Racially Charges Bugs Bunny 'Tunes Pulled

May 4, 2001 -- A retrospective initially intended to featureevery Bugs Bunny cartoon will fall just short of complete, asCartoon Network executives have decided not to air a dozen of theanimated shorts deemed too racially charged.

In one episode, the wisecracking, carrot-chomping Bugs isfeatured parodying a black-faced Al Jolson; in another he calls anoafish, bucktoothed Eskimo a "big baboon"; and in yet another hedistracts a black rabbit hunter by rattling a pair of dice.

These and other racially charged cartoons were supposed to beincluded in the retrospective slated for next month on AOL TimeWarner Inc.'s Cartoon Network, until executives changed course lastweek, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Bugs Bad for Business?

Initially the network planned to air the cartoons late at nightwith prominent disclaimers, explaining that the cartoons wererepresentative of their time and should be viewed as historicalrecords.

That idea was nixed after Warner Bros., which owns the rabbit,expressed its worry that the episodes might affect the company'sextensive merchandising ventures.

The Cartoon Network holds licensing agreement with Warner Bros.for the entire library of Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Sensitized by the civil-rights movement, Warner Bros. began pulling the cartoons lampooning blacks in thelate 1960s, animationexpert Jerry Beck told the Journal. Cartoons featuring stereotypedAmerican Indians were taken out of circulation about five yearsago.