Golden Age of Looney Tunes Laser Discs ...

you might look into DVDs made by Bosko. They released the Private Snafu films on one DVD that the Looney Tunes collection might not release. They are considered public domain, according to this website:

http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/DVDvideo/PD/

 

I think the problem with "Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips" is pretty simple. In 1989 MGM/UA released a compilation on VHS (and I think also on Laserdisc) called Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons. It included a bunch of War-themed cartoons including "Daffy The Commando," "Plane Daffy," "Herr Meets Hare," etc. but did not include "Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips." Leonard Maltin introduced the cartoons and hosted the program. A few years later, "Nips The Nips" appeared on the first volume of The Golden Age Of Looney Tunes, which was released both on VHS and Laserdisc. It was rather quietly slipped into a tape called "Bugs Bunny By Each Director," with no flags raised at all, until (so I've read) one person contacted MGM/UA to complain...so the Laserdisc set was re-released without that cartoon. (The VHS was never redone, and I don't think they did VHS versions of any of the other volumes.) I think they had gotten cold feet about including it in The Wartime Cartoons in 1989, but if it had been included there, it probably would have been more palatable to the general public.

As far as the DVDs...yes, these are absolutely essential. The cartoons have been restored from the original color separations. They are so clean you can see the specs of dust under the animation cels. The "pre-1948s" (or the "Turner Brothers cartoons," as I used to call them) have never looked this good...it's like seeing a brand new cartoon. No comparison whatsoever on the pre-1948s with any previously available versions in any format, ever. "Cliff's Notes" version of the reason why: these 300+ cartoons were sold off back in the 1950s, so a.a.p. (later United Artists, later Turner) had distribution rights and a set of film masters, but Warner Bros. still retained all the original negatives. When Warner Bros. bought Turner in 1998, all the cartoons were now back under one roof, and WB had all the original film elements, which had never been used to make prints for TV, home video, etc.

 

Those scattered points are worth hooking together... Turner was very concerned about the PC issues... dunno if it was altruistic or commerce-driven (he was broadcasting them)... but he/they did seem quick to yank titles on the heels of a complaint... over time, working lists of banned titles would evolve – no sense looking for trouble on kiddie broadcast TV in the interest of art.

Now that classic Looney Tunes are virtually nowhere to be found on broadcast TV, the business concerns shift somewhat... even if there are no advertisers looming over WHV, they still need to walk a line between two significant consumer groups: film enthusiasts who want all titles, and soccer moms casually looking for kid-vids (who might or might not complain of indiscretions).

There are reasonable (small but visible) buyer-beware disclaimers on the packages... slowly learning CYA, I guess.

Another tactic to release the controversial stuff may be to simply wait until the 8th or 9th or 10th box, when these things naturally begin to sell fewer and fewer units... the film buffs will go out of their way to get them, and the soccer-moms will probably think: 'forget it, we've already got 3 or 4 of these things', so less chance of conflict.

Maybe?

 

Just have the "banned" cartoons on the sets as easter eggs(w/ disclaimer) so the kids and soccer moms can't find them.

 

Looks like mine is one of the originals; it's on side seven.

Did they replace it with anything else or is side seven just shorter on later pressings?

 

I would remind the OP that the LD's will likely last longer than the burned media. I wouldn't sell the LD's after copying them.