Do you remember The Bugs Bunny Mother’s Day Special?

Originally airing in 1979, it featured Bugs, Granny, Daffy, Foghorn Leghorn and a tipsy stork.

After Warner Bros. stopped regularly producing theatrical shorts in the 1960s, Looney Tunes characters were introduced to the next generation on television. Specials starring Bugs, Daffy, Porky and many other beloved characters featured new adventures and brought back classic shorts that could never be topped.

Many of the specials were centered around holidays. The Looney Tunes revamp really hit its stride in 1979 when four different Bugs Bunny holiday specials aired. There was “Bugs Bunny’s Valentine’s Day Special,” “The Bugs Bunny Mother’s Day Special,” “Bugs Bunny’s Thanksgiving Diet” and “Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales.”

The Mother’s Day special used new animation to present classic shorts about moms and babies like “Apes of Wrath” and “Mother Was a Rooster.” More than one cartoon featured an inebriated stork delivering the wrong infant so, naturally, the hiccupping bird shows up for the “in between” segments, getting more and more drunk as the special goes on.

The special opens on Gold Gate Park with Bugs popping up from under a rock singing “While strolling through the park one day, in the merry month of May…” The “roguish eyes” mentioned in the next line belong to Granny as she hands out violets for Mother’s Day.

Bugs credits mothers with being “the most important people in the woild” but a stork objects, saying he’s the one that delivers the babies. As their cartoons are shown, Foghorn Leghorn and Daffy Duck join Bugs, Granny and the stork in the park. 

While it may not be as memorable as specials celebrating Christmas or Thanksgiving, “The Bugs Bunny Mother’s Day Special” showcased moms in classic irreverent Looney Tunes style and included the always enjoyable voice talents of Mel Blanc and June Foray. 

Do you remember watching this often-forgotten special on TV?

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28 Comments

timothys71 27 months ago
Speaking of holiday-themed cartoons, I was kind of surprised to see a lot of Christmas-themed ones on Saturday Morning Cartoons today (July 16)! I have noticed that if you are paying close enough attention, you can sometimes pick out a hidden theme in the cartoons shown on a particular Saturday. Today it was a pretty obvious "Christmas in July" theme.
McGillahooala 29 months ago
I saw them all. Great so so specials.
Connormcenry97 29 months ago
Bugs Bunny encounters Granny, who is selling flowers on a sidewalk, and they posit the importance of mothers and the white-plumed baby-deliverer. The Drunk Stork is sober when he first appears, but is completely inebriated after clips from "Apes of Wrath" and "Stork Naked". Clips are also included from "Quackodile Tears", "Bushy Hare", "Mother Was a Rooster" and "Goo Goo Goliath".
eddiecantorfan 29 months ago
The Bugs Bunny Cartoon where Bugs
Bunny and Daffy Duck are pulling
SIGNS off a tree that said Rabbit
Season and then Duck Season and
Finally ELMER SEASON was a Funny
Cartoon . Did Elmer Fudd and
Yosemite Sam ever make appearances in the same Bugs Bunny Cartoon or Cartoons?
lynngdance eddiecantorfan 29 months ago
I think Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam were both in the movie “Looney Tunes: Back In Action” and possibly they were both on Tiny Tune Adventures, but I’m not sure. 🙂
adamsbabe 29 months ago
Toony was funny when he said he passes gas in public excuse you toony
geatornez82 29 months ago
YES! My parents taped this for me and my sister back in 1987. It was one of my favorite Looney Tunes specials, especially the "Apes of Wrath" scenes. Unfortunately, my VCR ate the tape about a year ago.
abbycat13 29 months ago
I like the fish & Bill, reminds me of an old, old show called 'Toon Heads'. They gave a lot of info about the toons, creators, current events, even showing those war propaganda shorts. There is a great deal of history in these funny cartoons and I enjoy learning more about how special they really are.
McGillahooala abbycat13 29 months ago
Southern Illinois had a show called Cactus Pete’s Funny Company. After Cactus Pete left the show was hosted by Uncle Briggs. That’s when I saw it. Great show broadcast across southern Illinois, southeast missouri, western Kentucky, and probably a little bit of Indiana and Tennessee. I wonder if many people remember it?
Moverfan McGillahooala 29 months ago
I never even heard of it, but then I'm born and raised in southeastern Michigan. Used to watch channel 9 out of Windsor, Ontario before leaving for grade school...The Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup...and do any other Michiganders remember watching The Uncle Bobby Show in the late 60s/early 70s?
bab 29 months ago
No I never saw any of the specials. I do have most of Bug's original theatrically released cartoons though, including the "politically incorrect" ones!
Audie 29 months ago
Yes I remember all of those cartoon specials I watched them with my young daughters at the time, and recorded all of them, just don't remember which tape I recorded them on. There was also a spring time special called: Bugs Bunny is busting out all over. How many remember that one?
WilliamHogan 29 months ago
Taped the special in 1991. Still have it.
lvoldtoons 29 months ago
I love old toons. I used to fix my bowl of cereal and sit in front of the tv ready for a good time. Why do we need a narrator and a stupid fish?
LoveMETV22 lvoldtoons 29 months ago
The weekday " Toon In with Me " premise is based on when there were locally produced children's programming in past decades that had a host, characters and cartoons. There is the Saturday Morning block that has three hours of cartoons with no host or characters, just cartoons.
GrumpyCat 29 months ago
So after the tease, when is this episode airing?
AllisonWunderland 29 months ago
Oh yes! That was the year I graduated High School……so no, I really don’t remember these 😉😎
eddiecantorfan 29 months ago
Has anyone seen the Bugs Bunny Cartoon called A Heckling Hate
where Bugs Bunny and a dog with
the name Willoughby fall off a
Cliff and there is a SURPRISE ENDING.
eddiecantorfan LoveMETV22 29 months ago
I enjoyed watching A Heckling
Hare Video.
Sorella 29 months ago
Saturday morning cartoons are good for the kids of all ages. But lose the dumb fish and his creepy brother who follows Svengoolie. Bring back the good classic TV programs MeTV used to air on Saturdays. I see by your listings that the middle of the night programs are really good.
BugsBunny1 29 months ago
The only ways I saw this special was on a used blank vhs CBS airing from 1987 I found from ebay
Hornet71 29 months ago
I just love toon in with me seeing popeyr and all the rest of the cartoons I'm 70yrs old and watching all these cartoons I grew up with reminds me of the good ole days
Andybandit 29 months ago
I am sorry I don't remember these cartoons.
MrsPhilHarris 29 months ago
I don’t recall any of the specials mentioned.
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