD box sets, Looney

Tunes and its characters have remained a part

of Western animation heritage. On October 22,

2007, Looney Tunes and Marimondi's cartoons became

available for the first time in high definition

via Microsoft Xbox Live service, including some

in Spanish. Oh, nice. I didn't know that. So

if you want to hear near -dificible in Spanish,

I guess you could do that. I don't know what

the translation of that would be, and I don't

want to know, I don't think. From February 29th

to May 18th, 2008, many Looney Tunes artifacts,

including original animation cells and concept

drawings, were on display at the Butler Institute

of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, just off

the campus of Youngstown State University. The

exhibit had the studio come full circle as Warners

were natives of the Youngstown area. Huh, I didn't

know that either. uh... we've seen this can currently

be seen which as we know it wrong currently seen

on kids wb website we can return to cartoon network

on january first two thousand i was a marathon

called the new year's day movie i remember when

i first got uh... satellite dish uh... and i

discovered that uh... cartoon network in june

i believe it was like the first weekend of june

but uh... do this marathon called june bugs where

it was just Bugs Bunny cartoons for like 48 hours,

and I would just, whatever I was doing, I would

just like cancel it, draw the shades, get a big

pizza, and just sit there and watch Bugs Bunny

cartoons all weekend, just binge. It's nice to

see that they've gotten those back. No, I'm watching

Bugs Bunny! Alright, as long as you have a legitimate

excuse. It's nice because I think Cartoon Network

knows, like they appreciate the legacy of a lot

of the old stuff, and they usually treat that

stuff with respect. And I think if they do have

those, again, that's good because they'll show

them, they'll display them, they'll keep them

in circulation. They won't just put them on at

midnight or something. Well, yeah, I kind of

agree and I kind of disagree because Cartoon

Network, as of February this year, has pretty

much gone CN real. And they're live action programming

in with their own original cartoons. have basically,

I mean they, you know, Boomerang still runs like

Tom and Jerry and stuff like that, but Looney

Tunes after the January, after the New Year's

Day marathon have not been seen on Cartoon Network

or Boomerang since. Wow, that's not good. Yeah,

that's a damn shame. That's kind of like that

MTV thing where they stop showing videos, you

know? Why would you show live action on Cartoon

Network? That's no good. Yeah. Unless you've

heard, there are other channels. That's true.

Yeah, put that on those, right? Cartoon Network,

you know, kind of obvious. As far as the controversy,

I'm not going to read all of it from the top,

but there are stereotypes throughout a majority

of some of these cartoons. Oh sure, and a lot

of that stuff was acceptable in the 30s and 40s,

and that doesn't make it right, but you know.

It was back then, that's the time, yeah. Yeah,

that's what you did. I mean, our grandparents...

In addition to these most notorious cartoons,

many Warner cartoons contain fleeting or sometimes

extended gags that reference... and common racial

or ethnic stereotypes. The release of the Looney

Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 includes a disclaimer

at the beginning of each DVD in the volume given

by Whoopi Goldberg which explains that the cartoons

are products of their time and contain racial

and ethnic stereotypes that these days would

be considered offensive but the cartoons are

going to be presented on the DVD uncut and uncensored

because editing them out and therefore denying

that stereotypes existed is almost as bad as

condoning. So since whoopee Goldberg's black

and she says it's okay, then it's okay It's funny

I was right when oh no It's on volume 4 and volume

5 a written disclaimer similar to the words spoken

by Goldberg in volume 3 is shown at the beginning

of each DVD in the volume 4 and volume 5 sense

Whoopee was too expensive for them to get back

on air Well, you know, she's very busy doing

Sister act four whatever it is Some of the actually

some of the information here now It's actually

very interesting to me the ownership in the early

1950s Warner Brothers sold its black -and -white

Looney Tunes plus the first merry melody lady

play your mandolin and the white merry melodies

made after Harmonizing left to Sunset Productions

Warner insisted that the opening and closing

titles be changed to remove all references to

Warner Brothers The cartoons were distributed

by a guild of films until it was sold to Motion

Pictures for television. In the 1960s, Seven

Arts Productions bought that company. In 1967,

Seven Arts merged with Warner Bros. to create

Warner Bros. Dash Seven Hearts, thus putting

those films back in Warner's ownership. So why

the hell do they sell them in the first place?

It makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Now probably

at the time it was well, I mean we watch company

I mean now we watch companies merge and break

up all the time I mean in the 90s, you know There

was a well time Warner and I think now they're

separate companies again and looking back on

that in 20 years to be like Well, why do they

merge if they just split apart? But you know

probably don't it probably makes sense Let's

see here UA under pre WB Warner or pre WB slash

Turner merger management of MGM slash UA home

video officially released numerous compilations

of the classic pre 8 -48 cartoons on VHS and

Laserdisc. Most of these are under the title

Golden Age of Looney Tunes. Today Warner Home

Video holds the video rights to the entire Looney

Tunes slash Mary Melody's animated output by

virtue of WB's ownership of Turner Entertainment.

This is why their Looney Tunes Golden Collection

DVD box sets include cartoons from both the pre

-848 Turner -owned and post -748 WB -owned periods.

And Turner, if I'm not mistaken, when he first

got a hold of some of that stuff was editing

them. Do you have anything about that where he

would sort of take out the gunshots or take out

the more objectionable stuff? There's kind of

a big deal like in the 80s. And I think that's

been kind of swept under the carpet now, but

for a while there was TBS. I know I have a thing

on here for quality of prints used for television

and video. When the Looney Tunes were shown on

TV, WB and AAP prepared 16mm dupes. of the original

prints for syndication market these prints faded

over time caused them to look inferior to what

was being shown on the network yeah there was

there was some of that as well but there was

Ted Turner like on TBS and I think maybe TNT

would actually take out like you know when you

see Daffy's beak being shot off they would actually

you would hear the gunshots sound but they would

cut away yeah I've heard about that they cut

to like just his beak hanging off or something

Because kids, you know, they can't put together

that a hunter has a gun and now... I honestly,

you know, honestly, you know, like you guys,

I believe you guys might have been saying in

your first episode of Sarcastic Voyage, I'm not

sure. I know you had mentioned it, Al, that,

you know, you haven't watched TV with commercials

in a very, very long time. Well, no. DVR and

TV DVDs. Well, that's what I'm saying. Honestly,

I really don't care if Looney Tunes ever come

back on TV because people can just go out and

buy the DVD. See, to me it's important because

not everyone can go buy those DVDs and because

there will always be children the way we were

children, you know, where you got your mom, you

got your dad, and then you got your third parent,

television. And I think, you know, I don't want

to get on a soapbox or anything, but I think

it's important for Looney Tunes to be on as an

alternative to whatever the crap is on right

now. Yeah, exactly. And in that respect, I do

hope that they are still on TV because, you know.

Having that option there, it's just like, well,

you could watch crap or you could watch this.

Yeah, you could watch back when they actually

drew each of 24 frames of animation instead of,

you know, one frame per second. I think the issue

is obviously the editing and the... and the racial

stuff. I think that's what the real issue is

because those cartoons mentioned that we're in

that New Year's Day marathon on Cartoon Network,

they were the edited versions. So if you want

the unedited versions you're gonna have to go

out and find the DVDs. Or you say now that they're

restoring them for HD, I would imagine they'll

be blu -rays at some point. So yeah, moving on

to the music segment. The merry -go -round broke

down as a song written in 1937 by Cliff Friend

and Dave Franklin. It is best known as the theme

tune for Looney Tunes cartoon series produced

by Warner Brothers Cartoons, used from 1937 to

1959. Which, you know, I think it's a very fitting

theme for Looney Tunes. Oh absolutely and I remember

that scene in Roger Rabbit where they use that

as well where he's in the bar singing and then

Judge Doom walks in and says merry -go -round

broke down. I hope people remember Roger Rabbit

because that was a fantastic sort of tribute

to that golden age. Well it's funny because after

he says it he goes Kind of a loony selection

for a bunch of drunken... Refrobates, yeah. When

you talk Looney Tunes music, really, there's,

again, kind of like Looney Tunes voices, there's

really only one name, and that's Carl Stalling.

The guy was a mad genius. He would take all these

different pieces of music and stitch them together

into this insane carnival music, you know...

jamboree of of of stuff and uh... now you hear

like xylophone going to come down and you think

oh well someone's climbing up steps but he's

kind of the guy who invented that he just came

up with all these crazy you know ridiculous things

and again uh... i have the the collections they

put out of his and they're just amazing i'd you

just put them on a list and you close your eyes

and you can picture what's going on i think my

favorite amazing out of his music because he

he basically put the music to the animation when

it came to Looney Tunes. Like you said, you know,

xylophone going upstairs or going downstairs.

One of my favorite cartoons to watch for that

type of deal is Duckamuck. Oh yeah, absolutely.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of pantomime,

there's a lot of like, you know, parts where

the dialogue kind of goes and the music pretty

much carries the action and he carries it so

well. And he, he would take, pieces like he would

take musical quotes like different little snippets

of things like and a lot of times they were puns

and if you didn't know the titles of the music

you would come the joke will be lost on you but

like he would take there's a guy called Raymond

Scott who wrote a lot of really bizarre music

he wrote the the powerhouse that music that everybody

done done done done done done you know everybody

knows that everybody it's famous cartoon music

he would borrow that he would borrow all this

stuff Whenever you see cannibals on the screen,

he would take a Raymond Scott piece called Dinner

Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals. And it's

a joke that like three people would get. And

Carl Stalin's just like cackling madly composing

the orchestra. Cannibals, get it? Yes, there

are, you know, like you said, there are two soundtracks.

The Carl Stalin Project, Music from Warner Brothers

Cartoons, 1936 to 1958. And then Volume 2, More

Music from Warner Brothers Cartoons, 1939 to

1957. And you really want to freak somebody out,

you put that at full blast at a traffic light.

They get a lot of strange looks. Wow. So going

into the legacy segment, actually, it's become

a running gag on this show. For the majority

of our shows, as you said before, they're episodic

cartoons like Mask, Transformers, stuff like

that. and normally IGN would have normally in

the reception I would have a listing of wherever

the show is ranked thank god IGN hasn't been

able to get a hold of these things because some

of their top 100 animated show they ranked mask

99th oh god hey that's about right I'm sorry.

Not a problem. As far as Looney Tunes, four of

the Looney Tunes have been selected to the National

Film Registry. Those are What's Opera Dock, Duck

a Muck, Forky in Wacky Land, and One Froggy Evening.

It is one... Notable that three of those four

are done by Cacone. It has been nominated for

tons of Academy Awards. It has won... for uh...

best short subject animation tweedy -pie one

for sentimental reasons uh... speedy gonzalez

uh... birds anonymous ninety -nine books for

sentimental reasons is probably my favorite pepula

pew cartoon those are fairly interchangeable

to me i mean they're all pretty good but uh...

i don't think anyone stands out more than any

of the others it's kinda like that the roadrunner

one source to me it's just a series of gags i

mean was there anything specifically I think

it's because of the fact that there is one scene

where the cat ends up inside this circus cage.

You put the animal in behind and you have a glass

display on the outside. It's almost like a husband

and wife thing where Peppy's standing outside,

let me in, let me in, and it's nothing but sound

effects. Yeah, all right. Yeah, that there's

a whole pinch in bed where And she like holds

her you know you can tell she's saying because

you stink and Then at the end of course she ends

up in the water and and the the hair dye washes

off He ends up in the blue paint and she ends

up chasing after him Classic Twilight Zone ending

as far as the television broadcast history there

were like a whole bunch of countries i really

don't care i'm just gonna bring up the u .s .a.

stuff and canada as i know i wasn't forget it

actually wasn't listed no i'm serious if you

go to wiki i swear i'm not i'm not joking it

was not listed Well, Canada has these weird Canadian

content laws where a certain percentage of their

broadcast material has to be of Canadian origin.

So maybe there just wasn't enough Canadian animators

working for Warner Brothers. And the only cartoon

we got up here was Pierre the Happy Walrus. Did

not go for well. Yeah, maybe maybe Tooncast number

850 will be about Pierre the Happy Walrus. It

aired on Boomerang, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon,

TNT, TBS. It was in syndication from 1955 to

the present day. 1955? November 5th, 1955. Why

do I remember that? Oh yeah, that's when I made

this, the flux capacitor. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox,

and KidsWB. This franchise has garnered a lot

of video games too. There are tons of video games.

I can't think of only one that really sticks

out in my head only because I played it like

crazy on the classic Original Gameboy was bugs

bunny and crazy castle It's basically a buddy

going from room to room in a castle looking for

carrots Yeah, they could basically just put have

put anything in there they just I think they

just needed a license I think I remember hearing

that that was originally Mickey, that they changed

it to Mickey Mouse when it went to Japan. Same

game, different character. Actually the one that

I recently really wanted, actually I did have

before I had to end up selling my PlayStation

2, but anyway, was Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal.

Basically it was basically Looney Tunes meets

Halo. But you basically give them all kinds of

weird cartoon gaggy type of weapons and you have

to take them through like you can play as like

three or four like Bugs, Daffy and like two or

three other characters. It was really really

cool. Outside of that I don't really remember.

I think if they got the cartoon physics like

if they really pay close attention to the way

like an anvil falls on a seesaw or something

that might actually be kind of fun. I played

a ton of these when I was at school. Oh shit

yeah. I was waiting for a Looney Tunes version

of Jordan versus Bird. Oh yeah, like the Space

Jam ripoff. Yeah, I guess we should mention the

two Looney Tunes inspired movies, obviously Space

Jam and then Looney Tunes Back in Action. I gotta

say, honestly, and I am totally on an island

here, I liked Back in Action quite a lot. It

was directed by Joe Dante, the great Joe Dante

who did the Gremlins movies and Inner Space and

a lot of really good movies. It was not like...

you know uh... like it wasn't a classic old age

cartoon but it was a lot of fun i i left quite

a lot i mean uh... it's a lot better i'm just

going off what i've heard it yet and i wasn't

saying you're saying yeah i'm just saying in

general to your listeners you want to dismiss

this movie is all they made it looney toons movie

in the two thousand this has to suck it's not

certainly the but i had heard from anyone who

was talking about it now and it again it wasn't

a classic but it wasn't i laugh fair amount it

was it was a nice Like, Joe Dante, I think, has

been trying to make a sort of Looney Tunes tribute

for quite some time. Gremlins 2 was basically

one big live -action Looney Tunes film, and he

finally just got to make a Looney Tunes movie.

Yeah, I completely agree. While there are some

actors in there that I really could care less

about, like Brendan Fraser, but I, you know...

The great the great Jenna Elfman well see that

that's what I like because it put a face on Acme

if you take all those Roadrunner cartoons and

you know Or you take bugs ordering something

from somebody I want that though bugs or something

and it's instant delivery We that we we need

that today. We need instant delivery not this

you know $45 for UPS Well, hey here in Seattle

we have Amazon fresh which basically can bring

you anything Amazon has or groceries within the

same day, so We're nearly there. I don't know

what's wrong Still if you need a catapult in

a hurry, you're still you're still waiting at

least a week these days We've given up our search

for crossbows. I think we've Bigger and better.

Well, let's see catapult as a poppy. Yes. There

is in fact a catapult on Amazon So if you get

a trebuchet, how you even know those things Nice

first of the new word we yep desktop trebuchet

3495 finally It's it's we're recording this at

night. I ordered it tomorrow morning. I would

have it by tomorrow night Yeah, we're nearly

to the to the Acme But I mean that you know Steve

Martin they basically with that character they

put a face on the Acme corporation Yeah, exactly

corporation The biggest laugh in that film for

me came toward the end when they're unmasking

steve martin i'm gonna spoil looney tunes back

at the top of us you know stop listening here

is it now if uh... if you're worried about spoilers

but um... there's a bit where they're unmasking

steve martin you know of course he can't just

be steve martin he's got to be some you know

evil notorious whatever and they keep us employed

they keep pulling off a mask and he's somebody

else and he's somebody else and somebody else

and they pull it off and he's uh... michael jordan

and daffy looks at him looks at the camera and

says, this doesn't make a lick of sense. And

then they keep going with the mask gag. And that

was it. He didn't have a line. He didn't like,

because Michael Jordan's kind of a ham. He kind

of, you know, and he just, he was an unspoken

cameo. all that's hilarious and just everything

that you did to joke visually uh... the the way

just that the way he sold the line you know that's

make a lick of sense and that's for this day

i saw them over a few years ago that's still

in my life and i still say that's like a little

ways use uh... he'll be in bernie uh... uh...

i believe it's bernie that goes like like you'll

be last night you ready yeah yeah sure sure right

it is is that you know it's time i thought space

jam was really well done uh... you know compact

i'm just not a sports guy so that that whole

thing was a lot of strange concept for a movie

you know like we're gonna make it a looney tunes

movie with michael jordan where they play basketball

against aliens i gotta say it's like If I was

told to predict what the new Looney Tunes movie

was going to be about, it would not be that.

I think one of the most funniest, like, humiliating

moments of that film is the scene where they've

lost all their powers and Charles Barkley tries

to go play basketball with some girls and he

can't play because he's lost his powers and they

basically just shun him. Getting to the DVDs

here, we have the Looney Tunes Golden Collection,

an annual series of six four -disc DVD box sets

from Warner Brothers Home Video. Each containing

about 60 Looney Tunes carts and Mary Melony's

animated shorts, the series began in October

2003 and ended in October 2008. No, they're not.

anymore are uh... there is a note down here according

to jerry beck consultant producer to the golden

collection series one -on -one video will continue

to release the returns part of the dvd does not

be on presumably as different series however

the january two thousand twenty eight two thousand

nine discussion on show kiss internet radio backstage

there would be no such releases so basically

just contradict itself actually i am friends

with jerry beck on face book That's kind of sad,

but whatever. Oh, nice. I will say the thing,

and you may not agree with me here, but I think

it's kind of a good idea marketing wise for them.

They're not releasing these chronologically,

because really, if they started in 1930, whatever

it was, with the Bosco and Honey and all that,

who's going to buy that? So what they do is they

throw in Duck Dodgers. and they throw in you

know something like that in volume one so you

gotta buy volume one and then they throw in what's

opera doc in volume two so you gotta buy volume

two and and yeah it's kind of crap that you gotta

buy them all but on the other hand you know they're

moving my only complaints about you know the

DVD sets is as they go along they get smaller

and I don't mean in content I mean as far as

the packaging like volumes one through four or

one through three are these big, you know, fold

-out sets. Volumes four through six are just,

you know, they fold out three ways, but it's

basically four discs on top of each other. It's

not four separate discs in each of their own

thing. I just don't like that type of DVD packaging

because it makes it harder for me to find the

discs that I want at the same time, whereas you

can put it all up at once and it's each one and

it's each own thing instead of on top of each

other. Overall, I would recommend anybody that

is a limited span to get these sets i can't imagine

there's anyone out there that is limited and

that doesn't own these but yes absolutely but

i'm at where you're going to be uh... uh... but

say something what night yeah um... and i was

i was agreeing without yes he's we we must note

that you must if you are going to get a like

i guess you could call the full looney tunes

type of collection dvd sets get the golden collection,

not the spotlight. The spotlight is a trimmed

down, less number of cartoons per set. I do want

to get some of the movie collections like, you

know, Bugs Bunny Road Runner movies, stuff like

that. I know Daffy Duck's Quack Busters is out

on DVD now. Well that's one of those, like I

mentioned before, they do those sort of compilations

of old cartoons stitched together. Which I did,

you know, I did like that. I thought that was

pretty cool. So we are going to move into the

closing and this is the point where we're going

to give some final thoughts and I will let you

guys go first. Matt, why don't you go first on

your final thoughts on Looney Tunes. Oh, God.

Yes, the spotlight shining on you. Yeah, it's

sort of blanket now. Matt always performs well

under pressure. Oh, yeah. You know what, maybe...

Al, you got something, please? Looney Tunes,

what's that? No. so i don't know i'm so well

like i said i'd i'd i look up to the site i am

very much a student of all forms of comedy that

is just my thing and listening to our show i'm

sure people anyone is listen to us knows i'd

love to pick apart comedy see how it works and

chuck jones to me is up way up there with the

best like in any medium of comedy he's he's up

there and sort of my top five I wish I could

be this good this man is a genius and yeah the

other Looney Tunes are good and I won't deny

that but really Chuck Jones you know Chuck Jones

Looney Tunes anything from about 1945 to about

1955 is just some of the best animation. Oh yeah

I completely agree with him and him and Mike

Maltese you know they're the you know writer

director team yeah get for these cartoons. It's

actually funny, I noticed, you know, watching

a lot of these different ones, like stuff from

Fris Freling and Tex Avery and Robert McKimson

and Bob Clampett and all that stuff, some of

the stuff that you basically have to catch it,

but if you don't, you're like, oh, what was that?

And you have to go back and look. It's kind of

like one of those double take things. I forget

which Sylvester and Tweedy cartoon it is. There

is Drink. frizz hola and frizz is upside down

but it's meant to be frizz freeling and then

in one of the mckimson cartoons it's like the

robert mckin... no it's like the mckimson building

so i'm they put all the animators put all kinds

of stuff in each of the directors yeah they they

put their own names in there but they also put

like clever jokes in there too so that's it's

always nice to look for the you guys have anything

that you would like to plug this is the time

to plug stuff I think I sold our show at the

top, so Matt, if you want to... Once again, there's

our show, Sarcastic Voyage. You can get it at

our website, www .algard .com, A -A -L -G -A

-R. We're posting what now, Tuesdays and Fridays?

For right now, through October and November,

we're doing Tuesdays and Fridays. Then we're

just, I believe, going back to Fridays. We're

just starting, so we're trying to get a bunch

out there and really get our legs. As far as

what we do, I don't know, we talk about crap.

We're not as focused as Spike here. We just kind

of wander around aimlessly. If you want to follow

us on Twitter, I'm at robotmat. I'm at Algar.

Double A -L -G -A -R. All right, so we're going

to go into the closing here. Thank you for joining

us here on Tooncast. There are several ways to

get in contact with us. We'll leave feedback

for the show. Though first you visit www .geekcastradio

.com and find all the other GCRN podcasts there.

The second is you can stop by PredaconEmpire

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third is you can leave the show feedback on iTunes.

Yes, please do this. We crave feedback on iTunes.

iTunes review whores. And I don't even care.

I mean, I'm speaking for me. I certainly don't

want to speak for you, but I don't even care

if it's negative as long as it's constructive.

I mean, don't just say, you suck. But I do enjoy

getting the occasional, well, it was a slow start,

but it was better here. Just tell me what you

really think. Give us something we can work with.

Yeah, I agree with you on my transformers review

podcast. I had a guy basically review it like

After the fifth episode and he's basically tearing

shreds in his dumb bastard Hey, I actually I

remember this funny when I was married to him.

He's saying that on Twitter Before this, you

can visit www .earth -2 .net forums and find

our threads for the shows in the self -promotion

section. And the fifth is the email address,

which is gcr .com. We now have a voicemail line.

Call us and leave us your thoughts on each episode.

Be sure to say which show you're leaving the

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The show name there is GCR and Dunecast. Mine

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to follow both of them because yeah, they pretty

much talk nonstop to each other and you won't...

All we basically do is bicker back and forth.

That's cool. We hope you enjoyed this episode

of Tooncast and wish you'll join us next time

when we will be reminiscing on the Jetsons and

the Flintstones. For now, I am TFG1Mike with...

Thank you all for being here today. I've called

this press conference on behalf of myself, Ron

Algarwatt, and my co -creator, Matt Robotham,

to inform you that once the current run of our

award -winning webcomic Vengeance of the Intermen

is finished at the end of this year, we are here.

So we've brought you here, and we will now take

your questions. There's uh - There's nobody here.

There's - There's nobody here. Nobody uh - Nobody

read the comic. Oh. At - At all. Well, we're

doing a podcast now. Yeah, we are doing a podcast

now. The Sarcastic Voyage Podcast. Available

via iTunes or on the web at Algar .com. And then

suddenly, everything would go black. That's all,

folks! Well, how's that? Eh, pardon me. I don't

mean to put a damper on this thing, but weren't

there supposed to be five rockets? There were

five! And I lit them, too! Sam! Sam! Speak to

me! You carrot -chomping, flop -eared, bob -tailed

rabbit! I hope your innards turn to outers and

your ears go vice versa! I hate rabbits! It's

just human nature to hate rabbits! Well, you

low -down, flop -eared son of a kangaroo! You'll

pay for this, you dog -blasting, ornery, no -account,

long -eared vermin! Well, you car -sarned, idiot

rabbit! Maybe we can fix it in the editing.