BUGS BUNNY'S ANNIVERSARY: EH, WHAT'S UP DOC?

Mel Blanc, the Bugs Bunny's voice

Today, The Grandma has reviewed a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 30). 

The Grandma is a great fan of Looney Tunes, especially Coyote, and today is the 78th anniversary of the first appearance of Bugs Bunny one of the Looney Tunes greatest stars. 

Congratulations Bugs! Thanks for hours and hours of humour and entertainment, generation after generation.

More information: Place and Position I & II

Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created by L. Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons in the late 1930s and voiced originally by Mel Blanc.

Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films, produced by Warner Bros. Though a similar character debuted in the WB cartoon Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) and appeared in a few subsequent shorts, the definitive character of Bugs is widely credited to have made his debut in director Tex Avery's Oscar-nominated film A Wild Hare (1940).

More information: Warner Bros

Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray and white hare or rabbit who is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality. He is also characterized by a Brooklyn accent, his portrayal as a trickster, and his catch phrase Eh... What's up, doc? Due to Bugs' popularity during the golden age of American animation, he became an American cultural icon and the official mascot of Warner Bros. Entertainment. He can thus be seen in the older Warner Bros. company intros.

Bugs Bunny's first appearance

Since his debut, Bugs has appeared in various short films, feature films, compilations, TV series, music records, comic books, video games, award shows, amusement park rides, and commercials. 

He has also appeared in more films than any other cartoon character, is the ninth most-portrayed film personality in the world, and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

While Porky's Hare Hunt was the first Warner Bros. cartoon to feature a Bugs Bunny-like rabbit, A Wild Hare, directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is widely considered to be the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon.

It is the first film where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs, both redesigned by Bob Givens, are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively; the first in which Mel Blanc uses what would become Bugs' standard voice; and the first in which Bugs uses his catchphrase, What's up, Doc? A Wild Hare was a huge success in theaters and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cartoon Short Subject.

More information: Neatorama

By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of Merrie Melodies. The series was originally intended only for one-shot characters in films after several early attempts to introduce characters, Foxy, Goopy Geer, and Piggy, failed under Harman–Ising. By the mid-1930s, under Leon Schlesinger, Merrie Melodies started introducing newer characters.

Bugs Bunny's evolution

Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942) shows a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. 

Bugs was used to advertise World War II because they were low on troops so they found out the most athletic adults watched Bugs Bunny so they used that to attract them into the war so they could fight. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, Warners pitted its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, and the Japanese.

More information: Smithsonian

After World War II, Bugs continued to appear in numerous Warner Bros. cartoons, making his last Golden Age appearance in False Hare (1964). He starred in over 167 theatrical short films.

In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Warners cartoons with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings.

Bugs Bunny in Herr Meets Hare (1945)

The Bugs Bunny Show changed format and exact title frequently but remained on network television for 40 years. 

The packaging was later completely different, with each cartoon simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler.

From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, Bugs was featured in various animated specials for network television.

Bugs returned to the silver screen in Box-Office Bunny (1991). This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon since 1964 to be released in theaters and it was created for Bugs' 50th anniversary celebration.

More information: Today in History

In 1996, Bugs and the other Looney Tunes characters appeared in the live-action/animated film, Space Jam, directed by Joe Pytka and starring NBA superstar Michael Jordan. The film also introduced the character Lola Bunny, who becomes Bugs' new love interest.

Bugs Bunny aka Ióssif Stalin in Herr Meets Hare

In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used.

A younger version of Bugs is the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Kids' WB in 2001. In the action comedy Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit.

In 2011, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang returned to television in the Cartoon Network sitcom, The Looney Tunes Show.

In 2015, Bugs starred in the direct-to-video film Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, and later returned to television yet again as the star of Cartoon Network and Boomerang's comedy series New Looney Tunes, formerly Wabbit.

Watch Looney Tunes Cartoon Compilation

Carrots are devine... 

You get a dozen for a dime, It's maaaa-gic!

Bugs Bunny