Behind the Tunes: Southern Pride Chicken

"Behind the Tunes: Southern Pride Chicken" is one of the many mini-documentaries created for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1, this time focusing on Foghorn Leghorn. I think that I may have heard previously that his voice and personality were based on Sen. Cleghorn from George Burns's radio show, but this short lays it all out. I had certainly never known that Henery Hawk was the original chicken star until Foggy debuted and stole the show.

So, this should mainly be of interest to people who have never viewed a single Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies cartoon. Still, even you have, then it's nonetheless an eye-opening look at animation's most famous Gallus domesticus (I don't know whether that's the genus or family or what, but chickens are members of it).

This short three minute featurette, which can be found as an extra on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1. It's nothing more than a basic primer about Foghorn Leghorn , I'm thinking, with an eye geared for newbies to the classical Looney Tunes. It details the various standout cartoons that he stared in. This is really REALLY basic stuff (the same can be said for pretty much all the other Behind the Toons feauterettes that are on Volume 1, fortunately the Behind the Tune features would get so much better starting with the ones found on volume 2).

My Grade: C-

Foghorn Leghorn literally came out of the barnyard, but the star of that barnyard was not the rooster but a character called, "Henry Hawk."

It's after awhile when, describing Foghorn, another historian notes "this overbearing rooster" started to become a recognizable character. From there, his star began to rise and "Henry" began to fade from the scene.

Joe Dante, director of the film "Looney Tunes: Back In Action," notes that Foghorn's voice and name were based on parody of a radio character called "Senator Claghorn."

Other than that, there's not much in this little feature included in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume One DVD.