For some reason, this cartoon never got really extended play in the AAP package on Ch. 5 in New York during the 1960s. It would only show up occasionally, and when it did, compared to the other Bugs shorts running through 1948, it was so ... slow. Even as a little kid, you could still tell it was one of the early Bugs efforts, but once you find out it's not just the first weal wabbit carton, you appreciate how perfectly Avery nailed the Bugs-Elmer relationship (to the point that Bugs is Bugs, as everyone knows him today, for almost a minute before you ever see his face or hear his voice, when it's simply his hand vs. Elmer's gun barrel battling for the carrot).
Don’t recall seeing “A Wild Hare” much as a kid in the ‘60s on WNEW (New York’s Channel 5 – now FOX-5) either.
But, in the early ‘70s, when it was my after high-school ritual to come home, watch Bugs Bunny (usually 2 Bugs cartoons on either end of the half hour with a Harveytoon in the middle, for some reason) at 4PM, then Lost in Space at 4:30, and get the bus to the mall for some evening clerk-work, it was very much in the regular rotation.
So was “Hare-Um Scare-Um”, both of which, I thought (even back then, before research books) were the very beginnings of Bugs! Most of the shorts that weren’t in the CBS Network package, just kept coming around every few weeks, and I was always glad to see them.
Oh, and I always changed into my shirt and tie for mall-work DURING the Harveytoon! Didn’t wanna miss a moment of Bugs… or Lost in Space, for that matter. Ah, memories!
Now, those after-school local TV timeslots are occupied by trashy talk shows and early local news, kids more than likely play videogames, and adults are mall-clerking for vital supplementary income. …This is progress?
"SHHHHHHHH... I'm hunting wabbits!"
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this cartoon never got really extended play in the AAP package on Ch. 5 in New York during the 1960s. It would only show up occasionally, and when it did, compared to the other Bugs shorts running through 1948, it was so ... slow. Even as a little kid, you could still tell it was one of the early Bugs efforts, but once you find out it's not just the first weal wabbit carton, you appreciate how perfectly Avery nailed the Bugs-Elmer relationship (to the point that Bugs is Bugs, as everyone knows him today, for almost a minute before you ever see his face or hear his voice, when it's simply his hand vs. Elmer's gun barrel battling for the carrot).
ReplyDeleteDon’t recall seeing “A Wild Hare” much as a kid in the ‘60s on WNEW (New York’s Channel 5 – now FOX-5) either.
ReplyDeleteBut, in the early ‘70s, when it was my after high-school ritual to come home, watch Bugs Bunny (usually 2 Bugs cartoons on either end of the half hour with a Harveytoon in the middle, for some reason) at 4PM, then Lost in Space at 4:30, and get the bus to the mall for some evening clerk-work, it was very much in the regular rotation.
So was “Hare-Um Scare-Um”, both of which, I thought (even back then, before research books) were the very beginnings of Bugs! Most of the shorts that weren’t in the CBS Network package, just kept coming around every few weeks, and I was always glad to see them.
Oh, and I always changed into my shirt and tie for mall-work DURING the Harveytoon! Didn’t wanna miss a moment of Bugs… or Lost in Space, for that matter. Ah, memories!
Now, those after-school local TV timeslots are occupied by trashy talk shows and early local news, kids more than likely play videogames, and adults are mall-clerking for vital supplementary income. …This is progress?
I remember it from the 60s, though it seems like "The Heckling Hare" played far more often. Or maybe that one made a bigger impression on me.
ReplyDelete