Two questions....

[Prizm]

1. What was the (original) difference between Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies? Did one originally have different characters than
the other? Or did one originally contain more songs?

2. The "Looney Tunes Cartoon Checklist" on The Unofficial LT & MM Page contains the years of all the cartoons - but on the few
cartoons I checked, the dates were all wrong!

The Windblown Hare:
1948 in the title, 1949 on the checklist.

Thumb Fun:
1950 in the title, 1952 on the checklist.

Rabbit's Kin:
1951 in the title, 1952 on the checklist.

I Gopher You:
1953 in the title, 1954 on the checklist.

There are others, but the point is made. I understand the
checklist was based on the book "That's All, Folks!".
The questions is, does anyone know why these dates differ?
Were the cartoons made a year or two earlier, and just not
released at that time?

Thanks,
Prizm

[Jack]

Looney Tunes were character based, with a story and reoccurring characters (like Bosko, Buddy, Beans, then Porky), Merrie Melodies were music based, with one shot/non-reoccurring characters. There were attempts to make reoccurring MM characters, but they didn't hit it big until Bugs Bunny. Also, for a time, all LTs were black and white, while MMs were made in color. After 1943, when Looney Tunes were graduated to full color, there were no longer any differences between the two, other than series title, ring thickness, and theme music.

Looney Tunes are also a year older than Merrie Melodies. You should visit the "Early Years" page for more, reach it by clicking the Bosko icon at the bottom of every page.

Also, I believe the dates are wrong because the title says the copywrite date, while the book and webpages say the release date.


Jack:D

[Sogturtle]

The diff between Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies was that when Harman & Ising (and Leon Schlesinger) set them up with Warners in 1930 the LT's were to always have a starring character (first Bosko, then Buddy, then Beans, finally Porky). The Merrie Melodies were to be musical cartoons spotlighting current songs from the Warner publishing catalog and WB films. They were not to have recurrent starring characters (Foxy, Piggy were exceptions under Rudy Ising.

As for release dates... Warners in the Forties and Fifties amassed a massive backlog of unreleased cartoons. Soooooo a film would be made in 1948 but not be released till 1950.

Is this good enough???

Tim C.

[dougc]

According to information that I obtained from Jerry Beck, theaters would sometimes subscribe to one or the other packages of cartoons (some would buy just Looney Tunes, some Merrie Melodies). Thus despite the fact that there is virtually no difference in content after the Looney Tunes were produced in color, the WB cartoons continued to be split into the two packages for theatrical release purposes.
dougc

[Jack]

Perhaps so some theaters would have something different to show, something the other theater one block away doesn't have. it's like those department stores that sign special deals with companies so that they can carry something different, "Yourkers" carries a different set of Liberty Falls buildings than other department stores do, just for an example.

That also explains why some character were purely LT characters, and some were purely MM characters (until they all went to color), one theater would have Porky and Daffy, the other would have Bugs Bunny and Sniffles.



Jack :D

[happyheathen]

naw, not our Leon.

[Jack]

or maybe Leon was just trying to get twice as much money by having 2 products...

Doesn't that tie in with what I said? If you have two products, and some theaters will buy one, while others will buy another, so they can have something different and somewhat unique, then wouldn't you profit more?

Can I also assume that Looney Tunes (in the 30s and early 40s) were cheaper than the highly budgeted, Technicolor, Merrie Melodies, causing Leon's cartoons to have widespread distribution (low budget theaters buying LTs and higher budget theaters buying MMs, or maybe even both)?

Jack:D

[J Lee]

Also, remember that back in the 30s and 40s, color was considered an extravagance in films (sort of like good comedy writing on TV today), and was a major draw into the theaters by itself. If J.L. is sending out "Robin Hood" in glorious Technicolor to theaters in 1938, his short features department is going to want to send out a color Merrie Melodie with it, even if the audiences would have enjoyed "Porky In Wackyland" better.

And at the same time Warner's stopped making any B&W Looney Tunes at the start of 1944, they also created the seperate "Bugs Bunny Specials" series of LTs and MMs. All the cartoons might be in color now, but they all didn't have Bugs, so Warners could still charge a higher price for certain cartoons than for others (and on the positive side for us, because of the theaters were paying more they demanded new cartoons, which is why no Bugs Bunny shorts were released as Blue Ribbons between the time the "specials" began in the Spring of 1944 and the time the AAP package of pre-48s debuted on TV in late 1957 -- were it not for J.L.'s desire for extra $$, the pre-48 Bugs cartoons would have had all their opening title credits ripped away like any other BR re-release of the time).