Looney Tunes Wiki
Advertisement

The Dixie Fryer is a 1960 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.

Title[]

The short is named after the "Dixie Flyer", a train that traveled from Chicago to Florida from the 1890s to the mid-1960s.

Plot[]

Foghorn Leghorn is flying south for the winter, though he is not actually flying himself but hitching a ride on a basket that is being pulled by a flock of wild ducks. He smells magnolia trees and figures that he is in the south, and hops out of the basket using an umbrella as a parachute, bringing a suitcase that contains a lounging chair and a mint julep. However, two hungry chickenhawks, Pappy and Elvis, tired of eating black-eyed peas, smells Foghorn nearby. The two attempts to invite Foghorn over for dinner, but quickly realizes otherwise when the two attempt to defeather and chop Foghorn with an axe. As the chickenhawks go after the rooster, Foghorn intervenes with their plans, resulting in a back-and-forth encounter between the two.

Elvis first grabs a rifle and awaits a call for "fire" to shoot Foghorn. However, Foghorn is the one to yell fire, causing Elvis to mistakenly shoot Pappy. Pappy and Elvis then get dueling pistols to fire against Foghorn's beak. When Foghorn believes that a tornado is coming, he forces the chickenhawks in a storm cellar to lock the two in, but Foghorn gets struck by a real tornado. Afterwards, the three hide in a dynamite shack, where Foghorn escapes and gives a match to the chickenhawks. After realizing what TNT spells, the shack blows up, launching Pappy and Elvis back into their nest and inadvertently blowing Foghorn's tail feathers off. As the two chickenhawks complain about eating black-eyed peas again, Foghorn comments about getting back to enjoying his vacation, which he calls a "Southern exposure", blithely turning about to reveal his boxer shorts.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • In the syndicated Merrie Melodies show, the part where Elvis accidentally shoots Pappy in the head after Foghorn Leghorn yells, "Fire!" was replaced with a still shot of Foghorn Leghorn looking offscreen.[1]
  • In Nickelodeon's Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon, the part where Foghorn Leghorn gets his beak shot off during the duel between Pappy and Elvis was cut, along with the part near the end where Pappy pokes Elvis in the eyes after Elvis comments that the peas in the can aren't "black-eyed" peas.[1]
  • The ABC version cuts out both of the scenes that were edited in The Merrie Melodies Show and Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon.[1]

Notes[]

  • This is the second and final cartoon to feature the chicken hawks, "Pappy" and "Elvis," the first being the Bugs Bunny cartoon, "Backwoods Bunny", released a year earlier.
  • The working title was "Southern Flied Chicken".
  • MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of the short on Saturday Morning Cartoons. This restoration was later made available on iTunes, Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE.
  • Pappy's beak being dislocated after Elvis accidentally blasts him is similar to Daffy Duck suffering the same thing in the "Hunting" trilogy.
  • This cartoon was used in the 1988 opening for Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon.

Gallery[]

References[]

Foghorn Leghorn Cartoons
1946 Walky Talky Hawky
1947 Crowing Pains
1948 The Foghorn Leghorn
1949 Henhouse Henery
1950 The Leghorn Blows at MidnightA Fractured Leghorn
1951 Leghorn SwoggledLovelorn Leghorn
1952 Sock a Doodle DoThe EGGcited Rooster
1953 Plop Goes the Weasel!Of Rice and Hen
1954 Little Boy Boo
1955 Feather DustedAll Fowled Up
1956 Weasel StopThe High and the FlightyRaw! Raw! Rooster!
1957 Fox-Terror
1958 Feather BlusterWeasel While You Work
1959 A Broken Leghorn
1960 Crockett-Doodle-DoThe Dixie Fryer
1961 Strangled Eggs
1962 The Slick ChickMother Was a Rooster
1963 Banty Raids
1964 False Hare
1980 The Yolks on You
1996 Superior Duck
1997 Pullet Surprise
2004 Cock-a-Doodle Duel
Advertisement