David Bianculli

speaker

5,104 appearances 121 recordings 1 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 3d ago

David Bianculli’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 63 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 9.

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Fresh Air · Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones / Remembering singer Cassandra Wilson · 18 Sep 2026 podcast

every week, wherever you get your podcasts. voice-verified

This is Fresh Air. voice-verified

I'm TV critic David Bianculli. voice-verified

At this point, the Looney Tunes cartoon franchise has been around for almost a century. voice-verified

Warner Brothers launched the first cartoon under that name in 1930 and spent the next several decades supplying cinemas and then television with animated shorts that delighted adults as well as kids. voice-verified

The animators, who over the years included Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Fritz Freeling, and Chuck Jones, were brilliantly funny. voice-verified

So was Mel Blanc, who provided the voices for almost all of the characters, from Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to Elmer Fudd and Pepe Le Pew. voice-verified

Composer Carl Stalling supplied the memorable music for many episodes, and the combined canon included such 1950s classics as The Rabbit of Seville and What's Opera, Doc?, both of which were directed by Jones, with music by Stalling and voices by Blank. voice-verified

These cartoons and characters were widely adored by several generations, including mine. voice-verified

A streak of anarchy and a lot of violence ran through most of them. voice-verified

But, as comedian Dustin Nickerson observed recently after trying to introduce these classic cartoons to his young daughter, they haven't necessarily aged well. voice-verified

More than a few characters have speech impediments, he notes, and lots of them exhibit very aggressive behavior. voice-verified

The Looney Tunes franchise also got little respect from Warner Brothers itself. voice-verified

A few years ago, the studio, under new corporate management, shelved a completed movie, Coyote vs. Acme, before its release as a financial write-off. voice-verified

The film comedy was based on a 1990 New Yorker article by Ian Frazier, who imagined a lawsuit filed by lawyers representing one of the familiar Looney Tunes cartoon characters, Wile E. Coyote. voice-verified

Said Coyote, of course, is the persistent but hapless predator who was in constant futile pursuit of his fleet-footed quarry, the Roadrunner. voice-verified

The Coyote never succeeded in his efforts, despite devising endless schemes employing rocket skates, spring-powered shoes, and other devices purchased from the Acme Company. voice-verified

As his lawyers alleged in that New Yorker parody piece, quote, voice-verified

Unquote. voice-verified

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