Saturday, April 2, 2016

Looney TV: Devil May Hare (1954)

Bugs Bunny's doing some spring cleaning when he runs afoul of the Tasmanian Devil (in his first appearance) in 1954's "Devil May Hare" (a play on Devil may care). The copyright date is a year prior, meaning it was produced and recorded late in 1953, but held until the early part of '54.



Taz would, ahem, bedevil Bugs again, and would also share a picture with Daffy Duck. Someone at WB must've thought Taz could be a star in his own right, hence giving him his own series, Taz-Mania, in the 90's on Fox.

Rating: A.

2 comments:

Silverstar said...

Despite the character's immense popularity, Taz only appeared in 5 WB theatrical shorts. In fact, then cartoon producer Eddie Selzer planned to retire Taz after his debut short, as he apparently hated the character, but then studio head Jack O. Warner later asked about Taz and told Selzer to keep using him, so Taz went on to star in 4 more cartoons. Taz's career was saved by the Boss.

The "Taz-Mania" series was no doubt sparked by the character's numerous appearances on T-shirts, coffee mugs, car mudflaps and other such paraphernalia; in the 80's and 90's, Taz seems to have struck a chord with the 'party animal/sports animal' adrenaline junkie crowd.

hobbyfan said...

What does that tell us? Selzer didn't know a potential star when he saw one. I think we can attribute the Taz/party animal popularity to college kids.