How Old-Time Radio Wrote Looney Tunes' Running Gags (Part 2)

Bugs Bunny's hallway phone call feels like pure Looney Tunes. The routine was on network radio first. The cartoons are how most of us still hear it. Part 2 of How Radio Wrote Looney Tunes picks up the promise from Part 1. Who was on the other end of that call, and which other Fibber McGee, Red Skelton and Fred Allen bits were inside jokes for a 1940s audience before Saturday morning made them look like Warner Bros. originals. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Introduction: Bugs Bunny's Phone Call Mystery 01:04 - "Is That You, Myrt?" from Fibber McGee and Molly 02:48 - "'Tain't Funny, McGee" in Looney Tunes 04:21 - Teenie's Catchphrases: "All That Stuff Like That There" and "I Betcha" 05:19 - Characters Modeled After Teenie 05:55 - Red Skelton: "Let's Not Get Nosy," Then Clem Kadiddlehopper 07:55 - Mrs. Nussbaum and Allen's Alley 09:48 - Why Looney Tunes Inherited Radio's Credit 10:25 - Teaser: Mel Blanc's Radio Career in Part Three RADIO SOURCES Fibber McGee and Molly (NBC Red Network / Don Quinn, head writer) • "Beware of Pickpockets on the Bus" (March 9, 1936) • "Carnival High Diver" (June 8, 1936) • "Captain of the Ship" (August 3, 1936) • "At the Racetrack" (September 28, 1936) • "McGee Shops for Clothes" (October 5, 1936) • "Working Out in the Gym" (January 25, 1937) • "Dinner Is Not Served / Fibber Cooks Dinner for the Club" (December 6, 1937) • "The McGee Matrimonial Agency" (December 13, 1937) • "Cleaning Hall Closet" (March 5, 1940) — archival source for Teenie's "and all stuff like that there, I betcha" • "Election Day / Calling Myrt" (November 5, 1940) • "Spring Festival Parade" (April 14, 1942) • "Fibber Steals a Car" (May 18, 1943) The Red Skelton Show / The Raleigh Cigarette Program (NBC, 1941–1949) • Junior, the Mean Widdle Kid (written by Edna Stillwell) • Clem Kadiddlehopper The Fred Allen Show / Town Hall Tonight (NBC) • Allen's Alley — Minerva Pious as Mrs. Pansy Nussbaum These are the archival receipts behind the bits, not a claim that every episode plays in full. A lot of the original broadcasts are on the Internet Archive. They got obscure. The cartoons got the repetition. FEATURED CARTOONS Named in this cut: • I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937, Tex Avery) • Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938, Tex Avery) • Porky at the Crocadero (1938, Frank Tashlin) • The Sneezing Weasel (1938, Tex Avery) • Porky's Hotel (1939, Bob Clampett) • Little Blabbermouse (1940, Friz Freleng) • Holiday Highlights (1940, Tex Avery) • We, the Animals - Squeak! (1941, Bob Clampett) • The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942, Friz Freleng) • The Daffy Duckaroo (1942, Norm McCabe) • Ding Dog Daddy (1942, Friz Freleng) • Gopher Goofy (1942, Norman McCabe) • Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942, Bob Clampett) • Daffy – The Commando (1943, Friz Freleng) • The Unbearable Bear (1943, Chuck Jones) • Brother Brat (1944, Frank Tashlin) • Buckaroo Bugs (1944, Bob Clampett) • The Bashful Buzzard (1945, Bob Clampett) • Hare Splitter (1948, Friz Freleng) • I've Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933, Tom Palmer) • The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (1937, Frank Tashlin) • Scalp Trouble (1939, Bob Clampett) • To Duck.... or Not to Duck (1943, Chuck Jones) • Daffy Duck Slept Here (1948, Robert McKimson) • Curtain Razor (1949, Friz Freleng) • The Million Hare (1963, Robert McKimson) SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press, 1998. Maltin, Leonard. The Great American Broadcast. Crown, 1997. Beck, Jerry and Will Friedwald. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co., 1989. Blanc, Mel and Philip Bashe. That's Not All Folks!. Warner Books, 1988. National Broadcasting Company Master Sound and Script Archive, Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Old Time Radio Researchers Group / Internet Archive historical audio collection. Part 3 is Mel Blanc's own network radio career, and what he carried back into the cartoons. More animation history every week. Membership and Patreon are there if you want to support the archive. No pressure. #LooneyTunes #AnimationHistory #MelBlanc #ClassicCartoons #OldTimeRadio