Another year consisting of Daffy and Speedy and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons, produced by DePatie-Freleng (and sometimes Format Films). Nothing more, nothing less.

The Astroduck
Directed by Robert McKimson
For the summer, Daffy rents a house that's a little run down but most importantly cheap. But it proves to be worse than he expected – it's the House of Gonzales where Speedy's family has lived for generations. Daffy tries various ways (mostly related to explosives) to get rid of Speedy, but nothing works out. Rather ordinary – some fun gags here, but a lot of it has been done in earlier and better cartoons. Great futuristic effects in the opening sequence... but the title is weird, seeming completely unrelated at first and eventually proving to be a spoiler for the cartoon's last joke!
7.5

Shot and Bothered
Directed by Rudy Larriva
Wile E. Coyote uses suction cups, a dynamite stick tied to a rope and helium gas in his attempts to catch the Road Runner. This isn't one of my favorite Larriva Road Runners despite being decently entertaining – out of the various gags, only the one with the coyote using helium gas to fly and drop a bomb is particularly memorable. The animation is hit and miss – there's a very nice shot of the Road Runner running towards the screen (probably the best we've had in the Larriva cartoons), but also an amateurish error where a rock that's supposed to crush the coyote appears to land next to him (not to mention the obligatory reused shots)!
7.5

Out and Out Rout
Directed by Rudy Larriva
The Road Runner is again chased by Wile E. Coyote, who uses birds (a Road to Andalay-esque hooded falcon, as well as doves tied to his feet) and a car among other things. The start of the cartoon is an unusual one, with not one but two schemes involving birds – it would have been interesting to see a short where all of Wile E.'s schemes somehow featured birds (besides the one being chased, of course)! Besides this, it's quite average for the time with some enjoyable gags but nothing that would be considered an undeniable series classic.
8

Mucho Locos
Directed by Robert McKimson
A poor little mouse called José is in the dump, staring at a broken TV and imagining there's a show on. Speedy comes to cheer him up, also imagining cartoons on the TV set, each of them showing either how smart mice are or how stupid ducks are. The last of WB's cheater cartoons, using old cartoons with either Speedy or Daffy for the imaginary TV sequences, though this uses the "Trip for Tat" approach of retracing and reshooting the old animation over new backgrounds – probably a sensible decision, as it gives the cartoon a more uniform look. This still feels quite lazy, but by cheater cartoon standards, I think the new sequences are quite entertaining, especially the surprise ending... Thanks to retraced footage from "Robin Hood Daffy", this cartoon is also the last to feature Porky Pig, WB's first big cartoon star. "Corn on the Cop" would have been a better sendoff for him, to be honest.
7.5

The Solid Tin Coyote
Directed by Rudy Larriva
After a couple more failed attempts to catch the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote ends up in the dump and gets the idea to build a robot coyote. He uses it to catch his prey, but things don't prove as easy as he expected... Out of the Larriva entries, this is the most interesting one – most of the gags are focused on the robot. The various scenes are fun! There's some amusing stylized animation when the coyote gets zapped, and the Road Runner is closer to meeting his fate than ever before or after. Once again, Jones would obviously have got even more out of this concept, but it's a good one that I'm surprised wasn't used before and works well in this form too!
9

Mexican Mousepiece
Directed by Robert McKimson
Daffy decides to help starving cats overseas by sending them a care package full of mice. He lures mice into a box, but they get Speedy to help them and outwit Daffy. Strange concept for a cartoon with a charitable Daffy, but the execution is a lot more ordinary. The usual gags but nothing especially memorable... and for some reason Daffy appears to have forgotten he can fly (and there's no jokey reference to this like in McKimson's earlier "The Million Hare").
7.5

Clippety Clobbered
Directed by Rudy Larriva
Wile E. Coyote orders a chemistry set to help him catch the Road Runner. He tries tricks such as painting himself invisible and a chemical that makes him bouncy, but nothing seems to work. Larriva's last Road Runner is another fascinating one with the chemistry theme. These Road Runner cartoons focusing on a singular theme were a nice change to the formula, and I'd have liked to see more of them (there's one left, by another director). The Road Runner actively harming the coyote is a bit controversial (though even Jones did that occasionally in his cartoons), but I find him dropping an invisible boulder on the fallen coyote funny, maybe in part because it's so unexpected. The animation is good by these cartoons' standards, the pacing is fine, and I like the jazzy arrangement of Lava's Road Runner theme heard at the start!
8.5

Daffy Rents
Directed by Robert McKimson
A lot of cats have ended up in a rest home after being driven mad by Speedy. When the mouse shows up there, Dr. Ben Crazy hires Daffy to get rid of him. Daffy shows up with his mouse-catching robot Herman and is told he can name the price if he succeeds, but things prove difficult. This feels like an attempt to return to the glory days – we hear Daffy using his old catchphrase "You're despicable", there are some cultural references, even a couple of new non-mouse characters in prominent roles... In spite of these, the cartoon is a fairly average one (and rather predictable at times), though Herman has a lot of personality for a robot! The scenes with him are the best part of the cartoon – I wish he had been utilized more here.
7.5

A-Haunting We Will Go
Directed by Robert McKimson
Daffy's nephew is trick-or-treating as a witch when he gets scared by Witch Hazel. His uncle tries to tell him there are no witches and goes to visit Hazel to prove she's just a normal old lady. Suddenly, Speedy pops out of his mouse hole and Hazel decides to have a vacation, transforming the mouse into a witch and having him take her place. What a strange cartoon! Seeing Witch Hazel again is fun, but having Speedy poorly impersonate her is even more comedic. I kind of wonder if the crew was sick of using Speedy in the Daffy cartoons, and this was their way to avoid using him a lot here... There's the usual animation reuse (Daffy's nephew's witch costume is really Bugs from "Broom-Stick Bunny", Daffy gets transformed into the strange creature from "Duck Amuck"...), but also enough weird stuff here to keep it entertaining. Witch Hazel's only cartoon without Bugs, and also her last appearance.
8

Snow Excuse
Directed by Robert McKimson
It's winter and Speedy is freezing in his cottage. He goes to ask his neighbor for some firewood, but Daffy doesn't want to give any. But the duck's attempts to prevent the mouse from snatching some backfire. More entertaining than the average Daffy and Speedy cartoon with a more trickster-like portrayal of Speedy (I was reminded a little of the earlier Tweety at times).
8

A Squeak in the Deep
Directed by Robert McKimson
Daffy sees an ad for a boat race to Hawaii where the winner will get 6000 pesos. But Speedy is also interested – 6000 pesos would buy a lot of cheese! The two both enter, with Speedy sailing in a bathtub. Daffy tries to sabotage him after he proves too fast, but the mouse keeps finding ways to stay in the race. Surprisingly, the Daffy and Speedy shorts seem to be improving a little – maybe animation veteran Sid Marcus returning to write this one played a part, with this feeling more like a classic Looney Tune despite the pacing being a bit slow at times. Nothing revolutionary, but watching the duo's antics in this one (Daffy sabotaging Speedy in various ways, then the mouse gaining the upper hand) is certainly fun.
8

Feather Finger
Directed by Robert McKimson
Daffy is begging for money when he finds out Mayor Phur E. Katt is looking for a gunslinger, paying 15 dollars a week. As "Feather Finger", Daffy gets the task of catching Speedy Gonzales who keeps sneaking to Hangtree, Texas over the Mexican border. An interesting concept with more typical gags, though there are some clever parts in the mix, as well as more dialogue calling back to the pre-1964 days. The ending is an underwhelming one, with the mayor coming off as extremely unlikable.
7.5

Swing Ding Amigo
Directed by Robert McKimson
Speedy's A-Go-Go Club is a big hit with all the mice. But Daffy is living upstairs and trying to sleep, prevented from doing so by the loud music. He tries his best to ruin things for the mice. My favorite of the Daffy and Speedy cartoons so far! Besides the swinging soundtrack, this has some of the most enjoyable gags in the series, a couple of which I didn't expect, including an extended one involving a hand grenade. A nice take on the old idea of a character trying to sleep – and while the ending may not feature big surprises, it's still more satisfactory than some others from this time.
8.5

Sugar and Spies
Directed by Robert McKimson
Wile E. Coyote uses a spy kit in his attempts to catch the Road Runner. His attempts involve sleeping gas, a spy car and remote-controlled missiles among other things. Along with McKimson's previous Road Runner cartoon, a definite highlight of the DePatie-Freleng era – McKimson takes Larriva's idea of having the gags center around one theme, but with better animation and pacing. The coyote has his usual appeal, and the Road Runner gets one of his most cunning portrayals. Composer Walter Greene, responsible for the last three shorts and the remaining DePatie-Freleng entries, does a great job here with the music, with a recurring melody perfectly suiting the spy theme. The last classic era short featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner – there were now enough shorts with them to feature one in each episode of a TV series (more about that in a while). In this era, it wasn't a given, but I think they got the sendoff they deserved!
9.5

A Taste of Catnip
Directed by Robert McKimson
Psychiatrist Manuel Perez III tells the story of his most peculiar case. Daffy Duck came looking for help, as he had started to act like a cat, including having a desire to eat Speedy. Maybe it's in part thanks to how unusual it is, but this is another series highlight. The short actually points out how weird it is for a duck to chase a mouse, giving it an amusing explanation, and Daffy gets his most likable portrayal in a long time. Funny gags, the in-jokes we saw more in the earlier era (the psychiatrist shares his name with one of the animators)... I expected these shorts to get worse as they went on, but the latest Daffy and Speedy shorts have been some of the best. One of the cats featured in this short is Sylvester – he doesn't have a speaking role, but this brief appearance was his last in the classic era.
9

The third Looney Tunes compilation show was picked up by CBS. "The Road Runner Show" appeared four years after the failed earlier attempt to produce a TV series about Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Each episode featured three cartoons, the first featuring the titular character, the second with Sylvester and Tweety, and the third with assorted characters. Like in "The Porky Pig Show" (with which this shared the theme song writer Barbara Cameron, providing an extremely catchy theme!), a selection of new bumpers was created and shown multiple times over the show's run. These were animated at DePatie-Freleng and directed by an uncredited Robert McKimson. The shorts were also given new title cards, something that would be done in most of the later compilation shows.

The Road Runner Show
The opening and closing sequences mostly consist of clips from Jones' and Larriva's Road Runner cartoons, though there's a little new animation of the logo and the two main characters in the former. There were 15 new bumpers created for this show, each with Wile E. Coyote trying and failing to catch the Road Runner while Bill Lava's stock cues played in the background. Among other things, we saw the coyote using grenades as tennis balls, drawing a sketch of himself and the Road Runner, and the two disguised as each other. These segments were a nice addition to the show, very much in the usual Road Runner spirit despite their brevity. Thanks to the cartoon selection, the catchy theme song and especially the new bumpers, I consider this the second most appealing TV package of the WB cartoons after "The Bugs Bunny Show".
9.5

Not one of the best years for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies... I enjoyed the Daffy and Speedy cartoons more than I expected to, but they were quite average for the most part. At the end of the year their quality improved, with the stronger stories by Sid Marcus, who made a very brief return. The Road Runner cartoons fared a little better despite failing to reach the level of the Jones ones, but now that we've seen them all, we'll be stuck with nothing but Daffy and Speedy for a while.