\u201cOverture, curtains, lights. This is it, the night of nights.
\nNo more rehearsing and nursing a part \u2013 we know every part by heart!
\nOverture, curtains, lights. This is it, you\u2019ll hit the heights.
\nAnd, oh, what heights we\u2019ll hit \u2013 on with the show, this is it!\u201d<\/p>\n
If you recognize those lyrics, you were blessed to have a childhood that included \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show,\u201d either in its original version or in the various iterations that were broadcast over the decades.
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By the time \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show\u201d debuted on ABC in 1960, the Warner Bros. animation unit was in a curious place. The market for theatrical animated shorts was shrinking while the studio budget allocated for these films had also been slashed. And, to be cruel, the quality of the shorts being produced at that time was betraying signs of staleness.<\/p>\n
Yet the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts were also experiencing a new infusion of popularity thanks to the television broadcasts of the cartoons that Warner Bros. sold Associated Artists Productions. Those films, which were produced prior to August 1948, were embraced by the audiences in the fast-growing kiddie television market. Since Warner Bros. still had their cartoons produced after August 1948, the studio decided to give them a wider distribution via television.<\/p>\n
But \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show\u201d was not intended for the early morning or afterschool time slots. Instead, ABC gave the show a prime-time slot (Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. ET), as well as a significant consumer brands sponsor with General Foods. <\/p>\n
To give this show a sense of freshness, the Warner Bros. team under the direction of Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng (and, later, Robert McKimson) framed the show as a variety revue. A rollicking opening number featured the new song \u201cThis Is It\u201d by Mack David and Jerry Livingston (see the first stanza lyrics above) and featured Bugs and Daffy Duck as vaudeville-worth song-and-dance men performing the tune, with a procession of Warner Bros. characters marching across a stage. (Porky Pig, the Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, Granny, and the Road Runner were absent while Elmer Fudd was dressed in an uncharacteristic brown suit with a straw hat). <\/p>\n
The variety show format was used for the bridging segments, with new backstage shenanigans and on-stage mishaps created for the program. Some of these segments were outlandish, most notably when Pepe Le Pew takes on guest hosting duties \u2013 Yosemite Sam tries to use the Tasmanian Devil to get rid of him, but the skunk\u2019s scent repels the omnivorous antipodean. <\/p>\n
These segments also carried over the character quirks of the theatrical shorts. Naturally, Daffy\u2019s egotistical attempts to take over the show backfire while longstanding feuds between Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg and Sylvester and Hippety Hopper get played out anew. Relatively minor characters like the gangsters Rocky and Mugsy and the lethargic Mexican mouse Slowpoke Rodriguez turned up in the bridging segments, creating new fits of mischief. <\/p>\n
In retrospect, it is amazing that these bridging segments had levels of imagination and comedy that were absent from the theatrical shorts being produced at the same time. I don\u2019t know if Warner Bros. ever considered ending the theatrical output and focusing exclusively on television \u2013 if they did, it would have spared audiences from watching the sad decline of the theatrical output.<\/p>\n
Each episode included three theatrical shorts, but due to the tight running time their opening and closing credits were deleted in favor of a new title card and a quick musical cue. The show\u2019s closing credit offered a general credits line that stated: “Stories, Animation, layouts, and backgrounds: Members of Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839.”<\/p>\n
For the commercial breaks, the Warner Bros. animators created commercials tied to the General Foods brands. We\u2019ll take a look at those mini-masterworks in next week\u2019s column.<\/p>\n
ABC broadcast \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show\u201d in black-and-white in primetime from October 1960 through August 1962, at which point it was moved to the Saturday mornings slot aimed specifically at children. ABC didn\u2019t broadcast the show in color until 1965 \u2013 the network was slow in moving its series away from monochrome.<\/p>\n
In September 1968, the series was moved to CBS and merged with another Warner Bros. offering, \u201cThe Road Runner Show,\u201d which was airing on CBS since 1966. Now called \u201cThe Bugs Bunny\/Road Runner Hour,\u201d it kept the original opening from \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show\u201d and added new footage with an announcer introducing “that Oscar winning rabbit,\u201d who then declares, \u201cAnd also starring my fast feathered friend, the Road Runner.\u201d From there, the opening montage and theme of \u201cThe Road Runner Show\u201d was played. This version of the show featured seven animated shorts and re-edited bridging segments.<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, the series pinballed back and forth between CBS and ABC as a Saturday morning staple, sometimes in the original half-hour format and sometimes in the hour-long version with the Road Runner cartoons. In September 1986, the show was reformulated again as \u201cThe Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show\u201d and remained part of the ABC Saturday morning lineup through September 2000. However, its longevity on ABC was due to a long-term contract rather than audience rapture. By the end of its run, it was an anomaly as the rare Saturday morning offering that did not fit the educational\/informational designation and the only non-Disney production being offered in that time period by ABC\u2019s new owners, the Walt Disney Company.<\/p>\n
While the cartoons featured on \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show\u201d were not burdened by the politically incorrect humor that created self-censorship policies with the Associated Artists Production titles, some of the comic violence was edited out. For example, the show\u2019s presentation \u201cThe Rabbit of Seville\u201d would remove the shaving segment where Bugs slashes a razor across Elmer\u2019s off-screen face while the character yelped in pain. However, the Road Runner cartoons with Wile E. Coyote absorbing dynamite and hand grenade explosions to his face were left intact.<\/p>\n
In March 2025, animation historian George Feltenstein of Warner Archive announced that Warner Bros. was restoring and remastering the original episodes of \u201cThe Bugs Bunny Show,\u201d with the goal of restoring the series for a future home media release. I can hardly wait to see this show again in its original entirety \u2013 and, oh, what heights we\u2019ll hit! <\/p>\n