One of the most profoundly influential television shows – at least, in my life – was “International Animation Festival,” a PBS presentation that aired during the mid-1970s. Hosted by Jean Marsh of “Upstairs Downstairs” fame, this weekly half-hour series was the rare program that offered a glimpse into the animation universe existing beyond the realm of the standard Saturday morning shenanigans or the old Disney and Warner Bros. shorts that dominated television.
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The Unmentionables (1963)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by John Dunn
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross, Bob Matz, Art Leonardi, Lee Halpern
Music by Bill Lava
“The Unmentionables” is a spoof of the then-popular television series “The Untouchables,” with Bugs Bunny as the federal agent Elegant Mess (a riff on the series’ crime fighter Elliot Ness). He is tasked with bringing in the notorious underworld figures Rocky and Mugsy, but he does his job a little too well. Bugs handcuffs the miscreants to his wrists and marches them to justice, but winds up serving their prison sentence with them because he lost the handcuff keys.
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