Everything You Need to Know about HBO Max

There has been much hype about HBO Max coming from Warnermedia.  Now getting into the streaming wars, HBO Max will debut this month, but does it live up to the hype?  Like with Disney+, here are my predictions, facts, and thoughts.

1. Studio Ghibli is coming

In this exclusive deal make by Warnermedia, for the first time you will be able to stream ALL the Studio Ghibli films.  This includes Spirited Away, Howles Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro.  Disney could've gotten these, but sad for them, they lost their license to GKids.  Oh, and expect the Disney dubs on older titles, NOT the Streamline Pictures dubs

2.  Some adult swim shows confirmed

These include Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Rick and Morty, and (under license) The Boondocks.  The latter of which, I believe, will be brand new episodes

3. Crunchyroll titles confirmed

It WON'T be everything from Crunchyroll, not yet anyways, but at launch shows such as Fullmetal Alchemist, Your Lie in April, and one of my personal favorites....Kill la Kill is coming.  While probably not exclusive, these are big names and are a welcome addition to HBO Max.

4. No Censored 11

Sorry, they're called that for a reason.  There is no chance of these forbidden Looney Tunes to come out in any way soon.  That goes for Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips and the Tom and Jerry cartoons Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat

5. Brand new Hanna-Barbera cartoons

The brand new series Jellystone has been confirmed for HBO Max and will feature the great animal characters like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Snagglepuss.  There's also a new Flintstones series starring Pebbles and Bamm Bamm that hasn't debuted in the US yet.  Not to mention Scoob, the new Scooby Doo movie

6.  Looney Tunes, Looney Tunes, and MORE Looney Tunes (did I mention Looney Tunes?)

They Looney Tunes are a comin'. This includes the classic Warner Bros. cartoons plus two new series...the first to debut at launch.  Looney Tunes Cartoons brings back the classic feel, meanwhile Tooned Out is a Robert Zemmekis film about a man who sees cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Taz, Tweety, etc. combining live action and animation.

7.  Sesame Street will be a big part of HBO Max

With continued success on HBO the channel, Sesame Street will put their (allegedly) entire library of shows.  In addition, a new series starring Elmo will debut at launch.  Compared to Disney+, HBO Max will have much more Muppet/Jim Henson content.

8. South Park is coming

While not a WB owned property, they bit the bullet and got the streaming rights from Paramount to have the entire run of the legendary Comedy Central animated series.  This is entirely to compete with Disney +'s exclusive rights to The Simpsons (which they own).  South Park has been a major hit for quite some time, causing it to be one of the most expensive shows to run on TV or streaming.  This is huge.

But now comes the questions with my predictions a la like I did with Disney +

How vast will the anime library?

We know all of Studio Ghibli is coming.  Crunchyroll recently announced that as of now the A titles are going on the service while the rest will remain Crunchyroll exclusive only.  While some are predicting the death of Crunchyroll, I say not so fast.  If people continue to watch on Crunchyroll, it will survive....for now.  However, there may be a transitional period if anime is a success on HBO Max, and thanks to Studio Ghibli, I think anime will be a major success for Max.  Rooster Teeth, on the other hand, is done.  The service and the studio, due to recent events, is doomed.

Is Boomerang done?

If everything from Boomerang moves over to HBO Max and then some (with indicators that the latest Boomerang like content will be HBO Max exclusives), then yeah....the end of Boomerang is near as a service.  That doesn't mean the end of classic cartoons online though; they will be a major part of the service.  I believe that there will be NO section called Boomerang, unlike Cartoon Network and Crunchyroll.  Looney Tunes, thankfully, will have their own section.  All Cartoon Network shows will be under Cartoon Network.  The rest....I don't know.  There may be a Hanna Barbera section, but will Popeye, the red headed stepchild of the library, be in that section, or somewhere else?  And just a reminder, HBO Max may say Popeye is Hanna-Barbera....it's Paramount (Flescher then Famous Studios).

How fast will the classic cartoon library be?

While Boomerang is great, the problem is that it's "family friendly", and this caused some issues.  The Mammy Two Shoes Tom and Jerry cartoons are nowhere to be found, and any signs of un-PC content is not there or worse, if someone woke sees it, they have the option to complain (this has happened thanks to a fan that did just that).  WB as a whole, however, is much looser.  All but 2 Tom and Jerry cartoons are out on home video, and I even see some Mammy shorts (minus Mammy) for clip compilations on the WB Kids Youtube.  Now that Cartoon Network and Boomerang isn't dictating this one, maybe....just maybe....we may see more old cartoons on here than on Boomerang.  If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, so don't take this seriously and find out I was wrong...these are just speculations based off of what I see.  As I said though, any cartoons officially banned by WB will not be on here, which isn't a lot of cartoons on that list believe it or not.  One cartoon that isn't on Boomerang is the Max Flescher Superman cartoons.  This is because DC Comics also has a streaming service for just these shows and movies.  Naturally, they ended up there instead of Boomerang.  Since DC will have their own section too, it's a no brain-er these cartoons will show up here alongside other DC comics shows and cartoons.

EDIT:  Ok as I was making out this blog, some news came to me via the IAD forums: 
"Hey all,

Came here to say I've been fortunate enough to have gotten an early look at a certain streaming service debuting this month. First off, I would like to say take this with a grain of salt, as anything could change before launch. However, there appears to be a few bits of good news:

- Roughly 15 Bugs Bunny cartoons seem to have been newly restored and look absolutely fantastic. Unsure if this is prelude to a disc, but some of the restored shorts are long overdue: "Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk," "What's Cookin' Doc?," "Racketeer Rabbit," "Knights Must Fall" (with original rings), "Rabbit Every Monday" and the previously article-cited "Upswept Hare."

- Cropped shorts from Superstars collections are in their correct aspect ratios.

- A large number of shorts that did not make Platinum Collections appear to have been rescanned in HD, giving them upgraded Blu-Ray quality for the first time. Ones I've caught so far include "My Favorite Duck," "The Draft Horse," "Foney Fables," "The Hare-Brained Hypnotist," "Duck Soup To Nuts," but I've only been able to scratch the surface.

Though only about 1/5 of the Warner catalogue, each short appears to come from a restored print, with no off-the-shelf TV dubs. Also, it's all arrange chronologically, giving a good bit of context for the uninitiated. All in all, this looks to be the first quality-controlled instance of Warners shorts on a streaming service and who knows what may be added in the future.

Seems to be well worth the investment. That's all I'll say for now.  "

Get hyped....this may be great news for us Looney Tunes fans.

Licensed content from Universal???????

Something I noticed while watching this Clownfish TV video......there are marks of other movies I noticed NOT WB owned.  More specifically, The Land Before Time.  Is it possible we may get these movies here instead of Peacock?  Will the classic cartoon library come over here since Peacock has no interest in Casper or Bullwinkle whatsoever?  Also, I saw the 20th Century Fox Alvin and the Chipmunks on there.  Now I hate these movies, but that's now a DISNEY property because of the Fox merger.  This should be interesting what HBO Max does here with the non-WB properties such as South Park, Sesame Street, and maybe even these movies.

At launch, I doubt every single little thing will be on here, but as time goes on, it will be a major experience, and with a strong line up it already has, it will be a superior service.  Anime, movies, cartoons, TV shows, and so much more will make this one of the best.

Cartoon Destinations: Marriott's Great America

Our next destination takes us to two theme parks that opened the same year with the same brand, changing the world of amusement parks for the bicentennial of America, and giving Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes gang at last a true home....and those two parks are truly American as the name applies.....Marriott's Great America.

Bugs is breaking ground for the new theme parks

Marriott's is well known for the hotel chain, but they wanted to get into the theme park business with planning as early as the 1970's.  There were going to be three parks, one for the D.C. area, one for the Chicago area, and one for the San Francisco Bay area.  The D.C. area plan fell through due to politics, but the other two were set in stone.  Marriott's struck a deal with Warner Bros. to use the Looney Tunes characters as the mascots of the parks to compete with Disney's Mickey Mouse just as they did in the movie theaters years ago.  Bugs Bunny by 1973 was appearing at Warner Bros. Jungle Habitat, but it wasn't really a theme park.  He appeared at Magic Mountain when it opened in 1971, but that was a one year deal.  This deal would give him a permanent home.

After three years of hard work and dedication, Marriott's Great America opened to the public Spring 1976 in Gurnee, IL and Santa Clara, CA.  Both parks on opening year had the same attractions.

Guests would enter the Carousel Plaza where smiling Looney Tunes characters would greet guests entering.  The Dual Loop park contains lands based on different parts of the country such as New Orleans, Yankee Harbor, Yukon Territory, the County Fair, and Hometown Square.  The parks also had new original songs used in commercials and atmospheric music.  Some of them would be recorded by Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny himself.  The most popular song of them all is the carousel song.  This song became a favorite among park goers and would sometimes double as their "goodbye/the park's closed for the day" song.  It lasted for years and despite both parks now separate owners, it would occasionally still play to this day. Have a listen, as for some it may bring back memories.

Speaking of the carousel, let's talk about the rides and start with the carousel.  Known as the Columbia Carousel, both were double decker carousels using horses based on the classics horses used during the golden age of the carousels, and because of the elaborate design, they to this day hold the record as the tallest carousels in the world.  It's the first ride you see as you enter the park sitting behind the fountains.  Also at Carousel Plaza, the Sky Trek was the tallest ride at both parks giving guests areal views of the entire park.  A handful of rides would transport you from one land to another.  The street car took you to and from Hometown Square to and from New Orleans Square.  The Sky Buckets took you to and from New Orleans Square to and from the County Fair, and the Scenic Railway took guests around the park from the front to the back and vice versa.  Stops were Hometown Square and the County Fair.  A kiddie coaster called Gulf Coaster could be found in New Orleans built by the Allan Herchell company and were Little Dipper models.  Sadly, Chicago's only lasted one year due to a small fire.  Also found in New Orleans were the Antique Cars.  Going out on each other were the Yankee Bullet and the Logger's Run.  With Yankee Bullet at Yankee Harbor and Logger's Run in the Yukon, their big drops were built to go across from each other as if it were a civil war.  At the County Fair, that's where all the carnival games were as would some rides including Barney Oldfield Raceway, the Triple Armed Ferris Wheel called Sky Wheel, and the most popular roller coaster at the park, the Turn of the Century.  A Corkscrew type ride, they were remodeled in 1980 by adding more loops and renamed Demon.  The next popular coaster, The Whizzer, could be found in Hometown Square.  A kiddie section called Hometown Park featured classic kiddie rides

Exclusive Looney Tunes merchandise could be found at Marriott's

Hometown Square is where Bugs Bunny and the gang performed in the theater.  So many different stage shows were performed starring Bugs Bunny, giving Mel Blanc more work with the Looney Tunes characters since new cartoons were few and far between with them at that time.  Blanc even did an interview as Bugs for the opening day broadcast of Chicago's park.

A few major expansions would happen at Marriott's.  Tidal Wave was a Shuttle Loop coaster used at both parks.  Meanwhile the American Eagle racing roller coaster opened at Chicago in 1981.  It was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company who built other classic woodies such as Cedar Point Blue Streak and Kings Island's Racer.  For a couple of years, Marriott's would co-own Playland in Rye, NY.

While the parks were popular, Marriott's found them unprofitable.  Getting out of the theme park business, they sold the two parks in 1984.  Six Flags bought the Chicago park while Kings Entertainment bought the Santa Clara park.  Marriott's came to an end, but its parks, under new managements, continued.  Just named Great America, Santa Clara's stripped off any reference to Looney Tunes and used the Hanna Barbera characters just like the other Kings Entertainment parks.  Coincidentally, corporate mergers brought Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera under one roof years later at Warner Bros.  In 1993, Paramount bought Kings Entertainment, now calling it Paramount's Great America and began building rides based off their movies such as Top Gun, a looping inverted roller coaster, and with Paramount's own merger with Viacom, it brought the Nickelodeon characters to the park.  Rides were built or rethemed based on Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Spongebob, and more.  This sale, however, caused its new owners to wreck the park.  The Whizzer was gone, the train was gone, the Yankee Bullet gone leaving Logger's Run by itself for a few years more before its demise, and rides like the Sky Wheel, because of their age, were gone and replaced.  Interestingly enough, the replacements for some of these classic rides proved unpopular and were gone too.  In 2006, Cedar Fair bought the Paramount Parks inheriting this one.  The first year under them it was just called Great America, but the following year it was renamed California's Great America.  Within a few year, the Nickelodeon characters would be gone and replaced with the Peanuts gang.  While more successful than Paramount's, Cedar Fair made it their own park instead of fixing what it once was.  As much as the original Marriott's was destroyed, one surprising ride remained unlike Six Flags...the Sky Buckets, and for what it is, it's still a beautiful park looking to expand.  However, its future is now over as in 2022, Cedar Fair sold the property to real estate.  Within a few years, the park will close for good.  The fate of the many rides there including the Columbia Carousel are unknown.

Meanwhile, the Six Flags purchase of the Chicago park made the obvious name change from Marriott's Great America to Six Flags Great America.  Interestingly, this deal also gave Six Flags the rights to use the Looney Tunes characters throughout all of their parks.  Six Flags was all about the rides, so any attractions that weren't popular or didn't age well would be replaced with big rides and roller coasters like the Iron Wolf, Rolling Thunder, and Shockwave.  What's more, Six Flags decided to expand the park rather than start from scratch which was what Paramount did.  This means that despite Six Flags' reputation of being "the discount park" and how they changed other parks they purchased, Great America, for the most part, was left alone.  Bugs Bunny Land opened up expanding the Looney Tunes even more.  They also invested in using the DC Comics characters.  Batman the Ride opened in 1992 as the first of its kind inverted roller coaster.   Other rides over the years include the Dark Knight, Joker, a Justice League Dark Ride, and Superman Ultimate Flight.  A waterpark opened, opening a water coaster in 2021 and is included with admission.  The big rides kept coming: Goliath, Maxx Force, Raging Bull, Vertical Velocity, and X-Flight.  Not all of their new rides were successful.  Deja Vu, replacing the Sky Wheel, closed and was sold to another park.  Shockwave and Iron Wolf showed their age and were replaced with better coasters.

Bugs would occasionally still dawn his "Marriott's" outfit
at Six Flags Great America

Family attractions still opened at the park.  Hometown Park was brought back to life and in its original location too.  Bugs Bunny Land became Bugs Bunny National Park, but would sadly close and was replaced with the relocated go-karts.  The merger with Turner and Time Warner brought the Hanna-Barbera characters over with a new land, Camp Cartoon Network.  However, it would just be renamed Camp Cartoon as Cartoon Network eased their way out of classic Hanna-Barbera with their own shows such as Powerpuff Girls, Ed Edd n Eddy, Billy and Mandy, Codename KND, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.  Then in 2007, The Wiggles came to the park and opened Wiggles World and stayed until 2010 when it just became Kidzopolis.  In fact, all of the kiddie rides are now generic, but yet, somehow, the Looney Tunes and DC characters remain.  In 2010, Six Flags brought over a Little Dipper roller coaster from the recently closed Kiddieland Park nearby.  That area where it was moved to showcased the history of Kiddieland and operates the classic kiddie coaster, preserving the history of the defunct park.  A not so Six Flags thing to do as is keeping what made Marriott's what it was.  The carousel, Sky Tower, Whizzer, Railroad, BOTH Yankee Harbor (now called Aquaman Splashdown) and Logger's Run, Demon, and of course the Looney Tunes are STILL THERE.  It also ranks as one of Six Flags' most popular parks (Airtime Thrills claiming second best to Magic Mountain).  The trolley is no longer an attraction, but it's not really defunct either.  Instead, it's used as part of Six Flags' parades, so it's still in good working condition even though it's not a "ride" anymore.

So there you have it, the story of the two parks that Bugs Bunny built in 1976.  If you still want to have that feel of what it was like, I recommend a trip to Six Flags Great America, but because of the changes that were made at California's Great America, I'd also recommend checking that park out too as they're not cookie cutter anymore.  However, get to California's Great America quickly; it will be gone in a matter of years.  Most of the details of the parks' history can be found on other websites as this is just a brief synopsis of Bugs Bunny at Marriott's.  For more information such as lists of rides and attractions, operating hours, shows and entertainment, please visit their own websites.  Let us know in the comment section which of the two parks was better.  Until then, this has been your cartoon destination for today.

Tom and Jerry walkaround costumes

For 80 years now, Tom and Jerry had the eternal chase of cat and mouse that left us all laughing and entertained.  The characters were the first to be created by Hanna-Barbera and the start of a legacy that continues to be felt to this day.  One would probably wanna meet Tom and Jerry.  While not as common to find as Bugs Bunny, they have made many different theme park appearances.  Today, we take a look at the many different mascot costumes we could find.

Notes:  1. This list is for Tom and Jerry only; no other MGM characters are covered here (it's difficult enough finding Tom and Jerry).  No other Hanna-Barbera characters either.
            2. These must be official costumes; no bootlegs will be mentioned (and there were A LOT of them)
            3. The names given are chosen by me; no official names have been given to these costumes.
            4. The list is incomplete; you can help complete this by commenting below.  Why incomplete?  There were so many with very little record
            5. All dates are approximate, not official.  A few have overlapped each other, and again, very little has been recorded.

The earliest known costumes were probably from the 1970's shown here with Henry Mancini.  As usual, the earliest known versions are off model.  Jerry's smile is creepily bigger than his mouth.  "Wanna know how I got these scars?????"  Tom's head is bad too.  It's too round and his eyebrows are just bad.  It IS known that Tom and Jerry made an appearance at Kennywood Park.  However, it was only as an event and no records show if this or another costume was used (or even if MGM licensed it).




It wouldn't be until 1987 when Universal Studios Hollywood brought Tom and Jerry over as part of their roster of cartoon character appearances (they changed up the park to include rides and attractions as opposed to just the backlot tour).  Now you would think they would have Tom and Jerry all cleaned up and ready to go.  There's only one footage of these costumes, and nothing could prepare you for this................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Cheap Tom and Jerry (1987-late 1980's)

These.....things......mixed in with other cartoon characters appear to be Tom and Jerry, but somehow these were approved by MGM/Turner.  Tom looks smaller than Jerry and looks more like a kitty cat than a cat.  Jerry is worse.  He looks like he was punched in the face.  Hard enough as if for his eyes to come out of their sockets, and hard enough to have a flat face on a round head.  They both look like cheap overstuffed animals.  No way that they are believable to be Tom and Jerry at all.  The good news however is that these costumes did not last long.

Universal Tom and Jerry (late 80's or early 90's-1992; 1995-2001)

Now that Turner had full control of Tom and Jerry, they were able to fix the costumes.  While not exactly on model, they look much much better.  Jerry is now smaller than Tom which meant better casting by Universal.  Tom has very big eyes and he now has side hairs which gives this costume more detail.  He also has slightly chubby cheeks.  Meanwhile, Jerry's eyes seem stiff....he's staring out into space.  Neither of the characters are smiling.  Both have strange hair on top that looks to be flattened when they should be sticking up.  Universal ended up retiring these costumes after only a few years.  Interestingly enough, Turner would use these again to help promote Cartoon Network alongside other Turner/Hanna-Barbera characters.

Disney MGM Tom and Jerry (1992-1993)

Interestingly enough, Tom and Jerry moved from Universal parks to Disney parks.  More specifically, the Disney-MGM Studios in Florida.  This was when Disney picked up characters to appear in the park just like Universal licensed Hanna-Barbera and others.  These characters include the Ninja Turtles, Muppets (with actual hopes of buying them but failed until 2004), and Barbie.  And to

promote their new movie where they talk, Tom and Jerry.  The Tom and Jerry at Disney is much better detailed than at Universal.  Tom got smaller eyes but has a more detailed expression.  He now has whiskers and he's smiling.  Like his previous costume, he also has side hairs, though not as curly as Universal's.  Meanwhile Jerry has a much smoother cuter face.  His eyes are now directly looking down at the kids
instead of straight ahead into nowhere's land.  Though the height limit appears to be extinct, he still looks like Jerry Mouse.  His mouth is now closed, and like Tom, he too gained whiskers.  The top hair on both Tom and Jerry is now much fuzzier.  Not more flat tubes, and this hair can stick up.  Unfortunately, the promotion didn't last too long and Tom and Jerry would no longer appear at Disney-MGM.

Standard Tom and Jerry (2002-present)

After the merger between Turner and WB, they began making new costumes to help promote their product.  This included Tom and Jerry.  The designs are now on model.  However, these costumes scream cheap.  Some of the molds even give the characters flat faces.  Still, the eyes on both costumes are much more skinny, but they lack detailed features.  For example, Tom lost his side hairs, instead replaced with it being a part of the mold.  Worse yet, these costumes never appeared at any Six Flags parks, rather Parque Warner Madrid and Warner Bos. Movie World Germany (that later lost the WB theme).  They also only appeared to promote Cartoon Network products and a strange foreign place called Warner Bros. Fun Zone.

Warner Bros World Tom and Jerry (2018-present)

When WB opened their new indoor theme park in Abu Dhabi, they made new costumes for their famous characters including Tom and Jerry.  The costumes are much better quality.  The size difference may still trigger some, but both Tom and Jerry are better looking than the previous costume.  They both have much rounder facial expressions.  The top hairs are much thicker.  Tom and Jerry have bigger smiles.  Jerry is much cutter.  The fur is much lighter making performances much better.  Tom still doesn't have his side hairs, but the mold shows enough detail to believe he has it.  In 2019, the characters began appearing at the Warner Bros. Studios Australia using these brand new designs.  Here's hoping they come to America soon.

Cartoon Destinations: Gadgets Restaurant

Pack your bags and get ready to travel.  Today's cartoon destination is a blast from the past.  Today, in honor of Bugs Bunny's 80th birthday and Looney Tunes 90th, we're going to try to resurrect a lost moment in Looney Tunes history....Gadgets!

With the success of Chuck E Cheese and Showbiz Pizza, Warner Bros. thought, "Why can't we get
into the act?"  After all, they have their own "Chuck E Cheese" character, and surprisingly not even Disney ever thought about opening such a place with THEIR famous mouse.  The only other studio that thought of this was Peter Peitch's company/Jay Ward enterprises with their Bullwinkle's concept.

Gadgets officially opened in 1983.  The first of these locations were Springfield, OH and Baltimore, MD.  Unlike its competitors, Gadgets offered a variety of menus items for both kids and adults.  Steaks, hamburgers, pizza, and yummy drinks (alcoholic and non alcoholic) were on the menu among other dishes.  The menu, of course, designed to look like Looney Tunes Dell comic books from the 60s.

 
 

But food was just the beginning.  Two different audio animatronic shows were going on.  One featured the Looney Tunes, the other an original character.  Sammy Sands played the piano and sang songs.  His piano housed some drinks, a pack of cigarettes, and an ash tray, making him feel right at home.  He performed at the bar where Sammy's Whammy, a drink named after him, could be sold, "and believe me," recalled Lyn Brown from Independent Network News, "after you've had one or two of these, it doesn't matter whether [Sammy] is human or humanoid."  In other words.......it's a Whammy!!!

While the adults were getting Whammied by Sammy's Whammy, the kids could get their game on in the arcade.  Like its competitors, Gadgets offered the latest video games to play using game tokens.  The tokens used multiple designs based off of the famous Looney Tunes characters.

 

But the main attraction is the Looney Tunes Revue animatronic stage shows.  United Press International reported, "Diners at Gadgets will see a completely automated 20-minute show every half hour or so featuring 8-foot robots with pre-recorded dialogue and songs.
But the robots are very special and familiar characters indeed: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzales, Tweety Bird and Sylvester, Henery Hawk, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil and other wackos from the Warner Bros. cartoon factory,".  Henery, Foghorn, and Taz would eventually be cutback.  For sure what we know are three stages.  The center stage had Bugs Bunny, Yosemette Sam, Porky Pig, and Pepe le pew (as well as Foghorn, Henery, and Taz).  Porky played the saxophone, while Pepe played the piano. Taz would play the base and Foghorn on the drums. Speedy Gonzalas would randomly appear in different spots making the illusion of him being the fastest mouse in all of Mexico.  Stage left is Daffy playing the guitar, and stage right is Sylvester, Sylvester jr, and Tweety.  Tweety would be found in his bird cage, while Sylvester played the trumpet.  In smaller locations, only Bugs, Daffy, and Porky were used on smaller three stages.  Porky on center stage, Daffy stage right, and Bugs stage left.  The latter of which Bugs played the piano, possibly being the same mech for either Pepe le pew or Sammy Sands.

In total, around 50 to 55 different shows were recorded, all voices by legendary voice over artist Mel Blanc.  Blanc would become heavily involved with the Gadgets concept since there wasn't a whole lot of new projects with Warner Bros. cartoons.  He did interviews and as one employee recalled a Make a Wish where he called up a location to help talk to a young boy who wished to speak to Bugs Bunny, "I actually kinda talked to Mel Blanc once. There was a local child whose wish from the "Make a Wish" foundation was to meet and talk to Bugs. They had Mel call the store, and I was perched by the phone with explicit instructions from the manager to put him through immediately when he called. I was so excited when the call came, I forgot to put the phone on hold, and I hung up on him LOL!....Needless to say, I got a major reaming!"

Many of the showtapes ended up being lost.  One mp3 was found which has since been uploaded on Youtube

The smaller stage for smaller locations had Bugs on piano, Porky, and Daffy

Former employees who worked there all had great memories of working there, though they all agreed that they did not like the uniforms they were wearing.  Many of these comments remained anonymous and all come from John Cook's Misce-Looney-ous blog post  about Gadgets.  Historian Dave Mackey recalls working at the Ocean, NJ location including dressing up as the wabbit himself making a grave mistake, "Yes, I had heard of Gadgets. Mainly because I worked there! I worked at the unit in Ocean, NJ. I was hired to do game room, but was eventually taken off that and put on the food line. Even wore the Bugs Bunny suit one day but made the cardinal mistake of making him talk. (I did the damned voice PRETTY GOOD.) Our Gadgets eventually closed down and became an independent restaurant, and even later the offices for a radio station. The mall that it was in has since been demolished and redeveloped, so the building isn't around any more."

One former waitress still had the tokens left over from the Westbury, NY location, "I too worked at a Gadgets. The one located in Westbury, NY. I was a waitress there from its opening until it had a unexpected closing in '92. I was just going through some of my old things and came across some of the arcade coins. My son was wondering where they were from and if they had any value?" 

Another waitress talks about the uniforms.  This one was the very same employee that accidentally hung up on Mel Blanc, "I worked at Gadget's in Niles, Ohio at the Eastwood Mall, from 1983 through 1984 or early 1985 I think. I have to say, the uniforms sucked LOL! Waitresses had to wear those ankle long, wrap-around skirts that had to be pinned halfway down or you showed all the kiddies your stuff when the breeze from the kitchen doors hit it!"

Cinde was another employee of Gadgets recalling the night before opening day, "I worked at the Gadgets in Towson Maryland and have very good memories of that job while I was in college. Yes the skirts were crazy and were so long you stepped on them all the time. Before the grand opening we had mock trials where the waiters and waitresses waited on each other.... booze was flowing and we could all barely walk out...boy times have changed! It was a great concept and I think the food was pretty good also. I did get sick of everyone asking when the show was going to come on! Any other past Towson Employees....managers...it was a great group of people!"

150 locations were planned to open; only about 5 known locations opened.  Problems within the company caused downsizing such as high maintenance costs, demographics, and even the video game crash of 83.  This was when ET was highly anticipated for Atari, but when it came out and was discovered to be a terrible game, it resulted in many people not buying into video games for a while.  Adults were more invested to a bar atmosphere than a cartoony one.  The concept became Gadgets Cafe, but it too would belly up.  Gadgets would end up closing for good with a report of at least one location lasting up until 1992.

Gadgets ended up being lost in time until 2010 when Jon Cooke posted a blog post about it with very little information.  No pictures, no videos, no tokens, just old articles and stories.  Renewed interest began at the Retro Pizza Zone forums.  This interest brought about pictures of the animatronics, old tokens were found, and finally....video.  Coming from the WPIX archives, a news package showed in action the Looney Tunes Revue and Sammy Sands. Then...something amazing happened at an auction in 2020....................................................................

The Looney Tunes Revue complete and intact at the auction

WE FOUND THEM!!!!!!!  The original animatronics, the stage, the backround........EVERYTHING WAS SAVED!  Granted, they need some TLC.  I doubt they'll ever perform again nor do any showtapes come with it, but here they are...the last surviving audio aniamtronics from Gadgets.  What was once just a hidden piece of Looney Tunes history was now coming to light.  There's still more work to be done and prayers to be told that perhaps someday, we'll see more footage, pictures, and promotions of Gadgets, but since the blog post 10 years ago concerning Gadgets, we found more.  Much more.  More memories, actual audio, actual video, the now known fact that such a place even existed, and even the animatronics have been found.  Perhaps the Internet really is a time machine.  A time machine that led us....to today's Cartoon Destination.

UPDATES:

More footage showed up concerning the shows.  Our first update comes to us with a package.

This location is from Towson, MD and has rare footage of the Taz animatronic.  You could also barely see Foghorn Leghorn.

More showtapes have been found too.  They get very interesting referencing historical WB Cartoon moments at times from singing The Merry Go Round Broke Down to Daffy Duck and Egghead to how the 60's were a drag for Daffy (if you read any of my posts, you'd know why).  

Briar Patch Productions on Youtube provided video footage of The Looney Tunes Revue in action both at Gadgets and on the road.  These videos showed everything in action and we see how Exploded Daffy worked.  

Finally through this video, we get photos of the Foghorn animatronic.  

There are still things missing here and there such as more showtapes, the walkaround inside the stores, and more store footage, but the pieces of the puzzle are now coming together.  This hidden piece of Looney Tunes history is now brought back to life, and I for one am excited that after 12 to 13 years of research, we now know a whole lot more about Gadgets.  It's not just a memory anymore, it's well documented Looney Tunes history.