85 thoughts on “Duck Season! Rabbit Season!”

1. Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes were the best. I wish I knew when repeats were on. I’d watch them forever

2. That would be so cool. SO, what is everyone’s favorite Looney Toons cartoon?
   Mine, without a doubt, is the one based on Wagner’s “The Ring” – the “Kill da Wabbit” one… Elmer Fudd prancing around with a Viking helmet on is priceless…..
   Chuck Jones is up there with Charles Schultz now, and the cartoons they are making are heavenly.

3. all I can say is ‘ugh’. The end of an era. Seeing them in the credits for a cartoon let you know that it was going to be good. They created most of my favorite characters. Marvin the Martian is by far my favorite. Sad day in the world of cartoons.

4. My fave Bugs Bunny cartoons were the ones with Marvin the Martian and his weapons of choice, Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator and the ACME Disintegration Pistol… Thank you Mr. Jones.

5. My personal favorite is “Rabbit Seasoning”, hence the title of this entry.
   It’s yet another take on the “duck season, rabbit season” story, but it’s by far the funniest one, I think.
   Jeremy (my brother) and I rented it on video when we were in high school, and I distinctly remember laughing so hard at it, my sides hurt. It was one of the first times I can recall laughing so hard my sides hurt.

6. Amy a girl after my own heart. Any woman who likes marvin enough to remember the names of his weapons peaks my interest 🙂

7. you know you group up loving something so much you think you’re the only one but i guess looney cartoons touched so many people. i don’t know if i can pick just one – rabbit season duck season, the barber of seville, anything with marvin the martian? how about the one with evil scientist and bugs bunny – any one remember that one’s name?? i second the nomination for a looney toons marathon.
   i still miss them all!
   Elisa

8. Hmm, Rabbit Seasoning. I’m in the need for a good laugh tonight. Gonna hafta check at Blockbuster this aft for it.
   I remember the one where Bugs was wrestling “The Crusher”. That one made laugh hysterically too….

9. Hey WIL.
   I’m only 22 and the Merrie Melodies had (still has?) a profound influence on my life!

10. ooh i loved the crusher too!! and i forgot the one with the opera singer and bugs!!!
    Elisa

11. Over in england we have bugs and co but I don’t think it’s as big a deal as it is over in the US. I remeber, years ago, they had an awards ceromony for the toons hosted by the one, the only…yes you’ve guessed it bugs bunny.
    It was so cool, I used to watch it over and over and over again until me Mam threatened to break the tape, was so upset that she treatened that I hid the tape.
    I think my fav charactor has to be either Marvin the Martian or bugs bunny.
    I work in a playscheme over the holidays and we have a video there called Tweety Pies Adventure around the world (or something to that effect) and the kids love it, I have to admit it was great the first ten times or so I’ve watched it but after the 20ith thousand time or so I understand why me Mam wanted to break the tape.
    Spike
    9.30pm GMT
    23rd Feb 2002

12. Oh no. This is the first I’ve heard of this. For most of my life, I’ve been a comedy junky, as well as a fan of well-crafted animation. Chuck Jones was well aware that a cartoon didn’t have to just appeal to children, and made ones that didn’t talk down to anyone.
    Warner Bros. are still capable of making a very funny product, but I noticed when Mel Blanc died that the original characters became nothing but shadows of their former selves. Now with Chuck Jones gone, maybe it’s time to retire them for good.
    Oh, and if any WB executives have a brain in their heads, they’ll make some tribute DVD’s with fully restored cartoons they way they were originally presented on the big screen.

13. My favorite Looney Tunes show has to be Rabbit’s Kin. The one where Pete Puma gets dressed in drag to trick Bugs Bunny.
    Also, that two page spread you were talking about, was made into a lithograph and sold at the Warner Bros Store. Hands down it was the best seller in the gallery.

14. Sad. I’ve been listening to my Carl Stalling cartoon soundtracks all morning. It’s amazing how listening to the soundtrack immediately brings the picture to mind. Soothing memories while I’m installing Ethernet jacks upstairs.

15. PETER FREAKIN PUMA!!
    “How many lumps do you want?”
    “Oh, three or four…”
    “Okay, doc. Here ya go!”
    hammer hammer hammer hammer
    “I don’t like tea. It gives me a headache! I’ll take COFFEE! Eeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwww!”
    🙂

16. Shit, this sucks. I remember watching the toons before feature movies in the theatres–they were usually better than the features. ::sniff::

17. Chuck Jones was great, but I’ve always loved Bob Clampett. He can squash and stretch like no other. 🙂
    Pete Puma’s awesome. But I think he says “Hweeeeeeeeeee” more than” Eeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwww!” LOL. I never knew how to spell that noise until very recently.

18. My favorite(s)? Any Road Runner/ Wile E . I love watching classic demonstrations of cartoon physics.

19. All that and you haven’t even mentioned Speedy Gonzalez and Pepe LePew or my very favorite the Tazmanian Devil. So long Chuck, thanks for the memories…

20. I’d have to put my vote in for The Rabbit of Seville. Classic toons. It was just on Toonheads the other day, even.

21. The opera ones are my favorite (Kill da Wabbit!) but I do like the chicken hawk who tries to get Foghorn Leghorn.

22. And for the record my husband says his favorite is probably “Rabbit Season, Duck Season.” He tells me the other day he saw an issue of The Army Times with the cover story listed as “This Is A Shooting War.” He immediately thought “It’s not a shooting war! It’s a friciasseeing war!”

23. Hmmm… been watching my Golden Age of Looney Tunes Laser Disks all morning…. so many fine cartoons from Mr. Jones.
    And yes, Wil excellent comment about Mel Blanc’s immeasurable contribution to WB cartoons as well… it may unfortunately be too much to hope WB execs wake up and take care of giving proper tribute.
    Ever since the evil axis empire of AOL bought Time Warner and KILLED the ultra-cool (and for many of us a home to geeks and lovers of animation!) Warner Brothers stores… we may not get an outlet to purchase some quality animation in a permanent format.
    I cannot think how many times I went in and drooled over “sparklies” – animation cels and maquettes. I always walked out of there about $150 lighter (much to my hubby’s chagrin!) and I always wanted the *big* stuff.
    My home is decorated in upperscale Toys R Us and WB. my desk is lined with *numerous* Marvin’s and K-9’s, The Iron Giant, Gossamer, Big Guy and Rusty and looked upon by my one huge “for-me!” purchase of a Harley Quinn & Ivy framed litho.
    I often use cartoon metaphors to explain life… and I hear Carl Stalling music sometimes at the weirdest times…
    As for my favorites, ANY Marvin cartoon… nuff said. As well as the musical Bugs’ shorts.
    Plus not to be too- nitpicky, but Mr. Jones was merely one of Bugs’ “papas”: Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng were among the crew that created that stew. His true creations are Daffy, Speedy Gonzales, Pepe LePew, and of course Road Runner and Coyote.
    Best time my daughter and I had was about 2 years ago when the local orchestra did the “Music of Warner Brothers” complete with Carl Stalling and classical interludes with the Jones’ cartoons on a theatre screen… we had a blast!
    ***THE BEEJ***
    Looking forward to a long tribute weekend here at my casa…That’s all folks!

24. Hey, Wil, you said it right there… now they’re both gone; I just heard about it about four hours ago on German television and it made me remember my childhood days and how I was always waiting for Looney Tunes to be on already days in advance (I always drove my mom crazy by asking her when it will be on next…but she always watched it with me, and we were both practically on the floor laughing the whole time).
    Well, Bugs and his friends will never die, though. I have three half-brothers and they always watch it whenever it’s on. I once a long time ago told them about it and how I always watched it (and still do today…) and since then they are really into it, too. They are 6, 10 and 13 years old, and even the oldest one watches it without saying “Ohh, come on, that’s kid’s stuff, leave me alone with that, will ya ?”, which is the best proof that “Looney Tunes” truly is immortal.
    That’s all, folks !

25. Hey, WIl, here’s the ‘Speechless’ cartoon you were talking about:
    http://store1.yimg.com/I/rnrdist_1673_7778862
    If that link doesn’t work — it’s a raw image file but has no extension, evidently — try:
    http://www.allanimation.com/speechless.html

26. Hey, my first post.
    My fave is, was, and always will be, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
    “Spear and Magic Helmet!”

27. i remember when the only time New Mexico got any play was when Bugs said “I must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.”
    that was the coolest.

28. i used to watch merrie melodies all the time. my favorites were Sylvester and Peppy-la-pue

29. Marvin the Martian is my favorite… I used to have pictures of him all over my room.

30. Agreed, they are gone and will be sorely missed. My teary goodbye was to Charles Shulz.. Damn, my heroes are gone..
    *sigh*
    (I’m a shadetree cartoonist, they were my heroes in ink 🙂

31. I used to have a Chuck Jones tribute video tape – I don’t know what happened to it, but it had all the classics: “What’s Opera, Doc?” “One Froggy Evening” (I love Michigan J. Frog) “Duck Dodgers in the 24th & 1/2 Century” “For Scent-imental Reasons”. The best one, though, was called “High Note”, and involved a drunken musical note from the sheet music for the Blue Danube who had spent way too much time over at Little Brown Jug. It was absolutely genius, and didn’t have any of the traditional characters in it.
    Chuck will be missed.

32. And let’s not forget without Mr. Jones we would not have had the animated version of “The Grinch,” a few choice Tom and Jerry shorts, “The Cricket in Times Square,” “Horton Hears a Who!,” “Rikki Tikki Tavi,” “The Bear that Wasn’t” and my all time favorite, “The Dot and the Line.”
    *Sigh* First Kevin Smith and now Chuck Jones. What a crappy week.

33. You mean Porky will never get that movie where he woos Miss Piggy before 40 days is up and she wins a million for staying celibate?

34. i watched looney tunes after school everyday for eight years. my mom and i would have debates over wile e. coyote and roadrunner, wondering whether the coyote would ever catch his dinner. those acme packages were just the coolest things ever. i’m not 25 yet, but those cartoons definitely made my days. i haven’t outgrown them yet. i doubt i ever will.
    what a legacy.

35. Back in college, every year there would be a campus wide marathon of Looney Toons. These things would just be absolutely packed for the entire 6+ hours they ran.
    One of my friends could do a killer impression of Pete Puma. Another could do Marvin the Martian. We could literally sit there for hours and listen to them go back and forth doing it. They were great cheap party gags before the alcohol was introduced later that night.
    I loved all the ones already mentioned here, but I have to add Gossamer (the orange monster with sneakers) as a big favorite.
    Also the one where Bugs was mistaken for Elmer Fudd and subsequently underwent therapy so that he would think he was Elmer (“My name is Elmer J. Fudd. I own a mansion and a yacht.”)
    And of course the one where Bugs kept making the vampire turn back into a bat. (“Hocus Pocus! Abracadabra!”) Man, I could go on forever!

36. I played the violin for years, and I loved all the cartoons that used the classical scores that I was familiar with. (: I remember spending the entire two months before the concert in which we played “The Ride of the Valkyries” starting off orchestra rehearsal with a rousing rendition of “Kill the Wabbit!”

37. I love anything with Pepe LePew or Marvin, but “Rabbit Seasoning” is my favorite Bugs cartoon.
    Thanks to Mike (Harris) for posting the “Speechless” link… It still gets to me because I’m not a badass, like Wil.

38. Mel Blanc is dead?
    Where have I been?
    Yeah, Wil, I’m with tats, I’m only 20 and I don’t know what my life would be w/o Looney Tunes.
    Are you discriminating against 90s teens again?
    And just for my two cents: I perfer Mickey Mouse.

39. Jon/olafandy just reminded me of my 2nd favorite Bugs cartoon(s): It’s a tie between Bugs using dynamite to curl Gossamer’s hair and the ‘Hocus Pocus – Abracadabra!’ magic fest.

40. cartoons are timeless….’til they become politically incorrect…funny that…since many of the cartoons from the 40’s and 50’s were so political….Popeye fighting Nazi and Imperial Japanese foes….imagine cartoons of todays war…
    Just thinking. #:o)
    JSB

41. Wil,
    Another tremendous loss. Regarding the Mel Blanc tribute, shortly after his death I was visiting a local WB store and they were selling the lithograph previously mentioned. I stared at it for quite a while. A few months later several of my friends got together and gave it to me for my birthday. It’s up on the wall over the fireplace now. It still gets to me. At least we have plenty of wonderful memories.
    Ron

42. Hey wil,
    What no lovin for Yosemite Sam, the roootinest tootinest polecat this side of the Mississippi? Or the buzzard, “Duh….nope, nope, nope”
    You know you’re getting old when all your childhood idols start passing away. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are the staple for which all animation should be judged against. There isn’t anything produced today that captures the hilarity and magic that was the “Bugs and Daffy” show. WB needs to produce a DVD collection of these cartoons like Disney did with their Silly Symphonies. Ah well…”my momma done told me, to bring home some dinner”
    Jeff

43. Marvin the Martian, Bugs Bunny… it’s not just people over 25. Looney Tunes is such a big part of our culture.

44. Chuck was the last of the gang that created the Looney Tunes to pass on- Fritz Freeling, Mike Maltese, and the rest long passed away, but were just as responsibile for the wealth of great cratoons that Warner Brothers put out. Luckily Chuck recorded as much as he could in the books Chuck Amuck and Chuck Reducks- all the stories from his childhood and the stories from the old Warner gang are recounted hilariously. Both are out of print, but hopefully your public libraries have copies available.
    Its a very sad day for me personally- Charles Schultz, Chuck Jones, and Jim Henson were all my heros.
    I’ll throw another favorite out: The Rabbit of Seville. Who hasn’t been to a real performance of the Barber of Seville and not had mental images from the cartoon the whole time?

45. bluevangogh said: “Its a very sad day for me personally- Charles Schultz, Chuck Jones, and Jim Henson were all my heros.”
    Geez-it’s really depressing when you put it all together like that. You really have to wonder if visionaries like that will ever exist again.
    Kermit, Bugs and Snoopy…how can I forget them?

46. Off Topic. (Although I’m sad about the whole thing.)
    Wil, there was a thing about you in the cafepress email I got.
    “Store Spotlight: Wil Wheaton Dot Net Store
    Winner of The Bloggies for “Best Merchandise of a Weblog”!
    Wil Wheaton Dot Net is a celebrity site that is written and maintained by Wil Wheaton himself. His acting credits include “Stand By Me” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Go to http://www.wilwheaton.net and get to know the real Wil. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out his award-winning merchandise at http://www.wilwheaton.net/store.php.”
    Yay 🙂

47. This is the first time I’ve heard of Chuck Jones’ passing. 🙁 Didn’t he also work on the Grinch cartoon?
    Like pretty much everyone else, I grew up watching the Looney Tunes. I wish cartoons nowadays could get away with being as fresh and funny without having to resort to extreme bathroom humor, ya know? The classic cartoons have become classic because they’re funny to children *and* adults. But I do confess, I did love Ren & Stimpy when it first came out. *sigh*
    Anyway, I’m not sure what my absolute favorite cartoon is… possibly that one with the big orange monster? I’ve forgotten his name, hmmm. And the ones with Claude the cat! And Marc Anthony! Oh the humanity!

48. olafandy wrote, “Kermit, Bugs and Snoopy…how can I forget them?”
    The thing is, olafandy, you *shouldn’t* forget the,. 🙂

49. ahh loony toons. oh man the memroies. I would be a very different person with out loony tunes. hard to belive they’re gone.

50. You mean they used to show Looney Tunes in theaters, before the movie? God, I feel so young. That said, my older brother and I watched them all the time, until they were moved from Saturday morning to Sunday. (We were required to be in church.) Now, of course, I get Cartoon Network, so when my husband gets home from work at 3 AM we can watch them together! I think I remember being… I don’t know how old, but pretty young, and crying the first time I saw that opera one. I really thought Bugs was dead! Ah, but Bugs and Co. will never die.

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