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,
Bugs Bunny's Easter Special Bugs Bunny's Easter Special Bugs Bunny's Easter Special (also known as "The Bugs Bunny Easter Special" and "Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies") is a "Looney Tunes" television special featuring a number of Warner Bros. cartoons. It originally debuted on the CBS network on April 7, 1977. The Easter bunny is ill, Granny needs to find a replacement for him and suggests Bugs Bunny. When she reaches the Warner Bros. lot, she finds to her disappointment that Bugs is tied up in filming "Knighty Knight Bugs" but offers to work out a solution after filming wraps up. Meanwhile, Daffy Duck, partially overhearing