Cartoon Network/Adult Swim Archives

It’s June, and you should very well know what that means: June Bugs! Cartoon Network’s annual 24 to 48 hour marathon of nothing but Looney Tunes shorts featuring that grand ol' hare, Bugs Bunny! Two years ago we published a thread chronicling each year of the marathon but since then new information has surfaced, so a newly updated thread is in order! So as they say: on with the show, this is it!

On this day in CN history: July 8th, 2005: Attention campers, attention campers! Camp Lazlo premiered on this date!

cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_29… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_30… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_13… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_14… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_15… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_19… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_21… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_4,… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_5,… cnas.fandom.com/wiki/June_6,…

and that’s the end! Below is a link to all the pages for the 1996-2002 and 2012-2013 editions, so you can see what other shorts aired!

2012-2013 After 10 years without a June Bugs marathon on Cartoon Network, it made its return, but with a completly diffrent format. Instead of an entire weekend of Bugs shorts, the marathon ran during the daytime hours of the 23rd and 24th, airing episodes of the then new The Looney Tunes Show alongside various Looney Tunes shorts that didn’t just star Bugs, and airings of the movie Space Jam. The same format was used the next year, airing on the 22nd & 23rd. Below is a snippet of what aired on June 24th, 2012.

The big suprise of the marathon was the inclusion of two previously omitted shorts from the last edition: "Frigid Hare" and "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt". These aired during primetime hours, in their respective letter order.

New bumpers were made for the marathon by Primal Screen, with Porky Pig (voiced by Jeff Bergman) narrating each bumper, telling the viewer what letter they were on (A as in anvil, B as in bullseye, C as in carrot, etc.)

2002 The tenth June Bugs was presented differently from the previous years. The theme for this marathon was "June Bugs A to Z", with the shorts being presented in alphabetical order, from "The Abominable Snow Rabbit" all the way to "Yankee Doodle Bugs". The alphabetical order was put on pause after 8pm however, as the 9pm to 7am slots were reserved for shorts shown at random. The marathon was also shortened down a bit. Instead of starting Friday during prime-time hours, this edition started on Saturday at 8am right after the Boomerang block.

In addition to the new to network shorts, new bumpers were made to air before each short, giving insight and background info about the shorts and even production at Termite Terrace. Below are ones used for “8 Ball Bunny", “14 Carrot Rabbit”, Knight-Mare Hare" and "Hare-Less Wolf"

Regardless of the snafu, 2001's June Bugs was the biggest one by far. The marathon started on June 1st at 11pm, airing in chronological order, and featured 56 Bugs Bunny shorts that not only made their June Bugs debut, but also their network debut too. Shorts like "Hare Splitter", “Bowery Bugs”, "Homeless Hare", “French Rarebit", "Napoleon Bunny-Part" and "Baton Bunny”.

To educate viewers on why these shorts were pulled, the team behind ToonHeads produced a special episode to air during the marathon called “The Twelve Missing Hares”. It unfortunately did not air, and all that exists of said episode is a roughcut with producer George Klein narrating this copy.

Then on May 4th 2001, the Wall Street Journal published an article which wrote that Cartoon Network would pull 12 Bugs Bunny shorts from the lineup that are deemed politically incorrect. The main cause of it was pressure from Time Warner, thinking airing these shorts would “taint Bugs’ reputation”.

It was announced sometime in Feburary 2001 that this June Bugs marathon would feature every Bugs Bunny short, including those that have not aired due to content. Among those were “All This and Rabbit Stew”, “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips”, “Herr Meets Hare” and “Mississippi Hare". These would air during a late night slot accompanied by scrolling text at the bottom of the screen with the following message: "Cartoon Network does not endorse the use of racial slurs. These vintage cartoons are presented as representative of the time in which they were created and are presented for their historical value."

2001 The ninth June Bugs is probably the most well known edition of the marathon. By then CN had gotten the rights to ABC’s package of shorts that aired during the Bugs & Tweety Show, making Cartoon Network the only place to see the Looney Tunes shorts on TV.

According to the press release put out by CN, “Which is Witch” and “Transylvania 6-5000” were scheduled to air during the Bugs’ Horror Stories block, but per documentation, were pulled last minute. The latter would air during the following year’s marathon but "Which is Witch" would never be seen during an installment of June Bugs.

There were thirteen different shorts that made their June Bugs debut that year. “Porky Pig’s Feat”, “Hare-abian Nights”, “Big House Bunny”, “The Fair Haired Hare”, “High-Diving Hare”, “Captain Hareblower”, “Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers”, and “Bushy Hare”, among others.

2000 The eighth June Bugs marathon was once again presented with the “This is a Bunny’s Life” theme, starting on June 2nd at 9:00pm. The same themed blocks from the previous year were also shown, but by then CN had the rights to the 249 Looney Tunes shorts Nickelodeon had, making there more Bugs Bunny shorts to air.

This marathon also featured 4 shorts that made their June Bugs debuts, these shorts were still airing on Nickelodeon and ABC at the time: “Porky’s Hare Hunt”, “Duck! Rabbit, Duck!”, “Bunny Hugged” and “Long-Haired Hare”. “Water, Water Every Hare” and “What’s Opera, Doc?”, which appeared on the last marathon, aired during this edition as well.

Instead of going in chronological order like the last two years, the shorts were presented in 20 different hour-long blocks that aired once or twice throughout the weekend. Each block focused on different themes such as “The Homely Years”, “Sportsman Bugs”, "Bugs' Fairy Tales" and "Musical Bugs".