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in: Merrie Melodies Shorts, Shorts, Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones,
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One Froggy Evening

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One Froggy Evening is a 1955 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.

Title[]

The title is a play on a "foggy evening".

Plot[]

A demolition worker finds Michigan J. Frog in a box in the cornerstone of a building and sees him singing. Hoping for fame and fortune, he takes the frog to see a talent agent. However, Michigan won't sing in front of the agent. He then sees a theater for rent, takes out his life savings, and has Michigan sing on stage. Michigan keeps singing until the curtain opens, to which the audience boos when Michigan won't sing in front of them. Michigan continues singing when nobody except its owner is around. As for Ernie, he is soon penniless and living on a park bench during cold winters. Michigan keeps performing for the man, and his singing is so loud it attracts the attention of a policeman. When the cop demands to know what was all the noise, Ernie points to Michigan doing it. When the frog makes a feeble croak for the policeman, the cop arrests Ernie and has him locked up in a psychiatric hospital. Sometime later, Ernie is released, but is homeless and has nothing but the singing frog in the box. When he sees that a new building is being put up, he returns Michigan to where he found him and runs off, finally free.

101 years later (in the year 2056), a demolition worker uses a laser gun to clear the cornerstone and finds Michigan J. Frog's box. Michigan leaps out and performs "Hello, My Baby." The demolition worker starts thinking to himself about big bucks, and sneaks off with the frog's box.

Musical Numbers[]

The songs performed by Michigan J. Frog are the following, in order of appearance:

  • "Hello! Ma Baby"
  • "The Michigan Rag"
  • "Come Back to Erin"
  • "I'm Just Wild About Harry"
  • "Throw Him Down, McCloskey"
  • "Won't You Come Over To My House"
  • "Largo al factotum"
  • "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone"

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • When this episode aired on ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show and on The WB's The Bugs and Daffy Show, the scene where the man tries to attract patrons to his theater to hear Michigan J. Frog sing is cut to remove the part where, after his "FREE ADMISSION" sign fails, he creates a "FREE BEER" sign and draws a crowd. The edited version makes it look like the man's "FREE ADMISSION" sign was enough to draw a crowd (surprisingly, this was not cut on Cartoon Network or Boomerang, given that both channels have edited out alcohol references; the scene is also intact on the WB Kids YouTube channel).

Notes[]

  • This short is one of the four shorts produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons to be selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry. The other shorts are "Porky in Wackyland", "Duck Amuck", and "What's Opera, Doc?". It is also the third Chuck Jones short to be selected for it.
  • This short is the first featuring Michigan J. Frog, who at the time was not named. Its popularity, including the aforementioned induction into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, led to Michigan starring in a later cartoon ("Another Froggy Evening") and being the mascot for The WB network.
    • Though Jones temporarily named him "Enrico" in the bridging sequences of The Bugs Bunny Show in the 1960s, the character was later officially given the name "Michigan J. Frog" when the character's debut cartoon "One Froggy Evening" was announced in the 1970s to be on the following week's episode of The Bugs Bunny Show. The name comes from "The Michigan Rag", a song written for the cartoon that the frog sings at one point. The middle initial was later added as a suggestion made to Chuck Jones in an interview.
  • This short was later included in Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, but the ending where the futuristic construction worker finds Michigan J. Frog and restarts the cycle of trying to exploit the frog's talents was cut, making it end when Ernie puts him back and runs off.
  • The name of the song, "The Michigan Rag", is a spoof on "The Varsity Drag", a song from the musical Good News.
  • The business located next to the Acme Theatrical Agency is Gribbroek Theatrical Shoes, named after the layout artist Robert Gribbroek.
  • The construction site of the "Tregoweth Brown 40-Story Building" is named after film editor Treg Brown.

Gallery[]

TV Title Cards[]



  1. ↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/in-his-own-words-willie-ito-on-his-animation-career/
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