The Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special

Friz Freleng, the Bugs Bunny Mother's Day Special, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises/Warner Bros. Television 

Also known as Bugs Bunny's Baby Boomers

And so we end another feature here, and we go out on a holiday special. Mother's Day doesn't get the quite the love that Halloween or Christmas does but it is nice to see it recongized. 

Bugs runs into Granny in the park and they chat about the importance of mothers and motherhood. A certain stork shows up, sober for once and we segue into the various shorts dealing with mothers. 

Not awful and they way they handle the shorts is fine, although I was surprised by the amount of Daffy Duck shorts but the focus here is the shorts and not a new narrative. Mostly, while there is new animation it mostly occurs after the shorts with the character commenting and/or setting up the next sequence. 

Bugs Bunny's Valentine

 Hal Greer, Bugs Bunny's Valentine, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises/Warner Bros. Television

Also known as Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers

Nearing the end, and by 1979 rolled on we went back to the specials that were compilations with a few minutes of original animation. 

We open with Bugs getting ready for a date with Daisy [Hare Splitter (1948)] when Cupid (Elmer) flies down and makes the pitch that he helps the lonely hearted folks. Bugs disagrees, arguing that with the advent of spring is motivation enough. 

Bugs heads to the local racing track [the Gray Hounded Hare (1949)] with Cupid in hot pursuit...

Not bad and while it does handle things better than the Halloween special it is a stepdown from the King Arthur one, but as far as holiday specials go this could have been worse. 

A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court

 Chuck Jones, A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court, Chuck Jones Enterprises/Warner Bros. Television

Also known as Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court, this would set the standard for most Tv specials.

Bugs is trying to get to a peanut festival in Georgia when he makes a wrong turn and ends up England, circa 526 AD. He runs into Sir Elmer of Fudde, who mistakes him for a transformed dragon. Bugs is captured and dragged before King Arthur (Daffy Duck) and his wizard, Merlin of Monroe (Yosemite Sam). 

Bugs is sentenced to be burned at the stake but some quick thinking and a handy eclipse convinces them to let him go. After that, Bugs starts to makes some changes to things, but can he handle the schemes around him?

Pretty darn good and the first special was not just old shorts recycled or edited. Honestly this may have set the bar too high, as we would rarely see the likes again for a while.

How Bugs Bunny Won the West

 Hal Greer, How Bugs Bunny Won the West, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises 

With all the other specials going, Warner Bros pressed on and in 1978, we saw another special. The difference this time is while it shows many shorts, the new animation is minimal. Instead, famed Western actor Denver Pyle acts as the narrator as the shorts (mostly focusing on Bugs but a few Daffy ones are featured) play out more or less normally. 

Barbary-Coast Bunny (1956) kicks things off, but from the edits the story is now Bugs being a fresh off the boat rube who just happens to ruin a gambling house by winning, with new animation showing him deciding to head over to Sutter's Mill to try some of that prospecting he's head so much about. 

The rest of the special goes about the same way. One short segues into another, sometimes with new animation but only a brief scene or two. 

Decent and at least it isn't as convoluted as the Halloween one.  

Bugs Bunny Howl-oween Special

David Detiege, Bug Bunny Howl-oween Special, Warner Bros. Animation

Now this is a step up from the space special.

Daffy and his nephew are trick or treating when they encounter Witch Hazel, while at the same time Bugs is dressed the same as Daffy's nephew [or to be more exact, they blended A-Haunting We Will Go (1960) and Broom-Stick Bunny (1956)].

Bugs, after tea with Hazel, leaves to prove that his doc's brew is better [Hyde and Hare (1955)] and drinks it. After Hazel chases him to an ancient ruin [A Witch's Tangle Hare (1960] and fails to bring him down, Hazel opts for a night off and turns a nearby Speedy Gonzales into her exact double.

We also get some of Hyde and Go Tweet (1960) plus a blending of Scaredy Cat (1948) and Claws for Alarm (1954). After all this, Bugs hands over Dr. Jekyll's formula to Witch Hazel, which turns her into Count Bloodcount [Transylvania 6-5000 (1963)].

Finally restored to her proper witchy self, Witch Hazel decides to end things on a permanent note. It looks like curtains, at least until Bugs uses some nearby magic powder [Bewitched Bunny (1954)] and one line reworking later, has a new for Halloween. 

Decent but the new animation doesn't blend with the old stuff at all. For all its faults this is what I think of when I think of the Looney Tunes TV specials. A mix of old and new to introduce the characters for a new generation. 

Bugs Bunny in Space

 Chuck Jone/Friz Freleng, Bugs Bunny in Space, Warner Bros. Television 

Star Wars was quite the hit in 1977. Blowing up the box office in May, by the fall 20th Century Fox knew they had something and so did every other studio. Everybody was rushing to put out science fiction be it television, movies, or even comic books. 

So why shouldn't Warner Bros. get into the act? They already had hit bringing back the Looney Tunes as TV specials but apparently they felt the spark from Lucas and Co.'s efforts was going to fade.

Thus is the first special with no wraparound or original animation. Nope, they just grabbed some shorts and tossed them together.

The Hasty Hare, Hare-Way to the Stars, Mad as a Mars Hare, His Hare-Raising Tale, and we finally end with Duck Dodgers in the 24th1/2 Century (which we'll get to at some point). 

I mean, the shorts still work but it did seem a bit silly not to have something new. Maybe just have Bugs introduce the shorts?

In other news, around the same time there was a live stage show with the same name. Got some interesting results when I went looking for this one.

Bugs Bunny's Easter Special

 Friz Freleng, Bugs Bunny Easter Special (1977), DePatie-Freleng Enterprise

So, Bugs was back. Since False Hare, Bugs had been regulated to Kool-Aid ads and Saturday Morning reruns. The last special was a hit, so why not do another one?

The Easter Bunny is down and a replacement is needed ASAP. Granny is on the case-she'll get Bugs Bunny! A quick jaunt over to the Warner Bros lot finds her star, but his contract is apparently ironclad. he's simply booked solid and can't help.

Daffy Duck overhears and tries to offer his services, but his outfits are too weird. We then go through a montage of other Looney Tunes characters but none of them fit the bill. Bugs finally finds a loophole, but he can't begin the work for another week at least. 

When the Easter Bunny himself hops in, is the crises over?

Decent. This would be the standard for most TV specials. There would be a wraparound followed by shorts from earlier in the studio's history. Here they just use clips and the difference between the old animation and the new is startling. Not in a good way either, but I suppose by '77 they weren't as picky.