Last updated on December 10th, 2021
Another week brings another new episode of “The Looney Tunes Show.” This one introduces the loud-mouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn to the series. Unfortunately, the tone of this episode is back to the “tame sitcom” format of earlier episodes. Thus, there’s some good moments here, but everything feels clamped-down in typical sitcom fashion. At least until the third act anyway, when things start to pick up and the episode reaches its funniest moments.
Foghorn in this series is (per the show’s descriptions) some sort of eccentric millionaire. In this episode, he’s shooting a movie, and casts Daffy as himself, despite even *Daffy* noting it makes no sense for a duck to play a rooster. In a subplot, Yosemite Sam and Bugs find a rare vase and try to see how much it’s worth at an antique shop run by the Goofy Gophers, Mac and Tosh.
My favorite parts:
- Bugs asking Daffy when he’s “going to learn how to swim.” Reminds me of Bugs’ line in the classic shorts where he asks himself “I wonder if that silly duck will remember that he can swim…”
- Yosemite Sam’s funnier here than in his debut episode. Best parts: Bugs telling him “you don’t need me to make you look like a fool,” with Sam agreeing; Sam calling the Goofy Gophers “squirrels” (to which they disagree); the end scene with Sam and the Goofy Gophers.
- Miss Prissy (the widowed hen from the original Foghorn shorts) playing Foggy’s mother in the movie.
- Daffy telling Taz how he’ll “show him,” but later admits he “probably won’t.” (Though imagine things would be different if money were involved, a la one of my favorite original-series Daffy shorts, “Ducking the Devil”…).
- Daffy’s rant about Foghorn’s appearance.
- The entire last act with the fist fight scene and the poorly-made movie.
Other observations:
- Taz’s frisbee is made by “Whim-O” (a variation on the company “Wham-O”). So far in this series, I don’t think there’s been a single appearance of an Acme product, which seems bizarre for a Looney Tunes-related production. Wonder if that’s a byproduct of the show’s sitcom format, or if there’ll be some episode specifically involving the Acme Corporation in the future.
- Foggy’s assistant notes that Daffy’s ruined one of his businesses before. Wonder if this episode’s either airing out of order, a reference to some detail in an earlier episode I missed, or just a random joke.
- Foggy’s movie looks like it’s being shot at Warner Bros. studios, judging from the water tower in the background. And no, I highly doubt we’ll be seeing a certain trio of “puppy-children” named after their studio appear in this series, before anyone asks. This show’s needed to, first and foremost, get the Looney Tunes gang back in the public spotlight, after years of neglect by Time-Warner. Fortunately, so far the show’s succeeding in doing such, judging from the stellar (for Cartoon Network) ratings “The Looney Tunes Show”‘s been getting.
No Merrie Melodies short, while the Road Runner cartoon is the “Silent But Deadly” episode (Wile E. vs. the Road Runner, both dressed as and fighting like ninjas).
