When I was a kid, my dad taught piano and wouldn’t you know the piano and the television were in the same room! That meant we had to watch the Saturday morning cartoons QUIETLY with the sound turned down. If you disturbed dad while he was teaching, you were in some deep doo doo!
When the “Pink Panther” came along, we were in heaven! There was no talking in that cartoon, so no worries.
But the best one was “Bugs Bunny”! When we did get the chance to watch it with the sound, we got a Classical music lesson and didn’t even know it. “Bugs Bunny” cartoons often used Mozart and Rossini (the guy who wrote “William Tell” where the “Lone Ranger” music came from) for their background.
Speaking of Rossini, my all time favourite “Bugs Bunny” cartoon is the one to the “Barber of Seville”…
Bugs gets bald headed Elmer Fudd into the barber chair where he proceeds to apply what the bottles claim is hair growing gels. What really grows is a flower garden! Bugs uses his ears to “massage” the gel into Elmer’s head.
Of course, mayhem ensues as Elmer grabs his gun and proceeds to chase Bugs.
And of course, “Bugs Bunny” had another side-kick, the Road Runner and his nemesis the Coyote. It was hilarious to see what scheme the Coyote would come up with each time to try and snare the speedy Road Runner – meep meep!
With all of the violent cartoons that made their way onto Saturday mornings, I was shocked to learn that some powers that be decided “Bugs Bunny” and the Road Runner was the most violent cartoon on TV. Somebody needed to have their head examined.
I remember one day there were three generations of Fulghums at my dad’s house and we were all sitting around the TV watching “Bugs Bunny” cartoons and laughing our heads off.
“Bugs Bunny” will forever be the best!
Fun Fact about “Bugs Bunny”; the voice of Bugs (Mel Blanc) hated carrots, so he had someone follow him with a bucket so he could dispose of the carrots)
“Be vewy quiet, were hunting wabbits!