Drawn and Quartered's Belated Christmas Spectacular -- Episode #2: The Fright Before Christmas (String Light Quartet)

Director(s): Friz Freleng

Summary: On Christmas Eve, The Tasmanian Devil escapes being cargo on a plane and lands outside of Santa Claus’ house at the North Pole, takes his clothes, and steals his sleigh. And wouldn’t you know it? His first stop is at Bugs Bunny’s house, where Bugs plays along with Taz being Santa so as not to disillusion his nephew, Clyde (who’s still a kid in 1979, despite seeing him before in 1951’s “His Hare-Raising Tale” and 1955’s “Yankee Doodle Bugs”).

Fun Facts:

• This is actually part of a late 1970s TV special called Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales, which also included “Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol” (also directed by Friz Freleng) and “Freeze Frame” (the first Chuck Jones-directed Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short since 1964’s “War and Pieces”). I remember seeing all three of these as individual shorts when channels like ABC, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network had the rights to air WB shorts (mostly they were reserved for Christmas episodes).
• This is the first (and only) time Friz Freleng directed a Bugs Bunny vs. Taz cartoon. Robert McKimson (the man behind the only five Bugs/Taz cartoons that were released during the Golden Age of Warner Bros cartoons) died in 1977 (he had a heart attack while having lunch with Friz, coincidentally. What’s worse is that Robert McKimson was told by his doctor that he had a clean bill of health and most likely live to be 100, just like his father).
• This is the first time in ten years (1969 vs. 1979) that a new Warner Bros short appeared in any form of media (in this case, television. A new, theatrical WB short wouldn’t come until 1987 with “The Duxorcist”).

The Channel(s): ABC

Part(s) Edited: You’d think any Warner Bros shorts made after the Golden Age (and some of the downhill years between 1965 and 1969) would finally be safe to air for families, but…not in this case. ABC’s version (which I remember seeing a lot in the 1990s in December) cut some of the scene of Bugs naming off everything his nephew, Clyde, wants for Christmas to remove Taz eating Christmas bulbs (and getting sick from a green one that’s “not ripe,” according to Bugs) and electrifying himself by chewing on a string of Christmas lights.

While the short itself now has a title card and the beginning and ending concentric circles tacked on, I don’t count that as a censorship cut or even an edit for syndication. This is more of a reformatting, because, as mentioned before, this was the last ten minutes of a TV special that was turned into an individual short.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): As the video explains, the only thing that grinds my gears about this is the fact that there’s a lot of scenes gone within a seven-minute time frame. Not enough to reduce the cartoon to nothing, but enough to notice, judging by the fact that Bugs’ comically long list from his nephew would include more things than what he says in the edited version.

Video Comparison: Back and more polished than ever. My goal is to make these comparison videos similar to how this YouTube series called “Cutting Edge” (which also does compare and contrast videos showing how live-action movies get censored in the United Kingdom [though there are episodes showing how the United States and Australia have censored movies]) does it:

Availability Uncut: This actually has a good run on home media, mostly as part of Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales TV special. If you want to see “The Fright Before Christmas” in that format (as well as seeing “Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol” and “Freeze Frame”), then your best bets are:

• The 1990 VHS release of Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales
• Volume 5 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (disc 4, 2007)
• The 2018 DVD release of Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales

If you want to see it as a short without “Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol” and “Freeze Frame” (with or without the opening or closing rings), then these are the physical media choices for you:

• Christmas Looney Tunes (VHS)
• Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil (VHS [standalone and as part of a double feature VHS, which includes the actual 1996 movie Space Jam], the Japanese laser disc, and DVD. The DVD version -- both the standalone and the repackaged version as part of the Stars of Space Jam Collection, volume 1 – doesn’t have the beginning or closing rings and is shown with the act three bridging sequence and end credits from Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales)
• Volume 6 of the Looney Tunes Special Bumper Collection (VHS)
• Looney Tunes Presents: Taz’s Jungle Jams (VHS)
• Christmas Collection Looney Tunes (VHS)
• Looney Tunes Platinum Collection [Blu-ray version only]  (volume 1, disc three, unrestored version)

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: No digital downloads (by which I mean Amazon Prime Video and iTunes), but it was on HBO Max (from 2020 to 2022, then returned from 2024 to 2025 when it was called “Max”) and is one of the 700 to 800 Warner Bros shorts available for free on Tubi.

‘Til next time, Stay Looney, and Be Merrie.