Cartoon Villain David Zaslav Is Being Roasted After It Was Announced Max Will Be Removing Yet More ‘Looney Tunes’

When HBO Max bowed in 2020, it was a paradise. WarnerMedia’s contribution to the streaming game, it offered, among many other riches — DC stuff, Studio Ghibli, TCM, lots from the Criterion Collection, etc. — much from the deep Warner Bros. archives. One of the biggest attractions? Looney Tunes. Hundreds and hundreds of classic Looney Tunes. Then, two years later, Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. They got a new CEO, name of David Zaslav. By year’s end he’d deleted half of those beloved shorts from HBO Max’s coffers. Now it looks like he’s coming for the rest.

Per The Wrap, Max — the awkward name Zaslav gave the streamer earlier this year — sent out one of those press releases announcing what was coming to and leaving from the service in December. Buried in the former was “Looney Tunes,” which was vacating on December 31. Also on the chopping block are The Looney Tunes Show, the iteration from the early teens, and the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

By “Looney Tunes,” it’s likely that means what remains of the classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts that made the brand’s name from 1930 into the 1960s. Last year, what was still called HBO Max unceremoniously deleted almost all of the shorts made after 1949. That included such all-timers as Duck Amuck, What’s Opera, Doc?, For Scent-imental Reasons, and over two dozen Wile E. Coyote-Roadrunner classics. Only the latter’s debut, The Fast and the Furry-ous, remains. But not for long.

Zaslav hasn’t only had it out for classic Looney Tunes. Earlier this month the company cancelled the fully finished movie Coyote Vs. Acme, in which Wile E. Coyote finally sued the titular Amazon-like company after decades of receiving faulty products. The film is now being shopped around to other studios.

It’s a safe bet that the Warner brand is as famous as it is because of Looney Tunes. They’re prominently displayed at the beginning of every beloved short, flying at the viewer with that iconic musical crescendo. Since the ’30s, generations have grown up watching them. Now Zaslav has made that all the more difficult.

When news of this broke, many painted Zaslav as a cartoonish villain.

Others wondered what on earth Zaslav had against Looney Tunes.

Others wondered how Zaslav and team still have jobs.

Whatever the case, this move further traumatizes generations.

Unless Zaslav has one of his unpredictable changes of heart, Max subscribers have till December 31 to watch classic Looney Tunes. The one where Bugs Bunny tortures an opera singer is a good ‘un. You could also watch Zaslav get booed by college students again.

(Via The Wrap)