132-409: Pullet Surprise is a 1997 Looney Tunes short released in theaters with Cats Don't Dance . It was produced by Chuck Jones Film Productions . Pete Puma attempts to steal from Foghorn Leghorn's henhouse. Foghorn outwits Pete by sending him on wild goose chases for exotic chickens, including a Venezuelan Racing Chicken and an Irish Wrestling Chicken. Despite Foghorn's tricks, Pete manages to snatch
264-404: A Flintstones theme and many of the buildings today have a caveman-like design, though the park no longer licenses the characters. The Australia's Wonderland and Canada's Wonderland theme parks, both featured Flintstones characters in their Hanna-Barbera-themed children's sections from 1985 until the mid-1990s. Kings Island (near Cincinnati ) and Kings Dominion (near Richmond, Virginia) had
396-417: A Looney Tunes reboot film titled Acme , in development. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jenny Slate was said to be on board as writer for the new film. Jeffrey Clifford, Harry Potter producer David Heyman , and Dark Shadows writers David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith were slated to produce the film. On August 27, 2014, writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz were hired to script
528-599: A Hanna-Barbera land, in which many Hanna-Barbera characters were featured, including the Flintstones, in the early 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Bedrock is one of the themed lands in the indoor Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi park in Abu Dhabi , United Arab Emirates , mainly home to the Flintstones Bedrock River Adventure flume ride. A stage production opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1994 (the year
660-419: A baby girl named Pebbles. Barney and Betty Rubble are their neighbors and best friends, and later on adopt a super-strong baby boy named Bamm-Bamm and acquire a pet hopparoo (kangaroo) called Hoppy. Producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera , who had earned seven Academy Awards for Tom and Jerry , and their staff faced a challenge in developing a thirty-minute animated program with one storyline that fit
792-526: A black duck who was originally portrayed as a screwball , but later became greedy and egocentric; Porky Pig , a stuttering pig who often appears as the straight man to Daffy, and is the oldest of the franchise's recurring characters; Sylvester the Cat , his prey Tweety (a small canary), and their elderly owner Granny ; Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner , who routinely engage in high-speed chases in their home in
924-405: A boy, but the head of the marketing department convinced them to change it to a girl since "girl dolls sell a lot better than boy dolls". Although most Flintstones episodes were stand-alone storylines, Hanna-Barbera created a story arc surrounding the birth of Pebbles . Beginning with the episode "The Surprise", aired midway through the third season, in which Wilma reveals her pregnancy to Fred,
1056-447: A chicken. Foghorn retaliates by tricking Pete into a trap, but is ultimately defeated by a real Irish Wrestling Chicken. This Looney Tunes –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Looney Tunes Looney Tunes is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside
1188-409: A child from the start was discarded, with Fred and Wilma starting out as a childless couple. However, some early Flintstones merchandise, such as a 1961 Little Golden Book , included "Fred Jr". Despite the animation and fantasy setting, the series was initially aimed at adult audiences. This was reflected in the comedy, which resembled the primetime sitcoms of the era, with family issues resolved at
1320-413: A day. So finally on the very last day I pitched it to ABC, which was a young daring network willing to try new things, and bought the show in 15 minutes. Thank goodness, because this was the very last day and if they hadn't bought it, I would have taken everything down, put it in the archives and never pitched it again. Sometimes I wake up in a cold-sweat thinking this is how close you get to disaster. When
1452-525: A few have gained theatrical releases with movies. In the 1970s through the early 1990s, several feature-film compilations and television specials were produced, mostly centering on Bugs Bunny and/or Daffy Duck, with a mixture of new and old footage. These releases include The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982), Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983), and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988). In 1976,
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#17328633496421584-483: A hit. It was the first American animated show to depict two people of the opposite sex (Fred and Wilma; Barney and Betty) sleeping together in one bed, although Fred and Wilma are sometimes depicted as sleeping in separate beds. The first live-action depiction of this in American TV history was in television's first sitcom: 1947's Mary Kay and Johnny . The first two seasons were co-sponsored by Winston cigarettes and
1716-576: A made-for-TV crossover movie in 1987), the revival programs were not widely syndicated or rerun alongside the original series. Original runs : Compilation shows : In 2011, it was announced Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane would be reviving The Flintstones for the Fox network, with the first episode airing in 2013. After Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly read the pilot script and "liked it but didn't love it", MacFarlane chose to abandon work on
1848-544: A new arrangement, by William Lava , of " The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down " which had first been used in the 1963 experimental short " Now Hear This " directed by Chuck Jones. In 1967, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts commissioned an animation studio in South Korea to redraw 79 black-and-white Looney Tunes produced from 1935 to 1943 in color which were syndicated to TV stations from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. The original Looney Tunes theatrical series ran from 1930's Sinkin' in
1980-416: A newsboy, telephone operator, hotel clerk, and a spoof of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Barbera explained that selling the show to a network and sponsors was not an easy task. Here we were with a brand new thing that had never been done before, an animated prime-time television show. So we developed two storyboards; one was they had a helicopter of some kind and they went to the opera or whatever, and
2112-517: A regular television series in Canada in September 2019, but ended up airing in September 2020. The show started airing on February 3, 2020, on Boomerang UK. In 2014, it was announced that Warner Bros. was developing an animated film with Chris Henchy , Will Ferrell , and Adam McKay , to write the script for the project. Ferrell and McKay would also be executive producers. In 2018, it was confirmed that
2244-468: A relatable reality. The dialogue style of The Flintstones set a precedent for acting in animation that continues to exist today, and is sometimes falsely attributed in modern animated productions as "revolutionary." In a 1986 Playboy interview, Gleason said Alan Reed had done voice-overs for Gleason in his early movies, and that he had considered suing Hanna-Barbera for copying The Honeymooners , but decided to let it pass. According to Henry Corden ,
2376-547: A series depicting Fred and Barney as police officers, another depicting the characters as children , and yet others featuring Fred and Barney encountering Marvel Comics superhero The Thing and Al Capp 's comic strip character The Shmoo —have appeared over the years. The original show also was adapted into a live-action film in 1994, and a prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas , which followed in 2000. Unlike its sister show The Jetsons (the two shows appeared in
2508-419: A series of animated shorts to promote their music. They had recently acquired Brunswick Records along with four music publishers for US$ 28 million (equivalent to $ 511 million in 2024) and were eager to promote this material for the sales of sheet music and phonograph records. Warner made a deal with Leon Schlesinger to produce cartoons for them. Schlesinger hired Rudolf Ising and Hugh Harman to produce
2640-460: A show called Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon between 1988 and 1999. Initially, the Nickelodeon package included cartoons that were typically omitted from the higher-profile Saturday morning network and syndicated weekday packages, including black-and-white Bosko cartoons that had not aired in many years and cartoons from the late DePattie–Freling and Seven Arts eras. In January 1999, it was reported that
2772-417: A small child enjoyed, say, The Flintstones might regard that show fondly today. I have a lot more trouble understanding why anyone would try to defend anything about it on artistic grounds." Despite the mixed critical reviews following its premiere, The Flintstones has generally been considered a television classic and was rerun continuously for five decades after its end. In 1961, The Flintstones became
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#17328633496422904-467: A streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery , while the complete series can be found on Tubi , a streaming service owned by Fox Corporation . On August 1, 2024, the program can also be found on Hulu . In Canada, The Flintstones first aired Monday nights at 9:00 Eastern time on CBC Television until the third season when it moved to the CTV Television Network . At the time, CTV aired
3036-510: A style reminiscent of the styles of Tex Avery , Bob Clampett , Chuck Jones , Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson . According to co-executive producer Peter Browngardt , "We're not doing guns, but we can do cartoony violence — TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in." Sam Register , president of Warner Bros. Animation also served as a co-executive producer for the series. The series ended on July 27, 2023. On February 11, 2021, it
3168-480: A tribute to the Looney Tunes sister shorts) which features the characters singing original songs, as well as CGI animated shorts starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (which were removed after the first season). The series was cancelled after its second season. Also, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner returned to the big screen in a series of 3-D shorts that preceded select Warner Bros. films. There were six in
3300-498: A vicious, brutal marsupial with an insatiable appetite; Pepé Le Pew , a French skunk who is always looking for love and romance; and Speedy Gonzales , the self-proclaimed "fastest mouse in all of Mexico". One additional major character was introduced in post-Golden Age Looney Tunes media (starting with Space Jam ): Lola Bunny , a female rabbit who is usually portrayed as Bugs' girlfriend. Due to content considered offensive, stereotyped or insensitive, in 1968 Warner Bros. removed
3432-435: A voice actor and a friend of Gleason's, "Jackie's lawyers told him he could probably have The Flintstones pulled right off the air. But they also told him, 'Do you want to be known as the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air? The guy who took away a show so many kids love and so many parents love, too?'" Henry Corden first spoke for Fred Flintstone on the 1965 record album Songs From Mary Poppins , then continued doing
3564-538: Is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions , which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series with a prime-time slot on television. The show follows the lives of Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their pet dinosaur, Dino, and they later on have
3696-429: Is derived from part of the 'B' section of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 Movement 2, composed in 1801/02. "Meet the Flintstones" was later used in the first two seasons in syndication. The musical underscores were credited to Hoyt Curtin for the show's first five seasons; Ted Nichols took over in 1965 for the final season. Many early episodes used the underscores composed for Top Cat and The Jetsons . Episodes of
3828-478: Is regarded as a cultural icon and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies films are ranked among the greatest animated cartoons of all time, and five of them have won Academy Awards . In 2013, TV Guide counted Looney Tunes as the third greatest television cartoon series of all time, behind The Simpsons and The Flintstones , the latter of which also featured
3960-667: Is set in a comical version of the Stone Age , with features and technologies that resemble mid-20th-century suburban United States. The plots deliberately resemble the sitcoms of the era, with the caveman Flintstone and Rubble families getting into minor conflicts characteristic of modern life. The show is set in the Stone Age town of Bedrock (pop. 2,500), where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures are portrayed as co-existing with cavemen, saber-toothed cats , and woolly mammoths . Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman considers that
4092-478: The Boomerang streaming service and HBO Max . Five dozen Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts from before December 1943 have lapsed into the public domain and are thus freely distributed through various unofficial releases. The major characters of the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series are Bugs Bunny , a clever and insouciant rabbit or hare who is portrayed as a trickster ; Daffy Duck ,
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4224-519: The Looney Tunes characters made their way into the amusement park business when they became the mascots for Marriott's two Great America theme parks in Gurnee, Illinois, and Santa Clara, California. After the Gurnee park was sold to Six Flags in 1984, they also claimed the rights to use the characters at the other Six Flags parks, which continues to the present. (Warner Bros. parent company Time Warner would own
4356-622: The Southwest American desert; Elmer Fudd , an unintelligent hunter who is Bugs' oldest nemesis; Yosemite Sam , a hot-tempered cowboy who is another of Bugs' archenemies; Foghorn Leghorn , a rooster who is known for his often excessive ranting; Marvin the Martian , an alien commander from the planet Mars , who aims to conquer the Earth; the Tasmanian Devil (often nicknamed "Taz" in later media),
4488-606: The " Censored Eleven " episodes of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from broadcast or distribution. Depictions included those of African Americans (as in Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and Jungle Jitters ), Native Americans , Japanese people (especially during WWII, as in Tokio Jokio and Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips ), Germans , Italians , White Southerners , and Mexicans . The Flintstones The Flintstones
4620-410: The 1990 spinoff series Tiny Toon Adventures , from executive producer Steven Spielberg , where they played teachers and mentors to a younger generation of cartoon characters ( Plucky Duck , Hamton J. Pig , Babs and Buster Bunny , etc.), plus occasional cameos in the later Warner Bros. shows such as Animaniacs (also from Spielberg) and Histeria! . Traditional cel animation was used to animate
4752-578: The 1990s at Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina . In Canada, Flintstone Park in Kelowna, British Columbia , opened in 1968 and closed in 1998; it was notable for the "Forty Foot Fred" billboard of Fred Flintstone which was a well-known Kelowna landmark. Another Flintstones park was located in Bridal Falls, British Columbia , which closed in 1990. Calaway Park outside Calgary , Alberta, also opened with
4884-517: The 2009 Cartoon Network upfront , The Looney Tunes Show was announced. After several delays, the series premiered on May 3, 2011. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation , the series centers on Bugs and Daffy as they leave the woods and move to the suburbs with "colorful neighbors" including Sylvester, Tweety, Granny, Yosemite Sam, etc. The series introduced the character Tina Russo , a duck who becomes Daffy's girlfriend. The show also features 2-minute music videos titled respectfully "Merrie Melodies" (as
5016-739: The Bathtub to 1969's Injun Trouble by Robert McKimson . A Cool Cat cartoon called "Stage Cat" was planned, about Cool Cat being in a stage production, but it was cancelled when Warner Bros.-Seven Arts shut down. The Looney Tunes series' popularity was further strengthened when it began airing on network and syndicated television in the 1950s under various titles and formats. The Looney Tunes shorts were broadcast with edits to remove scenes of violence (particularly suicidal gags and scenes of characters performing dangerous stunts that impressionable viewers could easily imitate), stereotypes, and alcohol consumption. Production of theatrical animated shorts
5148-527: The Bosko characters from Harman and Ising's estates. Meanwhile, the Schlesinger studio continued to make popular cartoons until 1944 when Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. Since then, Warner Bros. has owned all rights to all post-1933 characters created by Leon Schlesinger Productions and Warner Bros. Cartoons, even after the rights to individual cartoons were placed in other hands. In 1955, Warner Bros. sold
5280-484: The Cat in the Merrie Melodies cartoon I Haven't Got a Hat , directed by Friz Freleng. Beans was the star of the next Porky/Beans cartoon, Gold Diggers of '49 , but it was Porky who emerged as the star instead of Beans. The ensemble characters of I Haven't Got a Hat , such as Oliver Owl and the twin dogs Ham and Ex, were also given a sampling of shorts. Beans and Porky proved much more popular in comparison. Beans
5412-520: The Martian (debuted in 1948's Haredevil Hare ), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (debuted in 1949's Fast and Furry-ous ), Granny (debuted in 1950's Canary Row ), Speedy Gonzales (debuted in 1953's Cat Tails for Two ), the Tasmanian Devil (debuted in 1954's Devil May Hare ), and Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog (debuted in 1953's Don't Give Up the Sheep ). It was during this era that
Pullet Surprise - Misplaced Pages Continue
5544-526: The North American theatrical distribution rights to the film. On December 31, 2022, 256 shorts were removed from HBO Max, including What's Opera, Doc? and Duck Amuck , though many were later re-added in March 2024 when the shorts on the service were rotated. In August 2024, it was announced that Warner Bros. was planning to relaunch the Looney Tunes theatrical film series in 2028. In October 2024, it
5676-484: The Pain , in 2014. In March 2000, it was revealed that the entire Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies library would be exclusive to Cartoon Network, starting with the fall of that year. Looney Tunes shorts were still airing on Disney's ABC as part of The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show at the time and the decision led to the show's cancellation. This decision would remain in effect for over 20 years until MeTV began airing
5808-510: The Six Flags chain in whole or part form most of the 1990s.) In 1988, several Looney Tunes characters appeared in cameo roles in the Disney film Who Framed Roger Rabbit . The more significant cameos featured Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, and Yosemite Sam. It is the only time in which Looney Tunes characters have shared screen time with their rivals at Disney (producers of the film)—particularly in
5940-541: The Stone Age because "you could take anything that was current, and convert it to stone-age". Under the working title The Flagstones , a treatment was written by Harry Winkler . The family originally consisted of Fred, Wilma, and their son, Fred, Jr. A brief demonstration film was also created to sell the idea of a "modern stone-age family" to sponsors and the network. It was a difficult sell, and required eight weeks of daily presentations to networks and ad agencies. June Foray and Hanna-Barbera regular Daws Butler voiced
6072-439: The Stone Age setting. Its animation required a balance of visual with verbal storytelling that the studio created and others imitated. The Flintstones was the most financially successful and longest-running network animated television series for three decades, until The Simpsons surpassed it in 1997. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Flintstones the second-greatest TV cartoon of all time, after The Simpsons . The show
6204-461: The TV distribution rights to the black and white cartoons. In 1956, Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) acquired television distribution rights to most of Warner Bros.' pre-1950 library, including all Merrie Melodies (except for those sold to Guild and Lady, Play Your Mandolin! ) and color Looney Tunes shorts that were released prior to August 1948, while Warner still owned the copyright to all of
6336-603: The TV special, A Flintstone Christmas . Since 2000, Jeff Bergman , James Arnold Taylor , and Scott Innes , who performs both Fred and Barney for Toshiba commercials, have performed the voice of Fred. Since Mel Blanc's death in 1989, Barney has been voiced by Jeff Bergman , Frank Welker , Scott Innes , and Kevin Michael Richardson . Various additional character voices were performed by Hal Smith , Allan Melvin , Janet Waldo , Daws Butler, and Howard Morris , among others. The opening and closing credits theme during
6468-696: The United States. One was Bedrock City in Custer, South Dakota . It closed in 2015 when the new owner Mike Tennyson and Warner Bros. could not come to an agreement over changes. It was too expensive for the repairs and changes that Warner Bros. wanted, having Tennyson closed it. The entire site was bulldozed in April 2019. The second one, near Williams, Arizona, was still open for the summer of 2019 but slated to close by 2020. It cost $ 5 per person to get in. Both parks had been in operation for decades. A third park existed until
6600-462: The a.a.p. library to WB. Since then, Warner Home Video (now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment ) has held the video rights to the entire Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies animated output by virtue of Warner Bros.' ownership of Turner Entertainment. Starting in 1960, the cartoons were repackaged into several different TV programs that remained popular for several decades before being purchased by Turner Broadcasting System. Turner's Cartoon Network reran
6732-490: The adult audience with an animated situation comedy . Hanna and Barbera considered making the two families hillbillies, a theme which was later incorporated into two episodes, "The Bedrock Hillbillies" and "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes", ancient Romans , an idea which was later developed into The Roman Holidays , pilgrims , and American Indians before deciding on a Stone Age setting. According to Barbera, they settled on
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#17328633496426864-559: The arc continued through the time leading up to Pebbles's birth in the episode "Dress Rehearsal", and then continued with several episodes showing Fred and Wilma adjusting to parenthood. Around this time, Winston pulled out their sponsorship and Welch's grape juice and grape jellies became the primary sponsor, as the show's audience began to shift towards a younger demographic. The integrated commercials for Welch's products feature Pebbles asking for grape juice in her toddler dialect, and Fred explaining to Pebbles Welch's unique process for making
6996-592: The box office. A reboot of Tiny Toon Adventures titled Tiny Toons Looniversity premiered on September 8, 2023, on Max and then aired the following day on Cartoon Network. The Looney Tunes characters reprise their roles as the professors at Acme Looniversity in this series. In September 2021, it was reported that a film based on the Looney Tunes Cartoons , titled The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig ,
7128-451: The cartoon studio in 1944 to Warner Bros. and went into retirement; he died five years later. More popular Looney Tunes characters were created (most of which first appeared in Merrie Melodies cartoons), such as Pepé Le Pew (debuted in 1945's Odor-able Kitty ), Sylvester (debuted in 1945's Life with Feathers ), Yosemite Sam (debuted in 1945's Hare Trigger ), Foghorn Leghorn (debuted in 1946's Walky Talky Hawky ), Marvin
7260-662: The cartoons from its launch in 1992 until 2004, again from 2009 until 2017, and making a temporary return in April 2023 to celebrate WB's 100th anniversary. The Looney Tunes Show (not to be confused with the 2010s animated series of the same name ), an early 2000s anthology produced by Warner Bros. Animation for the network, was broadcast from 2001 to 2004. The show featured shorts from the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical series. As of 2021, classic cartoons continue to air on CN's sister channel, Boomerang and MeTV . Differing curated collections of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies are available for streaming on both
7392-401: The cartoons shown on Nickelodeon would move to Cartoon Network in the fall of that year. To date, Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon is the longest-airing animated series on the network that was not a Nicktoon . In 1996, Space Jam , a live-action animated film , was released to theaters starring Bugs Bunny and basketball player Michael Jordan . Despite a mixed critical reception, the film
7524-526: The cartoons. Unlike the previous TV package, this package had the Warner titles kept intact and an "Associated Artists Productions presents" title inserted at the head of each reel (as a result, each Merrie Melodies cartoon had the song " Merrily We Roll Along " playing twice). Two years later, United Artists bought a.a.p. (which had also bought Paramount's Popeye films) who merged the company into its television division, United Artists Television . In 1981, UA
7656-589: The changeover was Warner's decision to re-release only the color cartoons in the Blue Ribbon Classics series of Merrie Melodies . Bugs made a cameo appearance in 1942 in the Avery/Clampett cartoon Crazy Cruise and also at the end of the Frank Tashlin 1943 cartoon Porky Pig's Feat , which marked Bugs' only official appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes short. Schlesinger sold his interest in
7788-481: The characters appeared in several black-and-white television commercials for Winston. This was dictated by the custom, at that time, that the stars of a TV series often "pitched" their sponsor's product in an "integrated commercial" at the end of the episode. During the third season, Hanna and Barbera decided that Fred and Wilma should have a baby. Originally, Hanna and Barbera intended for the Flintstone family to have
7920-510: The characters for Looney Tunes' cartoons until 1999 when it was replaced with digital ink and paint animation . In 1979, Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol premiered. After The Chocolate Chase , there would not be another short released for seven years. In 1990, it was made so there would be about one short per year until 1998. In 2003, there would be seven shorts produced to promote Looney Tunes: Back in Action . The first of these to be released
8052-444: The characters for the demonstration film, but Foray was dropped without warning before production began; Foray was upset about the rejection and refused to work with Hanna-Barbera for many years afterward, despite Barbera's efforts to offer her other work. Animator Kenneth Muse , who worked on the Tom and Jerry cartoons, also worked on the early seasons of The Flintstones . William Hanna
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#17328633496428184-483: The classic Warner Bros. cartoons (along with MGM and Paramount's library) in January 2021. In 2003, another feature film was released, this time in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the original shorts: the live-action/animated Looney Tunes: Back in Action . Although the film was not financially successful, it was met with mixed-to-positive reviews from film critics and has been argued by animation historians and fans as
8316-409: The color Merrie Melodies shorts following the success of 1940's A Wild Hare , and formally joined the Looney Tunes series with the release of Buckaroo Bugs in 1944. Schlesinger began to phase in the production of color Looney Tunes with the 1942 cartoon The Hep Cat . The final black-and-white Looney Tunes short was Puss n' Booty in 1943, directed by Frank Tashlin . The inspiration for
8448-427: The contest and received an all-expenses-paid trip to tour Hanna-Barbera Studios. Another arc occurred in the fourth season, in which the Rubbles, depressed over being unable to have children of their own, adopt Bamm-Bamm. This made The Flintstones the first animated series to address the issue of infertility , though subtly. The 100th episode made but the 90th to air, "Little Bamm-Bamm Rubble", established how Bamm-Bamm
8580-544: The decade. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck became the featured Looney Tunes characters, while Merrie Melodies featured one-shot cartoons and minor recurring characters. After Bugs Bunny became popular in the Merrie Melodies shorts of the early 1940s, Looney Tunes moved from black and white to color production, Merrie Melodies having already been in color since 1934. The two series gradually lost their distinctions, and shorts were assigned to each series arbitrarily. From 1942 to 1964, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were
8712-435: The earliest episodes, "The Prowler." Reed was insistent on playing Fred in a relatively natural speaking voice, rather than a broad, "cartoony" style. Few animated short cartoons used this "straightforward" method, except for experimental studios like UPA and feature films with more realistic characters. The performances of Reed and the cast, combined with the writing, helped to ground the animated world of The Flintstones in
8844-443: The end of each episode, as well as the inclusion of a laugh track . Hanna and Barbera hired many writers from live-action, including two of Jackie Gleason's writers, Herbert Finn and Sydney Zelinka, as well as relative newcomer Joanna Lee . However, they still used traditional animation writers, such as Warren Foster and Michael Maltese . The Flintstones premiered on September 30, 1960, at 8:30 pm Eastern time, and quickly became
8976-511: The film, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa were in talks to direct the film, while actor Steve Carell was rumored to be starring in a lead role. Despite this, the film never entered production. At the 2014 Cartoon Network upfront , another series titled Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production (later New Looney Tunes ) was announced. Starring Bugs Bunny, the series premiered on both Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang in late 2015. The series had an unusually slow rollout, with
9108-637: The final volume of the Golden Collection was released. Then, from 2010 until 2013, the company released the Looney Tunes Super Stars DVDs. There have been numerous complaints regarding the Super Stars releases, however (particularly the first two), having the post-1953 shorts in a 16:9 widescreen format. The last DVD in the Super Stars series was Sylvester and Hippety Hopper: Marsupial Mayhem , released on April 23, 2013. 2010 and 2011 saw
9240-535: The finest original feature-length appearance of the cartoon characters. In 2006, Warner Home Video released a new and Christmas-themed Looney Tunes direct-to-video film called Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas , a parody of Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol . Other Looney Tunes TV series made during this time were Baby Looney Tunes (2001–2006), Duck Dodgers (2003–2005) and Loonatics Unleashed (2005–2007). On October 22, 2007, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons became available for
9372-499: The first animated series to be nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series , but lost out to The Jack Benny Program . In January 2009, IGN named The Flintstones as the ninth-best in its "Top 100 Animated TV Shows". The first season of the series received an approval rating of 100% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , based on nine reviews, with an average score of 6/10. Common Sense Media gave
9504-436: The first series of cartoons. Schlesinger was impressed by Harman's and Ising's 1929 pilot cartoon, Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid . The first Looney Tunes short was Sinkin' in the Bathtub starring Bosko , which was released in 1930. When Harman and Ising left Warner Bros. in 1933 over a budget dispute with Schlesinger, they took with them all the rights of the characters they had created. A new character called Buddy became
9636-674: The first time in High-definition via Microsoft 's Xbox Live service, including some in Spanish. From February 29 – May 18, 2008, many Looney Tunes artifacts, including original animation cels and concept drawings, were on display at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio , just off the campus of Youngstown State University , near where the Warners lived early in life. At
9768-498: The first titled Daffy's Rhapsody with Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, the next being I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat with Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny. Daffy's Rhapsody was to precede the film Happy Feet Two , until the studio decided to premiere I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat instead. Daffy's Rhapsody instead premiered in 2012, preceding Journey 2: The Mysterious Island . All five shorts were directed by Matthew O'Callaghan . In 2012, several announcements were made about
9900-533: The first two seasons in black-and-white. Beginning with the third season in 1962, ABC televised the Flintstones in color, one of the first programs in color to air on it. Season four and part of season five aired Thursdays at 7:30, while the rest of the series aired Fridays at 7:30. In the U.S., The Flintstones was part of NBC Saturday mornings from 1966 to 1970, with syndicated reruns offered to local stations until 1997, when E/I regulations and changing tastes in
10032-521: The first two seasons was "Rise and Shine", a lively instrumental underscore accompanying Fred on his drive home from work. . Starting in season three, episode three ("Barney the Invisible"), the opening and closing credits theme was "Meet the Flintstones". This version was recorded with a 22-piece big band conducted by composer Hoyt Curtin and performed by the Randy Van Horne Singers. The melody
10164-486: The industry led to the show's move to cable television. From the time of Ted Turner 's purchase of Hanna-Barbera in 1991, TBS , TNT , and Cartoon Network aired the program. On April 1, 2000, the program moved to Boomerang , where it aired until March 6, 2017, but returned to the channel on July 30, 2018. Online, the series was made available on the In2TV service beginning in 2006, then the online version of Kids' WB until it
10296-525: The jelly, compared to the competition. Welch's also produced a line of grape jelly packaged in jars that were reusable as drinking glasses, with painted scenes featuring the Flintstones and other characters from the show. In Australia, the Nine Network ran a "Name the Flintstones' baby" competition during the 'pregnancy' episodes—few Australian viewers were expected to have a U.S. connection giving them information about past Flintstone episodes. An American won
10428-574: The last two seasons used the underscore of Jonny Quest for the more adventurous stories. The idea of The Flintstones started after Hanna-Barbera produced The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Quick Draw McGraw Show , which were successful. However, they did not appeal to a wide audience like their previous theatrical cartoon series Tom and Jerry , which entertained both children and adults. Since children did not need their parents' supervision to watch television, Hanna-Barbera's programs became labeled "kids only". Hanna and Barbera wanted to recapture
10560-567: The live-action film was released), developed by Universal and Hanna-Barbera Productions , at the Panasonic Theater, replacing the Star Trek show. The story consists of Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty heading for "Hollyrock". The show ran until January 2, 1997. Miles Laboratories (now part of Bayer Corporation ) and their One-A-Day vitamin brand was the alternate sponsor of the original Flintstones series during its first two seasons, and in
10692-401: The most popular animated shorts in movie theaters. Looney Tunes has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, spawning several television series, feature films, comic books, music albums, video games, and amusement park rides. Many of the characters have made and continue to make cameo appearances in television shows, films, and other media. Bugs Bunny, in particular,
10824-471: The needs of the story; on some occasions, the cars appear to have engines, requiring ignition keys and some representation of gasoline. Fred might pull into a gas station and say, "Fill 'er up with Ethel ", which is pumped through the trunk of a woolly mammoth marked "ETHEL". As well, the stone houses of this society are cookie-cutter homes positioned into neighborhoods typical of mid-20th-century American suburbs. Over 100 other characters appeared throughout
10956-406: The only star of the Looney Tunes series for a couple of years. New directors including Tex Avery , Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett were brought in or promoted to work with animators in the Schlesinger studio, with Avery's unit housed in a bungalow which the animators dubbed " Termite Terrace ." In 1935, the first major Looney Tunes star debuted, Porky Pig . He first appeared along with Beans
11088-449: The other was Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble fighting over a swimming pool. So I go back to New York with a portfolio and two half-hour boards. And no-one would even believe that you'd dare to suggest a thing like that, I mean they looked at you and they'd think you're crazy. But slowly the word got out, and I used the presentation which took almost an hour and a half. I would go to the other two boards and tell them what they did, and do all
11220-442: The parameters of family-based domestic situation comedies of the era. After considering several settings and selecting the Stone Age, one of several inspirations was The Honeymooners , which was itself influenced by The Bickersons and Laurel and Hardy (Hanna considered it one of the finest comedies on television). The enduring popularity of The Flintstones mainly comes from its juxtaposition of modern, everyday concerns with
11352-445: The program slowly began to spread its popularity around the world. The BBC picked up the rights for the program in 1985. The series was repeated for decades in various daytime and early evening time-slots; episodes were also sometimes used by the BBC in case of last minute schedule changes, such as coverage of sporting events being affected by bad weather. The final BBC broadcast of an episode
11484-422: The project is still in development and produced by Warner Animation Group , at the time it was unknown if crew members would still be involved with the production. On June 9, 2023, as part of the restructuring of Warner Animation Group, now called Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, it was announced that a new Flintstones movie titled Meet the Flintstones was in early development and is meant to be an origin story to
11616-451: The project rather than restarting it. Concept art of the series was posted on background artist Andy Clark's website. Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs is an American animated web television series spin-off of The Flintstones that premiered in 2020, the first to feature them since they appeared in the 2002 series The Rubbles , and produced by Warner Bros. Animation . It was produced by Mark Marek and Marly Halpern-Graser. Like Cave Kids ,
11748-639: The related series Merrie Melodies , during the golden age of American animation . Following a revival in the late 1970s, new shorts were released as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large cast of characters , including Bugs Bunny , Daffy Duck , and Porky Pig . The term Looney Tunes has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were initially produced by Leon Schlesinger and animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising from 1930 to 1933. Schlesinger assumed full production from 1933 until he sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, after which it
11880-571: The releases of The Essential Bugs Bunny and The Essential Daffy Duck DVDs. In 2011, the shorts were released on Blu-ray Disc for the first time with the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection series. On September 19, 2017, Warner Home Video 's Warner Archive Collection released the five-disc Porky Pig 101 DVD-set. In 1933, Harman and Ising left, taking the rights to the Bosko characters with them. However, Warner Bros. retained
12012-467: The rights to the cartoons and the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies brand names, leaving their former producer Leon Schlesinger to start his own animation studio to continue the Looney Tunes series. With their retained Bosko rights, Harman and Ising began making cartoons at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934 until they were fired in 1937 due to a lack of success. MGM proceeded to form their own studio to create its own cartoons. Time Warner eventually acquired
12144-605: The room I mean God about 40 people, and I did this whole show. I got to know where the laughs were, and where to hit it, nothing; dead, dead, dead. So one of the people at Screen Gems said "This is the worst, those guys...." he was so angry at them. What it was, was that there were two agencies there, and neither one was going to let the other one know they were enjoying it. But I pitched it for eight straight weeks and nobody bought it. So after sitting in New York just wearing out, you know really wearing out. Pitch, pitch, pitch, sometimes five
12276-518: The scenes where Bugs and Mickey Mouse are skydiving , and when Daffy and Donald Duck are performing their "Dueling Pianos" sequence. On July 10, 1989, after a battle with heart problems, Mel Blanc died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of cardiovascular disease . A picture depicting the Looney Tunes characters entitled "Speechless" was released shortly after his death. Viacom-owned Nickelodeon aired Looney Tunes cartoons in
12408-414: The series a three out of five stars, saying: "Still a classic, but times have changed." Currently, several authors consider The Flintstones as a cartoon linked to the golden age of American animation . Following the show's cancellation in 1966, a film based upon the series was created. The Man Called Flintstone was a musical spy caper that parodied James Bond and other secret agents. The movie
12540-666: The series being moved to the Boomerang streaming service in 2017, and was eventually cancelled on January 30, 2020. On June 11, 2018, another series, titled Looney Tunes Cartoons , was announced by Warner Bros. Animation. It premiered on May 27, 2020, on the streaming service HBO Max . The series features "1,000 minutes of new one-to-six minute cartoons featuring the brand's marquee characters", voiced by their current voice actors in "simple, gag-driven and visually vibrant stories" that are rendered by multiple artists employing "a visual style that will resonate with fans", most noticeably having
12672-452: The series entered production, the working title The Flagstones was changed, possibly to avoid confusion with the Flagstons, the main characters in the comic strip Hi and Lois . After spending a brief period in development as The Gladstones (GLadstone being a Los Angeles telephone exchange at the time), Hanna-Barbera settled upon The Flintstones , and the idea of the Flintstones having
12804-518: The series partly draws its humor from anachronism , mainly the placing of a "modern" 20th-century society in prehistory which takes inspiration from the suburban sprawl developed in the first two decades of the postwar period. This society has modern home appliances which work by employing animals. It also has automobiles, but they mostly do not resemble the cars of the 20th century, as they are large wooden and rock structures powered by people who run while inside them. This depiction varies according to
12936-493: The series was marketed as a family series rather than the "adult" animated show of the earlier seasons. As a result of a wider number of yearly viewers, including children, and competition from TV's trend toward fantasy shows, the episodes varied from family comedy to fantasy/adventure, but still had stories about couple dynamics. The last original episode was broadcast on April 1, 1966. The first three seasons of The Flintstones aired Friday nights at 8:30 Eastern time on ABC, with
13068-475: The series was now co-produced by Fox Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation along with Brownstone and received the title Bedrock . The series would have take place two decades after the original series with Fred Flintstone on the verge of retirement and a twenty-something Pebbles (voiced by Banks) trying to find her way in life as the Stone Age comes to an end and the Bronze Age arrives. On March 10, 2023, it
13200-414: The series won five Academy Awards : During the mid-late 1960s, the shorts were produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (and Format Productions ) (1964–1967) and Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967–1969) after Warner Bros. shut down their animation studio. The shorts from this era can be identified by their different title sequence, featuring stylized limited animation and graphics on a black background and
13332-471: The series. Below are those who have made more than one appearance: Fred Flintstone physically resembles both the first voice actor who played him, Alan Reed , and Jackie Gleason , whose series, The Honeymooners , inspired The Flintstones . The voice of Barney Rubble was provided by voice actor Mel Blanc, except for five episodes during the second season (the first, second, fifth, sixth, and ninth); Hanna-Barbera regular Daws Butler filled in and provided
13464-441: The series. The movie will be written by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic , who both previously directed Illumination 's The Super Mario Bros. Movie and directed by Dreamworks Animation veterans Hamish Grieve and Todd Wilderman. In 2019, it was reported that a new Flintstones reboot series, directed to an adult audience, was in development by Elizabeth Banks and her production company Brownstone Productions . In 2021,
13596-413: The show at different evening time slots throughout its last three seasons. Syndicated reruns were also offered to local stations until the early-1990s. The show was also later carried overtime on YTV , Teletoon Retro , Cartoon Network , and Boomerang , alongside French channels ICI , TQS , TVA , and Prise 2 . When Independent broadcaster ITV first aired The Flintstones to England in January 1961,
13728-458: The show focuses on the lives of best friends Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, who are joined by Dino for many adventures in the Stone Age. The show was scheduled to be released as a part of the Boomerang IPTV subscription service . On August 19, 2021, it was announced the series would instead be released on HBO Max on September 30, 2021. The series was set to first air on Teletoon as
13860-426: The show, but if people want to compare The Flintstones to The Honeymooners , then great. It's a total compliment. The Honeymooners was one of the greatest shows ever written." Jackie Gleason, creator of The Honeymooners , considered suing Hanna-Barbera Productions, but decided not to since he did not want to be known as "the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air". Gleason was sued because The Honeymooners
13992-451: The television distribution rights to 191 of its cartoons (which included the black-and-white Looney Tunes and the black-and-white Merrie Melodies made after Harman and Ising left) to Guild Films. The copyrights to those cartoons were assigned to Sunset Productions , an entity owned by Warner Bros. The cartoons were distributed by Guild Films until it went bankrupt and was bought by Seven Arts. Seven Arts bought WB in 1967, and WB regained
14124-424: The various Warner Bros. characters. By 1937, the theme music for Looney Tunes was " The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down " by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin , and the theme music for Merrie Melodies was an adaptation of " Merrily We Roll Along " by Charles Tobias , Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor . In 1929, to compete against Walt Disney 's Mickey Mouse short cartoons , Warner Bros. became interested in developing
14256-452: The voice for most other Flintstone records on the label. Around the same time, Corden was providing Fred's singing voice in two films being produced at the studio: the 1966 special Alice in Wonderland, or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? and the 1966 feature film The Man Called Flintstone . Corden assumed the role completely after Reed's death in 1977, starting with
14388-471: The voice of Barney while Blanc was incapacitated by a near-fatal car accident in 1961. Blanc was able to return to the series sooner than expected because a temporary recording studio for the cast was set up at his bedside. Blanc's Barney voice varied from nasally to deep before the accident, as he and Barbera, who directed the sessions with Alan Dinehart, explored the right level in relation to comedy and other characters. Blanc uses both Barney voices in one of
14520-636: The voice talents of Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet . Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were so named as a reference to Disney's Silly Symphonies and were initially developed to showcase tracks from Warner Bros.' extensive music library; the title of the first Looney Tunes short, Sinkin' in the Bathtub (1930), is a pun on Singin' in the Bathtub . Between 1934 and 1943, Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black and white. After 1943, both series were produced in color and became virtually indistinguishable, varying only in their opening theme music and titles. Both series made use of
14652-404: The voices and the sounds and so-on, and I'd stagger back to the hotel and I'd collapse. The phone would ring like crazy, like one time I did Bristol-Myers , the whole company was there. When I got through I'd go back to the hotel the phone would ring and say "the president wasn't at that meeting, could you come back and do it for him." So I had many of those, one time I had two agencies, they'd fill
14784-531: The works that began with the first short, Coyote Falls , that preceded the film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore , which was released on July 30, 2010. On September 24, 2010, Fur of Flying preceded the film, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole , and on December 17, 2010, Rabid Rider preceded the film, Yogi Bear . On June 8, 2011, Warner Bros. Animation announced that there will be more Looney Tunes 3-D theatrical shorts;
14916-457: Was The Whizzard of Ow , which appeared on a DVD release of Back in Action that was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores. Only about half of the shorts were shown in theaters; the rest would not be made available until 2004, when all seven shorts were included on the general home video release of the film. In 2010, five computer-animated shorts would be released and directed by Matthew O'Callaghan , who would also direct another short, Flash in
15048-430: Was a major box-office success, grossing nearly $ 100 million in the U.S. alone, almost becoming the first non-Disney animated film to achieve that feat. For a two-year period, it was the highest grossing non-Disney animated film ever. The film also introduced the character Lola Bunny , who subsequently became another recurring member of the Looney Tunes cast, usually as a love interest for Bugs. In 1997, Bugs Bunny
15180-663: Was about the rowdy antics of a bank robber in stone-age Dallas . Many sight gags from The First Bad Man antedated similar situations used by Hanna-Barbera in The Flintstones by many years. Therefore, students of American animation call The First Bad Man a progenitive seed of The Flintstones . The concept was also antedated by the " Stone Age Cartoons ", a series of 12 animated cartoons which Fleischer Studios released from January to September 1940. These cartoons show stone-age people doing modern things with primitive means, such as " Granite Hotel " including characters such as
15312-463: Was adopted. Nine episodes were produced before it, but aired afterward, which is why Bamm-Bamm was not seen again until episode 101, "Daddies Anonymous". However, Bamm-Bamm did appear in a teaser in episode 98, "Kleptomaniac Pebbles". Another story arc, occurring in the final season, centered on Fred and Barney's dealings with the Great Gazoo. After Pebbles's birth, the audience demographic expanded and
15444-399: Was among many that debuted in a " vast wasteland " of a 1960–61 television season considered one of the worst in television history up to that point. As late as the 1980s, highbrow critics derided the show's limited animation and derivative plots. Animation historian Michael Barrier disliked the series, calling it a "dumb sitcom" and stated that "I can readily understand why someone who as
15576-470: Was announced for release on HBO Max and Cartoon Network. However, it was reported in August 2022 that the film would instead be shopped around to other streaming services. In October 2023, it was announced the film would instead be released in theaters, becoming the first animated non-compilation feature film in the franchise to do so. In early August 2024, it was announced that Ketchup Entertainment acquired
15708-535: Was announced two new series were in the works: Bugs Bunny Builders and Tweety Mysteries . Bugs Bunny Builders began airing on Cartoon Network as part of Cartoonito and HBO Max on July 25, 2022; Tweety Mysteries would also air on Cartoon Network . Bugs Bunny Builders is aimed towards preschoolers; while Tweety Mysteries is a live-action/animated hybrid. However, the latter was scrapped for unknown reasons. A sequel to Space Jam titled Space Jam: A New Legacy , starring basketball player LeBron James ,
15840-442: Was discontinued in 2015. As of 2017, full episodes are available in the U.S. on Boomerang's subscription video-on-demand service, with select clips made available on the official YouTube account tied to the revamped Kids' WB website. In 2019, MeTV acquired rerun rights to the series, returning the show to broadcast television for the first time in over 20 years. The first 3 seasons of the series can currently be streamed on Max ,
15972-399: Was dormant from 1969 until 1979, when new shorts were made to introduce the Looney Tunes to a new generation of audiences. New shorts have been produced and released sporadically for theaters since then, though usually as promotional tie-ins with various family movies produced by Warner Bros. While many have been released in limited releases theatrically for Academy Award consideration, only
16104-425: Was featured on a U.S. 32 cent postage stamp, the first of five Looney Tunes themed stamps to be issued. The Looney Tunes also achieved success in the area of television during this era, with appearances in several originally produced series, including Taz-Mania (1991, starring Taz) and The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries (1995, starring Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny). The gang also made frequent cameos in
16236-473: Was honest about the inspiration, saying, "At that time, The Honeymooners was the most popular show on the air, and for my bill, the funniest. The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with The Flintstones ... The Honeymooners was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept." Joseph Barbera disavowed these claims in a separate interview, stating, "I don't remember mentioning The Honeymooners when I sold
16368-652: Was in 2008 on BBC Two . Additionally, the series appeared on Cartoon Network in the mid-1990s. Other international networks that aired the original run of the series include RTF in France, ARD in Germany, Rai 1 and Rai 2 in Italy, NTS in the Netherlands, and Fuji TV in Japan. The night after The Flintstones premiered, Variety called it "a pen-and-ink disaster", and the series
16500-516: Was later phased out when his popularity declined, leaving Porky as the only star of the Schlesinger studio. The debuts of other memorable Looney Tunes stars followed: Daffy Duck in Porky's Duck Hunt (1937), Elmer Fudd in the Merrie Melodies short Elmer's Candid Camera (1940), Bugs Bunny in the Merrie Melodies short A Wild Hare (1940), and Tweety in the Merrie Melodies short A Tale of Two Kitties (1942). Bugs initially starred in
16632-536: Was released in theaters and HBO Max on July 16, 2021, after a Los Angeles special screening on July 12, 2021. It is a film with a story of LeBron James' second son, Dom, who gets kidnapped by an evil AI named Al. G Rhythm ( Don Cheadle ), into the Warner Bros. server-verse. LeBron then assembles the Tune Squad to play against the algorithm and get his son back. It received generally negative reviews and underperformed at
16764-466: Was released to theaters on August 3, 1966, by Columbia Pictures . It was released on DVD by Warner Home Video in Canada in March 2005 and in United States in December 2008. The show was revived in the early 1970s with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm having grown into teenagers, and several different series and made-for-TV movies (broadcast mainly on Saturday mornings , with a few shown in primetime), including
16896-484: Was renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons . The Looney Tunes title was inspired by that of Walt Disney 's Silly Symphonies . The shorts initially showcased musical compositions owned by Warner's music publishing interests through the adventures of such characters as Bosko and Buddy . However, the shorts gained a higher profile upon the debuts of directors Tex Avery , Friz Freleng , Chuck Jones , Bob Clampett , and Robert McKimson , and voice actor Mel Blanc later in
17028-549: Was reported that Warner Bros. was working on a "super secret Looney Tunes project". In the 1980s, the shorts received VHS releases, with the pre-August 1948 shorts released by MGM/UA Home Video and the post-July 1948 shorts released by Warner Home Video . In 2003, Warner Home Video began releasing select shorts on DVD , aimed at collectors, in four-disc sets known as the Looney Tunes Golden Collection starting with Volume 1 . This continued until 2008, when
17160-440: Was reported the series would have also featured the voices of Stephen Root (Fred), Amy Sedaris (Wilma), Joe Lo Truglio (Barney), Nicole Byer (Betty) and Manny Jacinto (Bamm-Bamm). It was also reported that Fox had ordered a pilot presentation of the series which was written by Lindsay Kerns. On July 17, 2024, it was reported that Fox chose to pass on the series. Three Flintstones -themed amusement parks have existed in
17292-427: Was similar to The Bickersons , as critics noted at the time, but the lawsuit served by Bickersons creator Philip Rapp was ultimately settled out of court. Another influence was noted during Hanna-Barbera's tenure at MGM , where they were in a friendly competition with fellow cartoon director Tex Avery . In 1955, Avery directed a cartoon entitled The First Bad Man , narrated by cowboy legend Tex Ritter , which
17424-479: Was sold to MGM, and five years later, Ted Turner acquired the pre-May 1986 MGM library, as well the rights to the a.a.p. library. In 1996, Turner's company, Turner Broadcasting System (whose Turner Entertainment division oversaw the film library), was purchased by Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery ), which was also Warner Bros.' corporate parent. Then when MGM/UA terminated its distribution deal with Time Warner in 1999, it surrendered its home video rights to
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