Bugs's Video Career Continued...

The year 1993 saw perhaps the last batch of videos to feature only bonafide recognizable classics that were almost entirely all new-to-VHS, such as the Bugs short "Captain Hareblower." The series of domestic videos to follow premiered only scattershot assortments of gems or concentrated on heavily repeating already-released shorts.

Meanwhile in 1993 Warner Home Video released another unnamed, five-volume set of Looney Tunes videos, with each collection featuring five selections. The choice of cartoons could be considered as "no-brainers," meaning that the compilations didn't have that much creative thought put into them. Selected were some leftover classics that were overlooked in the past or had become favorites since the release of the Golden Jubilee videos. The release of cartoons such as "Baton Bunny" and "Hare Trimmed" weren't so much pleasant surprises as they were sighs of relief...as if to say, "Oh, finally they're released. Whatever."

One of the videos in this new line (Yosemite Sam's Yeller Fever) sparked the start of a recurring habit that has only grown with each Warner release, cartoon "repeats." Fever contained the Freleng oldie "Bunker Hill Bunny," which had previously been unveiled in the A Salute to Friz Freleng video back in the ol' Golden Jubilee line. The concept of repeating shorts wasn't exactly new, as some of the videos in 1986's second assortment of the Golden Jubilee line did include a few cartoons previously released on older videos (mainly repeating a few shorts from the A Salute to... videos). But after eleven years of Warner-cartoon videos with virtually no overlapping it seemed to be a bit puzzling, especially when one considers the number of Yosemite Sam cartoons that still hadn't been released on video ("Prince Violent," "Lighter Than Hare," etc.).

The off-again-on-again controversial Chuck Jones short "Frigid Hare" was just one of the handful of fan-favorite Bugs cartoons to premiere on laserdisc.

In addition to their new VHS releases, in 1993 Warner Home Video started releasing their animated titles on laserdisc for the first time. Approximately a dozen titles were released over the course of a year and a half, with titles ranging from all-Bugs collections, an all-Daffy disc, and themed compilations, among others. Almost all of the cartoons on the Golden Jubilee videos were included one way or another, as were tons of previously unreleased cartoons, some of which have yet to resurface on VHS.

The real genius is the one who can market to collectors a video that contains only 17 percent new material.

After a three-year wait for new videos, more of the aforementioned "repeats" started turning up in the next Warner releases--1996's Carrotblanca and Chariots of Fur, two videos that were released to feature recent theatrical Looney Tunes cartoons (an additional Bugs video turned up in this manner in 1998 with From Hare to Eternity).

It was also around this time that a new full-length Looney Tunes movie was released, the nauseous Michael Jordan "tribute" Space Jam. Fortunately for real Looney Tunes fans, though, Warner Bros. celebrated the movie by releasing a set of five new cartoon compilations.

One of the more-interesting volumes in the Stars of Space Jam line belonged to Daffy Duck, whose video featured an odd mix of cartoons by Friz Freleng, Arthur Davis, and particularly Robert McKimson. The uncut version of McKimson's "Boston Quackie" was a highlight on this video.

The six-cartoon videos in the Stars of Space Jam assortment each focused on one Looney Tunes star, particularly one video containing all of the Tasmanian Devil's shorts. A new Bugs video was of course included in the line, featuring an odd mix of forgotten Saturday-morning classics ("Apes of Wrath"), early post-1948 cartoons ("Hot Cross Bunny"), and a few "secondary" Chuck Jones shorts ("Forward March Hare").

American fans had to wait two whole years before the sixth Stars of Space Jam compilation would be released, featuring such long sought-after shorts as "Rocket Squad" and "The Hasty Hare."

Over in Europe an additional Stars of Space Jam video was released, titled Space Tunes and featuring a variety of space-themed films (it would be released stateside in 1998 as a Marvin the Martian compilation). While in Japan, Warner Home Video released the Stars of Space Jam videos on laserdisc as a limited-edition three-disc set.

"Bugs and Thugs" was one of the few 1950s cartoons in the international Bugs & Friends collection, which focused on a bizarre mix of films from one of the studio's lesser periods, 1959 to 1966. "Thugs" would finally see a domestic release on DVD in 2003.

In 1997 a second three-laserdisc set was released in Japan. Titled Bugs & Friends, it appears that the compilations contained in these laserdiscs were to be released in the United States as a "sequel" to the Stars of Space Jam collection (which seems apparent mainly due to the fact that all of the cartoons in this set would have been new to VHS). The Bugs & Friends compilations were also released on VHS in Germany, France, Mexico, and many other countries as well, making the United States the only major video market to not carry them!

Each side of the laserdisc grouped Bugs cartoons with cartoons of other Looney Tunes stars. Bugs shared compilations with Tweety, Daffy, the Road Runner, Speedy Gonzales(!), and Marvin the Martian.

"Hyde and Hare," which in recent years has become somewhat of a fan favorite, is one of the only 1950s shorts in the Bugs & Friends series to not turn up on VHS in the United States, although it has been released on both laserdisc and DVD.

However, the selection of the cartoons differed from previous Warner sets. Unlike the earlier compilations that contained older, "classic" cartoons, this set mostly consisted of more-obscure Warner films produced after 1960 (although each compilation in this set did in fact include a pre-1960 "classic"), including a few low-budget cartoons from the post-1964 Depatie-Freleng era.

Sadly, a domestic release for this set was not meant to be, despite the fact that it contained a few fan-favorite Bugs cartoons (such as "Rabbit's Kin" and "Hyde and Hare"). Most likely Warner Home Video thought a set comprised of mostly 1960s cartoons wouldn't sell, especially since the label's domestic releases at the time were focusing more on the newer theatrical cartoons or were tied in to other promotional endeavors.

"Lumberjack Rabbit," the studio's only 3-D short, was a curious yet more-than-welcome addition to the Marvin the Martian & K-9: Fifty Years on Earth! video.

All was not lost, though. In 1998 Warner Home Video test-launched a new Looney Tunes Presents line of videos by releasing two Marvin the Martian compilations. All of Bugs's cartoons with Marvin were included in the set, as were a few non-Bugs (and non-Marvin!) space cartoons and a new-to-video, non-space Bugs cartoon, "Lumberjack Rabbit."

The overall look of these videos could best be described as "hastily assembled." One of the two compilations was already assembled in 1996 for the Stars of Space Jam series. Old licensing poses dominated the video boxes' artwork (including the image from the cover of the Japanese Bugs & Marvin laserdisc!) and the choice of the non-Marvin cartoons was a little questionable (Where was "Lighter Than Hare?" Or "Martian Through Georgia?"). The one pleasant surprise was that for the first time ever, Warner Home Video released a pre-1948 short on one of its videos ("Haredevil Hare"). This surprise, which would have seemed unforeseeable as little as five years ago, resulted from Time Warner's merger (buyout) with Turner Entertainment, thus bringing the Looney Tunes in Turner's library back under the Warner umbrella. For the first time since 1957 the pre-1948 cartoons were back in Warner's control.

A moment many die-hard fans thought would never happen, as "Haredevil Hare" becomes the first cartoon from the former Turner library to be featured on a Warner Home Video release.

Despite the few downsides, the two Marvin videos proved to be successful enough for Warner Bros. to officially launch its Looney Tunes Presents line with two new Tweety compilations in the summer of 1999, and at the same time announced plans for two all-new Bugs Bunny videos to be released later in the year!

Sadly, this did not come to be. Only one new Bugs compilation would be released (Big Top Bunny), while the previously announced "second" Bugs video ended up being a rerelease of Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie under the Looney Tunes Presents banner. Additionally, a "new" compilation containing the cartoons from both of 1998's Marvin the Martian tapes was released.

The Big Top Bunny video featured a handful of cartoons that fans had been dying for on VHS, such as "Rabbit's Kin" and "The Abominable Snow-Rabbit."

Still, Big Top Bunny contained several new-to-domestic-VHS (whew!) cartoons such as "Rabbit's Kin"(!), "Foxy By Proxy," and "Rabbit Rampage"; a few more "repeats"; and even included a couple of pre-1948 Bugs cartoons such as "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" (even though they were the marred Cartoon Network prints with new end tags). The selection of "new" post- 1948 titles were taken from the Bugs & Friends laserdiscs, possibly as a way to apologize to U.S. collectors who couldn't purchase that set.

"French Rarebit" was one of the very few noteworthy VHS premieres in Columbia House's Looney Tunes: The Collector's Edition mail-order series.

Meanwhile, Warner Home Video announced its plans to release extra-long Looney Tunes compilations through the Columbia House mail-order service. Originally Jerry Beck was to compile all of the videos' contents, but the final result (due to Warner letting a "committee" pick the films with Jerry) was a hackneyed mix of cartoon "repeats," one or two new-to-video cartoons, and some pre-1948 selections. A list of the contents of the first ten volumes can be found at Jon Cooke's Looney Tunes News web page.

"Mississippi Hare" remains one of the last truly outstanding Bugs Bunny cartoons not yet released on VHS or, now, DVD.

For the fall of 1999 the Bugs Bunny Video Guide (the site you're looking at, doc) put up a poll asking fans and collectors which as-yet-unreleased Bugs Bunny cartoons they would like to see on VHS, similar to a Scooby-Doo poll Warner Home Video ran earlier in the year. The top five fan favorites were the Chuck Jones classic "Mississippi Hare," the Friz Freleng cartoon "Napoleon Bunny-Part" (rarely seen uncut on TV up until recently), Robert McKimson's early "Bushy Hare" (featuring a sadistic Australian aborigine), the recent Ford/Lennon effort "Blooper Bunny"...and the most-requested Bugs short on the list, Friz Freleng's "Which is Witch?" It should be noted that three of the five most-requested cartoons have been edited or long-unseen on television due to featuring an ethnic stereotype of some kind (they were also pulled from Cartoon Network's "complete" June Bugs marathon in 2001). The results of the poll were forwarded to Warner Home Video as a massive "fan request," which seems to have been completely ignored.

In early 2000 Warner Home Video discontinued about 85 percent of its Looney Tunes video catalog, intent on making the Looney Tunes Presents line the sole video source for classic Warner Bros. cartoons.

In 2000 Taz's second compilation of shorts caused perhaps the biggest headache among fans than any other previous release.

In March it was announced that WHV would be releasing a new addition to the ...Presents collection that July, a Tasmanian Devil video titled Taz's Jungle Jams (while saying nothing of a Road Runner compilation that was promised the previous year). This new collection was scheduled to include the six Taz cartoons from the 1996 video Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil (his entire classic-era filmography), plus four other "jungle"- themed cartoons. Among the announced cartoons were the Beaky Buzzard film "The Lion's Busy," the Chuck Jones one-shot "Nelly's Folly," and the two Bugs cartoons "Apes of Wrath" and "Bushy Hare"(!!!!!!!!!!!!). Needless to say, fans were on the verge of salivating with this release.

Sadly in April, though, an updated content list was released. All of the non-Taz shorts except "Apes of Wrath" were replaced with other, less-anticipated cartoons. The Looney Tunes Presents line had cartoon problems from the start (the two Tweety tapes had gotten two cartoons mixed up; each tape listed one of the other videos' shorts), but this new release made it clear that Warner Home Video was simply content with rehashing oft-released material.

By late 2000 it became increasingly apparent that Warner Home Video wanted to concentrate more on its expanding DVD library than its VHS releases. The rumblings within the animation industry was that the company had started to restore and remaster the Looney Tunes cartoons (including removing the "Blue Ribbon" reissue titles) to get them ready for a grand DVD release. This could explain why Warner Bros. had not released any new VHS collections...that, or the company decided it could make quicker money with properties such as Scooby-Doo and the Powerpuff Girls (both of which already had DVDs on store shelves).

The only new Looney Tunes VHS release during this time was a repackaging of the two Bugs Bunny Halloween TV specials, placing them both on one video (Bugs Bunny's Halloween Hijinks). A new "special edition" DVD of the abysmal movie Space Jam also surfaced with commentary by Bugs and Daffy, but as any fan knows, the words "Space Jam" mean "AVOID AT ALL COSTS!"

In spring of 2001 it was announced that Columbia House would expand its Looney Tunes Collector's Edition line with five more compilations. The proposed contents of the new assortment were nothing to write home about save for a few black-and-white cartoons (and the same could be said for the first ten volumes, for that matter). This potentially great video line had instead turned into a predictable, costly tease for collectors who had tracked down all of the previous Warner Home Video collections in stores.

Meanwhile in Japan, Warner Home Video decided to release three Tweety compilations on DVD! Each collection contained ten of the bird's 1950s cartoons and a bonus Bugs short. Region 1 fans were a little peeved, wondering why Warner's U.S. division hadn't made any similar DVD plans.

In July a new disappointment arose when the only "new" video release was a VHS reissue of Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1,001 Rabbit Tales. The cover had abandoned the Looney Tunes Presents banner that topped the Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie reissue only a year before. Although it was never said out loud, it was quite clear the disappearance of the Presents header meant the end of any regular VHS Looney Tunes collections.

The beginning of the century was a very weird time for Bugs Bunny fans, and for Looney Tunes fans in general. There was nothing in sight as far as any releases on VHS or DVD outside of the five paltry Columbia House offerings, and with the closings of the Warner Bros. Studio Stores in the fall of 2001, Warner was now without an exclusive outlet to release collections that would give them proper shelf space.

But, unbeknownst to the fans, it was most certainly NOT all, folks!