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.
- It was also the most current on-screen appearance of "Pappy". "Elvis" would later appear as a cameo in The Looney Tunes Show episode, "It's a Handbag".
- 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 Midnight • A Fractured Leghorn | |||
1951 | Leghorn Swoggled • Lovelorn Leghorn | |||
1952 | Sock a Doodle Do • The EGGcited Rooster | |||
1953 | Plop Goes the Weasel! • Of Rice and Hen | |||
1954 | Little Boy Boo | |||
1955 | Feather Dusted • All Fowled Up | |||
1956 | Weasel Stop • The High and the Flighty • Raw! Raw! Rooster! | |||
1957 | Fox-Terror | |||
1958 | Feather Bluster • Weasel While You Work | |||
1959 | A Broken Leghorn | |||
1960 | Crockett-Doodle-Do • The Dixie Fryer | |||
1961 | Strangled Eggs | |||
1962 | The Slick Chick • Mother 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 |