Looney Tunes Find a New ‘Ongoing Home’ at TCM

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I spent most of my childhood in the 1990s, and as far back as I can remember, the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s were always on TV. Characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig were everywhere, and almost all kids grew up watching them. Things have changed a lot with the rise of streaming, and those classic shorts became difficult to find unless you owned DVDs or other physical copies. Surprisingly, they even disappeared from HBO Max, Warner Bros.’ own streaming platform! Fortunately, another Warner Bros. company, Turner Classic Movies, now shows the shorts regularly on television.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, over 750 classic shorts will start airing on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) beginning February 2nd at 8pm Pacific Time, as part of a new six-year agreement. The channel will also celebrate Bugs Bunny as its “Star of the Month” with a month-long showcase of his cartoons. The first short to be shown will be Tex Avery’s A Wild Hare from 1940, widely considered the very first official Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Turner Classic Movies will be pairing 45 classic animated shorts with related feature films, a signature approach for the channel. For example, the Bugs Bunny shorts Rabbit of Seville and What’s Opera, Doc? will play before the film A Night at the Opera. Several rabbit and tortoise cartoons – Tortoise Beats Hare, Tortoise Wins by a Hare, and Rabbit Transit – will introduce Walk, Don’t Run. They’re also cleverly matching Apes of Wrath with King Kong, Buccaneer Bunny with Mutiny on the Bounty, and A Witch’s Tangled Hare with Hamlet. It’s a playful way to connect these films!

TCM will continue to be the permanent home for this beloved cartoon collection, allowing them to be properly preserved and shown alongside the classic movies they inspired,” said Charlie Tabesh, a senior vice president at TCM. “This agreement guarantees these cartoons will be enjoyed, understood, and available to viewers of all ages.

That’s simply what we’re hoping for! It’s an important piece of animation and film history, and we’re glad TCM feels it deserves continued attention.

Kyle Anderson is a Senior Editor at TopMob and the host of the weekly podcast, Laser Focus, where he dives deep into pop culture. He also writes film and TV reviews, and you can find him on Letterboxd.

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2026-01-27 00:34