Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Bugs and Daffy Try Vaudeville


The Bunny/Duck Rivalry Continues: Show Biz Bugs (1957)

Bugs is subdued witness to Daffy's utter breakdown and ultimate death caused by jealousy nurtured since war's end and Chuck Jones influence over Looney Tune characters. But Show Biz Bugs was directed by Friz Freleng, who followed Jones' lead to furthering of one-note Daffy madness. Let's put it this way: I liked things better when this Duck was plain Daffy, even as Show Biz Bugs easily ranks among best of WB cartoons from any period. Must Daffy be so humiliated? The dressing room he's given for a vaude engagement with Bugs turns out to be a toilet (literal), and crickets instead of applause greet his stage entrance. Sound fx and clever lines took place of fuller animation once cash for cartoons got tight. Average cost for Warner reels during the 1957-58 season was $25,942, down from a previous year, so belts were tightening, and why not with execs arguing that reissued cartoons could earn a same as new ones? Show Biz Bugs' greater value came of television feeding off it and others of the Warners library. No telling how much revenue can be attributed to Show Biz Bugs once $ made since '57 are factored in.

4 Comments:

Blogger Dave K said...

Geez, one of my all time faves! A slightly beat up Technicolor 16mm print was a star of my collection for years (ALWAYS got a great audience reaction!) I'm sure some other cartoonatic can tell us how many times Friz used that 'Endearing Young Charms' routine (it pops up as early as the Pvt. Snafu wartime stuff) but it always kills. Hilarious!

10:47 AM  
Blogger rnigma said...

The closing gag ("I can only do it once") was borrowed from "Curtain Razor."

12:33 PM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Donald Benson delves into "Show Biz Bugs" and how it led to "The Bugs Bunny Show" on network television:


This particular short carries more nostalgic weight because it was almost a pilot for the original "Bugs Bunny Show." The original prime time version laced shorts together with a newly animated Muppet Show-type framing story (the Muppets' opening is a bigger and shaggier version of Bugs and Daffy's snappy "This is It" number).



On one of the Golden Collections there's a complete episode, with Bugs settling in to watch TV and viewing the mouse-based "Honeymooners" parodies. Other episodes played with the Bugs/Daffy rivalry, offered guest hosts such as Pepe LePew, and had the Tasmanian Devil running loose backstage.


Like the other early prime-time animations, the show drifted to Saturday mornings, where only the song-and-dance opening remained in place (awkwardly tweaked to incorporate the Road Runner theme song). Generic title cards were stuck on the shorts (the fate of most theatrical cartoons on networks), additional shorts were added to create new episodes, and the framing story bits became random bumpers, eventually vanishing altogether.


Jerry Beck over at Cartoon Research has written about the show and has championed restoring the series. While it's great to have the original shorts restored and uncut, "The Bugs Bunny Show" shouldn't be ignored. The new TV material was lower budget, but it was created by a lot of the same talent behind the shorts.



Years later Warner returned to the gimmick of mixing old animation with new. First Chuck Jones did "The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie," featuring a laid-back Bugs presenting assorted Jones clips (including several Road Runners edited into a single long chase). Then Friz Freleng did "The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie," where chunks of his own shorts were edited into three long "acts", each with a story. Several direct-to-videos and TV specials of wobblier quality followed.

4:11 PM  
Blogger Reg Hartt said...

I had thought that animated characters were not vulnerable to the ravages of time that we physical characters are.

The rough and tumble of young Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, etcetera could not be engaged in as they got older.

What I did not figure in was the restrictions brought about by budget decreases. Given smaller budgets to work with the artists focus on doing more with less as a result thus we get the marvelous poses and looks of late Warner animation with this film as a prime example.

3:32 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024