Warner Bros. Cartoons

Warner Bros. Cartoons

Founded	1931
Dissolved	1969
President	Leon Schlesinger (1931-44) Ed Selzer (1944-57) John Burton (1957-60) David DePatie (1960-67) Bill Hendricks (1967-69)
Notable Works	Porky Pig Daffy Duck Elmer Fudd Bugs Bunny Sylvester and Tweety The Road Runner Wile E. Coyote Foghorn Leghorn Speedy Gonzales

Warner Bros. Cartoons was an in-house division of Warner Bros. primarily responsible for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. It was originally started as Leon Schlesinger Productions in 1933 before being sold to Warner Bros. in 1944. It is considered to be one of the most prolific and profitable animation studios in history. The studio is also notable for employing some of the most pioneering animators and directors of the era, including Friz Freleng, Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. It precedes Warner Bros. Animation, established in 1980.

History

Leon Schlesinger ran an independent cartoon studio in 1931 that would make films that Warner Bros. would release to theaters. (Prior to that, he was head of Pacific Arts & Titles.) Taking a nod from Disney's Silly Symphonies series, the Schlesinger studio inaugurated Looney Tunes which was released by the Vitaphone Corporation (Vitaphone was Warners' recording arm that dealt specifically with Warners short subjects. They originally provided the record discs used in tandem with their movies until that process was replaced with sound-on-film). Its star was a blackface kid named Bosko. The cartoons were made by Rudolf Ising and Hugh Harman. There was not much in regards to character development as the cartoons were regulated by the songs employed. A year later, the studio started a second series, Merrie Melodies which featured a lot of characters that only appeared once or two or three films. After a salary dispute, Harman and Ising left the studio for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and took Bosko with them, leaving Schlesinger to limp along with another non-descript character, Buddy. Schlesinger made Isadore "Friz" Freleng the head director after he reworked two rejected Buddy cartoons into one that Warners accepted.

Merrie Melodies graduated to color in 1934. In 1935, it introduced Porky Pig who would become the star of the Looney Tunes series through 1943 (four cartoons with Porky--Porky's Super Service, Porky's Badtime Story, Get Rich Quick Porky and Porky And Gabby--were parceled out to Ub Iwerks' studio). In 1937, director Tex Avery shook up the animation industry with a single line from his Looney Tunes film Porky's Duck Hunt. After Porky's dog is thrown to land by the duck he was ostensibly sent to retrieve, Porky takes out a notepad and stammers "Hey! That wasn't in the script!" Avery also initiated such innovations as an off-screen narrator, having the on-screen characters talk back at an audience member trying to get up from his seat, and other notions that no other studio thought of or dared to think of. Avery gave us Bugs Bunny as we know him in 1940, following a series of films prior featuring a prototypical rabbit making life miserable for an antagonist. Avery left Warners in 1941 through disputed circumstances--some say it was after a dispute over the ending of his cartoon The Heckling Hare while others insist Avery left because he wanted to do a live-action series similar to Paramount's Speaking Of The Animals, but Warners refused.

Through the 1940s, Warners found its cartoon footing and offset its low budgets with crackling visual and verbal comedy. Pop culture of the era was fair game, as were political ideals. (One series, Private Snafu, was released strictly to military bases.) Starting in 1942, Warners began the practice of re-releasing previous cartoons under the Blue Ribbon series. Looney Tunes were started up in color in 1943. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warners in 1944 with Edward Selzer taking over as producer. Staffers would quip that while Schlesinger knew nothing about cartoons he never bothered them. Selzer was a know-nothing busybody. Cartoon characters created during this decade included Henery Hawk, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

The 1950s saw resources limited as TV encroached. The return on the cartoons' investments were slowly dwindling but the studio pressed on with its roster of stars. The studio closed briefly in 1953 as it was assumed that 3-D movies would become a costly standard but it reopened when 3-D went bust. In 1955, the cartoon studio moved from its longtime home on North Van Ness Avenue in Los Angeles to a new studio on the Warner lot in Burbank. By 1957, Warners sold its 1932-48 cartoons to Associated Artists Productions (which was acquired in 1958 by United Artists Television) for syndication to television. The 1931-43 black-and-white Looney Tunes were sold to Sunset Films (believed to be a Warner Bros. distribution arm) and later Guild Films which later was absorbed by Seven Arts. After Edward Selzer died in 1957, he was replaced as producer by John Burton. In 1960, a selection of 1948-60 cartoons were highlighted on primetime TV, with The Bugs Bunny Show on ABC.

Warners shut its cartoon studio down in 1964. As they relied more on TV exposure (The Porky Pig Show began on ABC Saturday mornings, two years after Bugs migrated to Saturday kidvid), Warners farmed out cartoon work to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and Format Films. DePatie-Freleng originally leased out the Warner studio before breaking ground on their own studio in Van Nuys. Format Films had previously made a batch of Al Brodax Popeye cartoons and CBS's The Alvin Show. The budgets for these cartoons were embarrassingly low and many curiously paired up Daffy Duck with Speedy Gonzales. In 1967, Warner Bros. merged with Seven Arts, thus re-acquiring the black-and-white Looney Tunes films. Warners had 75 of them sent to Korea to be redrawn and painted in color. A second batch of black and white cartoons (both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies) from 1930 to 1933 redrawn and painted in color were distributed by Radio and Television Packagers Inc. with different cartoon titles ("One More Time" was renamed "On Duty"). While the redrawn cartoons ran for some three decades on TV, they were considered vastly inferior to the original black-and-white films which would eventually be screened on TV with their original title cards. The cartoon studio reopened and closed two years later.

Warner cartoons on TV thrived on the strength of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour on CBS. Bugs would run on Saturday mornings for 39 years straight on CBS and ABC. Specials would pop up with made-for-TV animation melded with theatrical clips. Warners would initiate theatrical shorts again in 1987 on a limited basis, many of which have turned up on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network as well as home video.

Roster of Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon stars

Name	From	To	Creator	First film	Last film	Notes
Bosko	1931	1933	Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising	Sinking In The Bathtub	Bosko's Mechanical Man	Start of Leon Schlesinger Era
Foxy	1931	1932	Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising	Lady Play Your Mandolin	Smile Darn Ya, Smile
Goopy Gear	1932	1932	Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising	Goopy Gear	The Queen Was In the Parlor
Buddy	1933	1934	Tom Palmer	Buddy's Day Out	Buddy The Dentist
Beans	1934	1935	Robert Clampett	A Cartoonist's Nightmare	I Haven't Got a Hat	1st film directed by Jack King
Porky Pig	1935	1965	Friz Freleng	I Haven't Got A Hat	Corn On the Cop
W.C. Squeals	1936	1938	Friz Freleng	At Your Service Madame	Cracked Ice
Gabby Goat	1937	1937	Cal Howard	Porky And Gabby	Get Rich Quick Porky	Robert Clampett directed all four shorts in which Gabby appeared
Petunia Pig	1937	1939	Frank Tashlin	Porky's Romance	Naughty Neighbors
Daffy Duck	1937	1969	Fred "Tex" Avery	Porky's Duck Hunt	Skyscraper Caper	New shorts made 1986; co-starred with Bugs Bunny in shorts 1991-92
Egghead	1937	1938	Fred "Tex" Avery	Egghead Rides Again	Believe It or Else	Evolved into Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd	1938	1960	Fred "Tex" Avery	A Feud There Was	What's My Lion?
Sniffles	1939	1946	Chuck Jones	Naughty But Mice	Hush My Mouse
Happy Rabbit	1938	1939	Ben Hardaway	Porky's Hare Hunt	Elmer's Candid Camera	Thought to be Bugs Bunny prototype
Curious Dogs	1939	1941	Chuck Jones	Prest-o Change-o	Snowtime For Comedy
Blabbermouse	1939	1939	Friz Freleng	Little Blabbermouse	Shop, Look and Listen
Inki & The Minah Bird	1939	1949	Chuck Jones	Little Lion Hunter	Caveman Inki	Minah bird cameo in a Bobo cartoon
Bugs Bunny	1940	1964	Fred "Tex" Avery	A Wild Hare	False Hare	New shorts made 1991-2004
Henery Hawk	1942	1953	Chuck Jones	The Squawkin' Hawk	All Fowled Up
Beaky Buzzard	1942	1949	Robert Clampett	Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid	Strife With Father
Conrad Cat	1942	1942	Chuck Jones	The Bird Came C.O.D.	Conrad the Sailor
Private Snafu	1943	1945	Frank Capra	Coming!! Snafu	Operation Snafu	Released solely to military bases
Tweetie Pie	1943	1962	Robert Clampett	A Tale Of Two Kitties	The Jet Cage	Edward Selzer era begins, 1944
Babbitt & Catstello	1943	1946	Robert Clampett	A Tale Of Two Kitties	The Mouse-merized Cat
Hubie & Bertie	1943	1951	Chuck Jones	The Aristo-Cat	Mouse Warming
Mr. Hook	1943	1944	Hank Ketcham	The Return of Mr. Hook	The Good Egg	Made for Navy bases; first cartoon made at Universal, remaining three at Schlesinger
The Three Bears	1944	1950	Chuck Jones	Bugs Bunny And The Three Bears	A Bear For Punishment
Yosemite Sam	1945	1963	Friz Freleng	Hare Trigger	Devil's Feud Cake
Sylvester The Cat	1945	1965	Friz Freleng	Life With Feathers	It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around The House	Named Thomas in his first film
Pepe Le Pew	1945	1960	Chuck Jones	The Odor-able Kitty	Louvre Come Back to Me
Foghorn Leghorn	1946	1963	Robert McKimson	Walky Talky Hawky	Banty Raids
Marvin the Martian	1946	1963	Chuck Jones	Haredevil Hare	Mad As a Mars Hare
The Goofy Gophers	1947	1965	Robert Clampett	Goofy Gophers	Tease For Two	Debut film directed by Art Davis
Charlie Dog	1947	1951	Chuck Jones	Little Orphan Airedale	A Hound For Trouble	Prototype appeared in 1941 cartoon Porky's Pooch (Norm McCabe)
Bobo the Elephant	1947	1952	Robert McKimson	Hobo Bobo	Gone Batty
Hippity Hopper	1948	1964	Robert McKimson	Hop, Look And Listen	Freudy Cat	Co-starred with Sylvester and Sylvester Jr.
Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote	1948	1966	Chuck Jones	Fast And Furry-ous	Sugar and Spies	Wile E. co-starred with Bugs Bunny in four films
Claude Cat	1949	1954	Chuck Jones	Mouse Wreckers	Feline Frame-Up	Co-starred with a dog named Frisky Puppy in three films
Miss Prissy	1950	1962	Robert McKimson	A Fractured Leghorn	The Slick Chick
Rocky & Mugsy	1950	1952	Friz Freleng	Golden Yeggs	The Unmentionables	co-starred with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety & Sylvester
Sam Sheepdog	1951	1959	Chuck Jones	Don't Give Up The Sheep	Woolen Under Where
Ralph Wolf	1951	1959	Chuck Jones	Don't Give Up The Sheep	Woolen Under Where	Thought to be Wile E. Coyote alias
Granny	1951	1964	Friz Freleng	Room And Bird	Tree Cornered Tweety	Mainly co-starred with Tweety and Sylvester
Marc Antony	1951	1957	Chuck Jones	Feed The Kitty	Go Fly a Kit	Co-starred with a kitten named Pussyfoot in selected cartoons; John Burton era begins 1957
Dodsworth	1952	1952	Robert McKimson	Kiddin' The Kitten	Who's Kitten Who
Spike & Chester	1952	1954	Friz Freleng	Tree For Two	Dr. Jerkyl's Hide	co-starred with Sylvester
Speedy Gonzales	1953	1969	Robert McKimson	Cat-Tails For Two	Skyscraper Caper	DePatie-Freleng era starts 1964; Herbert Klynn produced selected 1966 cartoons
Witch Hazel	1953	1966	Chuck Jones	Bewitched Bunny	A-Haunting We Will Go
Tazmanian Devil	1953	1964	Robert McKimson	Devil May Hare	Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare
Ralph Phillips	1954	1957	Chuck Jones	From A To Z-z-z-z-z	Boyhood Daze	Appeared in 1962 proposed pilot The Adventures of the Road Runner
The Honeymousers	1956	1959	Robert McKimson	The Honey-Mousers	Mice Follies
Blacque Jacques Shellaque	1959	1962	Robert McKimson	Bonanza Bunny	Water Water Every Hare	Co-starred with Bugs Bunny
Hillbilly Buzzards	1962	1962	Robert McKimson	Backwoods Bunny	The Dixie Fryer	co-starred with Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn
Cool Cat	1967	1969	Alex Lovy	Cool Cat	Bugged By a Bee	start of the Bill Hendricks era
Merlin the Magic Mouse	1967	1968	Alex Lovy	Merlin The Magic Mouse	Shamrock and Roll
Bunny & Claude	1967	1968	Robert McKimson	Bunny And Claude (We Rob Carrot Patches)	The Great Carrot Train Robbery
Chimp & Zee	1968	1968	Alex Lovy	Chimp And Zee	Chimp And Zee
Rapid Rabbit & Quick Brown Fox	1969	1969	Robert McKimson	Rabbit Stew And Rabbits, Too	Rabbit Stew And Rabbits, Too	Was proposed to be a series but was final cartoon Warners made