# Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 13, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095 "2004-03-13T18:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/1 "2004-03-13T18:37:15Z")
Dear Cecil, In your [excellent column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_006.html) on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, you note that: > [@](#): > > (4) Leon Schlesinger retired in 1944 and Warner Brothers began doing cartoon production in-house, after which time (and probably long before which time) there was no reason to maintain any distinction between Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The two separate series titles persisted because, you know, there’d always been two separate series titles, and they had different theme music, and why rock the boat? However, there are numerous examples of the opposite theme songs being used in each series. The original Looney Tunes theme _The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down_ by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin can be heard on such Merrie Melodies as _Putty Tat Trouble_, _The Ducksters_, _Fast and Furry-ous_ and _Canned Feud_, for example. The Merrie Melodies theme, _Merrily We Roll Along_ by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor can be heard on Looney Tunes as well. _For Scent-imental Reasons_ is an example. Further trivia: The original Looney Tunes, Bosko and Honey, starred for a brief time in MGM’s _Happy Harmonies_ series. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/2 "2004-03-19T23:15:40Z")
I am _shocked_ and _dismayed_ that not a single Doper, nor **His Majestic Perfectitude** himself, finds the obscure details of cartoonular musicology to be as fascinating and worthy of nitpickery as I. ☹ Fie on you, scoundrels and dilettantes! ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/3 "2004-03-20T00:46:28Z")
We were just awed into speechlessness by your display of knowledge, and thus unable to respond. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/4 "2004-03-21T06:59:01Z")
Scoundrels? Perhaps. Perhaps even likely. For dilettantes, you may need a mirror. (You know the specific episodes where closing credit music is played? Even the word dilettante does not do you justice.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/5 "2004-03-21T20:43:08Z")
Just to show how truly ignorant I was, I was under the impression that every one of those Warner Brothers cartoons started with “Merrily we Roll Along” and ended with “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down”. But in my defense, I did know the words to the latter even before I read Cecil’s column. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/6 "2004-03-22T05:12:53Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > For dilettantes, you may need a mirror. (You know the specific episodes where closing credit music is played? Even the word dilettante does not do you justice.) Actually I was referring to the _opening_ credit music. And I’m not so much of a loser that I knew it offhand; I meticulously searched through my various Looney Tunes DVDs for the exceptions that I knew were there. I swear. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies/234095/7 "2004-03-22T14:49:24Z")
Bosko? Honey? I thought I knew my LT pretty well, but I am obviously in the presence of masters. This is all the more reason I need the LT collection DVD set. 🆒 RR