Another “what if Dark Age Looney Tunes had more character freedom”, this time happening in the DFE years. In this timeline, while their choice of what they could use as headlining characters in the shorts (NOT who could appear entirely, just who could technically be the star) was still limited, they had a wider palette to choose from. The “primary stars” included Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester, Tweety, Road Runner, Porky Pig, and Speedy Gonzales. At least one of these characters had to be included in the cartoon. The secondary character palette was wider, and also included Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd (though due to Arthur Q. Bryant’s death, this was rarely focused upon), Sylvester Jr., Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, Wile E. Coyote, Petunia Pig, and the theatrical debut of Honey Bunny- though anyone with at least five theatrical cartoon appearances could also become a co-star. Once again, more oddball pairings are prioritized, and certain characters are only allowed to star if they were in one of these oddball pairings. Eventually, this would resort in six “subseries” of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies being formed:
- Bugs, Daffy, and Porky - A cross between the Bugs/Daffy pairing and the Daffy/Porky pairing. Sometimes used as a Three Stooges style trio, but they were more often used as a Trojan horse similar to how Bob Clampett used Porky in the early 40s- one of the characters (often Porky, sometimes Bugs, NEVER Daffy) would appear at the beginning and end of the short, then sort of fade out, letting either the Bugs/Daffy or Daffy/Porky pairings take the lead.
- Sylvester and Son - A continuation of the Sylvester and Sylvester Jr. cartoons, though always alongside ANOTHER character. This was another Trojan horse- while Jr. would not fade into the background like Porky or Bugs, his inclusion was otherwise an excuse to continue making Sylvester and Tweety shorts. Sometimes Speedy would be Sylvester’s adversary instead, though that was less common due to the next subseries.
- Speedy and Yosemite Sam - Inspired by Pancho’s Hideaway and its Yosemite Sam knockoff Pancho Vanilla, the real villainous cowboy would become Speedy’s new archnemesis.
- Road Runner - The shorts that were safe from the oddball pairing mandate. These are unfortunately identical to the Larriva Eleven, except there’s less of them (with other cartoons filling Format Films’ schedule, as well as the WB cartoon schedule as a whole)
- Honey Bunny - As a debuting character, she also exempt from the oddball pairing rule, as any pairing with her would be an oddball one. She would take on Bugs’ previous zanier personality.
- Other - This was an experimental subseries, with different character pairings outside the previous subseries. Several of these were based on existing though rare pairings, like Porky/Sylvester, Daffy/Foghorn, Daffy/Yosemite Sam, and Pepe confusing Sylvester for a lady skunk (previously played off as an ending gag in a Sylvester/Tweety cartoon). A few “regular” Bugs cartoons were made with some of his lesser known enemies, like Wile E. Coyote (in “Super Genius” persona), the Tasmanian Devil, the then-unnamed Marvin the Martian, and Witch Hazel (who had only had four cartoons prior to DFE, but was included in a short from one of the other subseries, passing her into the recurring character list). Other cartoons included new pairings. Some were thought out to be semi-fitting- such as Speedy Gonzales facing off against both cat and fellow foreigner in Penelope Pussycat in the cartoon Around the World in 8.0 Seconds, or him racing the Road Runner in The Wild Chase. Others are more confusing- the Daffy/Goofy Gophers vehicle Tease for Two still happens, as well as Daffy/Speedy pilot It’s Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House (though thankfully there aren’t any more Daffy/Speedy shorts). Some of these shorts focused on the characters love lives- Bugs/Honey, Porky/Petunia, and even Sylvester/Penelope. And of course there were Trojan horses, with a random character appearing at the beginning and end of an otherwise typical pairing- such as Bugs Bunny narrating a Twilight Zone parody with Daffy and Porky as the stars. These cartoons could also function as cheater clip shows (although if Mucho Locos is any indication, they’re ones with redone animation), such as Granny’s Fairy Tales, where Granny reads fairy tales that lead into clips of shorts like Beanstalk Bunny, Goldimouse and the Three Cats, and Three Little Bops. All in all, a very eclectic mix, and a change of pace from the usual grind.
In the Seven Arts era, these continue, though new characters like Cool Cat are mandated to debut in the “other” subseries and then spin off into their own series, and the solo Road Runner series had to end (which they got around by adding the Birdwatcher). Merlin the Magic Mouse becomes an adversary for Sylvester while Second Banana becomes a friend of Jr., Bunny and Claude and the Feudin’ Mountain Boys debut as foes for Bugs to outwit, etc. This continued up until the end of the series in 1969.