The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special is an animated television special that was broadcast on CBS October 26, 1980. Presented as an Alfred Hitchcock-style whodunit, the plot is modeled after those of "North by Northwest" and "The Fugitive". Like most Looney Tunes specials of the time, this program consists of clips from classic cartoons with some new original animation holding them together. A criminal known as the Tall, Dark Stranger robs a bank, and Inspector Elmer Fudd mistakenly arrests Bugs Bunny for the crime. Escaping from jail, Bugs sets out to prove his innocence while evading
The Bugs Bunny Show combined re-edited bridging sequences from both shows to link the seven cartoons featured in each episode. The bridging sequences would be edited further in later versions of the "Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour". The verse in the "This Is It" theme song "The night of nights" was retained, despite the fact the show was no longer broadcast in prime time. In 1971, "The Road Runner Show" moved to ABC, and a reconstituted half-hour "Bugs Bunny Show" aired on CBS, featuring re-edited versions of the bridging sequences and a different grouping of cartoons. In 1973, "The Bugs Bunny Show" returned to ABC