The original Bugs Bunny Show debuted on ABC prime time in the United States on October 11, 1960, airing on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM ET, under the sponsorship of General Foods (Post cereals, Tang, etc.).
A general credits line was shown at the end of each full episode: "Stories, Animation, layouts, and backgrounds: Members of Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839."
(The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons syndicated to local stations as a package, beginning in the 1950s, generally retained the original opening title sequences as shown in theaters.
The Bugs Bunny Show proved beneficial to the Warner Bros. cartoon staff, as it allowed the studio to remain open despite the shrinking market for theatrical animated shorts.
[5] The final first-run episode of the original Bugs Bunny Show aired on August 7, 1962,[6] and the Warner Bros. animation studio closed the following spring.
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour combined re-edited bridging sequences from both shows to link the seven cartoons featured in each episode.
Also that year, a weekly half-hour prime-time edition of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show briefly aired on CBS' Tuesday night schedule, from April through June.
CBS gave up the rights to broadcast the Warner Bros. cartoons following the 1984–1985 season, and as a result, the show moved back to ABC, where it became The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour.
Cartoons featuring Tweety or Speedy Gonzales were not broadcast on ABC during the 1985–86 season, the latter presumably due to objections toward Mexican stereotypes.
The show ran for almost four decades, helping inspire animators, comedians, historians, and others who watched Saturday morning television.
[citation needed] When Warner Bros. released their video series "Golden Jubilee" in 1985, featuring the classic cartoons, the opening sequence shows Taz maniacally riding a motorcycle down a city street chased by a police car.
Beginning in January 2021, the original "This Is It" opening sequence was included in Bugs Bunny and Friends, part of MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons block.
As the original color negatives were cut up by CBS and ABC to create later versions of the show, the linking sequences are presented on DVD using a combination of footage from both what's left of the color negatives (some of which were used in later incarnations, thus helping to preserve them) and the black-and-white ABC broadcast prints prepared in the early 1960s.
Co-Directed by: Maurice Noble NOTE: Like "Bad Time Story", the bridging sequences for this episode were included as a bonus feature on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 DVD set.
Co-directed by Maurice Noble and Tom Ray NOTE: Like "Bad Time Story", "Ball Point Puns", "Do or Diet", and "The Honey-Mousers", The bridging sequences for this episode were included as a bonus feature on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 DVD set.