@joshmightbe: No, the one that moves the storyline is Daffy.
I have been an avid Looney Tunes fan since childhood (27f). I own three of the golden collections and I've given every derivative of the classic cartoon series over the years at least one watch, and of course I HAD to watch "The Looney Tunes Show" when it first aired on Cartoon Network.
I am going to add a spoiler warning here, just in case.
I realized this just watching TV today, when a commercial for "The Looney Tunes Show" came on. It was prominently about Daffy, and the voice-over remarking on how much Daffy seems to steal the spotlight. He's got second billing in the credits, but first go at the laughs.
Now, of course, since Mel Blanc's death, the voices have never been the same. However, these are "reasonable facsimiles" staying true to the characters but still creating new, unique traits to the performances. And I have got to say, the show's great. It's funny, witty, antic-laden and still holding a great continuity. All those things Bugs did in his golden days? All still thing's he's done, in canon, in his youth. This was highlighted in an episode about Daffy's high school reunion. Bugs didn't go to high school because he was busy being an Olympic athlete, fighting in the War, and even being the president of Mexico (among more).
And Daffy's fate? He's as absolutely self-centered and narcissistic as Chuck Jones often showed him to be, but he's also still batshit insane, adopting personalities and weird costumes at the drop of a hat. Daffy's embraced himself as he always was, and Bugs is really keeping the rest of the world safe from him. I still love Bugs, and I love his storylines, but Daffy's antics are often driving the conflict, and Bugs is following him. When was the last time you saw Bugs do that?
Our favorite rabbit gets his share of screen time, and he's still got the charm and the calm ineffability he always had. He takes revenge when revenge is due, but he also takes a few licks for the humor of the viewer. An episode that starts with Bugs winning a Nobel prize in his spare time ends with him having destroyed his house through a series of poor home repair choices made in an effort to put up a shelf. In the end, the home repair was accomplished by Daffy's girlfriend Tina (an amazing character who I will describe later). However, this entire plotline for Bugs was spawned by a single action of Daffy's, when he refused to move a trophy that wasn't even his off a shelf in Bugs' house.
Daffy is pretty much a chaotic deity condensed into a little black duck. I'm going to quote Delirium of the Endless here: "His madness keeps him sane." Daffy's complete craziness is driven by some ridiculous combination of luck and self-absorption, and sometimes he actually comes out a hero in spite of himself. Bugs tamps him down and keeps him from causing too much destruction. This was shown in an episode where Bugs finally has enough of Daffy's lazy freeloading, and tries to put him to work. Daffy goes from pushing a muffin cart to getting posted the CEO's personal assistant on his first day (Foghorn Leghorn as a rich southern gentleman adventurer type). For mouthing off to the rooster and not being a spineless yesman, Daffy goes from nobody to CEO over the course of the plot, and- drumroll, please- completely bankrupts the company. At the end of the episode Bugs realizes that he really can't let Daffy out of his sight, and enabling Daffy's laziness causes less collateral damage.
He steals the plots of many an episode and runs with it, he generates wacky antics, and he might potentially destroy the world, but he's somehow still loveable, and I would say that Tina Russo, Daffy's Jersey-talkin' and totally badass girlfriend, contributes a lot to the betterment of Daffy. She's smart, she's got a tough mouth and she's driven and motivated. And she evens out Daffy by pulling him slightly out of the mess in his head. In one episode Daffy discovers his talent as a hairdresser when Tina enrolls in beauty school and finds it's not for her. If she and Daffy get married, he'd be the stay-at-home-mom. But before you laugh, Daffy took care of Tina's infant nephew and became a supermom in one episode, and he seems to be a little more in touch with his feminine side than even Bugs (who, yes, has cross-dressed already several times). Daffy wears his grandmother's pearls around his neck, and thinks nothing of going to the movies in a schoolgirl outfit with Bugs. I think Tina helps tap into a sweeter side of him because she's strong and authoritative (like Bugs) but also fun and caring.
Bugs "second-fiddle role" is also slyly hinted at through his girlfriend, Lola, who is indeed brought from "Spacejam" but given her own flavor of crazy. If Daffy's chaotic neutral, Lola's chaotic good. She has a good heart but she's a hurricane on her own, perhaps a little more functional and self-reliant than Daffy. But Bugs seems to like the excitement, and he does like Lola, just like he actually likes Daffy, even though they're both crazy and annoying sometimes. Bugs and Daffy have found versions of each other in girlfriends, and as weird that might seem, it's more about one character acting as the "rock" and the other being anchored by that rock. But it goes to show how Bugs relates to Daffy, and Lola. He takes a place behind, to receive and shield the blow of the unpredictable characters.
Overall, I look at this setting as what Bugs and Daffy have "retired" to after their more youthful adventures, and Daffy now has no pressures to be the star. Nor is Bugs interested in keeping up all that pretense, they're friends, and he wants a nice life. He's rich and accomplished. So Daffy finds his niche is sitcom life, and at the end of each season, it's really Daffy coming through, generating laughs in every episode, and stealing hearts in unlikely places all the time.
There hasn't been an incredible amount of self-awareness to this show, as was practically a trademark of the original cartoons. Among the characters, there are a few marked differences in the relationships as well- perhaps leaving the cartoons as mere films in the mutual cast's past- these are their "real life" selves in the universe. Elmer Fudd has not yet been featured as a character interacting with any of the mains, he's the news anchor. The Tasmanian devil is in there, but Bugs has domesticated him as a pet and named him Poochy, thinking he was a dog in his introduction episode. We've got Marvin Martian as an exchange student from Mars, and Pete Puma as sort of the village idiot.
Much of the standard cartoon physics you might recall from the classic toons still apply here, and that adds a lot of flavor to the show. Bugs puts on a wig and smock and accidentally has Speedy (who lives in a mousehole in Bugs' house and owns a successful pizza restaurant) fall in love with him as "Cathy". In another episode, Bugs loses his gloves and replaces them with a pair of black fingerless biker gloves, then becomes a biker. (Both those plots were also Daffy's fault, might I add.) In the same vein, Daffy changed his name to Professor in that episode and went on to thinking he was one, teaching a class and eventually trying to put an end to Bugs' biker ways with trust.
Porky ended the insanity by at last removing the costumes. Porky is a very sensible character throughout all the insanity, but he of course winds up on the end of being taken by Daffy's schemes and pulled into the chaos. Porky is a simple guy, normal and stuffy, and his struggles to get a girlfriend are consistently lampooned (although Petunia will be introduced at some point). Porky's moments to shine are few and far between, but he remains a good sport and a plucky character, despite his pitfalls and foibles.
Much of the time, Daffy is also a target to the rest of the neighborhood, which includes Granny, complete with Tweety and Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Witch Lezah and Gossamer, Porky, and the goofy gophers Mac and Tosh. It really all comes down to Daffy, who shakes things up often, attracting more animosity and attention, though Bugs and Yosemite Sam have kept up a good rivalry, and Daffy now gets on Witch Lezah's nerves more. Since the show doesn't break the fourth wall much, and Daffy's too self-centered, he doesn't see he's done it at last.
You did it Daffy. You're the star. I can't wait for more.
This guys show this.
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