"Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it. The night of nights.
No more rehearsing or nursing a part.
We know every part by heart!
(cane flip)
Overture, curtain, lights!
This is it. We'll hit the heights!
And oh, what heights we'll hit!
On with the show, this is it!
(character procession)
Tonight what heights we'll hit!
On with the show, this is it!"
Bugs Bunny personifies supreme heroism to generations of television viewers. He is the principal signature character for Warner Brothers animation and the beloved depiction of America's- and humanity's- aspirations to prevail over all difficulties and antagonists.
Though not entirely infallible, in some of his cartoons being transmuted into a monster or victimised by an exploding cigar or "powder room" in a wooden ship, Bugs is nevertheless an always-appealing character in seeming harmony with the universe and its virtuous order. He was conceived by the combined talents of young cartoon-animation directors at the Warner Brothers cartoon studio and appeared for the first recognisable time in the 1940, Tex Avery-directed classic, "A Wild Hare", as the irrepressible foil for hunter Elmer Fudd, by representing nature's ultimate bulwark against human presumptions of dominance and violent gamesmanship.
The first eight or nine years of Bugs' life were arguably those of his childhood, as a rambunctious heckler of all who cross his path. Then, in his "mature" time period, Bugs became a moral agent who acts to save his own life or that of a friend; who thwarts a human interloper on some time-honoured principle that must be preserved; who stops a villain, usually the diminutive, hot-tempered, gun-toting, red-bearded Yosemite Sam, from perpetrating some heinous crime; who spares Earth from the planet-obliterating technology of the politely aggressive, Roman-helmeted, tennis-shoed Marvin the Martian; who preempts the unlimited feasting of a voracious, on-the-loose Tasmanian Devil; or who represents modesty to Daffy Duck's insatiable hunger for monetary gain and self-aggrandising fame.
Every cartoon-animation director at the Warner Brothers cartoon studio from 1945 to 1964 worked with Bugs Bunny, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Robert McKimson being Bugs' longest-serving "fathers". Three men and a bunny! Jones' Bugs, with somewhat triangular eyes, flexible eyebrows, and a suave, intellectual bent, is most widely known for diverting Elmer Fudd's rifle toward a perpetually conniving Daffy Duck, for singing opera music while shaving and hair-cutting a totally bald Fudd, for fighting a bull like no common matador can, and for literally "bringing down the house" upon fiery baritone-to-soprano Giovanni Jones. Freleng's "wascally wabbit", rather less intellectual but still suave, ingenious, and almost always nobly personable, is the rabbit who destroys farmer Elmer Fudd's robot, helps police to apprehend gangsters Rocky and Mugsy, and wages a running battle through history against Yosemite Sam. And McKimson's Bugs is the physically aggressive, squatter-and-wider-legged bunny who square-dances two hillbillies through beard-pulling, eye-poking, a hay baler, and a fall from a cliff, who evades the ravenous clutches of the spinning Tasmanian Devil, who helps an absent-minded Big Bad Wolf to defeat Three unsavoury Little Pigs, and who triumphs against a freeway-building brawn and against Blacque Jacque Shellacque, a French-Canadian river-damming gambler.
The Bugs Bunny Show was the first national U.S. network broadcast television series for Bugs and his fellow Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon characters: the tiny but spunky Tweety Bird; Tweety's feline foe, the lovably fallible Sylvester Cat; Sylvester's easily embarrassed son, Sylvester Jr.; Hippety Hopper, a baby kangaroo forever mistaken by Sylvester to be a giant mouse; the road-traversing, speedy bird, the Road Runner, and his pursuer, Wile E. Coyote; Mexico's fastest mouse, Speedy Gonzales; overbearing, overconfident rooster Foghorn Leghorn and his nemeses, the barnyard dog and little chicken hawk Henery; Pepe Le Pew, an amorous, French-speaking skunk; wannabe sheep-snatcher Ralph Wolf and his opposition, the taciturn Sam Sheepdog; plus Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin Martian, the Tasmanian Devil, and Daffy. The pre-1948 Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons had already established a place for themselves on television, by means of distribution direct to individual telecasting stations. But in 1960, for the first time, the creative talents of Warner Brothers' cartoon directors and animators were directly applied to the television medium, and on the network level.
Unlike Bugs Bunny's electronically transmitted weekly appearances of later years, his 1960 television series aired as an evening offering, on ABC, Tuesdays at 7:30 Eastern Time. Though it was seen in the early evening and thus was within children's viewing hours, The Bugs Bunny Show, like the theatrical cartoons that comprised it, was geared toward adults.
Each half-hour episode utilised footage from post-1948 theatrical cartoon shorts, bridged with newly animated footage showing Bugs and the other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters as stage performers. The premise was that Bugs and his cohorts were filming a variety show in a theatre before a live audience. And each episode had an emcee, if not Bugs then one of the other characters, chased or heckled by his or their usual foe or foes. 
Classic cartoon footage was introduced and directly led-into, often with a unifying idea or theme. Bugs frequently gave lectures, on such topics as cats, dogs, birds, humans, and crime, or informative sessions on how animated cartoons are made, thereby subjecting himself or other characters to indignities, "Duck Amuck"-style, at the hand and brush of a mischievous animator.
All episodes opened with the raising of a curtain to show a spotlighted stage, onto which Bugs and Daffy Duck would enter from the left, singing "This is it" by Jerry Livingston and Mack David, a song which would become famous for decades to follow. Midway through the song, a procession of characters, consisting of Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, Hippety Hopper, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, Pepe Le Pew, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Foghorn Leghorn, marched across the stage from right to left. Veteran cartoon directors Freleng and Jones co-directed this opening sequence, which was singularly animated by Gerry Chiniquy.
Sponsors for The Bugs Bunny Show as telecast on ABC enjoyed immediate mention after Bugs and Daffy's performing of "This is it", in addition to specially animated segments with Bugs and other Warner Brothers cartoon personalities describing the products by which The Bugs Bunny Show was brought into the homes of the public. The episode-proper would then be rejoined with a still picture of Bugs standing amidst a trio of spotlights, with accompaniment of a non-lyrical phrase of "This is it" music. Closing credit sequence for each Bugs Bunny Show began with character procession, Bugs and Daffy walking onto the stage and moving as they had done when they sang "This is it", the curtain dropping in front of Bugs and Daffy, a spotlight shining on the curtain, and the credits flashed in a thin variety of Dom Casual font in the spotlit area. In very small textual notation (with generic print style) were the titles and copyright information for the cartoon shorts that had comprised the episode just shown. At the very end of the credits would be a Warner Brothers logo and a chorus rendition of, "This is the Bugs Bunny Show!"
The 1960-1 season of The Bugs Bunny Show ran from October, 1960 to October, 1961. Jones, Freleng, and McKimson partly delegated their directing duties for individual theatrical cartoons, which were still in production at that time, to their unit layout men or senior animators, while they collaborated on the weekly episodes of The Bugs Bunny Show.
For its staggered second season, which was broadcast on ABC from October, 1961 to September, 1962 (with some episodes airing only once, and quite late in the broadcast year- July and August, 1962!), The Bugs Bunny Show was slightly reformatted. Episodes were each assigned their own title, and attempts were made to do some different and more interesting bridging sequences between cartoons in the episodes. In one case, three of Bugs' cartoons with Yosemite Sam were edited into an extended story in which Sam dies, goes to hell, and is promised freedom by the devil if he can catch Bugs and force the rabbit to occupy his place in the fiery underworld. Another episode was an extension of 1959's "Tweet Dreams", in which Sylvester recalls some of his frustrating chases of Tweety to a psychiatrist. And in another Sylvester-and-Tweety episode, Sylvester reports on his recent misadventures in Europe, where his pursuit of the canary led him by ship from England to Italy, and then by train across the continent.
Colour television was not widespread in the U.S. until 1966, when most long-running network television programmes switched to colour from black and white. All 52 episodes of The Bugs Bunny Show were originally shown in black and white, though the between-cartoon stage scenes were produced in colour, and likewise had been the theatrical cartoons comprising each episode. The original 52 episodes were later syndicated to foreign markets in full colour, and some of them did appear on Canada's CBC television network in the autumn of 1975, after the CBC ceased its long run of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour.
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour was removed from the CBC so that Saturday evening airtime could be allocated to Welcome Back, Kotter, which was telecast by the full CBC network at 6:30 Atlantic Time. A spare half-hour at 6 o'clock enabled the CBC to continue broadcast of the antics and adventures of Bugs and friends, through episodes of The Bugs Bunny Show. From September 13 to December 6, 1975, thirteen instalments of The Bugs Bunny Show were screened across Canada. They were: Shows 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, and 25 of Season 1 and Shows 2, 9, and 10 of Season 2. Inexplicably, the CBC terminated its association with Bugs Bunny in December of 1975 and aired Laurel and Hardy at 6 P.M. on Saturdays instead of Bugs before the programme slot became occupied by the 60-minutes-long Space: 1999 in September of 1976, and Welcome Back, Kotter moved to Thursday evening.
In September, 1971, the half-hour Bugs Bunny Show reappeared, on Saturday mornings, replacing for a time The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour on CBS. The offering of theatrical cartoons was different from that in the original 1960-2 version, with some cartoons added, several others removed, and the reused cartoons juggled into in-episode combinations different from those in 1960-2, which meant that the cartoons did not always logically follow the stage scenes from the original two seasons (1960-1 and 1961-2), which again were used as between-cartoon filler. Every cartoon composing each episode was prominently listed by title in Dom Casual font at the commencement of the closing credits. One notable error therewith was to the title of "14 Carrot Rabbit", which was printed without the number fourteen; "Carrot Rabbit", only.
The following is a guide for the episodes of the half-hour Bugs Bunny Show. Many thanks to Jerry Beck, whose book, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, provided the information for stage scenes in certain episodes unseen by this writer.
Season 1 Bugs Bunny Show # 1 (Oct. 11, 1960) Bugs Bunny introduces his co-hosts individually. Forever vain Daffy Duck cannot persuade Bugs to mention him, try though he does through the show, which consists of woodsman Yosemite Sam's unsuccessful effort at baking Bugs, Sylvester's disastrous attempt at rodent fatherhood, and a black panther's humbling of an aggressor bulldog. "Rabbit Every Monday" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam "A Mouse Divided" with Sylvester and the Drunken Stork "Tree For Two" with Sylvester, Spike, and Chester Bugs Bunny Show # 2 (Oct. 18, 1960) Gangsters Rocky and Mugsy are in their hideout, watching The Bugs Bunny Show. They see Bugs talking about the sponsors who pay substantial money to support his television programme. So, the greedy Rocky decides to gain access to sponsorship dollars by going into the television business- and intruding upon the proceedings of a Bugs Bunny Show episode depicting rivalry at Tweety-grabbing between Sylvester and an orange putty tat, Daffy Duck's mock servitude to farmer Elmer Fudd, and Speedy Gonzales' procurement of abundant cheese for his Mexican mouse brethren. By gunpoint, Rocky attains control of on-stage happenings and operations, until Bugs foils Rocky and Mugsy by playing a vinyl record of police sounds, scaring the gangsters into entering what they think is an escape chute but what is really a crate addressed to Alcatraz Prison. "Putty Tat Trouble" with Tweety and Sylvester "Wise Quackers" with Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd "Speedy Gonzales" with Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester Bugs Bunny Show # 3 (Oct. 25, 1960) Bugs Bunny introduces the host for this show, Pepe Le Pew, who is in an apartment in Paris. Pepe steps onto his balcony and gestures for the viewer to gaze upon the romance-filled parks and streets of the city. "Yes, love is everywhere, even at the cinema." The cinema's feature, a love-story located in a Parisian zoological exhibition, stars Pepe Le Pew. Pepe then introduces further affairs of the heart between a flying cat and his landed paramour and between two young mice of opposing wall holes in a Claude Cat household. "Wild Over You" with Pepe Le Pew "Go Fly a Kit" with Bulldog and the Flying Cat "Mouse-Warming" with Claude Cat Bugs Bunny Show # 4 (Nov. 1, 1960) Wile E. Coyote's chase of the Road Runner has extended into the studio where Bugs is trying to host his television show. Two Road Runner cartoons are thus featured, involving Wile E.'s schemes to explode bridges crossed or expected to be crossed by the Road Runner, drop an anvil and a dynamite-laced barrel on the rapid bird, and generate Road Runner-killing tornadoes. "To Itch His Own" with Angelo the Mighty Flea and Bulldog "Gee Whiz-z-z-z!" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote "Whoa, Be-Gone!" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote Bugs Bunny Show # 5 (Nov. 8, 1960) Desperate to appear on the show as the feature performer, Daffy dresses as a Hawaiian, a musketeer, and a knight, but his costume is deemed inappropriate by Bugs for each cartoon about to commence. Sylvester seeks to enter the Broken Arms Hotel, wherein no cats are permitted, to snatch Tweety from hotel guest Granny, Bugs jousts with a short-tempered knight in a medieval tournament, and Pepe Le Pew is in a perfume store in pursuit of a cat believed by him to be a skunk. "Canary Row" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny "Knights Must Fall" with Bugs Bunny and Sir Pantsalot of Dropseat Manor "For Scent-imental Reasons" with Pepe Le Pew Bugs Bunny Show # 6 (Nov. 15, 1960) In a musical competition between cartoon features of Bugs at war with an opera singer, Sylvester buffeted by tidal waves in his gastronomic quest for Tweety, and two mice conspiring to induce house cat insanity, Daffy plays drums and Bugs imitates "Frankie doing an imitation of Rickie imitating Elvis." Their loud music disturbs Yosemite Sam, who is in a neighbouring building, trying to sleep. Sam angrily runs into the Bugs Bunny Show studio and destroys Bugs and Daffy's musical instruments, including a trumpet that Bugs tries to play, which Sam twists into knots. "Long-Haired Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Giovanni Jones "Sandy Claws" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny "Mouse Wreckers" with Claude Cat, Hubie, and Bertie Bugs Bunny Show # 7 (Nov. 22, 1960) Daffy disguises himself as Bugs to host the television show, but a sheepdog, on a day free from his work, walks into the studio, hoping to catch the bunny-rabbit (Bugs) that he saw on television on the previous week. Daffy, in his rabbit suit, is accosted by the dog, while Bugs, off stage, introduces cartoons: Bugs' battle against a bull, Sylvester's explosive ordeal at sea, and a tale of woe for a man who discovers, beyond the belief of every person around him, a frog that can sing. "Bully For Bugs" with Bugs Bunny and the Bull "Tweety's S.O.S." with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny "One Froggy Evening" with Michigan J. Frog Bugs Bunny Show # 8 (Nov. 29, 1960) Daffy wants to be host. So, he banishes all others from the stage, including Pepe, Elmer, and Bugs. Still, the cartoons proceed on schedule, with Bugs in Scotland, Porky and Sylvester in a spooky, mouse-infested house, and Pepe chasing a white-paint-striped cat in a zoo. "My Bunny Lies Over the Sea" with Bugs Bunny and Angus McCrory "Scaredy Cat" with Porky Pig and Sylvester "Scent-imental Romeo" with Pepe Le Pew Bugs Bunny Show # 9 (Dec. 6, 1960) Tweety is host of an instalment containing two psychological thrillers with birds seemingly doomed to death at a specified time. So that the little canary can be safe from Sylvester, Bugs hangs his cage from the stage ceiling. Sylvester attempts to reach Tweety in the hanging cage, and Bugs contests Sam Von Schamm, the Hessian, in the Battle of Bagel Heights. "Bunker Hill Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam "Each Dawn I Crow" with Elmer Fudd and John Rooster "Golden Yeggs" with Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Rocky Bugs Bunny Show # 10 (Dec. 13, 1960) Yosemite Sam, armed and dangerous and seeking some cartoon entertainment, invades the stage of The Bugs Bunny Show. Bugs has ceded the hosting duties for the show's latest episode to Daffy Duck, who must withstand the formidably ornery Sam's instigations of gun-toting mayhem while attempting to do a dancing act and play a piano, and as he introduces three select cartoons. Cartoons wherein Bugs outwits an African witch doctor desiring a rabbit for his latest potion and Sylvester pursues a mazurka-dancing mouse in a Slobovian cabin and vies with a kitten to be the chosen pet of Elmer Fudd. "Which is Witch" with Bugs Bunny and Dr. I.C. Spots "Mouse Mazurka" with Sylvester "Kit For Cat" with Sylvester and Elmer Fudd Bugs Bunny Show # 11 (Dec. 20, 1960) Bugs introduces Porky Pig as host. Porky is pestered by Charlie Dog, who is looking for a master. Charlie does his all- breeds-in-one routine and complicates Porky's introduction of Claude Cat's struggle to eliminate the loudly barking and feline-startling Frisky Puppy, Sylvester's pursuit of Tweety on a train, and Bugs' thwarting of his own abduction by Marvin Martian. "Two's a Crowd" with Claude Cat and Frisky Puppy "All a Bir-r-r-d" with Tweety and Sylvester "The Hasty Hare" with Bugs Bunny, Marvin Martian, and K-9 Bugs Bunny Show # 12 (Dec. 27, 1960) George P. Dog is introduced by Bugs as the emcee for this episode, but Foghorn Leghorn decides that he would be a better emcee and pushes the dog aside. Then, Little Henery Hawk enters the studio on his unending hunt for chicken, and Foghorn uses a magic hat to make Henery disappear. Foghorn next watches and shows to the audience an interview with Bugs Bunny, followed by a documentary on the Gambling Bug- with examples of his work, and lastly Sylvester's encounter with a baby kangaroo from a circus. "What's Up, Doc?" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd "Early to Bet" with the Gambling Bug "Pop 'im Pop!" with Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and Hippety Hopper Bugs Bunny Show # 13 (Jan. 3, 1961) Sylvester is introduced by Bugs as host, and he is joined on stage by his son, Sylvester Jr., who is underwhelmed at Sylvester's all-too-brief introduction of him. Sylvester Jr. roams the Bugs Bunny Show's backstage, rejoins Sylvester in the stage spotlight, and talks of having seen a "giant mouse", pulling Sylvester's arm to guide Sylvester to where the "giant mouse" may be found. Sylvester uncovers Hippety Hopper from under a barrel and is petrified and ghost-white with fear at the sight of the "giant mouse". When his son obliges Sylvester to try to catch Hippety, Sylvester is dragged across stage and body-contorted by the jumpy joey. Eventually, Sylvester Jr. is able to put a leash on Hippety and to proclaim success at "giant mouse" capture, while Sylvester is traumatised by a muscular powerhouse of a little mouse. Such are the segues between Bugs' visit to Baghdad, Charlie Dog's antics in the Deep South, and Foghorn Leghorn's unsuccessful fishing exercise. "A-Lad-in His Lamp" with Bugs Bunny and Smoky the Genie "Dog Gone South" with Charlie Dog and Colonel Shuffle "A Fractured Leghorn" with Foghorn Leghorn Bugs Bunny Show # 14 (Jan. 10, 1961) Elmer Fudd is host and tries to sing, but he is thwarted when the notes on his sheet music run off of their page and remind him of his July 4 picnic that became a harrowing confrontation with an army of ants- and when Sylvester, outside of the studio, wears boots and sings "tra-la-la" while noisily stomping up and down a wooden stairwell. In cartoons presented by Elmer, the Goofy Gophers pursue "vandals" who confiscated all of the vegetables from their garden and Bugs and Yosemite Sam are at odds over property rights. "Ant Pasted" with Elmer Fudd "The Fair Haired Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam "I Gopher You" with the Goofy Gophers Bugs Bunny Show # 15 (Jan. 17, 1961) Daffy finally receives recognition! Bugs hosts an all-Daffy Duck tribute, in which Mama Bear performs "I'm Just Wild About Daffy" and the mallard stars in cartoons as a far-future detective, the boon companion to a multi-millionaire, and a dubious hero of the Wild West. "Rocket Squad" with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig "Daffy Dilly" with Daffy Duck "Drip-Along Daffy" with Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Nasty Canasta Bugs Bunny Show # 16 (Jan. 24, 1961) Foghorn Leghorn introduces Miss Prissy, who, Foghorn says, is an old-time actress. Foghorn reenacts some of Prissy's famous roles, including "Romeo and Juliet", in which she played both parts, and an act involving precarious balancing on a stack of chairs and juggling of bowling pins and hoops. Prissy initiates the cartoons by looking into a crystal ball, and she sees Daffy marrying for money and regretting it and Bugs foiling a scientist's plan to transfer his consciousness into the feathered head of a chicken. "The Leghorn Blows at Midnight" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk "His Bitter Half" with Daffy Duck "Hot Cross Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and the Bespectacled Doctor Bugs Bunny Show # 17 (Jan. 31, 1961) An unseen animator sketches Foghorn Leghorn with Rock Hudson's body and then draws a broom's tail on Foghorn's backside. Foghorn retaliates by lassoing and pummelling the animator- Daffy Duck, before appearing in the first cartoon as the reluctant love interest of Miss Prissy. The peaceful home of Sylvester and Sylvester Jr. is invaded by zoo office escapee Hippety Hopper, and Bugs purchases houses of straw and wood from Three Little Pigs, minus insurance against a Big Bad Wolf. "Lovelorn Leghorn" with Foghorn Leghorn and Miss Prissy "Who's Kitten Who?" with Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and Hippety Hopper "The Windblown Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Big Bad Wolf Bugs Bunny Show # 18 (Feb. 7, 1961) Two lame-brained Mexicali cats, Jose and Miguel, try to host an episode with Yosemite Sam plummeting again and again into a bucket of water, Ralph Wolf being continually stopped from obtaining mutton by the omnipresent Sam Sheepdog, and a mouse deceiving Mike Bulldog into thinking Sylvester to be a provocative foe. Jose and Miguel are heckled on stage by Speedy Gonzales, who entices the dimwit felines into chasing him, with animation reused from the cartoon, "Mexicali Shmoes". "High Diving Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam "Don't Give Up the Sheep" with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog "Stooge For a Mouse" with Sylvester and Mike Bulldog Bugs Bunny Show # 19 (Feb. 14, 1961) Bugs demonstrates how to draw an animated cartoon character. He decides to use Daffy Duck as an example and draws Daffy from a dumbbell. In this instalment's featured cartoons, ball-and-chained sailor Bugs actively expresses his grievances with the captaincy of Shanghai Sam aboard the Sad Sack, an elephant of very small proportion causes hysteria in an American city, and Wile E. Coyote's Superman costume proves anything but airworthy. "Mutiny On the Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam "Punch Trunk" with the Tiny Elephant "Fast and Furry-ous" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote Bugs Bunny Show # 20 (Feb. 21, 1961) "Tonight, we thought we would go in for a little fast culture," says Bugs, standing in front of the set for "The Barber of Seville", which, starring Bugs Bunny, is to be the opera feature for the show. But Elmer Fudd, hunting Bugs with his rifle, sees the attraction poster billing Bugs as the star and enters the studio with the intention of shooting his rifle at Bugs. "This is wabbit season, and I'm gonna get me a wabbit. Opewa or no opewa. Wossini or no Wossini. So, watch out, wabbit!" Additionally, Daffy is an insufficiently convincing protagonist in a swashbuckler story, and Wile E. Coyote on a motorcycle collides with a telephone pole. "Rabbit of Seville" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" with Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Elmer Fudd, Henery Hawk, and Mama Bear "Stop! Look! And Hasten!" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote Bugs Bunny Show # 21 (Feb. 28, 1961) Mac and Tosh, the Goofy Gophers, are introduced by Bugs as this episode's hosts. In the cartoons, Bugs is orchestrator of a square dance that very much pains two lame-brained men of the Ozark Mountains, Sylvester's feline integrity is in doubt when he cannot defeat a punchy "giant mouse" before the eyes of a cat-prodding bulldog, and Daffy's ruse in chicken guise to win a $5,000 prize goes dreadfully awry when Henery Hawk selects him as fodder for a chicken hawk father-and-son feast. "Hillbilly Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Martin Brothers "Hippety Hopper" with Sylvester and Hippety Hopper "You Were Never Duckier" with Daffy Duck and Henery Hawk Bugs Bunny Show # 22 (Mar. 7, 1961) Sylvester is host and tells to his son, Junior, the Looney Tune-style fairy tales of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs- in which hero and villain roles are seemingly reversed, Pied Piper Porky Pig of Hamelin, and Jack and the Beanstalk- with Bugs and Daffy as a "pair of Jacks" and Elmer Fudd as the towering inhabitant of the land atop the sprouted beanstalk. "The Turn-Tale Wolf" with the Big Bad Wolf "Paying the Piper" with Porky Pig "Beanstalk Bunny" with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd Bugs Bunny Show # 23 (Mar. 14, 1961) Mac and Tosh, the Goofy Gophers, are again hosts for the show. They spend their time politely arguing over who should introduce the jailed Bugs, house-imprisoned and in-need-of-food Sylvester, and Tweety-in-a-city-park cartoon features (each insists that the other do it); so, Bugs interrupts them and himself does the job. "Big House Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam "Canned Feud" with Sylvester "Home, Tweet Home" with Tweety and Sylvester Bugs Bunny Show # 24 (Mar. 21, 1961) Yosemite Sam expects to be emcee for this episode consisting of Bugs' river boat gambling escapade, long-suffering Claude Cat's descent into a waterless swimming pool, and two over-indulged-on-cheese mice's suicide act of stepping into a befuddled Claude's mouth. Bugs selects Pepe Le Pew for the emcee duties. A furious Sam shoots at Pepe with his two guns, but the bullets from the guns are repelled by Pepe's odour and retreat straight back into the nozzles. Sam next uses the Tasmanian Devil to try to chase Pepe off of the stage, but Pepe's foul scent also defeats Taz. "Mississippi Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Colonel Shuffle "Terrier-Stricken" with Claude Cat and Frisky Puppy "Cheese Chasers" with Claude Cat, Hubie, and Bertie Bugs Bunny Show # 25 (Mar. 28, 1961) Bugs introduces Daffy Duck as this instalment's host, but Daffy is backstage being chased by the Tasmanian Devil, who has broken out of a crate. Cartoons include Henery Hawk's lasso-trap capture of Foghorn Leghorn for chicken dinner, Porky Pig's stint as a talent agent, and Bugs' meeting on his home turf with a voracious, spinning juggernaut from Tasmania. "Henhouse Henery" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk "Curtain Razor" with Porky Pig "Devil May Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian Devil Bugs Bunny Show # 26 (Apr. 4, 1961) "Okay, rabbit. Grab a cloud. This is a stick-up." Gun-toting gangsters Rocky and Mugsy hijack the show. Mugsy escorts Bugs off of the stage, and Rocky introduces the cartoons: Bugs accompanying Columbus aboard the Santa Maria in 1492, Foghorn Leghorn endeavouring to prove his being a chicken to Henery Hawk, and Sylvester performing as Big Bad Wolf to a dreaming boy mouse's Little Red Riding Hood, each of which Rocky shows from a film projector. "Hare We Go" with Bugs Bunny and Chris Columbus "The Foghorn Leghorn" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk "Little Red Rodent Hood" with Sylvester
Season 2
Bugs Bunny Show # 1 (Oct. 10, 1961)
"Bad-Time Story"- episode title
It is 'Reading Out Loud Night', and Bugs selects a book from a shelf and walks into a backdrop leading into the first
cartoon feature for this fairy tales and legends instalment, comprised of Bugs' initiative to save the lives of Hansel
and Gretel from Witch Hazel, Daffy's pratfalls as an accident-prone Robin Hood, Porky Pig's performance as a laughing
Friar Tuck, and Sylvester's raid of an enormous, Tweety-inhabited castle at the top of a certain beanstalk.
"Bewitched Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel
"Robin Hood Daffy" with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
"Tweety and the Beanstalk" with Tweety and Sylvester
Bugs Bunny Show # 2 (Oct. 17, 1961)
"Satan's Waitin'"- episode title
Yosemite Sam dies after being crushed by a falling safe during his evil scheme to matrimonially divest a widow of her
money- and he goes to hell, where the devil promises to release Sam's spirit and give to Sam a new lease on life, provided
that Sam bring to the devil a certain rabbit whom the devil has been trying for a long time to entrap in Hades. Sam is
returned to Earth on a movie set, where a dictatorial director, who looks and talks like Emperor Nero, orders stagehand
Sam to find a victim to feed to a hoard of lions. Sam dies again when he is feasted upon by the lions, and the devil
allocates to him one more miscarried chance to catch the bunny, in the midst of the Sahara Desert.
"Hare Trimmed" with Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Granny
"Roman Legion-Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"Sahara Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
Bugs Bunny Show # 3 (Oct. 24, 1961)
"Daffy Doodling"- episode title
Daffy outwits Bugs for the position of emcee, Sylvester and a brawny, stupid sidekick hunt mice in a warehouse, the Goofy
Gophers find that their lumber-harvested home tree has been converted into human furniture, and Foghorn Leghorn's mid-
winter fun is fettered by the arrival in his barnyard of a hungry, chicken-craving weasel.
"Hoppy-Go-Lucky" with Sylvester, Benny Cat, and Hippety Hopper
"Lumber Jerks" with the Goofy Gophers
"Weasel While You Work" with Foghorn Leghorn and the Weasel
Bugs Bunny Show # 4 (Oct. 31, 1961)
"Omni-Puss"- episode title
Bugs Bunny lectures about cats, describing with visual aid an alley cat (bowling, that is!), a Bob Cat greeting a Tom Cat
("Hello, Tom." "Hello, Bob."), a pole cat (sitting atop a pole), two Persian cats making a Persian-to-Persian telephone
call, et cetera. Three cartoon features depict Sylvester and Sylvester Jr. in a museum as Sylvester combats a baby
kangaroo believed by him and by his son to be a giant mouse, a bulldog named Marc Antony striving to prove that his kitten
friend, Pussyfoot, is capable of ridding their master's house of its rodents, and Pepe Le Pew's search for love on the
French Riviera and, as usual, his lust for a cat whose back is striped white from exposure to paint of that colour.
"Mouse-Taken Identity" with Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and Hippety Hopper
"Kiss Me Cat" with Marc Antony and Pussyfoot
"Heaven Scent" with Pepe Le Pew
Bugs Bunny Show # 5 (Nov. 7, 1961)
"Tired and Feathered"- episode title
Bugs Bunny gives a lecture on birds, showing the repulsive vulture (who replies to Bugs' description of his repulsiveness
by saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones..."), the Blue "J" (a capital letter "J", painted blue), a troublesome
mockingbird, who repeats everything that Bugs says and does- including a mallet strike on the head, Tweety Bird in a
precarious predicament as Granny's pet trapped with Sylvester in a snowbound mountain cabin, a pair of Mexican crows
desiring without avail the capture and eating of a grasshopper, and the Road Runner as fallibly pursued by Wile E. Coyote
with a rocket, a dynamite lasso, glue, and a female Road Runner disguise, in the U.S. southwestern desert.
"Snow Business" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny
"Two Crows From Tacos" with the Mexicali Crows
"Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Bugs Bunny Show # 6 (Nov. 14, 1961)
"Man's Best Friend"- episode title
Bugs Bunny lectures about dogs, but first must struggle with a projectionist who, when Bugs says that the lecture is about
man's best friend, shows a picture of a tarantula and then a Whistler's Mother portrait, presumably because, "A man's best
friend is his mother." When Bugs clearly states that he intends to talk about dogs, the projectionist flashes a picture of
a wiener (a hot dog). "The domestic dog," retorts Bugs, and a picture of a wiener in an apron instantly appears. Finally,
the projectionist does something right, and Bugs' requested pictures of dogs are shown: the sheep dog, as seen in a
cartoon defending a flock of sheep from lambchop-desirer Ralph Wolf and Ralph's smoke bomb, rock disguise, and underwater
unicycle; and the bulldog, willing in one cartoon to resort to any deception to attain meat and acting in another cartoon
as protector of his scrappy baby son against a conniving Sylvester.
"Sheep Ahoy" with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog
"Chow Hound" with Bulldog
"Pappy's Puppy" with Sylvester and Butch J. Bulldog
Bugs Bunny Show # 7 (Nov. 21, 1961)
"Ball Point Puns"- episode title
Red and black dancing pens, named Penelope and Penbroke, perform like figure skaters on the stage floor and write the
titles of the cartoons selected for this episode. Due to Bugs and Daffy's efforts to direct hunter rifle fire toward each
other, Elmer is confused as to what hunting season it really is. Porky Pig and Sylvester are overnight residents at the
creepy Dry Gulch Hotel, and then Porky has a secret house guest- Daffy Duck, seeking shelter from a blizzard and a
constant supply of food.
"Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd
"Claws For Alarm" with Porky Pig and Sylvester
"Cracked Quack" with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
Bugs Bunny Show # 8 (Nov. 28, 1961)
"The Unfinished Symphony"- episode title
Bugs contends with an annoying fly in this musical show, featuring a mouse who can play a miniature piano, Bugs'
conducting of an orchestra's performance of "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna" by Franz Von Suppe, and a be-bop-jazzed
version of the Big Bad Wolf and Three Little Pigs.
"Pizzicato Pussycat" with the Piano-Playing Mouse
"Baton Bunny" with Bugs Bunny
"The Three Little Bops" with the Big Bad Wolf
Bugs Bunny Show # 9 (Dec. 5, 1961)
"Prison to Prison"- episode title
Bugs, dressed like the portly Alfred Hitchcock, lectures on crime. He talks about the seedy underworld of Victorian
England, where master sleuth Dorlock Homes is trailing the notorious Shropshire Slasher, and then, standing outside of the
laboratory of one Dr. Peabody, he speaks about mad scientists, specifically the meek inventor of a portable hole that is
stolen by a shadowy bank robber. Next, he flips through a police record archive to find a dossier on Rocky and Mugsy, two
criminals who have, so far- but not for much longer, managed to elude the law.
"Deduce, You Say" with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
"The Hole Idea" with Calvin Q. Calculus
"Bugsy and Mugsy" with Bugs Bunny, Rocky, and Mugsy
Bugs Bunny Show # 10 (Dec. 12, 1961)
"Go, Man, Go"- episode title
"The subject for tonight's show is one that has always puzzled us little denizens of the woodland glades." In yet another
lecture, Bugs talks about man. "You see, folks. Man is basically lazy. In order to keep from using his feet, he uses his
brain." The lecture addresses human methods of conveyance, including the pogo stick, the Birdie-mobile (a seat carried in
the air by a flock of birds), the horse, and the automobile in its many forms, then discusses the human need for
companionship, hence the opposite sex and marriage, and then refers to the sprawling of human civilisation, which
encroaches upon nature- and upon the sanctity of Bugs' home, located in a site chosen by man for building a freeway.
"There Auto Be a Law" with the Meek Car-Driver
"Wild Wife" with the Harried Housewife
"No Parking Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Construction Worker
Bugs Bunny Show # 11 (Dec. 19, 1961)
"I'm Just Wild About Hare"- episode title
Bugs has overslept. When the announcer summons him by hole-shaped elevator to the stage, either he is in his bathrobe,
barely awake and brushing his teeth, or he is drying himself after a shower, or he is occupied with his vacuum cleaner.
Cartoons therefore introduced by the announcer: Daffy Duck's refusal at any cost to receive a stork's delivery, the Road
Runner's escape from Wile E. Coyote's explosive arrow and a huge, rolling boulder, and Pepe Le Pew's difficult wooing in
the waters of southern France of a cat accidentally back-striped white.
"Stork Naked" with Daffy Duck and the Drunken Stork
"Going! Going! Gosh!" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
"Touche and Go" with Pepe Le Pew
Bugs Bunny Show # 12 (Dec. 26, 1961)
"Stage Couch"- episode title
Sylvester needs psychiatric help when his frustration at being unable to catch Tweety has him on the verge of mental
collapse. So, Bugs obliges to be Sylvester's "head-doctor" and listens as Sylvester tells of his obsessive chase of the
elusive canary in Granny's home and at a circus.
"Gift Wrapped" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny
"Tweety's Circus" with Tweety and Sylvester
"A Street Cat Named Sylvester" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny
Bugs Bunny Show # 13 (Jan. 16, 1962)
"Do or Diet"- episode title
The Tasmanian Devil appears with Bugs on stage. Bugs tells of his first meeting with "Taz-Boy" in the jungle of Tasmania,
and then he prescribes a carrot diet to Taz, demonstrating how an anaemic weakling, Daffy Duck, supposedly became a super-
heroic muscular powerhouse after submitting to a carrot diet. Foghorn Leghorn courts Miss Prissy and finds that he is the
prospective father of a quiet genius.
"Bedevilled Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil
"Stupor Duck" with Daffy Duck
"Little Boy Boo" with Foghorn Leghorn, Miss Prissy, and Egghead Jr.
Bugs Bunny Show # 14 (Jan. 23, 1962)
"Hare Brush"- episode title
Introduced by Bugs, Harry the Brush explains his role in the animation of cartoons wherein Claude Cat schemes to
implicate bulldog Marc Antony in the confining by Claude of kitten Pussyfoot within a glass jug, a squirrel toils with a
particularly tough nut to crack, and Daffy is at the mercy of the mischief of what he says is a "slop-artist".
"Feline Frame-Up" with Claude Cat, Marc Antony, and Pussyfoot
"Much Ado About Nutting" with the Nut-Collecting Squirrel
"Duck Amuck" with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny Show # 15 (Feb. 13, 1962)
"Is This a Life?"- episode title
In this spoof of This is Your Life, Bugs Bunny's life is reviewed, with visits from friends and foes. Yosemite Sam
remembers his battles with Bugs in the Klondike and at a Wild West carnival, and Elmer Fudd shows to Bugs a photo album
containing snapshots of some of Bugs' relatives, Flopsie, Mopsie, Cottontail, and Peter, and of a farm setting in
Indiana, the locale of Bugs' tussle with Fudd and a robot.
"14 Carrot Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"Robot Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
"High Diving Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
Bugs Bunny Show # 16 (Feb. 20, 1962)
"De-duck-tive Story"- episode title
Daffy Duck joins the trench coat crowd in a show that highlights some of his greatest detective roles, one of them set in
Paris and the other located in an American metropolis to which Beveridge Hills is an affluent suburb. In another cartoon,
Daffy is the wily proprietor of an inn with a multi-animal infestation problem.
"Boston Quackie" with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
"The Super Snooper" with Daffy Duck
"Dime to Retire" with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig
Bugs Bunny Show # 17 (Mar. 13, 1962)
"The Astro-Nuts"- episode title
Bugs Bunny emerges from his hole on stage as Super-Rabbit, defender of the defenceless, buddy of the buddy-less, to
introduce science fiction cartoons. Intrepid interplanetary adventurer Daffy contends with Marvin Martian in claiming
Planet X as home planet's rightful colonial territory, and Porky Pig and Sylvester are a Jupiter buzzard's selected
Earthling subjects of study. Bugs is then joined on stage by a spacesuited Porky, who descends to stage level in a
parachute and relates to the audience the story of Bugs' own experience in the cosmos, on a space platform controlled
by Marvin with his apocalyptic Aludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
"Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" with Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Marvin Martian
"Jumpin' Jupiter" with Sylvester and Porky Pig
"Hare-Way to the Stars" with Bugs Bunny and Marvin Martian
Bugs Bunny Show # 18 (Mar. 20, 1962)
"Vera's Cruise"- episode title
Sylvester recounts his recent travels through Europe, when his pursuit of Tweety became transoceanic and transcontinental.
Relaxing in England, Sylvester was chased by two cockney canines and drank a certain concoction in a laboratory. Escaping
the two dogs, Sylvester saw Tweety on a pier and travelled by boat, as an unwelcome passenger, to Italy, where he failed
in several attempts to catch the bird. Then, on the Orient Express, Sylvester's pursuit of Tweety was thwarted by a
bulldog.
"Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" with Sylvester, Spike, and Chester
"Tweety's S.O.S." with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny
"A Pizza Tweety-Pie" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny
"All a Bir-r-r-d" with Tweety and Sylvester
Bugs Bunny Show # 19 (Apr. 19, 1962)
"Foreign Legion Leghorn"- episode title
Foghorn Leghorn is an inept soldier in the French Foreign Legion. Travelling across the Sahara Desert, Foghorn explains
to his Sergeant about how his troublesome relationships with domineering chickens and cunning boys caused him to leave
America and join the French military.
"The EGGcited Rooster" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk
"Of Rice and Hen" with Foghorn Leghorn and Miss Prissy
"Feather Dusted" with Foghorn Leghorn, Miss Prissy, and Egghead Jr.
Bugs Bunny Show # 20 (Apr. 26, 1962)
"Watch My Line"- episode title
The art of cartoon drawing is demonstrated by an animator, whom Bugs directs to draw a line that becomes a dog's wagging
tail for a story of canine mistreatment by an innocent, little girl, and then to sketch a pair of speedy legs- those of
the Road Runner, as a start to a Road Runner cartoon containing Wile E. Coyote's dynamite stick on a lasso, giant coil
spring, dehydrated boulders, and steam roller- all ineffective at ending the Road Runner's life in the fast lane. The
animator next turns mischievous and puts Bugs through various indignities.
"A Waggily Tale" with Elvis Dog and Junior
"Scrambled Aches" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
"Rabbit Rampage" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
Bugs Bunny Show # 21 (Jul. 3, 1962)
"What's Up, Dog?"- episode title
More dog tales. Charlie Dog chooses urban apartment owner Porky Pig as his master, whether Porky likes this or not. Daffy
Duck rivals a barnyard dog for feeding by farmer Elmer Fudd. A middle-class man's shaggy dog, Robert, is determined to
prove that he is a thoroughbred.
"The Awful Orphan" with Porky Pig and Charlie Dog
"Don't Axe Me" with Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Mrs. Fudd
"Mixed Master" with Robert Dog
Bugs Bunny Show # 22 (Jul. 10, 1962)
"The Cat's Bah"- episode title
Pepe Le Pew recalls the results of broken romances in Africa. Midway through the show, he suggests that viewers "take a
brief respite from romance" by joining Bugs Bunny, whose Miami Beach vacation went afoul when he tunnelled to Antarctica
by mistake and met a temperamental penguin.
"The Cat's Bah" with Pepe Le Pew
"Frigid Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Penguin
"Little Beau Pepe" with Pepe Le Pew
Bugs Bunny Show # 23 (Jul. 17, 1962)
"No Business Like Slow Business"- episode title
Slowpoke Rodriguez and Speedy Gonzales are co-hosts, introducing cartoons in which Sylvester and the Big Bad Wolf team to
stalk Tweety and Little Red Riding Hood in the house of Granny, Bugs coyly fleeces desperado and San Francisco casino
owner Nasty Canasta of all of his ill-gotten gains, and Ralph Wolf schemes unsuccessfully with Little Bo Peep guise,
bowling ball, cannon, and hair grower liquid strategically dripped on the already moppy follicles on Sam Sheepdog's
forehead, to filch the flock of sheep in Sam's care.
"Red Riding Hoodwinked" with Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, and the Big Bad Wolf
"Barbary-Coast Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Nasty Canasta
"Double or Mutton" with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog
Bugs Bunny Show # 24 (Jul. 24, 1962)
"The Honey-Mousers"- episode title
When Bugs descends by his special, hole-shaped elevator from the stage to his dressing room there beneath, he finds that
he has company- the show's viewer. So, Bugs as a dutiful host invites his guest to join him in watching a high-rated
television show, a mouse version of The Honeymooners. Toy bus driver Ralph Crumden and kitchen sink worker Ned Morton
seek to acquire food from the humans' kitchen in the Brooklyn apartment in which they and their whiskered wives have
neighbouring hole dwellings, but a cat blocks their path to the refrigerator and the goodies therein. So, Crumden and
Morton plot to outwit their feline opponent.
"Cheese it, the Cat!" with the Honey-Mousers
"Lighthouse Mouse" with Sylvester and Hippety Hopper
"The Honey-Mousers" with the Honey-Mousers
Bugs Bunny Show # 25 (Jul. 31, 1962)
"A Star is Bored"- episode title
Bugs gives yet another lecture on cartoon animation, confidentially stating that, "I do Mel Blanc's voice." Daffy Duck
intrudes upon the lecture, insisting that he is a clean-up artist sent by a cartoon agency, and proceeds to redraw
animation of Tweety by putting his own duck's beak and webbed feet on the canary. Bugs walks over to a film projector and
says, "While he's grinding out the clean-ups, let's take a look at a finished cartoon." After the show's audience views
Tweety's ordeal as a hostage of gangster Rocky and another in the Road Runner's series of cartoons eluding the determined
but woebegone pursuit of his would-be devourer, Wile E. Coyote, Bugs is interviewed by an adulating Hollywood reporter
named Lolly, hence raising the ire of Daffy, who resolves to compete with Bugs in several productions by being Bugs'
double.
"Catty Cornered" with Tweety, Sylvester, and Rocky
"There They Go-Go-Go!" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
"A Star is Bored" with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam
Bugs Bunny Show # 26 (Aug. 7, 1962)
"A Tale of Two Kitties"- episode title
Sylvester and his son discuss mice, including those native to Mexico and the "giant-size" kind of rodent encountered by
Sylvester and son in an abandoned, decaying house and on a ship.
"The Slap-Hoppy Mouse" with Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and Hippety Hopper
"Gonzales' Tamales" with Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester
"Cats A-Weigh!" with Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and Hippety Hopper
Season 3
Bugs Bunny Show # 1 (Sept. 11, 1971)
Bugs introduces Porky Pig as the host for the show. Porky is pestered by Charlie Dog, who is looking for a master.
Following the dramatisation of Claude Cat's own problems with a dog, Frisky Puppy, with Claude being stuck in a fish bowl
and "pickled" in a water cooler and crashing into the concrete at the bottom of a waterless swimming pool- all because of
Frisky's sudden and startling barking, Charlie does his all-breeds-in-one routine for Porky and is the principal character
in a cartoon located in Dixieland. Porky turns red from rage at Charlie's interference with his emcee tasks and himself
moves to forcefully remove Charlie from the studio, requiring Bugs to fill show time by telling the story of the
Tasmanian Devil's arrival in America and fateful visit to a woodland rabbit hole.
"Terrier-Stricken" with Claude Cat and Frisky Puppy
"Dog Gone South" with Charlie Dog and Colonel Shuffle
"Devil May Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian Devil
Bugs Bunny Show # 2 (Sept. 18, 1971)
After starring in a cartoon as the temporary straw-and-wood-house-buying dupe of Three wolf-wary and dishonest Little
Pigs, Bugs lectures about dogs, but first must struggle with a projectionist who, when Bugs says that the lecture is about
man's best friend, shows a picture of a tarantula and then a Whistler's Mother portrait, presumably because, "A man's best
friend is his mother." When Bugs clearly states that he intends to talk about dogs, the projectionist flashes a picture of
a wiener (a hot dog). "The domestic dog," retorts Bugs, and a picture of a wiener in an apron instantly appears. Finally,
the projectionist does something right, and Bugs' requested pictures of dogs are shown, those of the sheepdog, Sam
Sheepdog, who repels an attempted raid of his woolly flock by Ralph Wolf disguised as Pan from ancient Greek mythology,
and of a spaniel scratching a flea, as Bugs comments that cats can sometimes be friends to dogs- provided that a mouse,
conveying thoughts of catly treachery into a sleeping dog's ear and then performing acts of violence upon the dog and
causing the cat to appear to be the guilty party, does not cause trouble for the canine-feline entente.
"The Windblown Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Big Bad Wolf
"Don't Give Up the Sheep" with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog
"Stooge For a Mouse" with Sylvester and Mike Bulldog
Bugs Bunny Show # 3 (Sept. 25, 1971)
After a cartoon wherein Bugs is the victorious protagonist in a pre-1900 San Franciscan gambling casino confrontation with
the ruffian who stole his gold and Bugs has next presented to the audience the tale of a little chicken hawk who caught
for his personal consumption the husky rooster who had been lecturing him about "starting small", Daffy disguises himself
as Bugs to host the show, but a sheepdog, on a day free from his work, walks into the studio, hoping to catch the bunny-
rabbit (Bugs) that he saw on television on the previous week. Daffy, in his rabbit suit, is accosted by the dog, while
Bugs, off stage, introduces a cartoon with Sylvester, whose human masters depart for a two-week California vacation and
have left him alone in a locked-and-sealed house.
"Barbary-Coast Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Nasty Canasta
"Henhouse Henery" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk
"Canned Feud" with Sylvester
Bugs Bunny Show # 4 (Oct. 2, 1971)
Having been the humble lead character in an epic about the discovery of America, Bugs appears on stage to demonstrate how
to draw an animated cartoon character. He decides to use Daffy Duck as an example and draws Daffy from a dumbbell. Then,
he directs an animator to draw a line that becomes the wagging tail of a dog in a sad story of canine misery. The animator
follows this by sketching a pair of speedy legs- those of the Road Runner, far a cartoon depicting Wile E. Coyote's
elaborate attempt to utilise a World War I aircraft in his continuing bid to capture the high-octane fowl.
"Hare We Go" with Bugs Bunny and Chris Columbus
"A Waggily Tale" with Elvis Dog and Junior
"Just Plane Beep" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Bugs Bunny Show # 5 (Oct. 9, 1971)
The Tasmanian Devil receives explosive medical care from Bugs in a jungle medical clinic, and Bugs next lectures about
cats, describing with visual aid an alley cat (bowling, that is!), a Bob Cat greeting a Tom Cat ("Hello, Tom." "Hello,
Bob."), a pole cat (sitting atop a pole), two Persian cats making a Persian-to-Persian telephone call, the relationship
between a father cat and his son- to introduce Sylvester and Sylvester Jr.'s meeting in their own home with a baby
kangaroo believed by them to be a giant mouse, and the existence of cats, including one with painted white back stripe,
in exotic places like the French Riviera, as visited by Pepe Le Pew.
"Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian Devil
"Who's Kitten Who?" with Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and Hippety Hopper
"Heaven Scent" with Pepe Le Pew
Bugs Bunny Show # 6 (Oct. 16, 1971)
A lecture on birds from Bugs, after a cartoon with Bugs on Mars in a close encounter with Marvin Martian. Bugs shows the
repulsive vulture (who replies to Bugs' description of his repulsiveness by saying, "Sticks and stones may break my
bones..."), the Blue "J" (a capital letter "J", painted blue), and a troublesome mockingbird, who repeats everything that
Bugs says and does, including a mallet strike on the head. Sylvester intrudes upon the shipboard vacation of Granny and
Tweety, and Wile E. Coyote is so desperate for water that he has hallucinations of the Road Runner swimming in an oasis
pond.
"Mad as a Mars Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Marvin Martian
"Tweety's S.O.S." with Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny
"Chaser On the Rocks" with Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Bugs Bunny Show # 7 (Oct. 23, 1971)
Yosemite Sam expects to be emcee for the show, but Bugs instead selects Pepe Le Pew for this honour. A furious Sam tries
to eliminate Pepe, but the bullets from his guns are repelled by Pepe's odour and retreat straight back into the nozzles.
Pepe introduces cartoons with himself in the French Foreign Legion and Bugs on a Mississippi river boat.
"No Parking Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Construction Worker
"Mississippi Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Colonel Shuffle
"Little Beau Pepe" with Pepe Le Pew
Bugs Bunny Show # 8 (Oct. 30, 1971)
Together with Porky Pig, who descends on a parachute to stage level, Bugs- as Super-Rabbit, defender of the defenceless,
buddy of the buddy-less- announces cartoons with Bugs combating Marvin Martian on Earth near Bugs' hole home and in space,
both on Marvin's spaceship and space platform. Bugs also travels to Baghdad with the genie of Aladdin's Lamp, which a
greedy sheik will stop at nothing to acquire.
"A-Lad-in His Lamp" with Bugs Bunny and Smoky the Genie
"The Hasty Hare" with Bugs Bunny, Marvin Martian, and K-9
"Hare-Way to the Stars" with Bugs Bunny and Marvin Martian
Bugs Bunny Show # 9 (Nov. 6, 1971)
Mac and Tosh, the Goofy Gophers, are hosts. They spend their time politely arguing over who should introduce cartoon
features of Bugs as a bullfighter and a jailbird and Claude Cat as a hopeful puppy evictor (each insists that the other do
it); so, Bugs interrupts them and himself does the job.
"Bully For Bugs" with Bugs Bunny and the Bull
"Two's a Crowd" with Claude Cat and Frisky Puppy
"Big House Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
Bugs Bunny Show # 10 (Nov. 13, 1971)
Foghorn Leghorn is an inept soldier in the French Foreign Legion. Travelling across the Sahara Desert, Foghorn explains to
his Sergeant about how his troublesome relationships with a prissy chicken and a genius boy chick caused him to leave
America and join the French military. By dint of Bugs' ingenuity, Yosemite Sam is the repeating accidental performer in
the same death-defying high diving act that he was violently resolved to see executed by Bugs in a Wild West carnival.
"High Diving Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"Lovelorn Leghorn" with Foghorn Leghorn and Miss Prissy
"Little Boy Boo" with Foghorn Leghorn, Miss Prissy, and Egghead Jr.
Bugs Bunny Show # 11 (Nov. 20, 1971)
Bugs Bunny introduces the host for this show, Pepe Le Pew, who is in an apartment in Paris. Pepe steps onto his balcony
and gestures for the viewer to gaze upon the romance-filled parks and streets of the city. "Yes, love is everywhere, even
at the cinema." The cinema's feature, a love-story situated in a zoo, stars Pepe Le Pew. After next telling about a
romance which he had in Casablanca, Pepe suggests that viewers "take a brief respite from romance" by joining Bugs Bunny,
whose Miami Beach vacation went afoul when he mistakenly tunnelled to Antarctica.
"Scent-imental Romeo" with Pepe Le Pew
"The Cat's Bah" with Pepe Le Pew
"Frigid Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Penguin
Bugs Bunny Show # 12 (Nov. 27, 1971)
Gangsters Rocky and Mugsy are in their hideout, watching The Bugs Bunny Show. They see Bugs, in segues between cartoons
with Bugs in a vampire's Transylvanian castle and Elmer Fudd's rooster's desperate effort to delay the time of his
forecasted death, talking about the sponsors who pay substantial money to support his television programme. So, the
greedy Rocky decides to gain access to sponsorship dollars by going into the television business. They go to the studio
where Bugs' television show is being performed. Mugsy escorts Bugs off of the stage, and Rocky introduces a cartoon
concerning a singing frog, which he shows from a film projector.
"Transylvania 6-5000" with Bugs Bunny and Count Bloodcount
"Each Dawn I Crow" with Elmer Fudd and John Rooster
"One Froggy Evening" with Michigan J. Frog
Bugs Bunny Show # 13 (Dec. 4, 1971)
Elmer Fudd is host of this mainly music-oriented instalment, opened by Bugs' antics as a tuneful barber. While on stage
after cartoon one, Elmer tries to sing, but he is thwarted when the notes on his sheet music run off of their page,
reminding Elmer of his July 4 life-or-death struggle against belligerent picnic ants. Sylvester, outside of the studio,
spoils Elmer's endeavour to conduct an orchestra, by wearing boots and singing "tra-la-la" while noisily stomping up and
down a wooden stairwell. The Goofy Gophers seek to regain their vegetable harvest, which has been moved to a food
processing factory.
"Rabbit of Seville" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
"Ant Pasted" with Elmer Fudd
"I Gopher You" with the Goofy Gophers
Bugs Bunny Show # 14 (Dec. 11, 1971)
Bugs defeats Scotsman Angus McCrory in a golf game of very liberal rules prior to dressing like the portly Alfred
Hitchcock to offer a lecture on crime. Standing outside of the laboratory of one Dr. Peabody, he speaks about mad
scientists, specifically the meek inventor of a portable hole that is stolen by a shadowy bank robber. Next, he flips
through a police record archive to find a dossier on Rocky and Mugsy, two criminals who have, so far- but not for much
longer, managed to elude the law.
"My Bunny Lies Over the Sea" with Bugs Bunny and Angus McCrory
"The Hole Idea" with Calvin Q. Calculus
"Bugsy and Mugsy" with Bugs Bunny, Rocky, and Mugsy
Bugs Bunny Show # 15 (Dec. 18, 1971)
Yosemite Sam dies after being crushed by a falling safe during his evil scheme to matrimonially divest a widow of her
money- and he goes to hell, where the devil promises to release Sam's spirit and give to Sam a new lease on life, provided
that Sam bring to the devil a certain rabbit whom the devil has been trying for a long time to entrap in Hades. Sam is
returned to Earth on a movie set, where a dictatorial director, who looks and talks like Emperor Nero, orders stagehand
Sam to find a victim to feed to a hoard of lions. Sam dies again when he is feasted upon by the lions, and the devil
allocates to him one more miscarried chance to catch the bunny, as a homeowner in the American Western frontier.
"Hare Trimmed" with Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Granny
"Roman Legion-Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"The Fair Haired Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
Bugs Bunny Show # 16 (Dec. 25, 1971)
George P. Dog is introduced by Bugs as the emcee for this show, but Foghorn Leghorn decides that he would be a better
emcee and pushes the dog aside. In the cartoons that follow, Wile E. Coyote consults an electronic brain for advice on how
to snatch Bugs Bunny from his desert domicile, unaware that Bugs is the brain's one moving part, and a pair of suicidal
mice bedevil Claude Cat with pleas that he eat them. Little Henery Hawk enters the studio on his unending hunt for
chicken, and Foghorn uses a magic hat to make Henery disappear, before watching a televised interview with Bugs.
"To Hare is Human" with Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote
"Cheese Chasers" with Claude Cat, Hubie, and Bertie
"What's Up, Doc?" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
Bugs Bunny Show # 17 (Jan. 1, 1972)
Ralph Wolf's Little Bo Peep ploy to remove a sheep from the field of ba-a-a-ing grazers overseen by Sam Sheepdog is
quashed by Sam, who appears out of the carcass of the sheep that Bo Peep Ralph has selected. Daffy is so desperate to
appear on the show as the feature performer that he dresses as a Hawaiian, a musketeer, and a knight. Splendid garb but
never appropriate or soon enough for Bugs to grant to Daffy a place in any of this episode's cartoons, one thereof set
in medieval times as Bugs battles Black Knight Yosemite Sam for possession of a singing sword and the other transpiring
in a French perfume shop, as Pepe Le Pew lusts for a cat whose back has been accidentally dyed white.
"Double or Mutton" with Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog
"Knighty Knight Bugs" with Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and the Dragon
"For Scent-imental Reasons" with Pepe Le Pew
Bugs Bunny Show # 18 (Jan. 8, 1972)
An instalment distinguished by talent agent Porky Pig perusing several previously unknown acts of entertainment, Claude
Cat going insane by the upside down room contrivance of two mice intending to inhabit Claude's home, and Bugs rescuing
Hansel and Gretel from the clutches of urchin-baker Witch Hazel. On stage, Bugs gives yet another lecture on cartoon
animation, confidentially stating that, "I do Mel Blanc's voice." Daffy Duck intrudes upon the lecture, insisting that he
is a clean-up artist sent by a cartoon agency, and proceeds to redraw animation of Tweety by putting his own duck's
beak and webbed feet on the canary.
"Curtain Razor" with Porky Pig
"Mouse Wreckers" with Claude Cat, Hubie, and Bertie
"Bewitched Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel
Bugs Bunny Show # 19 (Jan. 15, 1972)
Bugs has not fully awoken and is in no condition to host the show. So, the announcer introduces the individual cartoons:
Bugs in a medieval jousting contest, Sylvester aiming to be Elmer Fudd's winter house cat, and Foghorn Leghorn playing
golf, with the barnyard dog's nose as tee.
"Knights Must Fall" with Bugs Bunny and Sir Pantsalot of Dropseat Manor
"Kit For Cat" with Sylvester and Elmer Fudd
"The Leghorn Blows at Midnight" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk
Bugs Bunny Show # 20 (Jan. 22, 1972)
After a Klondike dispute with Yosemite Sam over entitlement to gold deposits- the first cartoon of this show, Bugs is on
stage, imitating "Frankie doing an imitation of Rickie imitating Elvis." His music disturbs Yosemite Sam, who is in a
neighbouring building, trying to sleep. Sam angrily runs into the Bugs Bunny Show studio and destroys Bugs' guitar. Bugs
recollects another instance of his music provoking violence.
"14 Carrot Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"Long-Haired Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Giovanni Jones
"Claws For Alarm" with Sylvester and Porky Pig
Bugs Bunny Show # 21 (Jan. 29, 1972)
Yosemite Sam is a Saharan land baron who disapproves of Bugs' presence on his desert sands and tries to kill the rabbit
visitor to his arid estate, the Big Bad Wolf insists to his son that he was the victim of Three cruel Little Pigs who
attempted to guillotine his tail and blew down his house, and an unseen animator sketches Foghorn Leghorn with Rock
Hudson's body and then draws a broom's tail on Foghorn's backside, preceding a cartoon with Foghorn Leghorn's chickendom
in question.
"Sahara Hare" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"The Turn-Tale Wolf" with the Big Bad Wolf
"The Foghorn Leghorn" with Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk
Bugs Bunny Show # 22 (Feb. 5, 1972)
The Tasmanian Devil appears with Bugs on stage. Bugs tells of his first meeting with "Taz-Boy" in the jungle of Tasmania,
and then he prescribes a carrot diet to Taz, demonstrating how an anaemic weakling, Daffy Duck, supposedly became an
energetic and versatile cartoon star after submitting to a carrot diet.
"Rabbit Every Monday" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"Bedevilled Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian Devil
"Duck Amuck" with Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny Show # 23 (Feb. 12, 1972)
Foghorn Leghorn introduces Miss Prissy, who, Foghorn says, is an old-time actress. Foghorn reenacts some of Prissy's
famous roles, including "Romeo and Juliet", in which she played both parts, and an act involving precarious balancing on a
stack of chairs and juggling of bowling pins and hoops. Prissy initiates the cartoons by looking into a crystal ball, and
she sees mirthful musical notes preparing for collective self-rendition of "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss and Bugs
foiling a scientist's plan to transfer his consciousness into the feathered head of a chicken.
"A Fractured Leghorn" with Foghorn Leghorn
"High Note" with the Drunken Note
"Hot Cross Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and the Bespectacled Doctor
Bugs Bunny Show # 24 (Feb. 19, 1972)
It is 'Reading Out Loud Night', and Bugs selects a book from a shelf and walks into a backdrop. The book is an album of
photographs of Bugs' family and life experiences. Bugs and Elmer Fudd are the unwitting participants in a scientific study
of the behavioural influence of headgear, and Bugs combats farmer Fudd's addled automaton. Sylvester is aided by a black
panther in besting a swaggering bulldog.
"Bugs' Bonnets" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
"Tree For Two" with Sylvester, Spike, and Chester
"Robot Rabbit" with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd
Bugs Bunny Show # 25 (Feb. 26, 1972)
When Bugs descends by his special, hole-shaped elevator from the stage to his dressing room there beneath, he finds that
he has company- the show's viewer. So, Bugs as a dutiful host invites his guest to join him in watching a high-rated
television show, a parody of The Beverly Hillbillies, with Bugs honing his square dance-calling talent, with agonising
consequences for a pair of rustics of the Ozark Mountains. In a mouse version of The Honeymooners, toy bus driver Ralph
Crumden and kitchen sink worker Ned Morton strive to snatch a cupcake for a surprise birthday confection for Ralph's
spouse, Alice, from the humans' kitchen in the Brooklyn apartment in which they and their whiskered wives have
neighbouring hole dwellings. However, a cat blocks their path to the refrigerator and the cupcake therein. So, Crumden
and Morton plot to outwit their feline opponent.
"Bunker Hill Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"Hillbilly Hare" with Bugs Bunny and the Martin Brothers
"Cheese it, the Cat!" with the Honey-Mousers
Bugs Bunny Show # 26 (Mar. 4, 1972)
"The subject for tonight's show is one that has always puzzled us little denizens of the woodland glades." In yet another
lecture, Bugs talks about man. "You see, folks. Man is basically lazy. In order to keep from using his feet, he uses his
brain." The lecture addresses human methods of conveyance, including the pogo stick, the Birdie-mobile (a seat carried in
the air by a flock of birds), the horse, and the automobile in its many forms, then discusses the human need for
companionship, hence the opposite sex and marriage, with a family of bears portrayed in a cartoon as a parallel to
this human tendency.
"Mutiny On the Bunny" with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam
"There Auto Be a Law" with the Meek Car-Driver
"Bear Feat" with the Three Bears
By way of a mix of black-and-white and colour film elements, on-stage portions of The Bugs Bunny Show from episodes of Season 2 (among said episodes "Bad-Time Story", "Ball Point Puns", "Do or Diet", "The Honey-Mousers", and "A Star is Bored") were included as bonus features on releases on digital videodisc (DVD) of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in the LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION range. Full-colour restoration of The Bugs Bunny Show is reportedly not possible due to loss of the sections of colour film not utilised when the stage scenes were incorporated into instalments of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. The existence of colour third season Bugs Bunny Show episodes, last screened in Canada's eastern Maritimes in the mid-1990s, was an avenue either not pursued by the restoration team or dead-ended by an inexplicable vanishing of those third season episodes from the archives of Warner Brothers Canada. Some in-colour episodes of the first two seasons are in the hands of private collectors and possibly may be found in the vaults of broadcasters in Europe. What happened to the episodes aired on Canada's CBC television network in the mid-1970s is a mystery.
IN MEMORIAM
Cartoon directors Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and Robert McKimson
Voice characterisation performers Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan, Daws Butler, and Bea Benaderet
Musicians Carl W. Stalling, Milt Franklyn, John Seely, and Bill Lava
Title song writers Jerry Livingston and Mack David
