In 1996, Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting. Among many other things, this meant that the Hanna-Barbera library of cartoons and characters now lived under the same roof as Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the Looney Tunes. Yet, in the nearly thirty years since the two joined forces, they rarely crossed over. Aside from a few commercials, the occasional merchandise, and Space Jam 2, the characters have stayed in their own corners. But in 2008, that very nearly changed.
Above is a piece of art created in a pitch to Warner Bros. Animation for a series titled Mixed Nutz. This comes to us courtesy of Tom Ruegger, who's no stranger to developing Hanna-Barbera projects that got canceled. The basic premise of the series is that each episode would be a series of skits featuring the Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera characters interacting. Some included Bugs getting a ride from Fred Flintstone, Marvin the Martian joining the Jonny Quest crew in the place of Hadji, El Kabong trying to stop the Road Runner, and Daffy going on a cross-country tour with Yogi Bear.
One recurring theme to these skits is that many would've been parodies or spoofs of other media. There were riffs on Casablanca and James Bond starring Bugs Bunny, as well as a take on The Terminator revolving around Rosie the Robot going after Daffy. Below is a piece of art developed for the show that showcases a planned South Park parody.
Different from the other projects I've looked at this month, which never made it past the initial development stages, this one was greenlit by the higher-ups at WBA, and got rather far into production. A series bible, scripts for several segments, and a fully-written pilot were all completed. So what happened? An executive shake-up at WBA is what happened. Sam Register was brought into the company (he had previously worked at Cartoon Network Studios), and he had his own idea for a new Looney Tunes cartoon. That became 2011's The Looney Tunes Show, and as soon as that had won over execs, Mixed Nutz fell out of favor and was canceled. However, despite this show never becoming a reality, it seems WBA was still really into the idea of a skit-focused animated series. In 2010, right around the time Mixed Nutz likely would have aired had it been ordered, MAD premiered on Cartoon Network. Based on the iconic magazine, the series filled the void left behind by this project. Although we got a Warner Bros sketch-comedy cartoon, the idea of a full-fledged crossover between the Looney Tunes and HB characters remains unrealized.
Of course, that's the case only for the moment. I'm sure we'll eventually get some sort of major crossover between the two properties, but whether it'll be better or worse than what we could've gotten with Mixed Nutz will likely never be determined. If you'd like to know more about the show, I once again suggest you check out Tom Ruegger's blog. He has a great series of posts from 2011 all about the show and some of the sketches thought up for it. And with that, this first Scrapped September has come to an end! But that's not to say I'm done talking about canceled Hanna-Barbera media. Back during "Jetsons June", I spoke about three Jetsons projects that never quite got off the ground: a sequel series revolving around grown-up Judy and Elroy, the long-in-development live-action movie, as well as a planned revival of the series from the late nineties. And next month, I'll discuss a Hanna-Barbera video game that never saw the light of day. I hope you've enjoyed this series of posts, and I'll see you tomorrow with something different!
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