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Fresh Airedale is a 1945 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.

Title[]

The title is a play on "fresh air," "airedale" being a dog breed.

Plot[]

In his master's eyes, "good old Shep" is the perfect dog, but the cat knows he's really a two-faced mutt who can be bought off with a bone by a burglar, and then take credit for it when the cat chases the crook off. But then Shep becomes obsessed with a newspaper story proclaiming a Scottish terrier who won a national dog show the nation's "No. 1 Dog." He wakes up and travels a long distance to the hero's house, with the cat right behind him. Before Shep can attack the terrier, the cat pulls out a giant club and knocks him into the water. The terrier rescues Shep, who quickly scoops the terrier up in his mouth, claiming that he drowned. Shep is celebrated, much to the dismay of the cat. The cat bangs against a statue of Justice, whose scales fall off and land on his head.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

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  • President Roosevelt died at the time the cartoon was made, so emergency revisions were made to make Shep look less like Roosevelt's dog Fala and change Shep going to Washington, D.C. to get his revenge on the dog to going to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The original story of Shep kidnapping the President's dog was rewritten as Shep trying to kill a Scottish terrier that was recently declared the winner of a national dog show.[2]
  • Two lines of dialogue were removed. However, it's unknown when those two lines were deleted (either before its original theatrical release or its Blue Ribbon reissue as the cartoon was originally released when World War II had ended). While the televised version (specifically, the versions shown on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and 1990s TBS and TNT) kept in the two lines listed below, most modern versions on home media and streaming delete those lines to keep the short from being outdated:
    • When Shep's master places his steak for dinner, he says it was "140 points to get that roast, but it was worth it." The "points" refer to food rationing points from World War II back when the cartoon was created.
    • As Shep's owner leaves for his job (before Shep assists a burglar in robbing the house), he says goodbye to him "I have to build some battleships for Uncle Sammy."

Notes[]

  • When this cartoon was sold to a.a.p. for television distribution, both Blue Ribbon reissue print soundtracks of this cartoon containing with and without the wartime references were included in the package of pre-1948 Looney Tunes shorts and have been stored separately in the vaults of a.a.p. and its successor companies, hence explaining how these two additional lines of dialogue could've possibly turned up in the cartoon's Turner "dubbed version".
    • In the Turner "dubbed version" print on current TV airings (including Cartoon Network and Boomerang) there are two additional lines of dialogue from Shep's master that do not appear in either the older a.a.p. prints or the restored DVD print:[3][4][5];
    • Foreign language dubs of this cartoon have included those aforementioned additional two lines of dialogue as mentioned above when airing this cartoon as a as Turner "dubbed version" [6]
  • The a.a.p. print on LaserDisc and pre-1995 TV airings appears to have very poor and faded colors with extremely subpar color corrections (perhaps worse than other a.a.p. prints, with a color palette that looks very worn-out and decaying) due to the print being sourced from a 16mm "dupe" negative which was in a very poor condition, considering that a.a.p. and its successor companies never had access to the original negatives of the pre-1948 cartoons which were stored in the WB vaults at the time[7]. Like its future restored DVD print, the a.a.p. print of this cartoon does not have any additional WWII-related dialogue as heard in the cartoon's Turner "dubbed version" (see the previous note above for more details).
  • This cartoon was shown in theatres with Pride of the Marines during its original release and Big Jim McLain in its reissue alongside "A Bird in a Guilty Cage".
  • According to the production number, this cartoon was produced in the Looney Tunes series but released in the Merrie Melodies series.
  • Vitaphone release number: 1362[8]

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References[]



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