I deeply miss classic Warner Bros. cartoons. Cartoon Network, which is owned by Time Warner, used to run them all the time. But every since they "diversified" and started the Boomerang channel (for classic cartoons), basic cable subscribers can't get it. All we get is junk.

For me, the best time of year was the first weekend in June. Cartoon Network used to run every single classic Warner Bros. cartoon ever made. The event was something they called "June Bugs," and during prime time they ran Bugs Bunny cartoons. The name and title of each cartoon, as well as a synopsis, was posted to their Web site. You could look up your favorites by keyword, even.

Most of all, I miss the "Hunting Trilogy." In 1950, writer Michael Maltese and animator Chuck Jones created what is perhaps the finest seven-minute cartoon ever made, "Rabbit Fire." Elmer Fudd is going hunting during rabbit season. But it's spring and not hunting season. Nevertheless, Daffy Duck has been plastering the woods with false hunting signs and rabbit tracks in order to get Bugs Bunny in trouble. The short contains what is now a classic reversal bit:

Bugs: Duck season!
Daffy: Rabbit season!
Bugs: Duck season!
Daffy: Rabbit season!
Bugs: Duck season!!
Daffy: Rabbit season!!
Bugs: Rabbit season!
Daffy: Duck season!!!
Bugs: Rabbit season!!!
Daffy: I say it's duck season, and I say, FIRE!

The bit was actually used in a Daffy Duck cartoon six years earlier, but this short made it famous.

In 1952, Maltese and Jones remade the short as "Rabbit Seasoning." This cartoon takes place in the fall, as opposed to the springtime. Otherwise, they are almost the same. But instead of a reversal gag, Daffy gets tripped up by "prounoun trouble":

Bugs: It's true, Doc: I'm a rabbit alright. Would you like to shoot me now or wait 'til you get home?
Daffy: Shoot him now! Shoot him now!
Bugs: You keep outta this! He doesn't have to shoot you now!
Daffy: He does so have to shoot me now! [Turning to Elmer] I demand that you shoot me now!
[Daffy sticks his tongue out at Bugs, and is shot by Elmer Fudd. Daffy walks over to Bugs, snorting gunsmoke from his nostrils.]
Daffy: [Calmly] Let's run through that again.
Bugs: Okay. [Deadpan] Would you like to shoot me now or wait till you get home.
Daffy: [Deadpan] Shoot him now, shoot him now.
Bugs: You keep outta this, he doesn't have to shoot you now.
Daffy: [Angrily] Hah! That's it! Hold it right there! [Daffy turns to the audience, knowingly.] Pronoun trouble. [Daffy turns to Bugs] It's not "he doesn't have to shoot you now", it's "he doesn't have to shoot me now". [Angrily] Well, I say he does have to shoot me now!! [Turning suddenly to Elmer] So shoot me now!
[Elmer fires at Daffy.]

The film ends with Bugs so thoroughly messing with Daffy's head that Daffy politely asks if Elmer would like to shoot him here or at home. They walk off together like old friends to Elmer's house, where he shoots Daffy. A smouldering Daffy returns to Bugs' side. The film ends with the classic Daffy line, "You'rrrrre dethpicable."

The final film in the "Hunting Trilogy" came in 1953 with "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" By now it's winter. It's duck hunting season, but Daffy has placed fake signs all over the woods announcing that it's rabbit season.

This film introduces two new gags. The first is the "wayward bill." Every time Daffy is shot in the face, his duck-bill ends up someplace different: On the back of his head, on the top of his head, on the ground, etc.

The second gag is yet another revision of the heart of the cartoon. Instead of a reversal bit or "prounoun trouble", Bugs turns the tables on Daffy and gets him to admit that he's all sorts of animals:

Daffy: Well, I guess I'm the goat.
[Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Goat Season Open" and Elmer points his gun at Daffy.]
Daffy: What?
[Hunting horns sound. Elmer shoots Daffy].
Daffy: [Turning to Bugs and putting his bill back in place.] You're a dirty dog.
Bugs: And you are a dirty skunk!
Daffy: [Shocked and angry] I'm a dirty skunk? I'm a dirty skunk?!
[Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Dirty Skunk Season." Hunting horns sound, and Elmer shoots Daffy].
Daffy: Brother! Am I a pigeon!
[Bugs holds up a sign that reads "Pigeon Season." Hunting horns sound, and Elmer shoots Daffy].

Bugs eventually drives Daffy around the bend, so vexing him that Daffy loses total control. Daffy begins to demand that Elmer keep shooting him:

Daffy: Shoot me again! I enjoy it! I love the smell of burnt feathers, and gunpowder, and cordite. I'm an elk!! [Daffy puts his hands against his head, his fingers out like antlers.] Shoot me! Go on!! It's elk season!! [Daffy scuttles on the ground like a crab.] I'm a fiddler crab!!! Why don't you shoot me??? It's fiddler crab season!!!

The film ends with Bugs turning the tables on Elmer, too, convincing him that it's really baseball season. The film ends with Daffy admitting that it's really duck season -- and getting blown away by a hundred hunters.

God, I miss those films.