When Warner Bros. partnered with ABC in 1960 for the production of “The Bugs Bunny Show,” General Foods Corporation was signed as the sponsor of the show. It was the proverbial match made in Heaven, as the company offered a line of breakfast cereals and flavored drink mixes aimed at the kiddie consumer while the Warner Bros. cartoon characters were the ideal sales tools to entice the show’s juvenile viewers and their grocery shopping parents.
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Most film historians have exiled Spencer Williams to the fringes of cinema history, a situation based on both his race and the circumstances in which he worked. During the 1940s, he was the only prolific African American director – albeit in a series of cheaply-made, independently-produced features for a company out of Dallas that were distributed for exhibition in racially segregated cinemas serving the nation’s black population.
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“Overture, curtains, lights. This is it, the night of nights.
No more rehearsing and nursing a part – we know every part by heart!
Overture, curtains, lights. This is it, you’ll hit the heights.
And, oh, what heights we’ll hit – on with the show, this is it!”
If you recognize those lyrics, you were blessed to have a childhood that included “The Bugs Bunny Show,” either in its original version or in the various iterations that were broadcast over the decades.
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Returning to a beloved comedy movie from decades past often comes with the nostalgic anticipation that one associates with school reunions. After all, favored comedies of youth could be considered the cinematic equivalent of childhood friends.
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In 1956, nearly 72% of all American homes had televisions. In that year, the nation’s living rooms had Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan, and Liberace as regular visitors through the television screen. And also joining the home-based entertainment line-up was Bugs Bunny.
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Michael Ritchie’s ill-fated 1995 film adaptation of the Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt Off-Broadway classic “The Fantasticks” deserves attention, if only to call out the perils of adapting an inherently theatrical work for the big screen.
BOOTLEG FILES 942: “Bicentennial Minutes” (1974-76 daily series of one-minute educational shorts).
LAST SEEN: Some episodes are on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No perceived reissue value.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: None.
Have you noticed there is a considerable lack of enthusiasm for the current America 250 celebrations? I can recall a very different environment when the nation was celebrating its 200th birthday. Fifty years ago, there was an unusual but jolly series of one-minute episodes broadcast daily in prime time on CBS that recalled the incidents, issues, and personalities that shaped the American push for independence.
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