Rise to Stardom: The 40th anniversary of the Golden Jubilee videotapes series

(Some parts of this post was taken from the Greg Method's Wideo Wabbit section that concerning the history of the Golden Jubilee videotape series. Just in case that I just didn't steal relevant information for the inevitable task he has throughout out on all these later years.)

If there is one thing to saying about 1985 is the Looney Tunes franchise was rather on a comfortable lull.

This was significant that there weren't any plans for newer Prime-Time TV specials or brand-new shorts for that matter. And The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show has ended its historic seventeen-years run on CBS. (Actually, that was getting back in the mid-1970s after a hiatus of over six years!)

And because some sources claiming that that year was the 50th anniversary of Porky Pig, Warner Bros. took it at the perfect opportunity to given back to the Warner Bros. cartoons the prestige they need and still deserving. This is by it be a Looney Tunes fan is getting cool again, both for historical mindsets than pleasant entertainment.

In this month, this is already 40 years that the first packaging of Warner Bros. cartoons ever assembled to the Home Video line that isn't just mere fillers or a selection of random shorts picked here and there will be available to public. (Like says, The Looney Tunes Video Show which proven to be very succesful in foreign and domesticated households, but that in the America, fewer of these earlier tapes were remains available. No mention that the French-dubbing version of old has compiled shorts at their own, for took more places to the Road Runners, Tweetys and Speedys, and skip Pepe Le Pew' all over!) Consisting of all twelve one-hour tapes of eight shorts each from the Post-48s library, by just picked up the cream of the crop. They were already Best-Sellings by the weeks this collection became fresh and new, and where the newer masters including for this series will be a staple for Television and others videos series of that kind for around over a decade and half.

The first three videos spotlighted the major creative mens from Post-War II. Mel Blanc which including a delightful selection of shorts featuring the key characters he voiced in. Friz Freleng, by add three shorts that own him an Academy Award. (The very first one to own an Oscar, 1947s Tweetie Pie weren't including since Warner Bros. didn't owned the Pre-48s catalog, yet.) And definitely, Chuck Jones, which proven to be a very versatile producer, helped by a unit that trusted him in his own heydays, until budgets cuts keep to restrained the artistic visual of these shorts, by be parts of the reason why the Warner Bros. cartoons appeared very succesful in this era.

The rest of the first wave is about a character star or duo - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales were featured on their own compilation with liner notes from animation historian and film critic Leonard Maltin, fresh from Entertainment Tonight and author of the book Of Mice and Magic, given to the rear of each tapes an history of the studio like that were never done before and also, after. A casual effort was done to including a fewer black-and-white shorts, notably the first appearence of Daffy Duck (Sadly in sped-up) and the revolutionnary You Ought to Be in Pictures, which it was originally an excuse to Freleng back in the day, to returning on the Leon Schlesinger crew after a dreadful two-years experience at MGM. (No need to tell you how that ended.)

The second wave, released one year later, including three others tapes that are about, the likes of Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn and Pepe le Pew. Unfortunately, for completists, they remains less essential than in the first wave, by seen fewer titles from the "A Salute to..." cassettes been repeated in these volumes. Thought it don't disappointed causal fans who expect to gets several Pepes or Foghorns in their video collection, these stays a dealbreaker for those who already own both the A Salute to Mel Blanc and A Salute to Chuck Jones tapes at their disposal. To say nothing that the closing line of the Foghorn's videotape, A Fractured Leghorn, was already included in the The Looney Tunes Video Show #3 four years prior. 

Thought a valiant effort from Greg Ford and others to picked mostly the best of each characters and directors filmography for this anthology series, the second wave appeared likely at a case of Deja-Vu. But nonthenless, 91 unique cartoons were presented in this twelve videotapes collection, representing the acorn for the future Looney Tunes videos collections, without known that a newer contender will taking officially a part of the Warner cartoons filmography for Home Video releases, and years before that the Pre-48s will be back home to the Warners.

To blast off this unique celebration, here's the opening theme that were featuring in each of these videos. We can fully known who have created all this: Nancy Beiman, fresh for have animated on the Disney's featurette Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore few years before. (Thanks to you, Greg Method!) The oepning seen below is from one of those rarest tapes I already own at that time videoclub stores re-selling old movies tapes for a lower price. We were in heaven long before streamings taking over the world of entertainment.