“Bugs Bunny in Space” was hastily assembled to cash in on the unprecedented audience frenzy created by “Star Wars,” which premiered three months before this half-hour television special was broadcast.
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Tag Archives: Bugs Bunny
Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny’s Easter Special (1977)
“Bugs Bunny’s Easter Special” marked the launch of a string of prime-time television specials that sliced-and-diced Golden Age cartoons with new animation into productions tied around a specific theme. In this case, the theme was Easter – the secular aspect of the holiday, not the religious celebration (thus, we never get to hear Bugs say, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken that left turn at Nazareth”).
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals (1976)
The 1976 made-for-television special “Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals” marked the first time since “False Hare” in 1964 that an original production starring Bugs Bunny was created by Warner Bros. Why did it take 12 years for Warner Bros. to bring Bugs back? And why did Warner Bros. wait until 1976 to produce an original prime time special featuring its animated characters?
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny Superstar (1975)
In December 1975, the feature-length documentary “Bugs Bunny Superstar” had its theatrical premiere. The film was conceived as a behind-the-scenes look at the rise of the Warner Bros. animation unit that was informally known as Termite Terrace. But “Bugs Bunny Superstar” was not a Warner Bros. production. Instead, it was independently produced by first-time filmmaker Larry Jackson through his Hare-Raising Films company and released by United Artists.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: A Political Cartoon
Bugs Bunny’s first theatrical film since “False Hare” in 1964 was “A Political Cartoon,” an independently produced short released in 1974. Filmmakers James K. Morrow and Joe Adamson licensed Bugs Bunny from Warner Bros., while Mark Kausler animated the character to resemble his mid-1940s appearances and Mel Blanc provided his inimitable voice.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The 1960s Commercials
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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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Bugs Bunny Show
“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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