Bars and Stripes Forever

Bars and Stripes Forever
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Airdate:	8 April 1939
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	5036
Production Number:	8835
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc (uncredited) Danny Webb (uncredited)
Director:	Ben Hardaway Cal Dalton
Written By:	Jack Miller
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Rod Scribner Gil Turner (uncredited) Herman Cohen (uncredited)
Background Artist:	Art Loomer (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

• Cropped screenshot of 2021 restoration

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Bars and Stripes Forever is a 1939 Merrie Melodies short directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton.

Title

The title is a play on the song "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

Plot

Anthropomorphic dog prisoners resort to all means possible to attempt a prison breakout. When the dogs make a break for it, the canine cops are on their heels. The prisoners are really in the doghouse with the warden when they attempt to escape from "Alcarazz," where "stone walls do not a prison make... but they sure help!"

Caricatures

• Hugh Herbert
• Jerry Colonna

Availability

(1993) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4, Side 8

(2010) DVD
Invisible Stripes (1995 Turner dubbed version)

Streaming

Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE (2021 - 2023) (restored)

Notes

• In 1956, a.a.p. hacked off the original card, resulting in early TV airings of the cartoon lacking the WB shield; the LaserDisc release replaced the hacked a.a.p. opening with the opening Color Rings from "Gold Rush Daze". The 1939 opening rings are from another source due to the un-matching color correction of the 1939 opening rings and the closing rings, as well as the blanked-out MCMXXXVIII Roman numerals in the copyright notice. The original opening and production code were restored for the Turner "dubbed" version. However, as with most Turner "dubbed" prints, the ending card was replaced in return.
• The short entered the public domain in 1968 after United Artists (who acquired the a.a.p. library containing pre-August 1948 titles in 1958) did not renew the original copyright.
• MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of this short on Toon in with Me, with the original opening and ending cards. Three days later, a version of this restoration without the MeTV logo was uploaded to YouTube.
  • This restoration was later added onto Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE.

Gallery

Title card (low quality)

Title card (1995 Turner dubbed version)

Title card (restored, from MeTV airing)

Title card (restored)