Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones / Remembering singer Cassandra Wilson

September 18, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

About two decades after Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones died in 2002, the studio that employed him for 30 years shelved a completed feature film called Coyote vs. Acme as a tax write-off. The movie was rescued this year by an independent distributor and finally released in theaters last month. It has already earned back most of its $50 million purchase price. The film imagines Wile E. Coyote hiring a human lawyer to sue the Acme Company for the defective products that have caused him repeated bodily injury—a premise that originated in a 1990 New Yorker parody piece. This episode of Fresh Air marks the film's release by revisiting a 1989 interview with Jones, whose work defined the characters that made the franchise endure.

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What you'll learn

1 (05:00) **Chuck Jones on Creating Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny** - The Looney Tunes animator explains his approach to character animation, focusing on finding the "who" of a character rather than the "what."
2 (10:06) **The "Yes Session" and Collaborative Cartoon-Making** - Jones details how Warner Brothers animators used a unique brainstorming process to refine gags and avoid internal competition.
3 (11:11) **Directing Mel Blank and the Precision of Voice Work** - Jones describes his meticulous process for recording the legendary voice actor, from pre-planned dialogue to timing constraints.
4 (12:14) **Why Animals Work Better Than Humans in Cartoons** - Jones explains the practical and artistic advantages of using animal characters instead of human ones for animation.
5 (13:27) **The Rules of the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote Universe** - Jones lays out the strict internal logic that made the Roadrunner cartoons work, from setting to character behavior.
6 (15:53) **Fighting the Censors and Producers** - Jones discusses the battles the animators fought with studio executives and network censors over content and creative freedom.
7 (16:42) **Hidden Frames and Pranks in the Cartoons** - Jones shares a mischievous story about inserting a single, subliminal frame of pornography into a Pepe Le Pew cartoon as a prank on the office manager.

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Guests on this episode

Terry Gross

Show Notes

The new film Coyote vs. ACME is based on the classic Warner Bros. cartoons featuring the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. Today, we listen back to Terry’s 1989 interview with animator Chuck Jones. He created the characters, among others, and directed many Looney Tunes cartoons. He says they had specific rules for the characters: “The roadrunner can never harm the Coyote. The Coyote could only harm himself by buying these unfortunate things he gets from the ACME corporation.”

Also, we remember singer and composer Cassandra Wilson who defied category but became a bona fide jazz star. Kevin Whitehead has an appreciation and we hear some of her interview with Terry. She died Sept. 2 at age 70.

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