1985 8:00 on ABC: THE BUGS BUNNY LOONEY TUNES COMEDY HOUR

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

It is generally accepted and agreed upon that THIS SHOW was "The Beginning Of The End" for Saturday Mornings. Up till this point the Parental Watchdog Groups, Marketing Executives and Overzealous Censors had only had an effect on NEW cartoons being produced... but at 8:00 Saturday morning in 1985 on ABC, a precedent was set that changed the entire dynamic of Saturday Morning Cartoons FOREVER.

After numerous years of volleying the Looney Tunes cartoons back and forth between CBS and ABC (resulting in a few seasons where there were Looney Tunes cartoons on both channels under different names), CBS finally backed out of the bidding and let ABC snatch up the exclusive network broadcast rights - but at a cost. Marketing, Censors and Watchdogs had just a few simple requests...

No Speedy Gonzales (because he was racist), and no Tweety Bird (because he was GAY).

Speedy was racist because he spoke with an accent, and Tweety was Gay because he spoke was pretty and spoke in a high voice.

Despite the ludicrous accusations, ABC went ahead and pulled the Speedy and Tweety cartoons that had been running for the past 15 years without question or hesitation. The Censors had their foothold - NOTHING was safe from this point forward. They could now retro-actively censor, edit and otherwise ban whatever they liked for any old reason, knowing that there would be no questioning of The Great And Powerful Standards & Practices Board.

Saturday Morning, was doomed :(

Comments

[hibiscusrose.livejournal.com]

I know they cut the really obvious Black stereotypes quite some time before that (I bought the DVDs and was rather surprised at how many I missed)--either the entire cartoon or scenes from it. I bet they've cut the Arabian ones too by now... "Hassan chop!"

But when you think of the number of stereotypes in those cartoons--or violence--it's a wonder they get any play at all any more. Oh wait...they really don't, do they?

Never heard that about Tweety, though. Mind you, I had always thought he was a she for those reasons!


EDIT: oh, and this has to be one of the lamest openings EVER!

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

*rants for several hours*

-TG

[queeberquabbler.livejournal.com]

I never knew that about the Tweety "controversy," but wow, are my eyes rolling over that. You're right, once S&P got their hands on the classic shorts, everything changed. I knew these cartoon shorts forward and backward and even when I was young, when they cut something out, it was glaring. So it was so strange when I bought the Golden Collection DVDs and saw all the stuff put back in--you'd see something you knew they'd cut and you'd just wonder why. I mean yeah, I understand about the racism stuff (which still makes me squirm), but cutting out stuff like Bugs taking sleeping pills so he could go into Elmer's dream? Puh-leeze.

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

Haha. Funny I thought Porky Pig was always gay but then he did have Petunia. But there was plenty of racist shit in those cartoons. Remember Porky Pig and the Dragon Lady? Or the one where he ends up upside down in China and speaks with a Pidgin accent and has buck teeth? Or the one where these rats come out of the refrigerator doing ongo bongo drums with big pink lips like racist depictions of blacks?