Bugs Bunny that another proposed name for the character was "Happy Rabbit." In the actual cartoons and publicity, however, the name "Happy" only seems to have been used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In "Hare-um Scare-um", a newspaper headline reads, "Happy Hardaway." Animation historian David Gerstein disputes that "Happy Rabbit" was ever used as an official name, believing that the only usage of the term was from Mel Blanc himself in humorous and fanciful tales he told about the character's development in the 1970s and 1980s; the name "Bugs Bunny" was used as early as August 1939, in the Motion Picture Herald,
The Bugs Bunny Show length changed regularly over the years, as did the network: both ABC and CBS broadcast versions of "The Bugs Bunny Show". In 2000, the series, by then known as "The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show", was canceled. Reruns of "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" were aired on the Canadian channels Teletoon and Teletoon's sister channel, Teletoon Retro. The original "Bugs Bunny Show" debuted on ABC prime time on October 11, 1960, airing on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM EST, under the sponsorship of General Foods (Post cereals, Tang, etc.). Newly produced linking segments were done for each episode by the