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Logo descriptions and captures by Matt Williams, WileE2005 and mr3urious
Editions by Hoa
1st Logo
(1930-1932)
Nickname: “Bosko Titles 1”
Studio Logo: On a gray (or black) background, the words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC." are shown, and below that, "& THE VITAPHONE CORP." is shown in a much smaller font, with "VITAPHONE" using "electric" style letters. Below that is a very small WB shield, and in script, "Present". Behind it there is the drawing of a flag, "waving" so it looks like it is in 3 sections. On the first one, "WARNER BROS." Appears, followed by the electric-letter "VITAPHONE" logo and on section 3, "PICTURES". Below that is the copyright information.
Series Logo: A white sign in the middle has the words "LOONEY TUNES" and in black, "A HUGH HARMAN-RUDOLF ISING PRODUCTION" below that. Below the sign in small letters are the words "LEON SCHLESINGER, PRODUCER". Holding up the sign is Bosko, a Mickey Mouse-type character who was WB's current star at the time. Poking out from behind the sign and standing around the logo are stereotypical '30s cartoon animals (a bird, a goat, and a dog, to be exact).
Variants:
Closing Logo: Bosko peeks out from behind the left of a sign reading "A LOONEY TUNE" and emerges, along with a dog (the same dog from the series title card). Bosko holds out his hands and says "That's all, folks!", grinning in the end. The dog jumps and barks several times. Below it, in black, are the words "A HUGH HARMAN-RUDOLF ISING MUSICAL CARTOON/PRODUCTION", and "Licensed under BRAY-HURD patents".
FX/SFX: No animation except for the closing.
Music/Sounds: "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" by Theodore Metz is the series theme. Beginning in 1931, in the middle of the theme, the classic WB "trombone gobble" sound effect can be heard.
Availability: Rare, as Bosko shorts are rarely rerun due to their "ethnic offensiveness". A handful of cartoons featuring this logo are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release. Many of them are now in the public domain, and several of them are on various online video websites. Some Bosko cartoons, however, replace this logo with the Sunset Productions copyright card and the 3rd Series Logo (see below), and often have a Guild Films "THE END" logo plastered over the closing card (with Bosko's "That's all, Folks!" and the dog barking heard underneath), but a few of them have the logo replaced with an early-1960s Seven Arts Associated title card (with pictures of various LT characters surrounding it and the 1936-1937 LT closing theme playing underneath).
Scare Factor: None, unless you're afraid of really old cartoons. :P
2nd Logo
(1932-1933)
Nickname: “Bosko Titles 2”
Studio Logo: Same as the previous logo.
Series Title: Similar to the previous, but this time the only animal is a bird, and is seen helping Bosko hold up the sign is his girlfriend Honey.
Closing Logo: Same as the last closing logo except the lettering on the sign is in a different font and the "BRAY-HURD" text is in italics.
Later Closing Variant: The "BRAY-HURD" test is replaced with "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC.".
FX/SFX: Still not enough animation.
Music/Sounds: The first two cartoons with this logo used the same music as the previous logo. After that, the theme was "Whistle And Blow Your Blues Away" composed by Carmen Lombardo & Joseph Young.
Availability: Again, rare due to the reason listed above. A few cartoons with this logo are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD set.
Scare Factor: See logo 1.
3rd Logo
(1933-1935)
Nickname: “The Buddy Logo”
Studio Logo: Again, same as the previous logo.
Opening Logo: On a curtain backdrop to the right, WB's newest (and admittedly crappiest) cartoon star, Buddy, appears, holding his left hand up Vanna White-style. On the upper left side of the screen the words "LOONEY TUNES" appear and below Buddy and the curtain the words "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER" appear.
Early Opening Variant: For the first cartoons with this logo, “LOONEY TUNES” is on a sign on a fence with birds on it and on the left, Buddy stands there, and on the right, his girlfriend named Cookie stands there in a sexy pose. Under that is the Leon Schlesinger credit.
Closing Logo: Same as the opening logo except Buddy is animated saying "That’s all, Folks" and below the Leon Schlesinger credit the words "Distributed by WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC."
Early Closing Variant: Same as the early series logo except with Buddy jumping from behind the fence saying “That’s all, Folks!” with an iris out on the logo.
FX/SFX: As with LT Logos 1 and 2, there's not much animation. However, that was soon to change.
Music/Sounds: The first cartoon using this logo featured "Whistle and Blow Your Blues Away" again, but all cartoons afterward used "Beauty And The Beast" by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
Availability: Rare again, but thankfully so as these cartoons are among the dullest in existence. This was also attached to Sunset Productions' re-issue prints of the Bosko cartoons. Several cartoons featuring this logo are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release.
Scare Factor: None, unless you're afraid of really old films.
4th Logo
(1935-1936)
Nickname: “The Beans Gang Titles”
Studio Logo: At the top of the screen, curved, the word "VITAPHONE" appears in the same electric letter font used previously, and on the very bottom is the word "Presents" in script, followed by the copyright info. The background is similar to a ship's porthole. And the WB shield's most famous role is cemented: it zooms in from a long distance in the center of the screen to a huge size.
Series Title: Using the same porthole background as the studio logo, in the center, "LOONEY TUNES" appears. The Beans Gang, WB's current stars, which consists of (going counterclockwise starting at the top right) Beans, his girlfriend, Oliver Owl, and Porky Pig, appear around it. Below "LOONEY TUNES","PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER" appears.
Variants:
Closing Logo: A black screen with "LOONEY TUNES" curved at the top-left with "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER" on the bottom-right. "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. PRODUCTIONS CORP." is at the very bottom, and at the center, the world-famous "That's All Folks!" logo writes itself on.
Early Closing Variant: The first cartoons with this logo feature an end title similar to the last logo, but with Beans saying “That’s all, Folks!” to the ending of the cartoon’s theme.
FX/SFX: The "writing on" of the "That's All Folks!", the infamous "zooming shield".
Music/Sounds: A faster-paced version of music used for the previous logo was used at the beginning.
Availability: Can be seen on a few Beans Gang LT shorts and the early Porky shorts if rerun. TV reruns often have them colorized, but not for DVD releases. This was also attached to Sunset Productions' re-issue prints of the Beans Gang shorts and the early Porky shorts.
Scare Factor: None really; the "zooming" shield didn't pose a possible problem until later on.
5th Logo
(1936-1937) 
Nickname: “Fat Porky Pig”
Studio Logo: Against a background of musical notes, the WB shield zooms in with "VITAPHONE" above and "PRESENTS" below. Copyright info is shown below.
Series Title: "LOONEY TUNES" is curved near the top against a background of musical notes with "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHESINGER" at the bottom. Porky Pig’s head is in the center.
Closing Logo: The same black "That's All, Folks!" screen as the previous logo.
FX/SFX: The "zooming shield".
Music/Sounds: The first two cartoons using this logo featured the same music from the previous logo. After which, beginning with "Porky in the North Woods," a new theme by M.K. Jerome known as the "Porky Signature" is used. There were many variations on this opening theme. In mid 1937, the shield has its sound effect: the famous "twanging" noise created by Treg Brown.
Availability: Seen on Porky Pig cartoons from the period, though mostly colorized on TV reruns, but not for DVD releases.
Scare Factor: Low; the zooming noise can scare some, but this logo is pretty tame.
6th Logo
(1937-1942)
Nickname: "Porky on Musical Notes," “Porky in a Drum”
Studio Logo: Same as the previous logo, but now the cartoon's production number appears underneath "Presents" and over the copyright notice. Beginning in 1939, "VITAPHONE" is replaced with "WARNER BROS.", and "Presents" is replaced with "Present."
Series Title: "LOONEY TUNES" is curved near the top against a background of musical notes with "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHESINGER" at the bottom. Porky Pig does the following poses listed.
Closing Logo: Bob Clampett redesigned Porky Pig by this period. Afterward, his place in world history is assured as he breaks out of a drum saying his famous "T-T-T-Th-Th-Th-That's All Folks!" line. On the top of the drum is "LOONEY TUNES" and below it is "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER". At the bottom is "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. PICTURES". Behind the drum is a curtain background. In 1939, starting with "Pied Piper Porky", a new version of Porky Pig comes out of the drum. On "Meet John Doughboy (1941)", Porky doesn't blink.
FX/SFX: The "zooming shield".
Music/Sounds: The distinctive Looney Tunes theme, "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", is introduced, composed by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin, and arranged by Carl Stalling. An abridged version at a different key is also used for the closing theme.
Music/Sound Variants:
Availability: Seen on many '30s and early '40s Porky Pig cartoons, though this logo is mostly colorized (except for DVD releases).
Scare Factor: Low, due to the zooming noise.
7th Logo
(1942-1964)
Nicknames: “The Bullseye (Circles)”, “The Concentric Circles”
Studio Logo: Similar to the previous logos, only now the famous "Circles/Bullseye" backdrop that has become a trademark of Warner Bros. Is in place. In 1944, below the "WARNER BROS.", "PICTURES INC." is added.
Series Title: Above the "bullseye" and on the same background, "LOONEY TUNES" appears in its now-distinctive font. Below it appears "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER." In 1944, this was changed to “PRODUCED BY WARNER BROS. CARTOONS” and then "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON". On color cartoons with this logo, it says “IN TECHNICOLOR,” (1942-1945), “COLOR BY TECHNICOLOR,” (1945-1956) or “TECHNICOLOR” (1956-1954).
Closing Logo: Until 1946, the "Porky in a Drum" closing was used on a red background; however, Bugs Bunny cartoons "Hare Tonic" and "Baseball Bugs (1946)" have a variant where Bugs broke the drum and said "And that's the end!" while sitting in the open drum and munching on a carrot. Starting in 1944, the "LEON SCHLESINGER" text was changed to "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON". In 1945, a new closing was used on the non-Porky Pig cartoons. It started with the "That's All, Folks!" script being written out, and then "LOONEY TUNES" appearing at the top, curved as in the "black screen" logo. Near the bottom, either the Leon Schlesinger text/Released by WB combo was used (1943-44) or "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" (1944-1963) was used. From 1960-1964, the titles bore an additional legend: “A VITAGRAPH RELEASE”. The background was the circles/bullseye used in the Studio Logo. The colors of the backdrop vary by year, but a list of the colors would be too long to put here.
Variants: There were many variations to this logo, and here are some of them:
FX/SFX: The "zooming shield", the "That's All Folks" closing animation.
Cheesy Factor: During the 1947-1953 years, the WB shield looked rather off-model after it zoomed up.
Music/Sounds: "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is still used during this period. In 1945, this theme is shortened somewhat.
Music/Sound Variants: Many. Here's a listing:
Editions by Hoa
1st Logo
(1930-1932)
Nickname: “Bosko Titles 1”
Studio Logo: On a gray (or black) background, the words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC." are shown, and below that, "& THE VITAPHONE CORP." is shown in a much smaller font, with "VITAPHONE" using "electric" style letters. Below that is a very small WB shield, and in script, "Present". Behind it there is the drawing of a flag, "waving" so it looks like it is in 3 sections. On the first one, "WARNER BROS." Appears, followed by the electric-letter "VITAPHONE" logo and on section 3, "PICTURES". Below that is the copyright information.
Series Logo: A white sign in the middle has the words "LOONEY TUNES" and in black, "A HUGH HARMAN-RUDOLF ISING PRODUCTION" below that. Below the sign in small letters are the words "LEON SCHLESINGER, PRODUCER". Holding up the sign is Bosko, a Mickey Mouse-type character who was WB's current star at the time. Poking out from behind the sign and standing around the logo are stereotypical '30s cartoon animals (a bird, a goat, and a dog, to be exact).
Variants:
- For the first cartoons with this logo, it is altogether in one card. Under “Looney Tunes”, it reads “A Hugh Harman-Rudolf Ising Musical Cartoon”. Leon Schlesinger was also credites back then as “Associate Producer”. Above the sign is the WB and Vitaphone text without the WB shield.
- Sometimes, there would be no Vitaphone text below the company name.
Closing Logo: Bosko peeks out from behind the left of a sign reading "A LOONEY TUNE" and emerges, along with a dog (the same dog from the series title card). Bosko holds out his hands and says "That's all, folks!", grinning in the end. The dog jumps and barks several times. Below it, in black, are the words "A HUGH HARMAN-RUDOLF ISING MUSICAL CARTOON/PRODUCTION", and "Licensed under BRAY-HURD patents".
FX/SFX: No animation except for the closing.
Music/Sounds: "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" by Theodore Metz is the series theme. Beginning in 1931, in the middle of the theme, the classic WB "trombone gobble" sound effect can be heard.
Availability: Rare, as Bosko shorts are rarely rerun due to their "ethnic offensiveness". A handful of cartoons featuring this logo are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release. Many of them are now in the public domain, and several of them are on various online video websites. Some Bosko cartoons, however, replace this logo with the Sunset Productions copyright card and the 3rd Series Logo (see below), and often have a Guild Films "THE END" logo plastered over the closing card (with Bosko's "That's all, Folks!" and the dog barking heard underneath), but a few of them have the logo replaced with an early-1960s Seven Arts Associated title card (with pictures of various LT characters surrounding it and the 1936-1937 LT closing theme playing underneath).
Scare Factor: None, unless you're afraid of really old cartoons. :P
2nd Logo
(1932-1933)
Nickname: “Bosko Titles 2”
Studio Logo: Same as the previous logo.
Series Title: Similar to the previous, but this time the only animal is a bird, and is seen helping Bosko hold up the sign is his girlfriend Honey.
Closing Logo: Same as the last closing logo except the lettering on the sign is in a different font and the "BRAY-HURD" text is in italics.
Later Closing Variant: The "BRAY-HURD" test is replaced with "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC.".
FX/SFX: Still not enough animation.
Music/Sounds: The first two cartoons with this logo used the same music as the previous logo. After that, the theme was "Whistle And Blow Your Blues Away" composed by Carmen Lombardo & Joseph Young.
Availability: Again, rare due to the reason listed above. A few cartoons with this logo are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD set.
Scare Factor: See logo 1.
3rd Logo
(1933-1935)
Nickname: “The Buddy Logo”
Studio Logo: Again, same as the previous logo.
Opening Logo: On a curtain backdrop to the right, WB's newest (and admittedly crappiest) cartoon star, Buddy, appears, holding his left hand up Vanna White-style. On the upper left side of the screen the words "LOONEY TUNES" appear and below Buddy and the curtain the words "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER" appear.
Early Opening Variant: For the first cartoons with this logo, “LOONEY TUNES” is on a sign on a fence with birds on it and on the left, Buddy stands there, and on the right, his girlfriend named Cookie stands there in a sexy pose. Under that is the Leon Schlesinger credit.
Closing Logo: Same as the opening logo except Buddy is animated saying "That’s all, Folks" and below the Leon Schlesinger credit the words "Distributed by WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC."
Early Closing Variant: Same as the early series logo except with Buddy jumping from behind the fence saying “That’s all, Folks!” with an iris out on the logo.
FX/SFX: As with LT Logos 1 and 2, there's not much animation. However, that was soon to change.
Music/Sounds: The first cartoon using this logo featured "Whistle and Blow Your Blues Away" again, but all cartoons afterward used "Beauty And The Beast" by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
Availability: Rare again, but thankfully so as these cartoons are among the dullest in existence. This was also attached to Sunset Productions' re-issue prints of the Bosko cartoons. Several cartoons featuring this logo are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release.
Scare Factor: None, unless you're afraid of really old films.
4th Logo
(1935-1936)
Nickname: “The Beans Gang Titles”
Studio Logo: At the top of the screen, curved, the word "VITAPHONE" appears in the same electric letter font used previously, and on the very bottom is the word "Presents" in script, followed by the copyright info. The background is similar to a ship's porthole. And the WB shield's most famous role is cemented: it zooms in from a long distance in the center of the screen to a huge size.
Series Title: Using the same porthole background as the studio logo, in the center, "LOONEY TUNES" appears. The Beans Gang, WB's current stars, which consists of (going counterclockwise starting at the top right) Beans, his girlfriend, Oliver Owl, and Porky Pig, appear around it. Below "LOONEY TUNES","PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER" appears.
Variants:
- For the very first cartoons using the "porthole", a logo similar to LT logo 1 appears, but the "WARNER BROS. PICTURES" line is shortened to only "WARNER BROS." With "PRODUCTIONS CORPORATION" underneath it, then the "& The Vitaphone Corporation" line.
- Some cartoons may be colorized mainly for TV reruns but not for DVD releases.
Closing Logo: A black screen with "LOONEY TUNES" curved at the top-left with "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER" on the bottom-right. "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. PRODUCTIONS CORP." is at the very bottom, and at the center, the world-famous "That's All Folks!" logo writes itself on.
Early Closing Variant: The first cartoons with this logo feature an end title similar to the last logo, but with Beans saying “That’s all, Folks!” to the ending of the cartoon’s theme.
FX/SFX: The "writing on" of the "That's All Folks!", the infamous "zooming shield".
Music/Sounds: A faster-paced version of music used for the previous logo was used at the beginning.
Availability: Can be seen on a few Beans Gang LT shorts and the early Porky shorts if rerun. TV reruns often have them colorized, but not for DVD releases. This was also attached to Sunset Productions' re-issue prints of the Beans Gang shorts and the early Porky shorts.
Scare Factor: None really; the "zooming" shield didn't pose a possible problem until later on.
5th Logo
(1936-1937)
Nickname: “Fat Porky Pig”
Studio Logo: Against a background of musical notes, the WB shield zooms in with "VITAPHONE" above and "PRESENTS" below. Copyright info is shown below.
Series Title: "LOONEY TUNES" is curved near the top against a background of musical notes with "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHESINGER" at the bottom. Porky Pig’s head is in the center.
Closing Logo: The same black "That's All, Folks!" screen as the previous logo.
FX/SFX: The "zooming shield".
Music/Sounds: The first two cartoons using this logo featured the same music from the previous logo. After which, beginning with "Porky in the North Woods," a new theme by M.K. Jerome known as the "Porky Signature" is used. There were many variations on this opening theme. In mid 1937, the shield has its sound effect: the famous "twanging" noise created by Treg Brown.
Availability: Seen on Porky Pig cartoons from the period, though mostly colorized on TV reruns, but not for DVD releases.
Scare Factor: Low; the zooming noise can scare some, but this logo is pretty tame.
6th Logo
(1937-1942)
Nickname: "Porky on Musical Notes," “Porky in a Drum”
Studio Logo: Same as the previous logo, but now the cartoon's production number appears underneath "Presents" and over the copyright notice. Beginning in 1939, "VITAPHONE" is replaced with "WARNER BROS.", and "Presents" is replaced with "Present."
Series Title: "LOONEY TUNES" is curved near the top against a background of musical notes with "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHESINGER" at the bottom. Porky Pig does the following poses listed.
- (1937-1938) Porky is on the right side facing left.
- (1938-1939) Porky is in the center facing right with arms stretched out.
- (1939-1940) Porky is holding a hat.
- (1940-1941) Porky is seen sitting in an open drum.
- (1941-1942) Porky is sitting on a fence.
Closing Logo: Bob Clampett redesigned Porky Pig by this period. Afterward, his place in world history is assured as he breaks out of a drum saying his famous "T-T-T-Th-Th-Th-That's All Folks!" line. On the top of the drum is "LOONEY TUNES" and below it is "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER". At the bottom is "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS. PICTURES". Behind the drum is a curtain background. In 1939, starting with "Pied Piper Porky", a new version of Porky Pig comes out of the drum. On "Meet John Doughboy (1941)", Porky doesn't blink.
FX/SFX: The "zooming shield".
Music/Sounds: The distinctive Looney Tunes theme, "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", is introduced, composed by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin, and arranged by Carl Stalling. An abridged version at a different key is also used for the closing theme.
Music/Sound Variants:
- October 1937-November 1938: Most well-known version of the opening and closing theme.
- November 1938-March 1941: Heavily modified opening theme. Closing theme is the same as the 1937 theme.
- March 1941: Specially-modified version for a one-shot cartoon called "Joe Glow the Firefly", with a different key in the first section of the opening theme.
- March 1941-June 1945: Heavily modified opening and closing themes.
- A few of the 1990s digital colorizations of these cartoons feature this logo with the 1936-1937 opening theme playing over the opening logo instead (the later version with the zooming noise at the beginning). This was not how the cartoons originally started, and was an error made during the colorizations. Such examples include "The Henpecked Duck," "Daffy's Southern Exposure" and "Slap-Happy Pappy." The ending titles, however, features the correct closing themes that they originally ultized.
Availability: Seen on many '30s and early '40s Porky Pig cartoons, though this logo is mostly colorized (except for DVD releases).
Scare Factor: Low, due to the zooming noise.
7th Logo
(1942-1964)
Nicknames: “The Bullseye (Circles)”, “The Concentric Circles”
Studio Logo: Similar to the previous logos, only now the famous "Circles/Bullseye" backdrop that has become a trademark of Warner Bros. Is in place. In 1944, below the "WARNER BROS.", "PICTURES INC." is added.
Series Title: Above the "bullseye" and on the same background, "LOONEY TUNES" appears in its now-distinctive font. Below it appears "PRODUCED BY LEON SCHLESINGER." In 1944, this was changed to “PRODUCED BY WARNER BROS. CARTOONS” and then "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON". On color cartoons with this logo, it says “IN TECHNICOLOR,” (1942-1945), “COLOR BY TECHNICOLOR,” (1945-1956) or “TECHNICOLOR” (1956-1954).
Closing Logo: Until 1946, the "Porky in a Drum" closing was used on a red background; however, Bugs Bunny cartoons "Hare Tonic" and "Baseball Bugs (1946)" have a variant where Bugs broke the drum and said "And that's the end!" while sitting in the open drum and munching on a carrot. Starting in 1944, the "LEON SCHLESINGER" text was changed to "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON". In 1945, a new closing was used on the non-Porky Pig cartoons. It started with the "That's All, Folks!" script being written out, and then "LOONEY TUNES" appearing at the top, curved as in the "black screen" logo. Near the bottom, either the Leon Schlesinger text/Released by WB combo was used (1943-44) or "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" (1944-1963) was used. From 1960-1964, the titles bore an additional legend: “A VITAGRAPH RELEASE”. The background was the circles/bullseye used in the Studio Logo. The colors of the backdrop vary by year, but a list of the colors would be too long to put here.
Variants: There were many variations to this logo, and here are some of them:
- The most famous one of these, with Bugs Bunny relaxing on top of the shield as it zooms in. He chomps on his carrot for a few seconds, looks angry at the "camera", and then pulls down (like a window shade) the next logo, the Looney Tunes logo.
- The shield fades into a face (usually oversized, jaw open) of the featured character in the cartoon it's used in. This was used mostly on Bugs Bunny cartoons, but Daffy's head was used a few times as well.
- Sometimes, one of the character's heads would be seen on the series logo. It is usually either Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, or both of them.
- Some Looney Tunes were re-released as "Blue Ribbon" Merrie Melodies and lost their title cards. These re-releases kept the Looney Tunes music (first at the closing titles only and then the full opening sequence as well) so it is painfully easy to spot former Looney Tunes that were reissued as Merrie Melodies. Examples include "A Bear For Punishment" and "House-Hunting Mice".
- In 1995, Turner Entertainment created the infamous "dubbed version" re-releases of the pre-1948 LT and MM cartoons, which share the same end card ("Porky in a Drum" or the "Bullseye Circles" in either orange or red rings) with copyright text chyroned in below. Several of these are still seen on TV and the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVDs.
FX/SFX: The "zooming shield", the "That's All Folks" closing animation.
Cheesy Factor: During the 1947-1953 years, the WB shield looked rather off-model after it zoomed up.
Music/Sounds: "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" is still used during this period. In 1945, this theme is shortened somewhat.
Music/Sound Variants: Many. Here's a listing:
- March 1941-March 1945: Same as the version first used on the 1940-1941 intro and outro.
- May 1945-July 1946: Abridged opening theme, now dominated by brass and woodwinds, same closing theme as April 1941.
- July 1946-June 1955: Abridged themes. Heavily modified opening and closing themes done in a "goofy" manner. Was still used for the Blue Ribbon reissues of cartoons originally released up to 1955.
- May 1955-July 1964: Heavily modified opening and closing themes. Sparsely used for Blue Ribbon reissues.
Availability: Once considered nearly extinct, this logo is slowly starting to make quite a comeback! It is almost always seen whenever Cartoon Network airs the Looney Tunes shorts, as of November 2009. It also can be found on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVDs from Warner Home Video. This logo was used on over a hundred classic Looney Tunes shorts, including The Rabbit of Seville and False Hare, among many others.
Scare Factor: Low, this is a very famous and well-liked logo, but the "twanging" sound the shield makes may get to some.
8th Logo
(1963-1967)
Background: In 1962, when Warner Bros. Animation was nearing the end of its classic run of Looney Tunes, famed WB cartoon director Chuck Jones created his ultimate one-shot cartoon, "Now Hear This", which was done in a very artistic, abstract, and stylized manner. Chuck Jones also designed new, modern opening and closing titles intended for this cartoon only that fit with the cartoon. However, Termite Terrace also wound up using this logo on their other one-shot cartoons afterward, which were also done in a somewhat stylized manner. In 1962, Warner Bros. Animation shut down, and former staff members David H. Depatie and Friz Freleng opened their own animation studio where Termite Terrace was originally housed. Two years later, they began producing Looney Tunes cartoons for WB to continue the series, and made the following opening/closing titles the permanent logos for the classic WB cartoons.
NOTE: By this point, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies logos are no longer distinctive to each series and are now somewhat standardized/interchangable, so both the LT and MM series will be described for the post-1964 logos.
Nickname: “The Abstract WB”
Studio Logo: Completely different from before. On a black background, several series of lines come from the center of the screen zooming and swirling, 3 purple, one orange, with 2 of the purple ones diagonal, one of the purple ones vertical, and the orange one horizontal. The orange line moves down and up as the purple lines disappear one-by-one and a purple abstract "WB", with the W made up of 2 triangles and the B made up of two semicircles, appears. The orange line turns into the word "PRESENTS" over the abstract WB.
Series Title: 2 lines from the center of the screen swirl around and then slide away to reveal a strange series logo. On the top is "LOONEY TUNES" or "MERRIE MELODIES" in a weird font and on the bottom-right "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" appears in a rectangle in that same font. Below the rectangle is the word "TECHNICOLOR". On 1965-1967 releases, a bannerless WB shield was seen to the right of "TECHNICOLOR." The lines then come back, slide back into each other, wiping away the text, and then "swirl" away into the black background.
Early Opening Variant: For the first four cartoons with this logo, this text is on a white background with no WB shield. The line animation and the studio logo are unaltered, and still appear on a black background.
Closing Logo: The abstract WB appears piece-by-piece, and "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" is wiped onto the screen. When the wiping gets to the "OO" in "CARTOON", the Os turn red and "pop out" of the logo, then pop back into the logo, like two eyes doing a take. They do this action two to three times. "N" is then wiped on and "A VITAPHONE RELEASE" or "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE" appears on the bottom left
Early Closing Variant: For the first three cartoons with this logo, the logo/text is on a white background with no Vitaphone/Vitagraph credit. On "Bartholomew Versus the Wheel" (1963), the "OO" bounces up and down six times instead of the usual three. On "Pancho's Hideaway" (1964), it is similar to the early white background variant, but features "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE" in white text on a black parallelogram on the bottom left.
FX/SFX: All the animation in the logos.
Cheesy Factor: Oh, dear, the shoddy animation was bad enough but...the initial 1963 white background version is migraine-inducing quality. The normal black background version adopted soon after, though still not easy to watch, is only slightly better. The fact that Warner Bros. had shut down its animation department and subcontracted the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts to DePatie-Freling and Format Films (and a badly-run WB animation studio by mid-1967) didn't help as by 1965 DFE was clearly putting more effort into UA's Pink Panther cartoon shorts and Warners' own The Road Runner Show than on the Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales cartoons released during this time.
Music/Sounds: A weird '60s version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", arranged by William Lava. Unlike the pre-1964 logos music no longer differs to each cartoon series, and has become somewhat standardized. The first three shorts using this logo mixed the zooming sound from the 1955-1964 LT theme with the zooming sound from this logo's theme and a cymbal clash was heard when the lines stopped zooming. The end titles originally used Big Ben chiming instead of music, and then a tricycle horn honking for the OO animation. Starting in 1964 with "Pancho's Hideaway" (the first LT short produced by DePatie-Freleng), the 1955 zoom sound and the cymbal clash was dropped from the opening theme, and the end titles began using an abridged version of the opening theme music, with the OO animation synchronized with the theme.
Availability: Uncommon; seen on most Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner cartoons of the era when rerun on Cartoon Network. A handful of cartoons with this logo, including the first three using this logo with the original white background variant (with Big Ben closing) can be found on later "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVD sets, though.
Scare Factor: Medium, mainly due to the choppy animation, strange music, in-your-face animation, and creepy-looking WB.
9th Logo
(1967-1969)
Nicknames: “WB-7”, “W7”
Studio Logo: The same as the previous logo, but the background is now blue and the 3 purple lines are now yellow and the orange one is now pink. The 3 yellow lines now disappear at the same time, as the W7 logo "draws" itself (see the W7 film logo), and the shield appears around it. The horizontal line animation is the same, though “PRESENTS” is now pink as well Copyright info is shown below (beginning in 1969, the copyright info was dropped from this logo).
Series Logo: Again, same as last time, only the WB shield is dropped, as Warner had retired it by this time due to the merge. The rectangle is now centered and reads "A WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS CARTOON".
Closing Logo: Same as last logo, although the "A WARNER BROS.- CARTOON" line is changed to add in the Seven Arts information and the abstract WB is replaced by the W7 logo, which merely pops on in the beginning of the end title without any forming animation. The OO goes up and down three times fast now.
Variants:
FX/SFX: The "lines", the wipe, the OO, the W7 trace.
Cheesy Factor: Not bad, but the cartoons themselves could have been better. They had choppy animation, bad writing and music, and seemed to resemble Hanna-Barbera or Filmation cartoons than classic WB animation.
Music/Sounds: A newer variation of the same bizarre music used last time, which is less annoying.
Music/Sound Variants: Here's a listing:
Availability: Extremely rare/near extinction; the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon output was coming to a stop by this time, but is still saved on shorts of the period when rerun, but due to their lower quality (mentioned in the Cheesy Factor), they aren't rerun very often as a result. The "Norman Normal" variant is available, fully restored, on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release.
Scare Factor: Low.
Scare Factor: Low, this is a very famous and well-liked logo, but the "twanging" sound the shield makes may get to some.
8th Logo
(1963-1967)
Background: In 1962, when Warner Bros. Animation was nearing the end of its classic run of Looney Tunes, famed WB cartoon director Chuck Jones created his ultimate one-shot cartoon, "Now Hear This", which was done in a very artistic, abstract, and stylized manner. Chuck Jones also designed new, modern opening and closing titles intended for this cartoon only that fit with the cartoon. However, Termite Terrace also wound up using this logo on their other one-shot cartoons afterward, which were also done in a somewhat stylized manner. In 1962, Warner Bros. Animation shut down, and former staff members David H. Depatie and Friz Freleng opened their own animation studio where Termite Terrace was originally housed. Two years later, they began producing Looney Tunes cartoons for WB to continue the series, and made the following opening/closing titles the permanent logos for the classic WB cartoons.
NOTE: By this point, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies logos are no longer distinctive to each series and are now somewhat standardized/interchangable, so both the LT and MM series will be described for the post-1964 logos.
Nickname: “The Abstract WB”
Studio Logo: Completely different from before. On a black background, several series of lines come from the center of the screen zooming and swirling, 3 purple, one orange, with 2 of the purple ones diagonal, one of the purple ones vertical, and the orange one horizontal. The orange line moves down and up as the purple lines disappear one-by-one and a purple abstract "WB", with the W made up of 2 triangles and the B made up of two semicircles, appears. The orange line turns into the word "PRESENTS" over the abstract WB.
Series Title: 2 lines from the center of the screen swirl around and then slide away to reveal a strange series logo. On the top is "LOONEY TUNES" or "MERRIE MELODIES" in a weird font and on the bottom-right "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" appears in a rectangle in that same font. Below the rectangle is the word "TECHNICOLOR". On 1965-1967 releases, a bannerless WB shield was seen to the right of "TECHNICOLOR." The lines then come back, slide back into each other, wiping away the text, and then "swirl" away into the black background.
Early Opening Variant: For the first four cartoons with this logo, this text is on a white background with no WB shield. The line animation and the studio logo are unaltered, and still appear on a black background.
Closing Logo: The abstract WB appears piece-by-piece, and "A WARNER BROS. CARTOON" is wiped onto the screen. When the wiping gets to the "OO" in "CARTOON", the Os turn red and "pop out" of the logo, then pop back into the logo, like two eyes doing a take. They do this action two to three times. "N" is then wiped on and "A VITAPHONE RELEASE" or "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE" appears on the bottom left
Early Closing Variant: For the first three cartoons with this logo, the logo/text is on a white background with no Vitaphone/Vitagraph credit. On "Bartholomew Versus the Wheel" (1963), the "OO" bounces up and down six times instead of the usual three. On "Pancho's Hideaway" (1964), it is similar to the early white background variant, but features "A VITAGRAPH RELEASE" in white text on a black parallelogram on the bottom left.
FX/SFX: All the animation in the logos.
Cheesy Factor: Oh, dear, the shoddy animation was bad enough but...the initial 1963 white background version is migraine-inducing quality. The normal black background version adopted soon after, though still not easy to watch, is only slightly better. The fact that Warner Bros. had shut down its animation department and subcontracted the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts to DePatie-Freling and Format Films (and a badly-run WB animation studio by mid-1967) didn't help as by 1965 DFE was clearly putting more effort into UA's Pink Panther cartoon shorts and Warners' own The Road Runner Show than on the Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales cartoons released during this time.
Music/Sounds: A weird '60s version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", arranged by William Lava. Unlike the pre-1964 logos music no longer differs to each cartoon series, and has become somewhat standardized. The first three shorts using this logo mixed the zooming sound from the 1955-1964 LT theme with the zooming sound from this logo's theme and a cymbal clash was heard when the lines stopped zooming. The end titles originally used Big Ben chiming instead of music, and then a tricycle horn honking for the OO animation. Starting in 1964 with "Pancho's Hideaway" (the first LT short produced by DePatie-Freleng), the 1955 zoom sound and the cymbal clash was dropped from the opening theme, and the end titles began using an abridged version of the opening theme music, with the OO animation synchronized with the theme.
Availability: Uncommon; seen on most Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner cartoons of the era when rerun on Cartoon Network. A handful of cartoons with this logo, including the first three using this logo with the original white background variant (with Big Ben closing) can be found on later "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVD sets, though.
Scare Factor: Medium, mainly due to the choppy animation, strange music, in-your-face animation, and creepy-looking WB.
9th Logo
(1967-1969)
Nicknames: “WB-7”, “W7”
Studio Logo: The same as the previous logo, but the background is now blue and the 3 purple lines are now yellow and the orange one is now pink. The 3 yellow lines now disappear at the same time, as the W7 logo "draws" itself (see the W7 film logo), and the shield appears around it. The horizontal line animation is the same, though “PRESENTS” is now pink as well Copyright info is shown below (beginning in 1969, the copyright info was dropped from this logo).
Series Logo: Again, same as last time, only the WB shield is dropped, as Warner had retired it by this time due to the merge. The rectangle is now centered and reads "A WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS CARTOON".
Closing Logo: Same as last logo, although the "A WARNER BROS.- CARTOON" line is changed to add in the Seven Arts information and the abstract WB is replaced by the W7 logo, which merely pops on in the beginning of the end title without any forming animation. The OO goes up and down three times fast now.
Variants:
- For the first cartoons with this logo, it reuses the colors of the “Abstract WB” logo, with a black background and purple W7 shield.
- The 1969 short "Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too" had bad film deterioration to it on TV reruns in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the opening/closing logos had a dark-red tint to them as a result.
- On the 1968 short "Norman Normal" (based off the Paul Stookey song of the same name), the series logo is modified so on the top it has a rectangle reading "A WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS" and underneath the rectangle is "CARTOON SPECIAL" in the LT/MM font. Underneath that is the "TECHNICOLOR" rectangle. The opening to the cartoon's theme music (Paul Stookey's "Norman Normal") plays under this logo instead of having its own music, and at the end, the "Norman Normal" song also plays over the standard closing animation.
- In 1968, 78 Looney Tunes shorts from the 1930s and early 1940s were colorized by a rather crude process via tracing the film cels of the original black-and-white shorts onto animation cels, colorizing them and re-making the original backgrounds. The results were very un-professional and sometimes rather bad. When packaged for TV in 1968-1970, the shorts had a variation of this logo plastered onto the beginning, where it does not have the "TECHNICOLOR" rectangle on the bottom and has the second half of one of the 1935-1943 Looney Tunes opening themes playing under it, which does not fit with the logo at all. The ending has the Seven Arts closing plastered on, with either the ending of the cartoon's theme playing underneath (1935-1937) or the 1937-1943 closing theme, with Porky's "T-th-th-that's all folks!" line heard. The redrawn print of "Porky's Road Race" with these logos use the 1967 opening theme music with the logo and the 1964 closing theme during the end titles.
FX/SFX: The "lines", the wipe, the OO, the W7 trace.
Cheesy Factor: Not bad, but the cartoons themselves could have been better. They had choppy animation, bad writing and music, and seemed to resemble Hanna-Barbera or Filmation cartoons than classic WB animation.
Music/Sounds: A newer variation of the same bizarre music used last time, which is less annoying.
Music/Sound Variants: Here's a listing:
- October 1967-September 1969: Small amount of instruments and rather cheap-sounding guitar "twangs" during the line animation. The closing music is the same as the 1964 version.
- June 1968-August 1968: Heavily modified opening theme with guitar, horn and piano combo on the zooming line animation. Closing music is unchanged.
- March 1969-May 1969: Opening theme sparsely modified, sounding like a hybrid of the October 1967 and June 1968 themes. Closing music is unchanged.
Availability: Extremely rare/near extinction; the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon output was coming to a stop by this time, but is still saved on shorts of the period when rerun, but due to their lower quality (mentioned in the Cheesy Factor), they aren't rerun very often as a result. The "Norman Normal" variant is available, fully restored, on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release.
Scare Factor: Low.
