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The Looney Tunes Show So Far: What Works, What Doesn’t

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No, this isn’t the series review. We’ve covered that back in May. Rather, this is more of an analysis of what we’ve seen of Cartoon Network’s new animated series for the Looney Tunes franchise The Looney Tunes Show so far. Since as of this writing, TLTS will taking a short hiatus for next month or so and we’ve reached a midpoint of sorts, I’d thought that we’d take a look at what elements of this new take on LT/MM franchise are good and which elements aren’t working out so well. Before we begin, let me just state first and foremost to those who haven’t seen it yet that The Looney Tunes Show is not a reiteration of the classic theatrical shorts, nor is it intedned to be. Those who are complaining that TLTS isn’t the shorts should simply watch the shorts. I would suggest buying either the Looney Tunes Spotlight or the Golden Collections DVD sets. I should also point out that the latter collection costs a little more. having said that, let’s break it down now, shall we?

1. The Half Hour Episodes
I don’t personally have a problem with the main half hour episodes, provided that the stories of which actually lend themselves to being half an hour. Some of the episodes’ main plots seem to be 10 minute plots unnecessarily stretched out to 22 minutes. The series’ premiere episode “Best Friends” in particular seemed to go on forever, despite having a few good lines and gags. I don’t see why the TLTS can’t have some two 10 minute shorts, or even the occasional three 7 minute shorts as opposed to always being a single 22 minute plot. Some fans have complained about every main plot revolving around Bugs and Daffy, but I personally don’t have a problem with this, since the less celebrated Looney Tunes characters have other chances to shine in other parts of the show (which I’ll elaborate on later). However, this brings me to a sub-point within this point:

1.5 The Bugs & Daffy Dynamic
By now, most of us are well familiar with the whole “Bugs is a winner, Daffy is a loser” formula which has been in effect ever since Friz Freleng’s “Show Biz Bugs”, and this new series only continues with this formula. Here, Bugs is a successful entrepreneur (the inventor of the carrot peeler, as well as being a former star athlete, the President of Spain and Batman!) who’s living comfortably in a house in the suburbs, while Daffy is unemployed and unemployable (“No job, no education and a credit rating of negative 13!”), has apparently fallen on hard times before the 1st episode and is currently Bugs’ permanent house guest. Now, far be it from me to wish for the shows’ producers Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone to interfere with this familiar dynamic, but I feel that the way that Daffy and Bugs’ characters are portrayed leaves room for improvement. Daffy is supposed to be a lunatic, but on TLTS, he often comes off as being merely oblivious and stupid. Bugs, meanwhile, often comes off as being too calm and too perfect to be very interesting on his own. The Rabbit’s main purpose on TLTS is to react to the eccentric characters around him (although Bugs was great in the episode “Jailbird and Jailbunny”, one of the best episodes in the series thus far). Now I’m not suggesting that TLTS have villains, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some character(s) impose their will on Bugs from time to time, so that Bugs can then get his comic revenge on said antagonist(s). As Chuck Jones once noted, it gives Bugs a reason to act. I’d like to see more of the “rascally” Bugs in future episodes. Also, I know that is somewhat radical thinking, but just once, I’d like to see a Bugs VS Daffy competition where Daffy comes out on top, just to say that it happened. Plus, it might actually help Bugs’ character and make him seem more relateable if he lost once in a while.

2. The Setting
I’ve heard from some fans who flat out hate the fact TLTS has the entire cast (save for the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote) living in an all American suburb, as they feel that this fixed setting is too restrictive. Now myself, I don’t think that the suburban setting is the problem here. My problem with the setting isn’t that it’s the suburbs, but that the series takes place in the real world, not in Toontown, Acme Acres or some other separate cartoon world. On TLTS, there are no falling anvils, exploding bombs, characters getting flattened like pancakes, being mashed into accordians, inflated like helium balloons and then being perfectly fine again in the very next scene. The only episode (so far) in which we’ve seen this was the episode “Casa De Calma”, which was itself a leftover episode from Laff Riot, the shows’ original sketch comedy show format before it was changed to the sitcom format that we have now. I didn’t mind Granny having a World War 2 back story in the episode “Eligible Bachelors”, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had actually been, you know…funny! The flashback scenes were played almost completely straight, except for the bird parts. Why?? LT has done humorous takes on the war during the war, so why can’t they do the same thing decades after the war? Just because TLTS has a sitcom format doesn’t that the shows’ humor must be 90% verbal and only 10% visual. TLTS needs more “tooniness”. Also, where are the celebrity caricatures and pop-culture jokes/references that Looney Tunes has always been known for? I’m not suggesting that the producers make the shows’ humor overly topical, which would result in the series becoming extremely dated in 3-5 years, but the original shorts, as well as the Silver Age WB/Amblin animated series all employed this particular technique, so there’s no reason why this formula can’t or shouldn’t employed here on TLTS.

3. The Intermissions
Of course, I’m referring to the Merrie Melodies and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote segments. These I actually don’t have a problem with. They’re usually a welcome part of the show and needed break from the half hour plots. The Merrie Melodies typically spotlight on Looney Tunes characters who otherwise only get supporting roles in the main story lines (The Goofy Gophers, Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Tweety and Sylvester, Henery Hawk, Marvin the Martian, etc.) I enjoy the Merrie Melodies segments and can’t think of any way to improve on them. Same deal with the Road Runner shorts. Most of them remain quite faithful to Chuck Jones’ original vision for the shorts, except for “Slient But Deadly” which actually violates 2 of CJ’s disciplines for the RR shorts: The Road Runner never leaves the road and the Coyote is never injured by the Road Runner. I don’t know why the RR shorts are done in CGI, but it’s good CGI, so I have no complaints about the animation.

4. The Nitpicks
Just a few minor points that I’d like to mention here: Some fans have complained about TLTS’s depiction of Lola Bunny, saying that they’d prefer to see Lola be more like the way she was in the movie Space Jam. To this I must ask “Why?” What was so great about the old Lola? Space Jam’s Lola existed to be nothing more than a Mary Sue and a furry fetishist’s wet dream. I’m personally OK with Lola being crazy, since she’s supposed to be a Looney Tunes character. My only complaint about Lola is that TLTS’s producers made Lola’s entire character be just about her stalking Bugs, and so Lola can never appear in a story or scene/sequence without Bugs. This goes back to the old complaint about female characters being girlfriends first and characters second. I’d rather Lola have her own things going in addition to her being obsessed with Bugs. Also, there’s been a curious lack of Elmer Fudd in these episodes (again, so far). Elmer has only appeared twice on TLTS as of this writing (thrice if one counts his non-speaking cameo in the Merrie Melody “Blow My Stack”); First, in the premiere episode’s Merrie Melody “Grilled Cheese” and again briefly giving a weather report in the episode “Fish and Visitors”. The series bio claims that Fuddsy is still a hunter, perhaps we could see some classic Bugs and Elmer confrontations in a future episode. We can hope.

Overall, I give The Looney Tunes Show a B-. Not perfect, but not the absolute worst take on the franchise either. To me, Loonatics Unleashed still holds that title. The series’ opening theme is downright infectious. I get the impression that the shows’ producers are mostly throwing stuff at a dart board and seeing what sticks. Here’s hoping that things will improve for TLTS during it’s 2nd season, since there’s always the chance of the producers improving on things during the season breaks.

Team Snycher Fails Again!

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Cartoon Network’s weekly ratings are in, and it looks as though CN’s Hall Of Game Awards from Friday February 25, 2011 scored a rating of 1.4.

Yes, that’s right. 1.4.

Now, I know that we shouldn’t derive pleasure from others’ misfortune, but I have to say, from a spectator’s standpoint, and also speaking as an animation lover, I have to say that this news is pretty darn funny. After months of promotion on Facebook and other sites, rounding up all those celebrities, pro athletes, First Lady Michelle Obama and everything else, the HoG was a major bomb-a-saurus. I really, really hope that this latest failure causes the folks in charge of CN to stand up and take notice.

Seriously, how many live action projects have to fail before Team Snycher gets the point? When people tune in to a channel called CARTOON NETWORK, they want to watch CARTOONS. They don’t want to see jocks, B movies, reality shows or any of that crap. Why, oh why haven’t these 2 been fired yet? Why does Turner keep allowing these guys to drag CN further and further down the toilet? Don’t you guys get it? The live action/sports crap isn’t working! People don’t want to see this kind of stuff on CARTOON Network! It would be something else is any of these live action shows were huge, but they aren’t. The majority of them have been failures, and CN is still firmly lodged in 3rd place behind Nick and Disney. If CN were smart, it would let Snyder and Sorcher go because they’re both about as useful to CN as a burst appendix, and they would also give up on this pointless quest to be like Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel and would just concentrate on being the best ANIMATION channel that they can be.

Keepin’ It Real…Real Bad!

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Back in 2009, the current programming heads of Cartoon Network, Stuart Snyder and Rob Sorcher (hereinafter referred to as “Team Snycher”–2 men who seem to be on a mission to make us all think that the ‘C’ in CN stands for something other than ‘Cartoon”) launched a new program block called CN Real, an entire block of non-animated programming.

You probably shouldn’t look directly at it.

CN Real’s lineup consisted of shows which had very little (if anything) to do with cartoons. They were mainly kid-friendly reality shows (The Othersiders, Survive This!), game/challenge shows (Destroy, Build, Destroy! and Jackass Junior…that is…Dude, What Would Happen?) and…whatever the hell Bobb’e Says was.

Not surprisingly, we the viewers bought none of this nonsense and the CN Real block stunk out loud, ratings-wise, with only 2 of the programs (DBD and Dude) still remaining on CN’s current lineup. Undaunted, Team Snycher is still determined to make live action a mainstay on CARTOON Network’s schedule. Now, what I’m about to say may shock and surprise some of you, especially considering who’s typing fingers this statement is coming from, but I’m going to say it anyway: CN Real wasn’t an inherently bad idea.

Yes, you heard me right. Yes, CN Real’s programs stunk out loud, but the overall idea of CN Real wasn’t entirely a bad one. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that ideal percentage of live action programs on Cartoon Network should be zero, but since Team Snycher insists upon forcing live action down the viewers’ collective throats, the shows might as well be entertaining and at least tie in to the theme of the flippin’ channel. If we truly must have live action programming on CARTOON Network, the shows should at least be programming that’s based on an animated franchise or be “cartoony” in it’s approach and nature. Shows such as Filmation’s Shazam!, the oddball surreal Saturday morning shows created by Sid & Marty Kroft, kidcoms like Parker Lewis Can’t Lose (which was like a cartoon with live actors). These shows (or original shows made in the image and spirit of these shows) would be a pretty good fit for the CN Real block.

By now it’s common knowledge that CN’s 1st (and to date, only) attempt at a live action kidcom, Out of Jimmy’s Head did for CN what Roseanne Barr did for the National Anthem. That show bombed so hard that CN execs are still picking up the shrapnel 4 years later. Discussing everything that was wrong with OOJH and what could have been done to improve it is enough for a separate article onto itself, so we’ll save that discussion for another time. What truly stunk about the failure OOJH was that after the show crashed and burned, CN execs have since been avoiding non-animated comedy as though it has a rash. But truthfully, again, the idea behind OOJH wasn’t bad. OOJH didn’t fail because it was live action; it failed because it was ill-conceived and poorly written. A “living cartoon” type of kidcom such the aforementioned Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, could actually work and be a pretty good fit for CN, if handled properly.

Also, keep the shows that air on the CN Real block exclusive to that block. The non-animated shows should not be airing at all times of the day throughout the day on CN. Ideally, the CN Real block should air about 2 or at the most 3 times a week. Premieres with a couple of encores, so if one wants to see a live action series on Cartoon, they would have to tune in to CN Real.

This, at its’ core, is what bugs me about Team Snycher’s machinations: I realize that there’s always been some live-action on Cartoon Network: we had Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Carrot Top’s AM Mayhem, High Noon Toons, Fridays and the like, but the difference is that the live action on those shows/blocks/bumps were intended to celebrate and promote the cartoons on the network, not kick them off to the side like the Snycher-imposed shows do. With shows like the ones on CN Real, as well as the now-defunct Tower Prep and Unnatural History, the upcoming Hall of Game Awards and several of the live-action movies, we’re getting more and more time on CN that is completely devoid of any animated content. Not a good thing on what’s supposed to be a channel for animation lovers. Even Snycher’s movie selections are flawed. If we really must have live action movies on The Flicks, they should be films based on animated properties such as Batman, Superman and Spider Man, films which combine live action such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Space Jam, The Phantom Tollbooth or The Mask (the original film, not that crappy sequel). Movies like Snow Day, School of Rock and Kicking and Screaming, which have zilch to do with animation, have no place on CARTOON Network.

This is why I wish that Snycher would just give up the dream and take their business elsewhere. If Snycher wants to have their own Nickelodeon or Disney Channel, Turner should just give them one. Let Snycher run their general kids’ entertainment channel any way that they want to and leave Cartoon Network to us fans of animation.

Thanks also to Silverstar for his contribution.

Adult Swim should embrace it’s inner classic

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Think about it: Adult Swim is an 8 hour program block which consists of 4 hours of programming that is shows once and then repeated, much of which consists of 2 half hours of King of the Hill, followed by 2 half hours of Family Guy, followed by 2 airings of Robot Chicken. Granted, RC is only 15 minutes long, so that’s really only 1 half hour, but still, this AS lineup has been around longer than Europe. Why can’t AS use some of that airtime to shill some of the classic cartoons which helped put Cartoon Network on the map in the 1st place? If Turner insists on giving us an additional hour of AS, why not devote that extra hour to something that we haven’t seen a hundred times before? How about some Late Night Looney Tunes or some MGM Uncensored? How some late night airings of Toon Heads, or O Canada? Heck, even Sunday Pants might be nice to break the monotony once in a while. But I guess that Williams Street is more interested in shoving Family Guy reruns down our collective throats. Goodness knows that one can never get enough FG. there are 1 or 2 episodes that I still haven’t completely memorized yet. Shoot, who needs variety anyway?

Point and Laugh!

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This morning, Damon and I came across this little thread by a member of the Toon Zone Forums. This little piece o’ flamebait was written by a member who has a serious mad-on for Boomerang and who was 47-years-old at the time of his initial post on the forum. This is the kind of post that gets closed immediately (and rightfully so!), which it did, but the statements made in this tidbit of haterade were so over-the-top ridiculous and silly that we just had to put in our 2 cents (or 4 cents, collectively). To avoid confusion, here’s the code: The original poster’s comments are typed in the default text color (in this case, black). Damon’s comments are in blue, while mine are in purple.

Nickelodeon sucks for one reason and one reason only.

We’re off to a great start so far. Hooray, one-sided rant threads!

Their morning block is too lengthy, the pre-school television hogwash that they show each morning is a load a crock if you ask me,

Nobody asked you. How is a 48-year-old adult with no children supposed to judge the merits of a block of programming designed for preschoolers? Of course, you’re entitled to watch Nick Jr., if that’s your choice, but it’s pretty ignorant for you to be so critical of the block, since you’re judging it solely on it’s entertainment value and you’re much too far outside of Nick Jr.’s target demographic for your opinion on it to be taken seriously. Either accept the block for what it is or don’t deal with it at all. Adults complaining about preschool shows is like women complaining about the shows on Spike, or gangsta rappers complaining about CMT.
I hate Blue’s Clues and i’m glad they got rid of it,
Wow. an adult doesn’t like a TV show that’s intended for kids aged 2 to 5. Shocker. I wasn’t a fan of Blues’s Clues either, but that’s because I’m a grown adult with no children and as such, I never watched Blue’s Clues often enough to have any strong emotions toward the show, positive or negative. Again, why is a grown-ass adult even watching Blues’ Clues to complain about it? You think that Blue’s Clues is immature and inane? No shit, Sherlock. It’s Blue’s Clues. The show wasn’t supposed to grow and mature, you were! You want more mature and intellectually stimulating programming? There’s everything else on TV that’s not a preschool block! 
and I hope that they get rid of Dora the Explorer also, ever since 2006, i’ve thought of her and boots as crack head alcoholics…

Comparing a 5-year-old girl and her pet monkey to crackheads and alcoholics. Very mature for a guy pushing 50. OK, comparing the behavior of, say, the Mysteries, Inc. gang on Scooby Doo to that of hopped-up dope fiends works because those fictional characters have actually displayed signs of stereotypical stoner behavior (constantly having the munchies, drifting around aimlessly with no sign of employment, spending much of their time in a van, etc.), but trying to do the same joke with Dora the Explorer doesn’t work at all because neither Dora nor Boots have ever exhibited any sort of behavior that’s comparable to that of a crack head or an alcoholic Why do you think of these characters as “crack head alcoholics”? Could it be because you have no frelling idea how crack heads and alcoholics typically act like? Doing so says far more about the person making the comment then it does about the comment itself. The irony being that anyone is who thinks that calling characters on shows tailored for little kids by mindless adult terms such as “crack heads” is a sign of maturity is the exact opposite of mature.

Get rid of Dora? Not gonna happen anytime soon. Dora the Explorer is one of Nick Jr.’s, nay, one of Nick’s biggest cash cows right now. Dora merchandise is everywhere. The little chica isn’t going anywhere as long as she and Boots continue to put butts into seats, so my advice to you is to simply change the channel when she comes on. Here’s how I handle the TV shows that I don’t like: I just pick up that little remote control device that came with my set and push those little buttons with the numbers on them. The stuff I don’t find entertaining I just don’t watch. It’s literally that simple. And was the whole “Dora and Boots are crackhead alcoholics” remark supposed to be clever or funny? ‘Cause it failed on both counts. That was neither accurate, smart nor humorous. I’m guessing you heard these terms used to describe something or someone else and thought that would be a really cool snap to make on a children’s cartoon character, but it only succeeded in making you look like a socially inept shut-in.

…and that bubble guppies and max and ruby stuff that nobody my age cares about anyway

As previously stated, nothing on Nick Jr. is intended to entertain people your age. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you like them or not. If you truly didn’t care about these preschool targeted shows, you wouldn’t have created this dumb ass rant thread complaining about them on a public message board in the 1st place. Furthermore, in your rant, you even acknowledge that you’re too old to be watching these programs, let alone care about them, thus you defeated your own argument. Good job. Would  you like some salt to go with that foot?

 they already have NickJr. the channel so why even have a morning block on Nickelodeon if there is a channel dedicated to that jargain.

What’s “jargain”? That’s not a word. Did you mean to type ‘jargon’? But jargon is meaningless talk or writing, it’s not a block of TV shows. Anyway, I honestly don’t understand why some people think that just because Nickelodeon created a separate channel for Nick Jr., that this means that the Nick Jr. block would go away (or should go away). Most of the people complaining about this are either too young or immature to understand things from a business perspective. If you don’t get it, allow me to explain: Nick Jr. (the channel) is a digital exclusive extra channel, while Nick Jr. (the block) is basic cable. Most people are unable (or unwilling) to pay an additional fee on top of their regular cable/satellite fee for an extra digital package just to get the Nick Jr. channel. Also, Nick Jr. (the block) is doing too well in the ratings for Nick to just drop it. If you really don’t like the programming on Nick Jr., you could, I don’t know, watch something else, maybe. Nobody is forcing you watch Nick Jr. at all. Watch something else. Read a book, Go outside. Seriously. An adult over 40 shouldn’t need to be told this.

However, even though Disney Junior has a channel now, I like the fact that they still have a block on Disney channel
OK, so earlier, you were ripping apart Nickelodeon for having both a block and a separate channel for Nick Jr., and now you’re praising Disney for doing the exact same thing, even though Nick did it first. Can you say “hypocrite”, boys and girls?
the reason it is so good is cause they don’t run it too long, off by 12 or 1 which is better than Nick which runs their block from 8 to 2, Disney’s block has shows worth watching, Nick’s block runs too long with a sequence of shows nobody cares about.

“Nobody cares about Nick Jr.”? The block’s ratings say otherwise. If that were truly the case, then neither Cartoon Network or Disney Channel would have bothered launching (or attempting to launch in CN’s case) their own preschool blocks and later channels to counteract Nick Jr. By “nobody” you mean yourself. YOU don’t care about Nick Jr.’s shows, as well you shouldn’t, seeing as how you’re a grown-ass man with no kids. I honestly don’t know what’s sadder: you deluding yourself into thinking that you somehow represent Nick Jr.’s audience, or that you even want to put yourself in that position in the first place. And at what hour Nick chooses to end its’ preschool programming shouldn’t matter one whit to you, since you’re not being forced to sit through a second of it. Anybody who says, “So-and-so preschool block is bad because it goes on for too long” has obviously never had to stay home all day with a small child; if you actually had to watch some little ankle-biter during the day, you’d want all the kiddie blocks to go on for as long as possible.

8 A.M. to 2 P.M.? Those are the same hours that kids aged 7-12 are in school. Coincidence? What else is Nick supposed to air during those hours? Nickelodeon is channel for kids, and it wouldn’t make much sense running general Nick shows during the hours when Nick’s target audience isn’t at home to watch them. Nick Jr. has since become a boon for stay-at-home moms (and stay-at-home dads) to keep their little brats distracted while they go do housework or whatever. Why should Nick terminate it’s preschool block just because 1 grown-ass adult is too lazy to change the channel to something else or to get up off the couch and go do something else?

This whole argument of yours is stupid. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. You’re basically saying “I like this network’s little kid shows, but not this other networks’ little kid shows”. That makes no sense. Even if you were a teenager who just wanted all the little kid shows gone, that would also be a stupid argument for reasons already stated, but there would at least be some kind of rationale behind it, regardless of how profoundly stupid, immature and egotistical said argument would be. You can’t be against one preschool block and simultaneously be in favor of another, especially since you’re not judging these blocks on any kind of viable or rational level. Any shade of credibility you might have had (assuming there was any to begin with) got tossed right out the window the instant you indicated that you play favorites. You could just not watch the shows you don’t like, or better yet, instead of watching preschool shows all day, try and find a job so you can move out of your parents’ basement and get a life.

My final and most favorite of all Boomerang is even better than Nick, miss the days when it was a block, as for the channel, they’ve shown a lot of awesome cartoons from my past that i’ve enjoyed watching since 2003, they’ve done good lately, IMO they would get a lot of praise if they were able to find a way to bring back beloved classics that haven’t been shown in a long time(such as the Looney Tunes for example).

Um, why in the blue hell are you comparing Nick to Boomerang? The latter is a ad-free digital bonus tier rerun channel aimed primarily at nostalgic baby boomers and Generation Xers, while the former is a commercial basic cable premier kids’ channel. They’re not the same thing at all. That’s like comparing OWN to Fuel TV. And what do you mean “Looney Tunes haven’t been shown in a long time”? A sizable chunk of the LT shorts air on Cartoon Network 5 times a week, and DVDs, streaming videos and even illegal copies of the shorts on sites like YouTube and Dailymotion have been circulating both online and offline for years. You’d know that if you’d ever quit acting like Boomerang is the only channel you’re permitted to watch. I understand that Boomerang is your channel, dude, but seriously. Get off your lazy ass and leave your comfort zone once in a while to look around for other sources for these shows. You are not beholden to TV, be it Boomerang, Nick Jr., Disney Junior or otherwise. That you even care this much about this subject comes off as seriously sad, pathetic and downright fanboyish on your part, and that you’re THIS fired up about it just shows us all that despite being light years removed from the age bracket these shows are targeted towards, you’ve still got a boat-load of growing up to do.

For anybody that may not understand this topic, this is my comparison and personal opinions and views of cartoon blocks turned tv channels.
Nick Jr. and Disney Junior aren’t cartoon blocks; they’re preschool entertainment blocks. Neither are, nor have they ever been, exclusively cartoon blocks, nor has either ever been promoted as such. And again, this “comparison” makes zero sense because you’re not judging it from any kind of logical or rational viewpoint; you’re entire argument is “This block stinks because I, an adult over 40 years of age, doesn’t find a bunch of shows that are tailored for preschoolers to be entertaining!” Anyway, that’s probably something that you just should have specified at the beginning of your thread instead of the end of it.