by Joe Owens

Created on: December 03, 2009   Last Updated: December 04, 2009

When you talk about the most memorable television characters of the past or present, I am immediately driven to the stables of Warner Brothers, and Bugs Bunny's crew. This pantheon of cartoon stars is one that made a significant mark on my childhood, providing me with many hours of rich joy. I kind of think of them as a family that carried on a great tradition of entertainment with Mel Blanc as their anchoring voice.

Of course Bugs was the star, but Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Taz, Daffy and the gang were great in their own right. Foghorn Leghorn was a perfect caricature of what a southern talking rooster might be. But for my money the classic battle between the Roadrunner and Wile. E. Coyote, super genius, was the greatest cartoon odyssey of all time. I never tired of watching poor Wile E. fail miserably chasing that scrawny speedster. The little Mexican mouse counterpart, Speedy Gonzalez picked up in the long term frustrating antics of Sylvester the Cat when Tweety Bird moved on to greener pastures.

One of my earlier favorites was Woody the Woodpecker. He had a Bugs Bunny type role, usually always coming out on the best side of every adventure. After awhile that annoying little laugh would make you want to leave the show, but overall he was quite entertaining.

There was a combination series that introduced another of my favorite characters, the Pink Panther show. Pink along with the Ant and Aardvark were great at giving us a diverse view of how characters interacted. I loved Pink's silent machinations through a series of everyday adventures where Murphy's Law was the norm. The Aardvark's arrogant perception of domination to the ant was comedic genius. The ant shared the role of Speedy, the Roadrunner and Tweety as a much smaller prey who regularly outsmarted their predator in a hilarious method.

Rocky and Bullwinkle thrilled me mostly on Sunday mornings as they battled Natasha and Boris from Pottsylvania, an obviously fake country intended to put you in the mind of some Eastern European locale. Poor simple Bullwinkle was an oversized oaf led around by the very intelligent flying rodent, Rocky the Squirrel. The duo worked hard to stay one step ahead of Natasha and Boris throughout the series.

Although they proved to be annoying in large does, the Smurfs deserve a mention here also. These little blue people made me think of the dwarfs from Snow White by the way their names sometimes mirrored their occupation or abilities. Gargamel and Azriel were the perfect

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