Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Chuck Jones
birth name	Charles Martin Jones
birth date	September 21, 1912
birth place	Spokane, Washington, U.S.
death date	February 22, 2002
death place	Corona Del Mar, California, U.S.
spouse	Dorothy Webster (1935-1978) Her death Marian J. Dern (1981-2002)
children	Linda Jones Clough
occupation	Animator, director, producer, screenwriter
nationality	American
years active	1933–2001
website	}}

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. He directed many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew and a slew of other Warner characters. Three of these shorts (''Duck Amuck'', ''One Froggy Evening'' and ''What's Opera, Doc?'') were later inducted into the National Film Registry. Chief among Jones' other works was the famous "Hunting Trilogy" of ''Rabbit Fire'', ''Rabbit Seasoning'', and ''Duck! Rabbit, Duck!'' (1951–1953).

After his extraordinary career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started Sib Tower 12 Productions and began producing memorable cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a new series of ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts and the television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!''. He later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Productions, which created several one-shot specials, and periodically worked on ''Looney Tunes'' related works.

Early life

Jones was born in Spokane, Washington on September 21, 1912. He later moved with his parents and three siblings to the Los Angeles, California area.

In his autobiography, ''Chuck Amuck'', Jones credits his artistic bent to circumstances surrounding his father, who was an unsuccessful businessman in California in the 1920s. His father, Jones recounts, would start every new business venture by purchasing new stationery and new pencils with the company name on them. When the business failed, his father would quietly turn the huge stacks of useless stationery and pencils over to his children, requiring them to use up all the material as fast as possible. Armed with an endless supply of high-quality paper and pencils, the children drew constantly. Later, in one art school class, the professor gravely informed the students that they each had 100,000 bad drawings in them that they must first get past before they could possibly draw anything worthwhile. Jones recounted years later that this pronouncement came as a great relief to him, as he was well past the 200,000 mark, having used up all that stationery. Jones and several of his siblings went on to artistic careers.

After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute, Jones held a number of low-ranking jobs in the animation industry, including washing cels at the Ub Iwerks studio and assistant animator at the Walter Lantz studio. While at Iwerks, he met a cel painter named Dorothy Webster, who would later become his first wife.

Warner Bros.

Chuck Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, the independent studio that produced ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' for Warner Bros., in 1933 as an assistant animator. In 1935, he was promoted to animator, and assigned to work with new Schlesinger director Tex Avery. There was no room for the new Avery unit in Schlesinger's small studio, so Avery, Jones, and fellow animators Bob Clampett, Virgil Ross, and Sid Sutherland were moved into a small adjacent building they dubbed "Termite Terrace". When Clampett was promoted to director in 1937, Jones was assigned to his unit; the Clampett unit was briefly assigned to work with Jones' old employer, Ub Iwerks, when Iwerks subcontracted four cartoons to Schlesinger in 1937. Jones became a director (or "supervisor", the original title for an animation director in the studio) himself in 1938 when Frank Tashlin left the studio. Jones' first cartoon was ''The Night Watchman'', which featured a cute kitten who would later evolve into Sniffles the mouse.

Many of Jones' cartoons of the 1930s and early 1940s were lavishly animated, but audiences and fellow Schlesinger staff members found them lacking in genuine humor. Often slow-moving and overbearing with "cuteness", Jones' early cartoons were an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney's shorts (especially with such cartoons as ''Tom Thumb in Trouble'' and the Sniffles cartoons). Jones finally left traditional animation conventions with the cartoon ''The Dover Boys'' in 1942. Jones credits this cartoon as the film where he "learned how to be funny." ''The Dover Boys'' is also one of the first uses of stylized animation in American film, breaking away from the more realistic animation styles influenced by the Disney Studio. This was also the period where Jones created many of his lesser-known characters, including Charlie Dog, Hubie and Bertie, and The Three Bears. Jones' shorts from this period starring these characters represent some of his earliest classics that was strictly intended to be ''funny''.

During the World War II years, Jones worked closely with Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, to create the ''Private Snafu'' series of Army educational cartoons. Private Snafu comically educated soldiers on topics like spies and laziness in a more risque way than general audiences would have been used to at the time. Jones would later collaborate with Seuss on a number of adaptations of Seuss' books to animated form, most importantly ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' in 1966.

Also, during World War II, Jones directed such shorts as ''The Weakly Reporter'', a 1944 short that related to shortages and rationing on the home front. During the same year, he directed ''Hell-Bent for Election'', a campaign film for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Not widely known, he also directed Angel Puss in this period which contains portrayals of African-Americans that are now considered offensive; it is no longer available in any type of authorized release and is among the group of controversial cartoons known to animation buffs as the Censored Eleven.

Jones hit his stride in the late 1940s, and continued to make his best-regarded works through the 1950s. Jones-created characters from this period includes Claude Cat, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Charlie Dog, Michigan J. Frog, and his three most popular creations, Pepe LePew, the Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. The Road Runner cartoons, in addition to the cartoons that are considered his masterpieces (all written and conceived by Michael Maltese), ''Duck Amuck'', ''One Froggy Evening'', and ''What's Opera, Doc?'' are today hailed by critics as some of the best cartoons ever made.

The staff of the Jones' Unit A were as important to the success of these cartoons as Jones himself. Key members included writer Maltese, layout artist/background designer/co-director Maurice Noble, animator and co-director Abe Levitow, and animators Ken Harris and Ben Washam.

In 1950, Jones and Maltese began working on ''Rabbit Fire'', a short that changed Daffy Duck's personality forever. They decided to make him a totally different character; instead of the wacky, comic relief character he had been, they turned Daffy into a vain, egomaniacal prima donna wanting to steal the spotlight from Bugs Bunny. Of his versions of Bugs and Daffy, Chuck Jones has said, "Bugs is who we want to be. Daffy is who we are."

Jones remained at Warner Bros. throughout the 1950s, except for a brief period in 1953 when Warner closed the animation studio. During this interim, Jones found employment at Walt Disney Pictures, where he teamed with Ward Kimball for a four month period of uncredited work on ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1959). Upon the reopening of the Warner animation department, Jones was rehired and reunited with most of his unit.

In the early-1960s, Jones and his wife Dorothy wrote the screenplay for the animated feature ''Gay Purr-ee''. The finished film would feature the voices of Judy Garland, Robert Goulet and Red Buttons as cats in Paris, France. The feature was produced by UPA, and directed by his former Warner collaborator, Abe Levitow. Jones moonlighted to work on the film, since he had an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. UPA completed the film and made it available for distribution in 1962; it was picked up by Warner Bros. When Warner discovered that Jones had violated his exclusive contract with them, they terminated him. Jones' former animation unit was laid off after completing the final cartoon in their pipeline, ''The Iceman Ducketh'', and the rest of the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio was closed in early 1963. (Jones frequently claimed, including in the aforementioned autobiography, that this happened because Warner finally learned ''they'' weren't making Mickey Mouse cartoons).

Jones on his own

With business partner Les Goldman, Jones started an independent animation studio Sib Tower 12 Productions, bringing on most of his unit from Warner Bros., including Maurice Noble and Michael Maltese. In 1963, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contracted with Sib Tower 12 to have Jones and his staff produce new ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons. In 1964, Sib Tower 12 was absorbed by MGM and was renamed MGM Animation/Visual Arts. Jones' animated short film ''The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics'' won the 1965 Oscar for Best Animated Short. Jones also directed the classic animated short ''The Bear That Wasn't''. Many consider Jones' Tom and Jerry cartoons superior to the original Hanna & Barbera series.

As the ''Tom and Jerry'' series wound down (it would be discontinued in 1967), Jones moved on to television. In 1966, he produced and directed the TV special ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'', featuring the voice and facial features of Boris Karloff. Jones continued to work on TV specials such as ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1970), but his main focus during this time was producing the feature film ''The Phantom Tollbooth'', which did lukewarm business when MGM released it in 1970. Jones co-directed 1969's ''The Pogo Special Birthday Special'', based on the Walt Kelly comic strip, and voiced the characters of Porky Pine and Bun Rab. It was at this point that he decided to start 'ST Incorporated'.

MGM closed the animation division in 1970, and Jones once again started his own studio, Chuck Jones Productions. He produced a Saturday morning children's TV series for the American Broadcasting Company called ''The Curiosity Shop'' in 1971. In 1973, he produced an animated version of the George Selden book ''The Cricket in Times Square'', and would go on to produce two sequels. His most notable work during this period was three animated TV adaptations of short stories from Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'': ''Mowgli's Brothers'', ''The White Seal'' and ''Rikki-Tikki-Tavi''. Jones resumed working with Warner Bros. in 1976 with the animated TV adaptation of ''The Carnival of the Animals'' with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Jones also produced the 1979 film ''The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie'' which was a compilation of Jones' best theatrical shorts; Jones produced new Road Runner shorts for ''The Electric Company'' series and ''Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales'' (1979), and even newer shorts were made for ''Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over'' (1980).

From 1977-1978, Jones wrote and drew the syndicated comic strip ''Crawford'' (also known as ''Crawford & Morgan'') for the Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate. IDW will collect Jones' classic comic strip in 2011 as part of their Library of American Comic Strips.

In 1978, Jones' wife Dorothy died; three years later, he married Marian Dern, the writer of the comic strip ''Rick O'Shay''.

The Chuck Jones Show

From 2001 - 2002 Cartoon Network aired ''The Chuck Jones Show'' which features shorts directed by him. The show won the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Special Project.

Later years

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Jones was painting cartoon and parody art, sold through animation galleries by his daughter's company, Linda Jones Enterprises. Jones was the creative consultant and character designer for two Raggedy Ann animated specials and the first ''Alvin and the Chipmunks'' Christmas special "A Chipmunk Christmas". He was also creating new cartoons for the Internet based on his new character, Thomas Timberwolf. He made a cameo appearance in the 1984 film ''Gremlins'' and directed the Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck animated sequences that bookend ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990). Jones also directed animated sequences various features such as a lengthy sequence in the 1992 film ''Stay Tuned'' and a shorter one seen at the start of the 1993 film ''Mrs. Doubtfire''. Jones was not a fan of much contemporary animation, terming most of it, especially television cartoons such as those of Hanna-Barbera, "illustrated radio".

In 1988, Jones contributed to the creation of London's Museum of the Moving Image by spending several days working high on scaffolding creating a chase sequence directly onto the high walls of the museum.

Jones was a historical authority as well as a major contributor to the development of animation throughout the 20th century. He received an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in 1993.

In his later years, Jones became the most vocal alumnus of the Termite Terrace studio, frequently giving lectures, seminars, and working to educate newcomers in the animation field. Many of his principles, therefore, found their way back into the mainstream animation consciousness, and can be seen in films such as ''The Emperor's New Groove'' and ''Lilo & Stitch''.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Jones has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7011 Hollywood Blvd.

Jones, whose work had been nominated eight times over his career for an Oscar (winning thrice: ''For Scent-imental Reasons'', ''So Much for So Little'', and ''The Dot and the Line''), received an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for "the creation of classic cartoons and cartoon characters whose animated lives have brought joy to our real ones for more than half a century." At that year's awards show, Robin Williams, a self-confessed "Jones-aholic," presented the Honorary award to Jones, calling him "The Orson Welles of cartoons."

Jones' final Looney Tunes cartoon was ''From Hare to Eternity'' in 1996, which starred Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, with Greg Burson voicing Bugs. The cartoon was dedicated to Friz Freleng, who had passed on in 1995. Jones did produce a few more Looney Tunes-based and non-related cartoons, a noticeable one being ''Chariots of Fur'', his final Road Runner cartoon, in 1994.

Jones, the second to last surviving animation director from the "Termite Terrace" days of the WB cartoons, died of heart failure in 2002. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea. Cartoon Network aired a 20-second segment with black dots tracing Jones' portrait with the words "We'll miss you - Cartoon Network" fading in on the right-hand side, which aired during a four-hour installment of ''The Looney Tunes Show'' that featured nothing but Chuck Jones' most memorable cartoon shorts. Unlike the tribute the network aired after William Hanna's passing, Jones' tribute didn't show his birth or death years.

After his death, the Looney Tunes cartoon ''Daffy Duck for President'', based on the book that Jones had written and using Jones' style for the characters, originally scheduled to be released in 2000, was released in 2004 as part of disc 3 of the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2'' DVD set.

Partial list of animated films or short subjects (as director)

''The Night Watchman'' (1938, his first)

''Dog Gone Modern'' (1939)

''Robin Hood Makes Good'' (1939)

''Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur'' (1939)

''Naughty But Mice'' (1939, debuts Sniffles, first Jones-created series character)

''Elmer's Candid Camera'' (1940)

''Joe Glow, the Firefly'' (1941)

''The Draft Horse'' (1942)

''The Dover Boys At Pimento University, or The Rivals Of Roquefort Hall'' (1942)

''Fin N' Catty'' (1943)

''The Weakly Reporter'' (1944)

''Angel Puss(1944)

''Hell-Bent for Election'' (Franklin D. Roosevelt campaign film, 1944)

''Fresh Airedale'' (1945)

''Fair and Worm-er'' (1946)

''A Pest in the House'' (1947)

''Scaredy Cat'' (1948)

''Long-Haired Hare'' (1949)

''For Scent-imental Reasons'' (1949)

''Fast and Furry-ous'' (1949)

''So Much for So Little'' (1949, made for Federal Security Agency's Public Health Service)

''Rabbit of Seville'' (1950)

The "Hunting Trilogy": ''Rabbit Fire'' (1951), ''Rabbit Seasoning'' (1952), and ''Duck! Rabbit, Duck!'' (1953)

''Feed the Kitty'' (1952)

''Duck Amuck'' (1953)

''Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century'' (1953)

''Bully for Bugs'' (1953)

''Punch Trunk'' (1953)

''Feline Frame-Up'' (1954)

''Sheep Ahoy'' (1954)

''One Froggy Evening'' (1955)

''Double or Mutton'' (1955)

''Heaven Scent'' (1955)

''Rocket-Bye Baby'' (1956)

''What's Opera, Doc?'' (1957)

''Scrambled Aches'' (1957)

''Robin Hood Daffy'' (1958)

''Hook, Line and Stinker'' (1958)

''Hip Hip-Hurry!'' (1958)

''Hot-Rod and Reel!'' (1959)

''Wild About Hurry'' (1959)

''Fastest with the Mostest'' (1960)

''Hopalong Casualty'' (1960)

''High Note'' (1960)

''Ready, Woolen and Able'' (1960)

''Compressed Hare'' (1961)

''Zip 'N Snort'' (1961)

''Lickety-Splat'' (1961)

''Beep Prepared'' (1961)

''Now Hear This'' (1962)

''Zoom at the Top'' (1962)

''A Sheep in the Deep'' (1962)

''Hare-Breadth Hurry'' (1963)

''Mad as a Mars Hare'' (1963)

''War and Pieces'' (1964)

''Tom and Jerry'' (cartoon shorts, 1964–1967)

''The Dot and the Line'' (1965)

''The Bear That Wasn't'' (1967)

''How The Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (TV special, 1966)

''Sesame Street'' (various cartoon segments, 1969)

''The Electric Company'' (1971)

''Horton Hears a Who!'' (TV special, 1970)

''The Phantom Tollbooth'' (feature film, 1970)

''Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'' (TV special, 1975)

''Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper'' (TV special, 1978)

''Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Pumpkin Who Couldn’t Smile'' (TV special, 1979)

''Soup or Sonic'' (1980)

''Chariots of Fur'' (1994)

''Another Froggy Evening'' (1995)

''Superior Duck'' (1996)

''From Hare to Eternity'' (1997)

See also

Warner Bros. Cartoons

Warner Bros. Animation

References

Sources

Barrier, Michael (1999). ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.

Jones, Chuck (1989). ''Chuck Amuck : The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist''. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12348-9.

Jones, Chuck (1996). ''Chuck Reducks : Drawing from the Fun Side of Life''. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-51893-X.

External links

Chuck Jones web site

Animation of Chuck Jones'' at Keyframe - the Animation Resource

Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

Good Chuck Jones tribute

"Chuck Jones" by John Canemaker from ''Cartoonist PROfiles'' #45 (March 1980)

Chuck Jones: Three Cartoons (1953-1957) - Roger Ebert discusses Jones' three films in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Biography of Chuck Jones by Daniel Briney at ToxicUniverse.com.

Chuck Jones at Find-A-Grave

Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work

Chuck Jones Archive of American Television Interview

Category:1912 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American animators Category:Animated film directors Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure Category:Deaths from heart failure Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:People from Spokane, Washington Category:Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients

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Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Bugs Bunny
first
latest	''The Looney Tunes Show'' (2011)
creator	}}

}}}} | nickname = Bugs | species = Rabbit or hare(see below) | gender = Male | significantother = Lola BunnyHoney Bunny (former) | voice = Mel Blanc, (1938–1989)Jeff Bergman (1990–1993; 2011–)(see below) }}

Bugs Bunny is a fictional animated character who starred in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1944. Bugs starred in 167 shorts during the Golden Age of American animation, and cameoed in many others, including few appearances in non-animated films. He is an anthropomorphic hare or rabbit.

According to ''Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare'', he was born on July 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York in a warren under Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In reality, he was created by many animators and staff, including Tex Avery, who directed ''A Wild Hare'', Bugs' debut role, and Robert McKimson, who created the definitive "Bugs Bunny" character design. According to Mel Blanc, the character's original voice actor, Bugs has a Flatbush accent. Bugs has had numerous catchphrases, the most prominent being a casual "Eh... What's up, doc?", usually said while chewing a carrot.

He is the most prominent of the Looney Tunes characters as his calm, flippant insouciance endeared him to American audiences during and after World War II. He is also a mascot of the Looney Tunes, as well as Warner Bros. in general.

History

Happy Rabbit

thumb|left|550px|A depiction of Bugs Bunny's evolution through the years.A rabbit (named as "Happy Rabbit") with some of the personality of Bugs, though looking very different, first appears in the cartoon short ''Porky's Hare Hunt'', released on April 30, 1938. Co-directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of Happy), this short has an almost identical plot to Tex Avery's 1937 cartoon ''Porky's Duck Hunt'', which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey less interested in escape than in driving his pursuer insane. The latter short replaces the little black duck with a small white rabbit. Happy introduces himself with the odd expression "Jiggers, fellers", and Mel Blanc gave Happy a voice and laugh almost like that he would later use for Woody Woodpecker. This cartoon also first uses the famous Groucho Marx line, "Of course you realize, this means war!" This rabbit was so popular with its audience that the Schlesinger staff decided to use it again.

Happy appears again in 1939's ''Prest-O Change-O'', directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter his absent master's house. Happy harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two dogs.

His third appearance is in another 1939 cartoon, ''Hare-um Scare-um'', directed by Dalton and Hardaway. This short, the first where he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one, is also notable for Happy's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the short, gave the character a name. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway, implying that he considered the rabbit model sheet to be Hardaway's property. In promotional material for the short, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: "Bugs" Bunny (quotation marks only used at the very beginning). In his later years, Mel Blanc stated that a proposed name was "Happy Rabbit". Oddly, "Happy" was only used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In the cartoon ''Hare-um Scare-um'', a newspaper headline reads, "Happy Hardaway".

In Chuck Jones' ''Elmer's Candid Camera'' Happy first meets Elmer Fudd. This rabbit looks more like the present-day Bugs, taller and with a similar face. This rabbit, however, speaks with a rural drawl. The early version of Elmer is also different from the present-day one, much fatter and taller, although Arthur Q. Bryan's voice is the same as it would be later. In Robert Clampett's 1940 ''Patient Porky'', a similar rabbit appears to trick the audience into thinking that 750 rabbits have been born.

Bugs Bunny emerges

''A Wild Hare'', directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is the first cartoon where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor. In this cartoon Mel Blanc first uses what would become Bugs' standard voice; this cartoon also marks the first time that Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" Animation historian Joe Adamson counts ''A Wild Hare'' as the first "official" Bugs Bunny short.

Bugs's second appearance, in Jones' ''Elmer's Pet Rabbit'', introduces the audience to the name Bugs Bunny, which until then had only been used among the Termite Terrace employees. It was also the first short where he received billing under his now-famous name, but the card, "featuring Bugs Bunny", was just slapped on the end of the completed short's opening titles when ''A Wild Hare'' proved an unexpected success. The rabbit here is in look and voice identical to the one in Jones' earlier ''Elmer's Candid Camera''.

Bugs in his ''Wild Hare'' likeness appeared in five more shorts during 1941. ''Tortoise Beats Hare'', directed by Tex Avery, features the first appearance of Cecil Turtle; ''Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt'', is the first Bugs Bunny short directed by Friz Freleng; ''All This and Rabbit Stew'', directed by Avery, has Bugs tracked by a little African-American hunter (based heavily on racial stereotypes); ''The Heckling Hare'' was the final Bugs short Avery worked on before being fired (Avery and producer Schlesinger vehemently disagreed over the ending gag of The Heckling Hare, and Avery refused to compromise his creative principles) and leaving for MGM; and ''Wabbit Twouble'', the first Bugs short directed by Robert Clampett. ''Wabbit Twouble'' was also the first of five Bugs shorts to feature a chubbier remodel of Elmer Fudd, a short-lived attempt to have Fudd more closely resemble his voice actor, comedian Arthur Q. Bryan.

World War II

By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of ''Merrie Melodies''. The series had originally been intended only for one-shot characters in shorts after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising. (In 1937, under Schlesinger, it had started introducing newer characters.) Bugs' 1942 shorts included Friz Freleng's ''The Wabbit Who Came to Supper'', and the Robert Clampett shorts ''The Wacky Wabbit'' and ''Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid'' (which introduced Beaky Buzzard). ''Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid'' shows a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. The character was reworked by Robert McKimson, then an animator in Robert Clampett's unit. The redesign at first was only used in the shorts created by Clampett's unit, but in time it would be taken up by the other directors, with Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first. When McKimson was himself promoted to director, he created yet another version, with more slanted eyes, longer teeth and a much larger mouth. He used this version until 1949 (as did Art Davis for the one Bugs Bunny cartoon he directed) when he started using the version he had designed for Clampett. Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice had slight variations between the units.

Other 1942 Bugs shorts included Chuck Jones' ''Hold the Lion, Please'', Freleng's ''Fresh Hare'' and ''The Hare-Brained Hypnotist'' (which restores Elmer Fudd to his previous size), and Jones' ''Case of the Missing Hare''. Bugs also made cameos in Tex Avery's final Warner Bros. short, ''Crazy Cruise'', and stars in the two-minute United States war bonds commercial film ''Any Bonds Today''.

Bugs became more popular during World War II because of his free and easy attitude, and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time Warner Bros. had become the most profitable cartoon studio in the United States. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, Warners put its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese. The 1944 short ''Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips'' features Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its racial stereotypes of Japanese people. He also faces off against Herman Goering and Hitler in ''Herr Meets Hare'', which introduced his well-known reference to Albuquerque as he mistakenly winds up in the Black Forest of 'Joimany' instead of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since Bugs' debut in ''A Wild Hare'', he had appeared only in color ''Merrie Melodie'' cartoons (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Leon Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color), alongside Elmer's prototype Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself—who was heard but not seen in the 1942 ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon ''Nutty News'', and made his first formal appearance in that series in 1943's ''To Duck or Not to Duck''. While he made a cameo appearance in the 1943 Porky and Daffy cartoon ''Porky Pig's Feat'' this was his only appearance in a black-and-white ''Looney Tune'' cartoon. He did not star in a cartoon in the ''Looney Tunes'' series until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning with 1944 releases. ''Buckaroo Bugs'' was Bugs' first cartoon in the ''Looney Tunes'' series, and was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to credit Leon Schlesinger.

Among his most notable civilian shorts during this period are Bob Clampett's ''Tortoise Wins by a Hare'' (a sequel to 1941's ''Tortoise Beats Hare''); ''A Corny Concerto'' (a spoof of Disney's ''Fantasia''); ''Falling Hare''; ''What's Cookin' Doc?''; Chuck Jones' ''Superman'' parody ''Super-Rabbit''; and Freleng's ''Little Red Riding Rabbit''. The 1944 short ''Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears'' introduces Jones' The Three Bears characters.

At the end of the cartoon ''Super-Rabbit'', Bugs appears wearing a United States Marine Corps dress blue uniform. As a result, the Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant. From 1943 to 1946, Bugs was the official mascot of Kingman Army Airfield, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, U.S. Air Force, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia's Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers. Bugs riding an air delivered torpedo served as the squadron logo for Marine Torpedo/Bomber Squadron 242 in the Second World War.

In 1944, Bugs Bunny made a cameo appearance in ''Jasper Goes Hunting'', a short produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by Robert McKimson, with Mel Blanc providing the voice), Bugs pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; Bugs then says, "I must be in the wrong picture" and then goes back in the hole. He also appears in the 1947 Arthur Davis cartoon ''The Goofy Gophers''

The post-war era

After World War II Bugs appeared in numerous cartoon shorts in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series, making his last appearance in the theatrical cartoons in 1964 with ''False Hare''. He was directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis and Chuck Jones and appeared in feature films, including ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' (which features the first-ever meeting between Bugs and his box-office rival Mickey Mouse), ''Space Jam'', and the 2003 movie ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action.''

The Bugs Bunny short ''Knighty Knight Bugs'' (1958), in which a medieval Bugs Bunny trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) of 1958. Three of Chuck Jones' Bugs Bunny shorts — ''Rabbit Fire'', ''Rabbit Seasoning'', and ''Duck! Rabbit, Duck!'' — comprise what is often referred to as the "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" trilogy. Jones' 1957 classic, ''What's Opera, Doc?'', cast Bugs and Elmer in a parody of Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. It has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, the first cartoon short to receive this honor.

In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program ''The Bugs Bunny Show''. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Warners shorts with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings. ''The Bugs Bunny Show'' changed format and exact title frequently, but remained on network television for 40 years. The packaging was later completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler.

After the classic cartoon era

After Mel Blanc died in 1989, Jeff Bergman, Greg Burson, Billy West, and Joe Alaskey became the new voices of Bugs Bunny and many of the other Looney Tunes, each taking turns doing Bugs' voice for various projects over the years.

Bugs has made appearances in animated specials for network television, mostly composed of classic cartoons with bridging material added, including ''How Bugs Bunny Won the West'', and ''The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special''. ''Bugs Bunny's Busting Out All Over'' (1980) contained no vintage clips and featured the first new Bugs Bunny cartoons in 16 years. It opened with "Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Bunny", which features a flashback of Bugs as a child thwarting a young Elmer Fudd, while its third and closing short was "Spaced Out Bunny", with Bugs being kidnapped by Marvin the Martian to be a playmate for Hugo, an Abominable Snowman-like character. (A new Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short filled out the half hour.) Compilation films included the independently produced ''Bugs Bunny: Superstar'', using the vintage shorts then owned by United Artists; as well as Warner Bros. efforts ''The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie'', ''The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie'', ''Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island'', ''Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales'' and ''Daffy Duck's Quackbusters''. He also made guest appearances in episodes of the 1990s television program ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Babs and Buster Bunny, and would later make occasional guest cameos on spinoffs ''Taz-Mania'' and ''Animaniacs''. He appears in the beginning of ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'', where he tries to ride the opening Warner Bros logo, but is interrupted by Daffy Duck.

Bugs has had several comic book series over the years. Western Publishing had the license for all the Warner Brothers cartoons, and produced Bugs Bunny comics first for Dell Comics, then later for their own Gold Key Comics. Dell published 58 issues and several specials from 1952 to 1962. Gold Key continued for another 133 issues. DC Comics, the sister/subsidiary company of Warner Bros., has published several comics titles since 1994 that Bugs has appeared in. Notable among these was the 2000 four-issue miniseries ''Superman & Bugs Bunny'', written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Joe Staton. This depicted a crossover between DC's superheroes and the Warner cartoon characters.

Like SpongeBob for Nickelodeon and Mickey Mouse (a Disney character), Bugs has served as the mascot for Warner Bros. Entertainment and its various divisions. He and Mickey are the first cartoon characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the 1988 animated/live action movie ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', Bugs was shown as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest star if he got an equal amount of screen time as Disney's biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in frame when onscreen. For the same reasons, Bugs never calls Mickey by his name, only referring to him as "Doc," while Mickey calls him "Bugs."

Bugs Bunny was featured in ''The Earth Day Special'' showing his displeasure on how man started mistreating the environment. He was voiced by Jeff Bergman who also voiced Porky Pig and Tweety.

Bugs Bunny came back to the silver screen in ''Box Office Bunny'' in 1990. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short since 1964 to be released to theaters, and it was created for the Bugs Bunny 50th anniversary celebration. It was followed in 1991 by ''(Blooper) Bunny,'' a short that has gained a cult following among some animation fans for its edgy humor.

Bugs made an appearance in the 1990 drug prevention video ''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.'' This special is notable for being the first time that somebody other than Mel Blanc voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. (In this video, both characters were voiced by Jeff Bergman.)

In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used. The introduction of Bugs onto a stamp was controversial at the time, as it was seen as a step toward the 'commercialization' of stamp art. The postal service rejected many designs, and went with a postal-themed drawing. Avery Dennison printed the Bugs Bunny stamp sheet, which featured "a special ten-stamp design and was the first self-adhesive souvenir sheet issued by the U.S. Postal Service."

A younger version of Bugs is the main character of ''Baby Looney Tunes,'' which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2002. In the action comedy ''Loonatics Unleashed'', his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit. Strangely, Bugs was one of the few Looney Tunes characters who never appeared in the 2003 Duck Dodgers series.

Bugs has appeared in numerous video games, including the ''Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle'' series, ''Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout'', ''Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage'' and the similar ''Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble'', ''Looney Tunes B-Ball'', ''Space Jam'', ''Looney Tunes Racing'', ''Looney Tunes: Space Race'', ''Bugs Bunny Lost in Time'', and its sequel, ''Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters'', and ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'' and the new video game ''Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal''.

On August 13, 2010, Warner Bros. Pictures announced that they are planning a live-action/CG-animated combo feature film based on the Looney Tunes character.

Return to television

Bugs Bunny and the rest of the ''Looney Tunes'' gang returned to Cartoon Network in 2011 in a brand new show called ''The Looney Tunes Show'', with Jeff Bergman returning to voice both Bugs and Daffy Duck. This series will also feature the characters singing original songs as well. The show debuted on May 3, 2011. A large difference between Bugs and Daffy's friendship in the show is that, whereas Bugs would hardly mind Daffy's flaws in the original cartoons, in the show Bugs is often and openly annoyed at Daffy's antics, sometimes to the point of aggression when Daffy becomes too obnoxious. He also dated Lola Bunny once, but found her to be "crazy" and a bit too talkative. Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in a regular home, which he shares with Daffy. To earn income, Bugs earns money for having invented the Carrot Peeler.

Bugs also appeared in the ''MAD'' episode "Hops", where he appeared at the party.

Personality and catchphrases

– it's actually a big put-on. Let's face it Doc. I've read the script and I al­ready know how it turns out. |Bob Clampett on Bugs Bunny, written in first person.}} Bugs has feuded with Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby the Dog, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tasmanian Devil, Cecil Turtle, Charlie Dog, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, the Crusher, Gremlin, Big Bad Wolf, Count Blood Count and a host of others. Bugs almost always wins these conflicts, a plot pattern which recurs in ''Looney Tunes'' films directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Jones arranged for Bugs to be bullied, cheated, or threatened by the antagonists while minding his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense. He's also been known to break the fourth wall by "communicating" with the audience, either by explaining the situation (e.g. "Be with you in a minute, folks!"), describing someone to the audience (e.g. "Feisty, ain't they?"), clueing in on the story (e.g. "That happens to him all during the picture, folks."), explaining that one of his antagonists' actions have pushed him to the breaking point ("Of course you know, this means war."), etc.

Bugs will usually try to placate the antagonist and avoid conflict, but when an antagonist pushes him too far, Bugs may address the audience and invoke his catchphrase "Of course you realize this means ''war!''" before he retaliates, and the retaliation will be devastating. This line was taken from Groucho Marx and others in the 1933 film ''Duck Soup'' and was also used in the 1935 Marx film ''A Night at the Opera''. Bugs would pay homage to Groucho in other ways, such as occasionally adopting his stooped walk or leering eyebrow-raising (in ''Hair-Raising Hare'', for example) or sometimes with a direct impersonation (as in ''Slick Hare'').

Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters (such as Cecil Turtle in ''Tortoise Beats Hare'', or, in World War II, the Gremlin of ''Falling Hare''), his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage. Most of Bugs' antagonists are extremely dim-witted, and Bugs is easily able to outwit and torment them, though on occasion they will manage to get the best of Bugs. Daffy Duck, who is considerably more intelligent, is unaffected by Bugs' usual schemes, and the two usually end up fighting a battle of wits, though Bugs is still the superior.

During the 1940s, Bugs was immature and wild, but starting in the 1950s his personality matured and his attitude was less frenetic. Though often shown as highly mischievous and violent, Bugs is never actually malicious, and only acts as such in self-defense against his aggressors; the only two cartoons where Bugs ever served as an antagonist were Buckaroo Bugs and Duck Amuck; the latter cartoon depicts him as far more sadistic than usual, as he becomes the cartoonist and abuses his newfound divine powers to torture Daffy.

Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film ''It Happened One Night'', in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire.

The carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs Bunny's most well-known catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?", which was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny short, 1940s ''A Wild Hare''. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in his native Texas and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the short was first screened in theaters, the "What's up, Doc?" scene generated a tremendously positive audience reaction. As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent films and cartoons. The phrase was sometimes modified for a situation. For example, Bugs says "What's up, dogs?" to the antagonists in ''A Hare Grows in Manhattan'', "What's up, Duke?" to the knight in ''Knight-mare Hare'' and "What's up, prune-face?" to the aged Elmer in ''The Old Grey Hare''. He might also greet Daffy with "What's up, Duck?" He used one variation, "What's all the hub-bub, bub?" only once, in ''Falling Hare.'' Another variation is used in ''Looney Tunes: Back In Action'' when he greets a lightsaber-wielding Marvin the Martian saying "What's up, Darth?"

Several Chuck Jones shorts in the late 1940s and 1950s depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases, intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Mexico (''Bully for Bugs'', 1953), the Himalayas (''The Abominable Snow Rabbit'', 1960) and Antarctica (''Frigid Hare'', 1949) all because he "shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee." He first utters that phrase in ''Herr Meets Hare'' (1945), when he emerges in the Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When Hermann Göring says to Bugs, "There is no Las Vegas in 'Chermany'" and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says, "Joimany! Yipe!", as Bugs realizes he's behind enemy lines. The confused response to his "left toin" comment also followed a pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in 1948's ''My Bunny Lies over the Sea'', while thinking he's heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it provides another chance for an ethnic stereotype: "Therrre's no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!" (to which Bugs responds, "Uh...what's up, Mac-doc?"). A couple of late-1950s shorts of this ilk also featured Daffy Duck travelling with Bugs ("Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?!").

Bugs Bunny has some similarities to figures from mythology and folklore, such as Br'er Rabbit, Nanabozho, or Anansi, and might be seen as a modern trickster (for example, he repeatedly uses cross-dressing mischievously). Unlike most cartoon characters, however, Bugs Bunny is rarely defeated in his own games of trickery. One exception to this is the short ''Hare Brush'', in which Elmer Fudd ultimately carries the day at the end; however, critics note that in this short, Elmer and Bugs assume each other's personalities—through mental illness and hypnosis, respectively—and it is only by becoming Bugs that Elmer can win. However, Bugs was beaten at his own game. In the short ''Duck Amuck'' he torments Daffy Duck as the unseen animator, ending with his line, "Ain't I a stinker?" Bugs feels the same wrath of an unseen animator in the short ''Rabbit Rampage'' where he is in turn tormented by Elmer Fudd. At the end of the clip Elmer gleefully exclaims, 'Well, I finally got even with that scwewy wabbit!"

Although it was usually Porky Pig who brought the WB cartoons to a close with his stuttering, "That's all, folks!", Bugs would occasionally appear, bursting through a drum just as Porky did, but munching a carrot and saying in his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, "And dat's de end!"

The name "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as an old-fashioned nickname means "crazy" (or "loopy"). Several famous people from the first half of the twentieth century had that nickname. It is now out of fashion as a nickname, but survives in 1950s–1960s expressions like "you're bugging me", as in "you're driving me crazy".

Bugs wears white gloves, which he is rarely seen without, although he may remove one and use it for slapping an opponent to predicate a duel. Another glove-less example is the episode ''Long-Haired Hare'', where Bugs pretends to be the famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and instructs opera star "Giovanni Jones" to sing and to hold a high note. As Giovanni Jones is turning red with the strain, Bugs slips his left hand out of its glove, leaving the glove hovering in the air in order to command Jones to continue to hold the high note. Bugs then nips down to the mail drop to order, and then to receive, a pair of ear defenders. Bugs puts on the ear defenders and then zips back into the amphitheater and reinserts his hand into his glove as singer Jones is writhing on the stage, still holding that same high note.

Bugs Bunny is also a master of disguise: he can wear any disguise that he wants to confuse his enemies: in ''Bowery Bugs'' he uses diverse disguises: fakir, gentleman, woman, baker and finally policeman. This ability of disguise makes Bugs famous because we can recognize him while at the same time realizing that his enemies are stumped. Bugs has a certain preference for the female disguise: Taz, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam were fooled by this sexy bunny (woman) and in ''Hare Trimmed'', Sam discovers the real face of "Granny" (Bugs's disguise) in the church where they attempt to get married. For all the gullible victims of all these disguises, however, for some reason, Daffy Duck and Cecil Turtle are among those who are never fooled.

Bugs Bunny may also have some mystical potential. In ''Knight-mare Hare'' he was able to return to his bunny form (after being transformed into a donkey) by removing his donkey form as if it were a suit. Merlin of Monroe (the wizard) was unable to do the same thing. Later Bugs Bunny defeated the Count Blood Count in a magical spell duel. However, the story was a dream and Bugs Bunny's victory over Count Blood Count was a result of his intellect, not innate magical power.

Rabbit or hare?

The animators throughout Bugs' history have treated the terms rabbit and hare as synonymous. Taxonomically, they are not synonymous, being somewhat similar but observably different types of lagomorphs. Hares have much longer ears than rabbits, so Bugs might seem to be of the hare family, yet rabbits live in burrows, as Bugs is seen to do. Many more of the cartoon titles include the word "hare" rather than "rabbit," as "hare" lends itself easily to puns ("hair," "air," etc.) although Elmer Fudd has always referred to Bugs as a "wabbit".

Within the cartoons, although the term "hare" comes up sometimes, again typically as a pun—for example, Bugs drinking "hare tonic" to "stop falling hare" or being doused with "hare restorer" to bring him back from invisibility—Bugs as well as his antagonists most often refer to the character as a "rabbit." The word "bunny" is of no help in answering this question, as it is a synonym for both young hares and young rabbits.

In Nike commercials with Michael Jordan, Bugs had been referred to as "''Hare'' Jordan."

The opening and closing

In the opening of many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the ''Merrie Melodies'' and ''Looney Tunes'' irises contain Bugs Bunny's head after the Warner Bros. shield (generally from 1944 and 1949 onward). Others have Bugs Bunny relaxing on top of the Warner Bros. shield: He chews on his carrot, looks angrily at the camera and pulls down the next logo (''Merrie Melodies'' or ''Looney Tunes'') like a window shade (generally on cartoons between 1945 until early 1949). Then he lifts it back up, to now be seen lying on his own name, which then fades into the title of the specific short. In some other cases, the title card sometimes fades to him, already on his name and chewing his carrot then fade to the name of the short. At the finish of ''Hare Tonic'' and ''Baseball Bugs'', Bugs breaks out of a drum (like ''Porky Pig'') and says, "And that's the end". Also, at the end of ''Box Office Bunny'', right after Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd run out through the Looney Tunes "That's All Folks!" sequence, Bugs later comes in through the rings and says, "And that's all, folks!". He did the ending for the last time at the end of ''Space Jam'' but this time saying "Well, that's all, folks!".

Voice actors

The following are the many voice actors who have voiced the character Bugs Bunny over the last seventy-one years:

;Mel Blanc :Mel Blanc voiced the character for 49 years, from Bugs' debut in ''A Wild Hare'' (1940) until Blanc's death in 1989. Blanc described the voice as a combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents; however, Tex Avery claimed that he asked Blanc to give the character not a New York accent ''per se'', but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh, who frequently appeared in supporting roles in the 1930s and whose voice might be described as New York Irish. In Bugs' second cartoon ''Elmer's Pet Rabbit'', Blanc created a completely new voice for Bugs, which sounded like a Jimmy Stewart impression, but the directors decided the previous voice was better. Though his best-known character was the carrot-chomping rabbit, munching on the carrots interrupted the dialogue. Various substitutes, such as celery, were tried, but none of them ''sounded'' like a carrot. So for the sake of expedience, he would munch and then spit the carrot bits into a spittoon rather than swallowing them, and continue with the dialogue. One often-repeated story, possibly originating from ''Bugs Bunny: Superstar'', is that Blanc was allergic to carrots and ''had'' to spit them out to minimize any allergic reaction — but his autobiography makes no such claim. In fact, in a 1984 interview with Tim Lawson, co-author of ''The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors'' (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), Blanc emphatically denied being allergic to carrots.

;Jeff Bergman :Jeff Bergman was the first to voice Bugs Bunny (and several other Looney Tunes characters) after Blanc died in 1989. He got the job by impressing Warner Bros. higher-ups with a tape of himself re-creating the voices of several of Blanc's characters, including Bugs. He had rigged the tape player so that he could use a switch to instantly toggle back and forth between the original recording of Blanc and Bergman's recording of the same lines. Upon doing this, it was almost impossible for the producers to tell which voice was Blanc's and which voice was Bergman; thus his vocal ability was established and his career launched.

:Bergman first voiced Bugs during the 1990 Academy Awards and then in ''Box Office Bunny'', a 4-minute ''Looney Tunes'' short released in 1990 to commemorate Bugs' fiftieth anniversary. Bergman would next voice Bugs in the 1991 short ''(Blooper) Bunny'', a Greg Ford-directed cartoon produced to coincide with Bugs' 51st and a half anniversary. However, the short never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for years, until Cartoon Network rediscovered it and broadcast it on their channel several years later. ''(Blooper) Bunny'' has since garnered a cult following among animation fans for its use of edgy humor. Other works for which Bergman provided Bugs' voice include ''Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers'' (an obvious parody of the 1950s sci-fi classic ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers''), ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' (a popular television program of the early nineties that featured the classic ''Looney Tunes'' characters as mentors to their younger counterparts) in the first season, and ''Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue'' (a television special exposing children to dangers of illegal drugs). Bergman would continue to do the voice of Bugs Bunny until 1993, apparently due to him having difficulty moving to Los Angeles at the time. In 2011, Bergman has returned to voice Bugs for Cartoon Network's new series, ''The Looney Tunes Show''.

;Greg Burson :Greg Burson first voiced Bugs Bunny in later episodes of ''Tiny Toon Adventures''. He was then given the responsibility of voicing Bugs in 1995's ''Carrotblanca'', a well-received 8-minute ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside ''The Amazing Panda Adventure'' (US) and ''The Pebble and the Penguin'' (non-US); it has since been released on video packaged with older ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons and was even included in the special edition DVD release of ''Casablanca'', of which it is both a parody and an homage. Burson next voiced Bugs in the 1996 short ''From Hare to Eternity''; the film is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-just deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Burson also provided Bugs' voice in ''The Bugs and Daffy Show'', which ran on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 2003. He died in 2008.

;Billy West :Billy West has been in television since the late 1980s. His first role was for the 1988 revived version of Bob Clampett's ''Beany and Cecil''. West's breakthrough role then came almost immediately, as the voice of Stimpy and later Ren in John Kricfalusi's ''Ren & Stimpy''. West has since been the voice talent for close to 120 different characters, including some of the most iconic animated figures in television history. Perhaps West's most notable film work came in the 1996 film ''Space Jam''. Starring alongside Michael Jordan, West provided the voice of both Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. West would go on to reprise the roles of Bugs in subsequent ''Looney Tunes'' productions, including his cameos on ''Histeria!'', also he made a cameo appearance on ''Kid vs. Kat'' in "Class Act", the Kids' WB! promotional spots, and the 2006 Christmas-themed special ''Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas'' and the DVD compilations "Reality Check" and "Stranger Than Fiction", along with several ''Looney Tunes''-centric CDs, cartoons, and video games.

;Joe Alaskey :Joe Alaskey, like Jeff Bergman, is well-known for his ability to successfully impersonate many ''Looney Tunes'' characters. In fact, Alaskey voiced Yosemite Sam in ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', as original voice actor Mel Blanc had found it too hard on his vocal cords (which makes Sam one of the few voices created by Blanc to be voiced by someone else during his lifetime). Alaskey's first performance as Bugs Bunny came in the 2003 feature film ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'', although he had tested performing the role in a few earlier projects, such as ''Tweety's High-Flying Adventure''. While still best known for providing the voice of Daffy Duck, Alaskey has also gone on to do Bugs' voice in several subsequent productions, including ''Daffy Duck for President'' (which was released on ''The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2'' and dedicated to then-just deceased Chuck Jones) and several recent video games and Looney Tunes cartoons, including ''Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas''.

;Samuel Vincent :Samuel Vincent served as the voice of Bugs in the Cartoon Network TV series ''Baby Looney Tunes''.

;Noel Blanc :Noel Blanc, Mel Blanc's son, voiced Bugs for the ''Tiny Toons'' special ''It's a Wonderful Tiny Toon Christmas Special''. The elder Blanc claimed in his later years that Noel substituted for Mel in various cartoon studios, including doing Bugs at Warner Bros., while he was recovering from a near-fatal car wreck. Noel can also be seen doing Bugs' voice with his father in the documentary on the making of the film ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit''.

Cameos

Bugs Bunny has had cameo appearances in ten cartoons, including two ''Private SNAFU'' shorts.

''Daffy Doodles'' (1946)

''Patient Porky'' (1940)

''Crazy Cruise'' (1942)

''Porky Pig's Feat'' (1943, Bugs's only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes short)

''Jasper Goes Hunting'' (1944, for Paramount)

''Odor-able Kitty'' (1945)

''The Goofy Gophers'' (1947, with a sped-up voice)

''The Lion's Busy'' (1950)

''Duck Amuck'' (1953)

''Justice League: The New Frontier'' (2008, voiced by Joe Alaskey, as one of the forms of The Martian Manhunter)

Current popularity

In 2002, ''TV Guide'' compiled a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary. Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1. In a CNN broadcast on July 31, 2002, a ''TV Guide'' editor talked about the group that created the list. The editor also explained why Bugs pulled top billing: "His stock...has never gone down...Bugs is the best example...of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon character, he's a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh. He is tops." Additionally, in ''Animal Planet'''s ''50 Greatest Movie Animals'' (2004), Bugs was named #3, behind Mickey Mouse and Toto. In 2005 Bugs Bunny was voted the 10th greatest cartoon in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons behind ''The Simpsons'', ''Tom and Jerry'', ''South Park'', ''Toy Story'', ''Family Guy'', ''Shrek'', ''The Lion King'', ''Spirited Away'' and ''The Incredibles''.

Bugs has also had an effect on "live" movie acting. During an interview for ''Inside the Actors Studio'', comedian Dave Chappelle cited him as one of his earliest influences, praising voice actor Mel Blanc.

According to Time Warner, Bugs Bunny became the current official mascot for Six Flags theme parks beginning with their 45th anniversary.

Awards

Academy Awards

''Knighty Knight Bugs'' (1958)

Academy Award nominations

''A Wild Hare'' (1940)

''Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt'' (1941)

See also

''Looney Tunes''

''Merrie Melodies''

''List of Bugs Bunny cartoons''

''List of Looney Tunes feature-length films''

''The Golden Age of American animation''

References

Bibliography

External links

Warner Bros. Studios

Category:Corporate mascots Category:DC Comics titles Category:Dell Comics titles Category:Fictional anthropomorphic characters Category:Fictional characters from New York City Category:Fictional hares and rabbits Category:Gold Key Comics titles Category:Honorary United States Marines Category:Looney Tunes characters Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1940

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The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe, Larry, and Shemp," among other lineups. They first started as "Ted Healy and his Stooges" which contained Moe, Larry and Shemp. "The Three Stooges" film trio was originally composed of Moe Howard, brother Curly Howard and Larry Fine. Shemp Howard replaced brother Curly, when Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946.

After Shemp's death from a heart attack in November 1955, he was replaced by comedian Joe Besser, after the use of film actor Joe Palma to film four Shemp-era shorts. Ultimately, Joe DeRita (nicknamed "Curly Joe") replaced Joe Besser by 1958. The act regained momentum throughout the 1960s as popular kiddie fare until Larry Fine's paralyzing stroke in January 1970 effectively marked the end of the act proper. Moe tried unsuccessfully one final time to revive the Stooges with longtime supporting actor Emil Sitka filling in for Larry. Larry ultimately succumbed to a series of additional strokes in January 1975, followed by Moe, who died of lung cancer in May 1975.

History

Ted Healy and his stooges

The Three Stooges started in 1925 as part of a raucous vaudeville act called 'Ted Healy and His Stooges' (a.k.a. 'Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen', 'Ted Healy and His Three Lost Souls' and 'Ted Healy and His Racketeers'—the moniker 'Three Stooges' was never used during their tenure with Healy). In the act, lead comedian Healy would attempt to sing or tell jokes while his noisy assistants would keep "interrupting" him. Healy would respond by verbally and physically abusing his stooges. Brothers Moe and Shemp were joined later that year by violinist-comedian Larry Fine, and Fred Sanborn joined the group as well.

In 1930, Ted Healy and His Stooges (including Sanborn) appeared in their first Hollywood feature film, ''Soup to Nuts'', released by Fox Film Corporation. The film was not a critical success, but the Stooges' performances were singled out as memorable, leading Fox to offer the trio a contract minus Healy. This enraged the prickly Healy, who told studio executives that the Stooges were his employees. The offer was withdrawn, and after Howard, Fine and Howard learned of the reason, they left Healy to form their own act, which quickly took off with a tour of the theatre circuit. Healy attempted to stop the new act with legal action, claiming they were using his copyrighted material. There are accounts of Healy threatening to bomb theaters if Howard, Fine and Howard ever performed there, which worried Shemp so much that he almost left the act; reportedly, only a pay raise kept him on board. Healy tried to save his act by hiring replacement stooges, but they were inexperienced and not as well-received as their predecessors. In 1932, with Moe now acting as business manager, Healy reached a new agreement with his former Stooges, and they were booked in a production of Jacob J. Shubert's ''The Passing Show of 1932''. During rehearsals, Healy received a more lucrative offer and found a loophole in his contract allowing him to leave the production. Shemp, fed up with Healy's abrasiveness, decided to quit the act and found work almost immediately, in Vitaphone movie comedies produced in Brooklyn, New York.

With Shemp gone, Healy and the two remaining stooges (Moe and Larry) needed a replacement, so Moe suggested his younger brother Jerry Howard. Healy reportedly took one look at Jerry, who had long chestnut red locks and a handlebar mustache, and remarked that he did not look like he was funny. Jerry left the room and returned a few moments later with his head shaved (though his mustache remained for a time), and then quipped "Boy, do I look girly." Healy heard "Curly," and the name stuck. (There are varying accounts as to how the Curly character actually came about.)

In 1933, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) signed Healy and his Stooges to a movie contract. They appeared in feature films and short subjects, either together, individually, or with various combinations of actors. The trio was featured in a series of musical comedy shorts, beginning with ''Nertsery Rhymes''. The short was one of a few shorts to be made with an early two-strip Technicolor process, including one featuring Curly without Healy or the other Stooges, ''Roast Beef and Movies'' (1934). The shorts themselves were built around recycled film footage of production numbers cut from MGM musicals, such as ''Children of Pleasure'', ''Lord Byron of Broadway'', and the unfinished ''March of Time'' (all 1930), which had been filmed in early Technicolor. Soon, additional shorts followed (sans the experimental Technicolor), including ''Beer and Pretzels'' (1933), ''Plane Nuts'' (1933), and ''The Big Idea'' (1934).

Healy and company also appeared in several MGM feature films as comic relief, such as ''Turn Back the Clock'' (1933), ''Meet the Baron'' (1933), ''Dancing Lady'' (1933), ''Fugitive Lovers'' (1934), and ''Hollywood Party'' (1934). Healy and the Stooges also appeared together in ''Myrt and Marge'' for Universal Pictures.

In 1934, the team's contract with MGM expired, and the Stooges parted professional company with Healy. According to Moe Howard's autobiography, the Stooges split with Ted Healy in 1934 once and for all because of Healy's alcoholism and abrasiveness. Their final film with Healy was MGM’s 1934 film, ''Hollywood Party''. Both Healy and the Stooges went on to separate successes, with Healy dying under mysterious circumstances in 1937.

The Columbia years: Moe, Larry and Curly

In 1934, the trio – now officially christened "The Three Stooges" – signed on to appear in two-reel comedy short subjects for Columbia Pictures. In Moe's autobiography, he said they each got $600 per week on a one-year contract with a renewable option; in the Ted Okuda–Edward Watz book ''The Columbia Comedy Shorts'', the Stooges are said to have received $1,000 between them for their first Columbia effort, ''Woman Haters'', and then signed a term contract for $7,500 per film, to be divided among the trio.

Within their first year at Columbia, the Stooges became wildly popular. Realizing this, Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn used the Stooges as leverage, as the demand for their films was so great that Columbia eventually refused to supply exhibitors with the trio's shorts unless they also agreed to book some of the studio's mediocre B movies. Cohn also saw to it that the Stooges remain ignorant of their popularity. During their 23 years spent at Columbia, the Stooges were never completely aware of their amazing drawing power at the box office. As their contracts with the studio included an open option that had to be renewed every year, Cohn would tell the boys that the short subjects were in decline, which was not a complete fabrication (Cohn's yearly mantra was "the market for comedy shorts is dying out, fellahs.") Thinking their days were numbered, the Stooges would sweat it out each and every year, with Cohn signing the trio up for another year at the last minute. This cruel deception kept the insecure Stooges unaware of their true value, resulting in them having second thoughts about asking for a better contract without a yearly option. Cohn's scare tactics worked for all 23 years the Stooges were at Columbia; the team never once asked for—nor were they ever given—a salary increase. It was not until after they stopped making the shorts in December 1957 did Moe learn of the game Cohn was playing, what a valuable commodity the Stooges had been for the ailing studio, and how many millions more the act could have earned.

The Stooges were required to churn out up to eight short films per year within a 40-week period; for the remaining 12 or so weeks, they were free to pursue other employment. Usually, the Stooges would either spend this time with their families or tour the country promoting their live act. The Stooges appeared in 190 film shorts and five features while at Columbia. Del Lord directed more than three dozen Stooge films; Jules White directed dozens more, and his brother Jack White directed several under the pseudonym "Preston Black".

According to a published report, Moe, Larry, and director Jules White considered their best film to be ''You Nazty Spy!''. This 18-minute short subject starred Moe as "Moe Hailstone", an Adolf Hitler-like character, and satirized the Nazis in a period when America was still neutral and resolutely isolationist. Curly played a Hermann Goering character, replete with medals, and Larry a Ribbentrop-type ambassador. ''You Nazty Spy!'' was the first Hollywood film to spoof Hitler, as it was released in January, 1940, nine months before Charlie Chaplin's ''The Great Dictator''. Reportedly this film caused the Stooges to be placed on Hitler's so-called "death list" because of its anti-Nazi stance. Chaplin, along with Jack Benny, would also be on this list due to their later anti-Nazi films. The Stooges made occasional guest appearances in feature films, though generally they stuck to short subjects. Columbia offered theater owners an entire program of two-reel comedies (15 to 25 titles annually) featuring such stars as Buster Keaton, Andy Clyde, Charley Chase, and Hugh Herbert, but the Three Stooges shorts were the most popular of all.

Curly was easily the most popular member of the team. His childlike mannerisms and natural comedic charm (he had no previous acting experience) made him a hit with audiences. The fact that Curly had to shave his head for the act led him to feel unappealing to women. To mask his insecurities, Curly ate and drank excessively and caroused whenever the Stooges made personal appearances, which was approximately seven months out of the year. His weight ballooned in the 1940s, and his blood pressure was dangerously high. His wild lifestyle and constant drinking eventually caught up with him in 1945, and his performances suffered. In his last dozen shorts (ranging from 1945's ''If a Body Meets a Body'' through 1947's ''Half-Wits Holiday''), he was seriously ill, struggling to get through even the most basic scenes.

It was during the final day of filming ''Half-Wits Holiday'' on May 6, 1946 that Curly suffered a debilitating stroke on the set, ending his 14-year career. Curly's health necessitated a temporary retirement from the act, and while the Stooges hoped for a full recovery, Curly never starred in a film again, except for one brief cameo appearance in the third film after Shemp returned to the trio, ''Hold That Lion!'' It was the only film that contained all ''four'' of the original Stooges (the three Howard brothers and Larry) on screen simultaneously; Jules White recalled Curly visiting the set one day, and White had him do this bit for fun. (Curly's cameo appearance was recycled in the 1953 remake ''Booty and the Beast''.) In 1949, Curly was supposed to play a cameo role in the Stooge comedy ''Malice in the Palace'', but he was physically unable to perform. His chef role was played by Larry.

Shemp returns

Moe Howard turned to his older brother Shemp Howard to take Curly's place. Shemp, however, was hesitant to rejoin the Stooges, as he had a successful solo career at the time of Curly's untimely illness. However, he realized that Moe and Larry's careers would be finished without the Stooge act. Shemp wanted some kind of assurance that his rejoining was indeed temporary, and that he could leave the Stooges once Curly recovered. Unfortunately, Curly remained gravely ill after 1950, dying of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by additional strokes on January 18, 1952.

Shemp appeared with the Stooges in 76 more shorts and a quickie Western comedy feature titled ''Gold Raiders''. Upon Shemp's return, the quality of the films picked up; the last few Curly efforts had been marred by his sluggish performances. Entries like ''Out West'', ''Squareheads of the Round Table'', and ''Punchy Cowpunchers'' proved that there was life after Curly, and that Shemp could easily hold his own. Though some say he lacked his younger brother's childlike charisma, Shemp was a gifted, professional comedian. More often than not, his astute gift of comedic timing buoys weak material. In fact, one the finest entries in the series, ''Brideless Groom'', was made during this period.

Another interesting plus from the Shemp era was that Larry was given more time on screen. Throughout most of the Curly era, Larry was relegated to a background role, only being called upon to break up a potential scuffle between Moe and Curly. By the time Shemp rejoined the Stooges, Larry was allotted equal footage, even becoming the focus of several films (''Fuelin' Around'', ''He Cooked His Goose'').

During this period, Moe, Larry, and Shemp made a pilot for a ''Three Stooges'' television show called ''Jerks of All Trades'' in 1949. The series was never picked up, although the pilot is currently in the public domain and is available on home video, as is an early television appearance from around the same time on a vaudeville-style comedy series, ''Camel Comedy Caravan'', originally broadcast live on CBS-TV on March 11, 1950 and starring Ed Wynn. Also available commercially is a kinescope of Moe, Larry, and Shemp's appearance on ''The Frank Sinatra Show'', broadcast live over CBS-TV on January 1, 1952. Frank Sinatra was reportedly a big fan of the Stooges and slapstick comedy in general. On this broadcast, the Stooges are joined by one of their longtime stock-company members, Vernon Dent, who plays "Mr. Mortimer", a party-goer who requests a drink. The Stooges oblige with disastrous results.

Columbia's short-subject division downsized in 1952. Producer Hugh McCollum was discharged and director Edward Bernds resigned out of loyalty to McCollum, leaving only Jules White to both produce and direct the Stooges' remaining Columbia comedies. Production was significantly faster, with the former four-day filming schedules now tightened to two or three days. In another cost-cutting measure, White would create a "new" Stooge short by borrowing footage from old ones, setting it in a slightly different storyline, and filming a few new scenes often with the same actors in the same costumes. White was initially very subtle when recycling older footage: he would reuse only a single sequence of old film, re-edited so cleverly that it was not easy to detect. The later shorts were cheaper and the recycling more obvious, with as much as 75% of the running time consisting of old footage. White came to rely so much on older material that he could film the "new" shorts in a single day.

Three years after Curly's death, Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack at age 60 on November 22, 1955. Archived footage of Shemp, combined with new footage of Joe Palma, were used to complete the last four films originally planned with Shemp: ''Rumpus in the Harem'', ''Hot Stuff'', ''Scheming Schemers'', and ''Commotion on the Ocean''.

Joe Besser replaces Shemp

Joe Besser replaced Shemp in 1956, appearing in 16 shorts. Besser, noting how one side of Larry Fine's face seemed "calloused", had a clause in his contract specifically prohibiting him from being hit too hard (though this restriction was later lifted). Besser was the only "third" Stooge that dared to hit Moe back in retaliation and get away with it; Larry Fine was also known to hit Moe on occasion, but always with serious repercussions. "I usually played the kind of character who would hit others back," Besser recalled.

With Besser on board, the Stooge films began to resemble sitcoms. Sitcoms, though, were now available for free. Television was the new popular medium, and by the time Besser joined the act, the Stooges were generally considered throwbacks to an obsolete era. In addition, Moe and Larry were growing older, and could not perform pratfalls and physical comedy as they once had. The inevitable occurred soon enough. Columbia was the last studio still producing shorts, and the market for such films had all but dried up. As a result, the studio opted not to renew the Stooges' contract when it expired in late December 1957. The final comedy produced was ''Flying Saucer Daffy'', filmed on December 19–20, 1957. Several days later, the Stooges were unceremoniously fired from Columbia Pictures after 24 years of making low-budget shorts. Joan Howard Maurer, daughter of Moe, wrote the following in 1982:

{{bquote|The boys' careers had suddenly come to an end. They were at Columbia one day and gone the next—no 'Thank yous,' no farewell party for their 24 years of dedication and service and the dollars their comedies had reaped for the studio.

Moe Howard recalled that a few weeks after their exit from Columbia, he drove to the studio to say goodbye to several studio executives when he was stopped by a guard at the gate (obviously, not a Stooges fan) and, since he did not have the current year's studio pass, was refused entry. For the moment, it was a crushing blow.}} Although the Stooges were no longer working for Columbia, the studio had enough completed films on the shelf to keep releasing new comedies for another 18 months, and not in the order they were produced. The final Stooge release, ''Sappy Bull Fighters'', did not reach theaters until June 4, 1959. With no active contract in place, Moe and Larry discussed plans for a personal appearance tour; meanwhile, Besser's wife had a minor heart attack, and he preferred to stay local, leading him to withdraw from the act. For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Stooges hit a dead end.

The comeback: Larry, Moe and Curly Joe

Seeing the success of how television, in its early years, allowed movie studios to unload a backlog of short films thought unmarketable, the Stooge films seemed perfect for the burgeoning genre. ABC television had even expressed interest as far back as 1949, purchasing exclusive rights to 30 of the trio's shorts. However, the success of television revivals for such names as Laurel and Hardy, Woody Woodpecker, Tom and Jerry and the ''Our Gang'' series in the late 1950s led Columbia to cash in again on the Stooges. In January 1958, Columbia's television subsidiary Screen Gems offered a package consisting of 78 Stooge shorts (mainly from the Curly era), which were well received. Almost immediately, an additional 40 shorts hit the market, and by 1959, all 190 Stooge shorts were airing regularly. Due to the massive quantity of Stooge product available for broadcast, the films were broadcast Monday through Friday, leading to heavy exposure aimed squarely at children. This led parents to watch alongside of their offspring, and before long, Howard and Fine found themselves in high demand. Moe quickly signed movie and burlesque comic Joe DeRita for the "third Stooge" role; DeRita adopted first a crew cut and then a completely shaven hairstyle and became "Curly Joe" because of his resemblance to the original Curly Howard (also to make it easier to distinguish him from Joe Besser, the earlier Stooge called Joe).

This Three Stooges lineup went on to make a series of popular full-length films from 1959 to 1965, most notably ''Have Rocket, Will Travel'', ''The Three Stooges Meet Hercules'' and ''The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze''. The films were aimed at the kiddie-matinee market, and most were Farce outings in the Stooge tradition, with the exception of ''Snow White and the Three Stooges'', a children's fantasy in Technicolor. They also appeared as firemen (the role that helped make them famous in ''Soup to Nuts'') in the film ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''. Throughout the 1960s, The Three Stooges were one of the most popular and highest-paid live acts in America. The trio also filmed 41 short comedy skits for ''The New Three Stooges'', which features a series of 156 animated cartoons produced for television. The Stooges appeared in live-action color footage, which preceded and followed each animated adventure in which they voiced their respective characters.

Final years

In 1969, the Three Stooges filmed a pilot episode for a new TV series entitled ''Kook's Tour'', a combination travelogue-sitcom that had the "retired" Stooges traveling around the world, with the episodes filmed on location.

On January 9, 1970, during production of the pilot, Larry suffered a paralyzing stroke, ending his acting career, as well as plans for the television series. thumb|150px|lefgt|A proposed incarnation of the Three Stooges. A promotional picture taken after Larry Fine's death in 1975 features a very ill Moe Howard (who died shortly thereafter) flanked by Curly Joe DeRita to the left and Emil Sitka to the right.Plans were in the works for longtime foil Emil Sitka to replace Larry as the "Middle Stooge" in 1971, but nothing ever came of that idea other than the proposed publicity still reproduced here. Three years later, just before Christmas of 1974, Larry Fine suffered yet another stroke at the age of 72 and four weeks later, suffered a more massive one. Slipping into a coma, he died a week later of a stroke-induced cerebral hemorrhage on January 24, 1975.

Devastated by his friend's death, Moe nevertheless decided that the Three Stooges should continue. Several movie ideas were considered, one of which according to critic and movie historian Leonard Maltin, (who also uncovered a pre-production photo) was entitled ''Blazing Stewardesses''. Unfortunately, before pre-production could begin, after a lifetime of smoking, Moe fell ill from lung cancer, and died three months later on May 4, 1975, finally putting to rest the last original surviving member of one of the most famous comedy troupes of the 20th Century.

However, ''Blazing Stewardesses'', the last film idea that the Three Stooges had ever seriously considered, was eventually made, starring the last of the surviving Ritz Brothers comedy troupe and released to moderate acclaim later that year.

Curly Joe continued to perform live into the mid-1970s with Mousie Garner and Frank Mitchell as "The New 3 Stooges" enjoying recognition well into old age, before retiring by 1979.

Of the remaining “original-replacement” Stooges, Joe Besser died of heart failure on March 1, 1988, followed by Curly Joe DeRita of pneumonia on July 3, 1993.

Legacy and perspective

Some 50 years after their last short film was released, the Three Stooges remain wildly popular with audiences. Their films have never left the television airwaves since first appearing in 1958, and they continue to delight old fans while attracting a new legion of fervent admirers. A hard-working group of working-class comedians who were never the critic's darlings, the team endured several personnel changes in their careers that would have permanently sidelined a less persistent act. Despite watching two of his brothers die in a brief span of time, the Stooges would not have lasted as long as they did as a unit without Moe Howard's guiding hand. However, despite their massive popularity, they never received a raise during their entire employment at Columbia nor were they ever allowed to make a full-length feature film during the height of their popularity. Columbia Studios chief Harry Cohn preferred to use the popular Stooges shorts in packages with his weaker features so that exhibitors would have to accept the movies in order to show the shorts, which would bring in the public.

The Ted Okuda/Edward Watz-penned book ''The Columbia Comedy Shorts'' puts the Stooges legacy in critical perspective:

Beginning in the 1980s, the Stooges finally began to receive long-overdue critical recognition. More often than not, the praise was directed at Curly, usually at the expense of his castmates, most especially Shemp. With the advent of cable television and the burgeoning home video market, the praise was eventually spread more evenly throughout the team. Critics began to realize that Moe and Larry were gifted performers; though less flamboyant than Curly, they were by no means less talented. Curly was indeed brilliant and a one-of-a-kind, but taken for long periods of time, he could also be irritating and exhausting without Moe and Larry present to provide a counterbalance. This balance would be handled better after Shemp returned to the act, with Larry in particular receiving more screen time. The release of nearly all their films on DVD by 2010 has allowed critics of Joe Besser and Joe DeRita—often the recipients of significant fan backlash—to appreciate the unique style of comedy both comedians brought to the Stooges. In addition, the DVD market in particular has allowed fans to view the entire Stooge film corpus as distinct periods in their long, distinguished career instead of comparing one Stooge to the other (the Curly vs. Shemp debate continues to this day).

The team appeared in 220 films. In the end, it is the durability of the 190 timeless short films the Stooges made at Columbia Pictures that acts as an enduring tribute to the comedy team. Their continued popularity worldwide has proven to even the most skeptical critics that their films—quite simply—are funny. American television personality Steve Allen went on record in the mid-1980s saying "though they never achieved widespread critical acclaim, they achieved exactly what they had always intended to do: they made people laugh."

Line-ups

!	! Ted	! Moe	! Shemp	! Larry	! Curly	! Joe	! Curly Joe	! Emil Sitka
1.									1922–1924
2.									1925–1932
3.									1932–1934
4.									1934–1946
5.									1946–1955
6.									1956–1958
7.									1958–1971
8.									1971–1975

Ted Healy Real Name: Clarence Ernst Lee Nash Born: October 01, 1896 Died: December 21, 1937 Stooge Years: 1922–1931, 1932–1934

Moe Howard Real Name: Moses Harry Horwitz Born: June 19, 1897 Died: May 04, 1975 Stooge years: 1922–1927, 1928–1975

Larry Fine Real Name: Louis Feinberg Born: October 05, 1902 Died: January 24, 1975 Stooge years: 1925–1927, 1928–1971

Curly Howard Real Name: Jerome Lester Horwitz Born: October 22, 1903 Died: January 18, 1952 Stooge years: 1932–1946

Shemp Howard Real Name: Samuel Horwitz Born: March 04, 1895 Died: November 22, 1955 Stooge years: 1922–1927, 1928–1932, 1946–1955

Joe Besser Born: August 12, 1907 Died: March 01, 1988 Stooge years: 1956–1958

Joe DeRita Real Name: Joseph Wardell Born: July 12, 1909 Died: July 03, 1993 Stooge years: 1958–1975

Emil Sitka Born: December 22, 1915 Died: January 16, 1998 Stooge years: n/a

Shorts

The Three Stooges appeared in 220 films throughout their career. Of those 220, 190 short films were made for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959, for which the trio are best known. Their contract was extended each year from 1934 until the final one expired on December 31, 1957. The last 8 of the 16 shorts with Joe Besser were released soon afterward.

C3 Entertainment, Inc.

Throughout their career, Moe acted as both their main creative force and business manager. Comedy III was formed by Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe in 1959 to manage all business and merchandise transactions for the team. Comedy III was basically in the background, with Moe's son-in-law Norman Maurer managing the comedy teams' film interests under Normandy Productions, and merchandising affairs under Norman Maurer Productions (NMP). Norman Maurer died in 1986.

In 1994 the heirs of Larry Fine and Joe DeRita filed a lawsuit against Moe's family, particularly Joan Howard Maurer and her son Jeffrey, who had inherited the NMP/Normandy business. The result reestablished Comedy III as a three-way interest of Fine/[Moe]Howard/DeRita. The DeRita heirs received the proxy to the Howard share, giving them majority control on the company's management. Curly-Joe's stepsons, Robert and Earl Benjamin, became the senior management of Comedy III. The Benjamins later incorporated the company, and C3 Entertainment, Inc. is currently the owner of all Three Stooges trademarks and merchandising. Larry's grandson Eric Lamond is the representative of the Fines' one-third interest in the company.

C3 has also, since 1995, authorized and provided the services of veteran actors Jim Skousen, Alan Semok, and Dave Knight (as Moe, Larry, and Curly respectively) for numerous "personal appearances" by the Stooge characters for a variety of merchandising and promotional events. This latter day trio has also provided voices for the characters in a variety of radio spots, merchandising tie-ins, and most recently for the first new Three Stooges short in fifty years. A CGI animation by Famous Frames Mobile Interactive, a first-wave "new media" company, entitled ''The Grate Debate'', has Moe, Larry and Curly running for President.

Television broadcasts and rights issues

A handful of Three Stooges shorts first aired on television in 1949, on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network. It was not until 1958 that Screen Gems packaged 78 shorts for national syndication; the package was gradually enlarged to encompass the entire library of 190 shorts. In 1959, KTTV in Los Angeles purchased the Three Stooges films for air, but by the early 1970s, rival station KTLA began airing the Stooges films, keeping them in the schedule until early 1994. The Family Channel (now ABC Family) ran the shorts as part of their ''Stooge TV'' block from February 19, 1996 to January 2, 1998. In the late 1990s, AMC had held the rights to the Three Stooges shorts, originally airing them under the ''Stooges Playhouse'' block, but replacing it in 1999 with ''N.Y.U.K.'' (New Yuk University of Knuckleheads). Featuring host Leslie Nielsen in the form of a college instructor, the block aired several shorts often grouped by a theme, such as similar schtick used in different films. Although the block was discontinued after AMC revamped their format in 2002, the network still ran Stooges shorts occasionally. The AMC run ended when Spike TV picked them up in 2004, airing them in their ''Stooges Slap-Happy Hour''. By 2007, the network had discontinued the block. Although Spike did air Stooges shorts for a brief period of time after the block was canceled, as of late April 2008, Three Stooges has disappeared from the network's schedule entirely. The Three Stooges returned on December 31, 2009 on AMC, starting with the "Countdown with the Stooges" New Year's Eve marathon. AMC planned to put several episodes on their website in 2010.

Since the 1990s Columbia and its television division's successor, Sony Pictures Television, has preferred to license the Stooges shorts to cable networks, precluding the films from being shown on local broadcast TV. Two stations in Chicago and Boston, however, signed long-term syndication contracts with Columbia years ago and have declined to terminate them. Thus, WMEU-CA in Chicago currently airs all 190 Three Stooges shorts on ''Stooge-a-Palooza'', hosted by Rich Koz, and WSBK-TV in Boston airs Stooge shorts and feature films. KTLA in Los Angeles dropped the shorts in 1994, but brought them back in 2007 as part of a special retro-marathon commemorating the station's 60th anniversary. Since that time, the station's original 16mm Stooges film prints have aired occasionally as part of mini-marathons on holidays. Antenna TV, a network broadcasting on the digital subchannels of local broadcast stations (owned by Tribune Broadcasting, who also owns KTLA), began airing the Stooges shorts upon the network's January 1, 2011 launch, which run in multi-hour blocks on weekends; most of the Three Stooges feature films are also broadcast on the network, through Antenna TV's distribution agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment (whose Columbia Pictures subsidiary released most of the films).

Some of the Stooge films have been colorized by two separate companies. The first colorized DVD releases, distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, were prepared by West Wing Studios in 2004. The following year, Legend Films colorized the public domain shorts ''Malice in the Palace'', ''Sing a Song of Six Pants'', ''Disorder in the Court'' and ''Brideless Groom''. ''Disorder in the Court'' and ''Brideless Groom'' also appear on two of West Wing's colorized releases. In any event, the Columbia-produced shorts (aside from the public domain films) are handled by Sony Pictures Entertainment, while the MGM Stooges shorts are owned by Warner Bros. via their Turner Entertainment division. Sony offers 21 of the shorts on their web platform Crackle, along with eleven Minisodes. Meanwhile, the rights to the Stooges' feature films rests with the studios that originally produced them (Columbia/Sony for the Columbia films, and 20th Century Fox for the Fox films).

Home video release and public reception

Between 1984 and 1985, RCA Columbia Pictures Home Video released a total of thirteen Three Stooges volumes on VHS, Beta and Laserdisc, each containing three shorts. These titles were later reissued on VHS by its successor, Sony Pictures Entertainment, between 1995 and 1997, with a DVD reissue between 2000 and 2004.

On October 30, 2007, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a two-disc DVD set entitled The Three Stooges Collection, Volume One: 1934–1936. The set contains shorts from the first three years the Stooges worked at Columbia Pictures, marking the first time ever that all 19 shorts were released in their original theatrical order to DVD. Additionally, every short was remastered in high definition, a first for the Stooge films. Previous DVD releases were based on themes (wartime, history, work, etc.), and sold poorly. Fans and critics alike praised Sony for finally giving the Stooges the proper DVD treatment. One critic states "the Three Stooges on DVD has been a real mix'n match hodgepodge of un-restored titles and illogical entries. This new...boxset...seems to be the first concerted effort to categorize their huge body of work chronologically with many shorts seeing the digital light for the first time." Videolibrarian.com critic added "finally, the studio knuckleheads got it right! The way that the Three Stooges have been presented on home video has been a real slap in the face and poke in the eye to fans. They’ve been anthologized, colorized, and public domain-ed, as their shorts have been released and re-released in varying degrees of quality. Highly recommended." Critic James Plath of DVDtown.com added, "Thank you, Sony, for finally giving these Columbia Pictures icons the kind of DVD retrospective that they deserve. Remastered in High Definition and presented in chronological order, these short films now give fans the chance to appreciate the development of one of the most successful comedy teams in history."

The chronological series proved very successful and wildly popular, and Sony wasted little time preparing the next set for release. Volume Two: 1937–1939 was released on May 27, 2008, followed by Volume Three: 1940–1942 three months later on August 26, 2008. Demand exceeded supply, proving to Sony that they had a hit on their hands. In response, Volume Four: 1943–1945 was released on October 7, 2008, a mere two months after its predecessor. The global economic crisis slowed down the release schedule after Volume Four, and Volume Five: 1946–1948 was belatedly released on March 17, 2009. Volume Five is the first in the series to feature Shemp Howard with the Stooges. Volume Six: 1949–1951 was released June 16, 2009. and Volume Seven: 1952–1954 was released on November 10, 2009.

The eighth and final volume was released on June 1, 2010, bringing the series to a close. For the first time in history, all 190 ''Three Stooges'' short subjects became available to the public.

Music

Several instrumental tunes were played over the opening credits at different times in the production of the short features. The most commonly used themes were:

* The verse portion of the Civil War era song "Listen to the Mockingbird", played in a comical way, complete with sounds of birds and such. This was first used in ''Pardon My Scotch'', their ninth short film, in 1935. (Prior to that comedic short, the opening theme varied and was typically connected to the storyline in some fashion.)

* "Three Blind Mice", beginning in 1939 as a slow but straightforward presentation (dubbed the "sliding strings" version), often breaking into a "jazzy" style before ending. In mid-1942, another more driving version, complete with accordion was played fast all the way through.

The Columbia short subject ''Woman Haters'' was done completely in rhyme, mostly recited (not sung), in rhythm with a Jazz-Age underscore running throughout the film, but with some key lines sung. It was sixth in a ''Musical Novelties'' short subject series, and appropriated its musical score from the first five films. The memorable “My Life, My Love, My All,” was originally “At Last!” from the film ''Um-Pa''.

"Swinging the Alphabet" (a.k.a. B-A-bay, B-E-be, B-I-bicky-bi…) from ''Violent Is the Word for Curly'' is perhaps the best-known song performed by the Stooges on film.

The “Lucia Sextet” (''Chi mi frena in tal memento?''), from the opera ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' by Gaetano Donizetti (announced by Larry as “the Sextet from Lucy”), is played on a record player and lip-synched by the Stooges in ''Micro-Phonies''. The same melody re-appears in ''Squareheads of the Round Table'' as the tune of “Oh, Elaine, can you come out tonight?”. ''Micro-Phonies'' also includes the Johann Strauss II waltz “Voices of Spring” ("Frühlingsstimmen") Op. 410. Another Strauss waltz, "The Blue Danube", is featured in ''Ants in the Pantry'' and ''Punch Drunks''.

The song “Fredric March” (named after the actor) was a favorite of director Jules White; it appeared in at least six different Columbia shorts:

* ''Termites of 1938'' - the Stooges "play" this song on a violin, flute, and string bass at a dinner party in an attempt to attract mice.

* ''Dutiful But Dumb'' - Curly is hidden inside a floor-standing radio, and plays the song on a modified harmonica.

* ''Three Little Twirps'' - heard as background music at the circus while Moe and Curly sell tickets.

* ''Idle Roomers'' - Curly plays the song on a trombone to calm a wolf man.

* ''Gents Without Cents'' - three girls perform acrobatics on stage while this song is playing

* ''Gents in a Jam'' - Shemp and Moe have a problem with a radio that will not stop playing this song

* ''Pardon My Backfire'' - the song plays on a car radio

The Moe–Larry–Curly Joe lineup of the Stooges recorded several musical record albums in the early 1960s. Most of their songs were adaptations of nursery rhymes. Among their more popular recordings were "Making a Record" (a surreal trip to a recording studio built around the song "Go Tell Aunt Mary"), "Three Little Fishes", "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth", "Wreck the Halls with Boughs of Holly", "Mairzy Doats" and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".

In 1983, a group called the Jump 'N the Saddle Band recorded a track called "The Curly Shuffle", which featured the narrator singing about his love of the Stooges mixed with a chorus of many of Curly's catchphrases and sound effects. In the mid-1980s, the song became a popular mid-game hit for New York Mets fans in the Shea Stadium bleachers, who would dance in small groups to the tune whenever the song was played between innings. The music video, which featured clips of the classic Stooges shorts, was also included as a bonus feature on one of the 1984 VHS releases.

Feature motion pictures

The Three Stooges also made appearances in many feature length movies in the course of their careers:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! Film || Year || Moe || Larry || Curly || Shemp || Joe || Curly Joe |- |''Soup to Nuts'' || 1930 || Moe || Larry || || Shemp || || |- |''Turn Back the Clock'' || 1933 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Meet the Baron'' || 1933 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Dancing Lady'' || 1933 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Broadway to Hollywood'' || 1933 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Myrt and Marge'' || 1933 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Fugitive Lovers'' || 1934 || Moe || Larry ||Curly || || || |- |''Hollywood Party'' (cameos) || 1934 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''The Captain Hates the Sea'' (cameos)|| 1934 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Start Cheering'' || 1938 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Time Out for Rhythm'' || 1941 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''My Sister Eileen'' (cameos) || 1942 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Rockin' in the Rockies'' || 1945 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Swing Parade of 1946'' || 1946 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Gold Raiders'' || 1951 || Moe || Larry || || Shemp || || |- |''Have Rocket, Will Travel'' || 1959 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''Stop! Look! and Laugh!'' (compilation)|| 1960 || Moe || Larry || Curly || || || |- |''Snow White and the Three Stooges'' || 1961 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''The Three Stooges Meet Hercules'' || 1962 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''The Three Stooges in Orbit'' || 1962 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze'' || 1963 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (cameos)|| 1963 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''4 for Texas'' || 1963 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''The Outlaws Is Coming'' || 1965 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |- |''Kook's Tour'' (TV pilot) || 1970 || Moe || Larry || || || || Curly Joe |} Joe Besser never appeared with the Stooges in a feature film.

Three feature-length Columbia releases were actually packages of older Columbia shorts. ''Columbia Laff Hour'' (introduced in 1956) was a random assortment that included the Stooges among other Columbia comedians like Andy Clyde, Hugh Herbert, and Vera Vague; the content and length varied from one theater to the next. ''Three Stooges Fun-o-Rama'' (introduced in 1959) was an all-Stooges show capitalizing on their TV fame, again with shorts chosen at random for individual theaters. ''The Three Stooges Follies'' (1974) was similar to ''Laff Hour'', with a trio of Stooge comedies augmented by Buster Keaton and Vera Vague shorts, a Batman serial chapter, and a Kate Smith musical.

Museum

Gary Lassin opened the Stoogeum in 2004 in a renovated architect's office in Spring House, Pennsylvania, 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Philadelphia. The museum-quality exhibits fill three stories (10,000 square feet or 929 square meters), including an 85-seat theater. Peter Seely, editor of the book ''Stoogeology: Essays on the Three Stooges'' said that the Stoogeum has "''more stuff than I even imagined existed''." 2,500 people visit it yearly, many during the annual Three Stooges Fan Club gathering in April.

In other media

Comic books

Over the years, several Three Stooges comics were produced.

St. John Publications published the first Three Stooges comics in 1949 with 2 issues, then again in 1953–54 with 7 issues.

Dell Comics published a Three Stooges series first as one-shots in their ''Four Color Comics'' line for five issues, then gave them a numbered series for four more issues (#6–9). With #10, the title would be published by Gold Key Comics. Under Gold Key, the series lasted through issue #55 in 1972.

Gold Key Comics then published the ''Little Stooges'' series (7 issues, 1972–74) with story and art by Norman Maurer, Moe's son-in-law. This series featured the adventures of three fictional sons of the Three Stooges, as sort of modern-day teen-age versions of the characters.

Eclipse Comics published the ''Three-D Three Stooges'' series (3 issues, 1986–1987) which reprinted stories from the St. John Publications series.

Malibu Comics did a couple of one-shot comics, reprinting stories from the Gold Key Comics in 1989 and 1991.

Music

Beginning in 1959, the Three Stooges began to appear in a series of novelty records. Their first recording was a 45 rpm single of the title song from ''Have Rocket, Will Travel.'' The trio released additional singles and LPs on the Golden and Coral labels, mixing comedy adventure albums and off-beat renditions of children's songs. Their final recording was the 1966 ''Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No'', which incorporated the Three Stooges into the cast of the Yogi Bear cartoons.

The Stooges are referenced in the video for Weird Al Yankovic's Like a Surgeon with a hospital PA system asked for "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard."

Radio

Sirius XM Radio aired a special about the Stooges hosted by Tom Bergeron on Friday, July 31, 2009, at 2:00PM on the Sirius Howard 101 channel. Bergeron had conducted the interviews at the age of 17 back when he was still in high school in 1971. The television host had the tapes in storage for many years and was convinced on air during a Howard Stern Radio interview to bring them in and turn it into a special show by Howard Stern himself, upon learning how much of a fan Bergeron was of the Three Stooges, as is he. Bergeron agreed.

After finding "the lost tapes," Bergeron brought them into Howard Stern's production studio. He stated that the tapes were so old that the tapes with the Larry Fine interviews began to shred as Howard Stern's radio engineers ran them through their cart players. They only really had the one shot, and fortunately for Three Stooges fans, the tapes were saved.

"The Lost Stooges Tapes" were hosted by Tom Bergeron with modern commentary on the almost 40 year old interviews that he had conducted with Larry Fine and Moe Howard. At the times of these interviews, Moe was still living at home and Larry had suffered a stroke and was living in a Senior Citizen's home.

Television

In addition to the unsuccessful television series pilot ''Jerks of All Trades'' (see "History", above) and the incomplete ''Kook's Tour'', the Stooges appeared in a show called ''The New Three Stooges'' which ran from 1965 to 1966. This series featured a mix of thirty-nine live-action segments which were used as wraparounds to 156 animated Stooges shorts. That cartoon program became the only regularly scheduled television show in history for the Stooges. Unlike other films shorts that aired on TV like the ''Looney Tunes'', ''Tom and Jerry'', and ''Popeye'', the film shorts of the Stooges never had a regularly scheduled national television program to air in, neither on network nor syndicated. When Columbia/Screen Gems licensed the film library to television, the shorts aired in any fashion the local stations chose (examples: late-night "filler" material between the end of the late movie and the channel's sign-off time; in "marathon" sessions running shorts back-to-back for one, one-and-a-half, or two hours; etc.)

Two episodes of Hanna-Barbera's ''The New Scooby-Doo Movies'' aired on CBS featuring animated Stooges as guest stars: the premiere, "Ghastly Ghost Town" (September 9, 1972) and "The Ghost of the Red Baron" (November 18, 1972). There also was a short-lived animated series, also produced by Hanna-Barbera, titled ''The Robonic Stooges'', originally seen as a featured segment on ''The Skatebirds'' (CBS, 1977–1978), featuring Moe, Larry, and Curly (voiced by Paul Winchell, Joe Baker and Frank Welker, respectively) as bionic cartoon superheroes with extendable limbs, similar to the later ''Inspector Gadget''. ''The Robonic Stooges'' later aired as a separate half-hour series, retitled ''The Three Robonic Stooges'' (each half-hour featured two segments of ''The Three Robonic Stooges'' and one segment of ''Woofer And Whimper, Dog Detectives'', the latter re-edited from episodes of ''Clue Club'', an earlier Hanna-Barbera cartoon series). There are also many ''Stooges'' references in the sitcom ''ALF''.

In the episode "Beware The Creeper" of ''The New Batman Adventures''. the Joker retreats to his hide-out after a quick fight with Batman. He yells out for his three henchmen "Moe? Larr? Cur?" only to find that they are not there. Shortly after that, Batman comes across these three goons in a pool hall; they have distinctive accents and hair styles similar to those of Moe, Larry, and Curly. These henchmen are briefly seen throughout the rest of the season.

2000 television film

In spring of 2000, longtime Stooge fan Mel Gibson executive-produced a TV movie (''The Three Stooges'') about the lives and careers of the comedians. Playing Moe was Paul Ben-Victor; Evan Handler was Larry; John Kassir was Shemp; and Michael Chiklis was Curly. It was filmed in Sydney, Australia and was produced for and broadcast on ABC. It was based on Michael Fleming's authorized biography of the Stooges, ''The Three Stooges: From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons''. Its unflattering portrayal of Ted Healy led Healy's son to give media interviews calling the film inaccurate. Additional errors of fact included the hints that Moe Howard was down on his luck later in life, and worked as a gofer at the studio where he and his brothers had formerly worked as actors, and that he never owned his own house. In reality, Moe was the most careful with his money, which he invested well. He and his wife Helen owned the comfortable house in Toluca Lake in which they raised their children.

The film regularly runs on the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel.

Feature film revival

A film about the Three Stooges, simply titled ''The Three Stooges'', is currently in development with 20th Century Fox and will be directed by the Farrelly Brothers. The film has been in what one critic has dubbed "development hell". The Farrellys, who have wanted to make this film since 1996, have said that they were not going to do a biopic or remake, but instead new Three Stooges episodes set in the present day. The plot of the episodes is said to be an adventure that revolves around the Stooges characters.

The studio has had a difficult time putting together a cast to play the Three Stooges. Originally slated were Sean Penn to play Larry, Benicio del Toro to play Moe and Jim Carrey to play Curly. Both Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro left the project but returned while no official confirmation has been made about Jim Carrey. When del Toro was interviewed on MTV News for ''The Wolfman'', he spoke about playing Moe. He was later asked who was going to play Larry and Curly in the film and commented that he still thought that Sean Penn and Jim Carrey were going to play them, though he added "Nothing is for sure yet." A story in the Hollywood Reporter stated that Will Sasso will play Curly in the upcoming comedy and that Hank Azaria is the front runner to play Moe. Sean Hayes of ''Will & Grace'' fame has officially been cast as Larry Fine, while Chris Diamantopoulos was cast as Moe. On April 27, Jane Lynch joined the cast; she will be playing a nun.

Video games

In 1984 Gottlieb released an arcade game featuring the Stooges trying to find three kidnapped brides. Later in 1987, game developers Cinemaware released a successful Three Stooges computer game, available for Apple IIGS, Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Based on the Stooges earning money by doing odd jobs to prevent the foreclosure of an orphanage, it incorporated audio from the original films and was popular enough to be reissued for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, as well as for PlayStation in 2004.

In foreign languages

In most other languages, the Three Stooges are known by their English name. However, in Chinese, the trio is known as ''Sānge Chòu Píjiàng'' (三個臭皮匠) or ''Huóbǎo Sānrénzǔ'' (活寶三人組). ''Sānge Chòu Píjiàng'', literally "Three Smelly Shoemakers", derives from a saying in the ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'': ''Sāngè chòu píjiàng shèngguò yīgè Zhūgě Liàng'' (三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮) or "Three smelly shoemakers (are enough to) overcome one Zhuge Liang [a hero of the story]", i.e. three inferior people can overpower a superior person when they combine their strength. ''Huóbǎo Sānrénzǔ'' translates as "Trio of Buffoons".

In Japanese they are known as ''San Baka Taishō'' (三馬鹿大将) meaning "Three Idiot Generals" or "Three ''Baka'' Generals". The Japanese term ''baka'' (馬鹿, "fool" or "idiot", lit. "horse deer") is associated with the Chinese idiom ''zhǐlù wéimǎ'' (指鹿為馬; lit. "point at a deer and call it a horse", in Japanese ''shika o sashite uma to nasu'' [鹿を指して馬と為す]) meaning "deliberate misrepresentation for ulterior purposes". In Spanish they are known as ''Los tres chiflados'' or, roughly, "The Three Crackpots". In French and German usage, the name of the trio is partially translated as ''Les Trois Stooges'' and ''Die drei Stooges'' respectively. In Thai, the trio is known as 3 สมุนจอมป่วน (''3 Samunčhǭmpūan''; ) or 3 พี่น้องจอมยุ่ง (''Phīnǭngčhǭmyung''; ). In Portuguese, they are known as ''Os Três Patetas'' in Brazil, and ''Os Três Estarolas'' in Portugal, being "estarola" a direct translation to "stooge", while "pateta" being more related to "goofy".

See also

The Three Stooges in popular culture

References

;Notes

;Bibliography

Besser, Joe (with Lenburg, Jeff, and Lenburg, Greg), ''Not Just a Stooge'' (1984) Excelsior Books, Inc. (reissued 1987 as ''Once a Stooge, Always a Stooge'') Roundtable Publications (Autobiography of Joe Besser, including anecdotes about Abbott and Costello and Olsen and Johnson)

Bruskin, David N., ''Behind the Three Stooges: The White Brothers: Conversations with David N. Bruskin'' (1993) Directors Guild of America (In-depth interviews with producer-directors Jules White, Jack White, and Sam White)

Comedy III Productions, Inc., ''Pop, You’re "Poifect!": A Three Stooges Salute to Dad'' (2002) Andrews McMeel

Cox, Steve and Terry, Jim, ''One Fine Stooge: Larry Fine's Frizzy Life in Pictures'' (2005) Cumberland House Publishing

Davis, Lon and Davis, Debra (eds.), ''Stooges Among Us'' (2008) BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-300-2

Feinberg, Morris, ''Larry: The Stooge in the Middle'' (1984) Last Gasp of San Francisco (Biography of Larry Fine, attributed to his brother but actually ghostwritten by Bob Davis)

Fericano, Paul, ''Stoogism Anthology'' (1977) Poor Souls Printing

Fine, Larry (with Carone, James), ''Stroke of Luck'' (1973) Siena Publishing Co. (Larry Fine's autobiography, transcribed from interviews toward the end of his life)

Flanagan, Bill, ''Last of the Moe Haircuts'' (1986) McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books, Inc.

Fleming, Michael, ''The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, from Amalgamated Morons to American Icons'' (2002) Broadway Publishing

Forrester, Jeffrey, ''The Stoogephile Trivia Book'' (1982) Contemporary Books, Inc.

Forrester, Jeffrey, ''The Stooges Chronicles'' (1981) Contemporary Books, Inc. (Comprehensive overview of the team's career; also discusses the various Ted Healy stooges)

Forrester, Jeffrey, and Forrester, Tom, ''The Stooges' Lost Episodes'' (1988) Contemporary Books, Inc. (Discussion of obscure Stooges appearances, including solo films by individual Stooges)

Forrester, Jeff, with Forrester, Tom, and Wallison, Joe, ''The Three Stooges: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Most Popular Comedy Team of All Time'' (2004) Donaldson Books (Revised, updated edition of ''The Stooges Chronicles'')

Garner, Paul, ''Mousie Garner: Autobiography of a Vaudeville Stooge'' (1999) McFarland & Co.

Hansen, Tom and Forrester, Jeffrey, ''Stoogemania: An Extravaganza of Stooge Photos, Puzzles, Trivia, Collectibles and More'' (1984) Contemporary Books, Inc. (Overview of Three Stooges memorabilia)

Howard, Moe, ''Moe Howard and the Three Stooges'' (1977) Citadel Press (Moe Howard's autobiography, completed and released posthumously by his daughter)

Koceimba, Bill, with Kaufman, Eric A., and Sack, Steve, ''The Three Stooges Golf Spoof and Trivia Book'' (1999) Gazelle, Inc.

Kurson, Robert, ''The Official Three Stooges Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Knucklehead's Guide to Stoogedom, from Amalgamated Association of Morons to Ziller, Zeller, and Zoller'' (1999) McGraw-Hill

Kurson, Robert, ''The Official Three Stooges Cookbook'' (1998) Contemporary Books, Inc.

Lenburg, Jeff, with Maurer, Joan Howard, and Lenburg, Greg, ''The Three Stooges Scrapbook'' (1982, revised 1994, 2000) Citadel Press

Longley, Maximillian, ''The Conservative In Spite of Himself: A Reluctant Right-Winger's Thoughts on Life, Law and the Three Stooges'' (2007) Monograph Publishers

Maltin, Leonard, ''The Great Movie Comedians'' (1978) Crown Books

Maltin, Leonard, ''Movie Comedy Teams'' (1970, revised 1985) New American Library

Maltin, Leonard, ''Selected Short Subjects'' (first published as ''The Great Movie Shorts'', 1972) Crown Books, (revised 1983) Da Capo Press

McGarry, Annie, ''The Wacky World of the Three Stooges'' (1992) Crescent Books

Maurer, Joan Howard, ''Curly: An Illustrated Biography of the Superstooge'' (1985, revised 1988) Citadel Press

Maurer, Joan Howard (ed.), ''The Three Stooges Book of Scripts'' (1984) Citadel Press

Maurer, Joan Howard and Maurer, Norman (eds.), ''The Three Stooges Book of Scripts, Volume II'' (1987) Citadel Press

Okuda, Ted and Watz, Edward, ''The Columbia Comedy Shorts'' (1998) McFarland & Co. (Comprehensive history of the Columbia short subject department; Stooge colleagues Edward Bernds and Emil Sitka are quoted extensively)

Seely, Peter and Pieper, Gail W., ''Stoogeology: Essays on the Three Stooges'' (2007) McFarland & Co.

Smith, Ronald L., ''The Stooge Fans' I.Q. Test'' (1988) Contemporary Books, Inc.

Solomon, Jon, ''The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion'’ (2000) Comedy III Productions

External links

Three Stooges Online Filmography at threestooges.net

The Three Stooges Official Website (sanctioned by C3 Entertainment, Inc. - threestooges.com)

The Stoogeum (Three Stooges Museum) – stoogeum.com

Portrait (2009) of The Three Stooges (with Shemp) by noted illustrator Drew Friedman

Interview with Moe Howard on new success with the younger generation from the Ocala Star-Banner – Feb 22, 1959 accessed via Google News

Category:Television series by Sony Pictures Television Category:1925 introductions Category:Jewish comedy and humor Category:The Three Stooges films Category:Pie throwing Category:Slapstick comedians Category:Gold Key Comics titles Category:Dell Comics titles Category:Jewish comedians

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