Speedy's post-1964 cartoons

[Brainatra]

While watching the Looney Tunes Golden Collection vol. 4 Speedy Gonzales disc, I couldn't help but wonder: why did Speedy become the post-1964 LT/MM shorts' big star? Yes, knew he was reasonably popular, but didn't think he was *that* popular... vs., say, using Porky or Sylvester or a bigger-name star like that (gather they didn't want to subject Bugs to the post-64 shorts treatment :-) ).

And why *Daffy* as his costar/villain? To keep at least one big name character around? Why not Sylvester (who'd make more sense)?

[Fifi Fanatic]

The way I've heard it.... Most of the theaters that were still even running cartoons at this point were in the Southwest. So that's why they focused on Southwestern characters (Speedy, Road-Runner & Wile E.). That may or may not be true, but I guess it sounds reasonable. And you are correct that they did not want to subject Bugs Bunny to these cartoons....

But why Daffy became Speedy's main antagonist? I have absolutely no idea....

[Uncle_Lina]

They probably chose Speedy Gonzales because they were under a lower budget and Speedy Gonzales and Road Runner cartoons were cheapest to make. Daffy was probably in there either to keep his popularity or because he was easy to animate.

[J. B. Warner]

I've heard some people say that the reason Daffy became Speedy's nemesis in the 1960s was because "The Daffy Duck Show" was on TV at that time, and in order to create more Daffy shorts for the show, they put him in as many of the new theatrical cartoons as they could. Evidently, most of the Daffy/Speedy cartoons appeared on TV just weeks after their theatrical releases.

Same goes for the number of Road Runner cartoons from this period. "The Road Runner Show" had replaced "The Bugs Bunny Show" shortly before the shutdown and reopening, and since there weren't a huge number of Chuck Jones-directed Road Runner cartoons, they needed more for television and had Robert McKimson and Rudy Larriva crank out new ones.

[Brainatra]

I've heard some people say that the reason Daffy became Speedy's nemesis in the 1960s was because "The Daffy Duck Show" was on TV at that time, and in order to create more Daffy shorts for the show, they put him in as many of the new theatrical cartoons as they could. Evidently, most of the Daffy/Speedy cartoons appeared on TV just weeks after their theatrical releases.

Same goes for the number of Road Runner cartoons from this period. "The Road Runner Show" had replaced "The Bugs Bunny Show" shortly before the shutdown and reopening, and since there weren't a huge number of Chuck Jones-directed Road Runner cartoons, they needed more for television and had Robert McKimson and Rudy Larriva crank out new ones.

I dunno... this page (http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/rrshow/) says "The Road Runner Show" debuted in the same year the last theatrical Road Runner short was made. However, "The Daffy Duck Show" didn't debut until 1978 (http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/others.html), well after the end of the Daffy-Speedy series of shorts.

-B.

[J. B. Warner]

I dunno... this page (http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/rrshow/) says "The Road Runner Show" debuted in the same year the last theatrical Road Runner short was made. However, "The Daffy Duck Show" didn't debut until 1978 (http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/tv/others.html), well after the end of the Daffy-Speedy series of shorts.

-B.

Like I said, it was only what I'd heard from other people. I probably ought to do more research before posting stuff like that, though.

Personally, I suspect that Daffy was made Speedy's nemesis because of his recognizability. Sylvester was popular, yes, but he was more well known for the Tweety series. My guess is that Warner Bros. wanted to keep at least one of their really big stars, and Daffy was the only one who could work as an antagonist.