The
Golden Collection series was launched following the success of the
Walt Disney Treasures series which collected archived Disney material. These collections were made possible after the merger of
Time Warner (which owned the color cartoons released from August 1, 1948, onward, as well as the black-and-white
Looney Tunes, the post-Harman/Ising black-and-white
Merrie Melodies and the first H/I
Merrie Melodies entry
Lady, Play Your Mandolin!) and
Turner Broadcasting System (which owned the color cartoons released prior to August 1, 1948, and the remaining Harman/Ising
Merrie Melodies; most of these cartoons had been released as part of
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes LaserDisc series), along with the subsequent transfer of video rights to the Turner library from
MGM Home Entertainment to
Warner Home Video. The cartoons included on the set are uncut, unedited, uncensored, and digitally restored and remastered from the original black-and-white and successive exposure
Technicolor film negatives (or, in the case of the
Cinecolor shorts, the Technicolor reprints). However, some of the cartoons in these collections are derived from the
"Blue Ribbon" reissues (altered from their original versions with their revised front-and-end credit sequences), as the original titles for these cartoons are presumably lost. Where the original titles, instead of the "Blue Ribbon" titles, still exist, Warner has taken the "Blue Ribbon" titles out. A handful of cartoons in the first two collections and the bonus cartoons on
Volume 6 have digital video
noise reduction (DVNR) artifacting. The noise reduction process sometimes unintentionally erases or blurs some of the picture on certain scenes of the cartoons, which has caused controversy among some
Looney Tunes fans. The most recent collections, however, lack such artifacting. Since August 2007, Warner Home Video has been quietly reissuing copies of the fourth disc of
Volume 2 that lacks artifacting and interlacing because of numerous complaints by consumers. Beginning with
Volume 3, a warning was printed on the packaging explaining that the collection is intended for adults and the content may not be suitable for children. This goes along with
Whoopi Goldberg's filmed introduction in Volume 3 which explains the history of ethnic imagery that frequently appears in cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with
Volume 4, a singular disclaimer text card similar to Goldberg's spoken disclaimer precedes each disc's main menu. This is also seen on the
Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection discs and even on the back of the
Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection discs (though for the latter, they are from Universal, not Warner Bros.). The DVDs also feature several special features including interviews/documentaries of the people behind the cartoons such as
Friz Freleng,
Bob Clampett,
Tex Avery,
Robert McKimson,
Chuck Jones, musical conductor
Carl Stalling and voice-artist
Mel Blanc,
pencil tests, and audio commentaries by animation historians
Jerry Beck,
Michael Barrier and
Greg Ford, as well as current animators
Paul Dini,
Eric Goldberg and
John Kricfalusi and voice actors
Stan Freberg and
June Foray. In addition to the appearances by the above-mentioned, there is interview footage of Stan Freberg, June Foray,
Noel Blanc,
Billy West,
Keith Scott,
Mark Evanier,
Bob Bergen,
Joe Alaskey,
Bill Melendez,
Willie Ito, Corny Cole,
Peter Alvarado and the children of the various directors: Robert McKimson Jr., Ruth Clampett, Sybil Freleng and Linda Jones. Also included are several obscure, miscellaneous pieces of
Looney Tunes media, such as original segments from
The Bugs Bunny Show, theatrical compilation releases, trailers, rediscovered cut content, clean music and sound effect tracks of various shorts, and reconstructions of partially lost media. Audio footage of Mel Blanc in recording sessions is heard as a bonus feature on several of the discs, as is an audio clip of
Arthur Q. Bryan rehearsing a line as
Elmer Fudd in ''
What's Opera, Doc? and a recorded session of the Warner Bros. studio orchestra. In total, there are 356 cartoons (18 more than The Golden Age of Looney Tunes'') spread throughout the six volumes. In some regions, such as Regions 2 and 4, each disc in each volume is packaged (or re-packaged) separately. In this format, it was titled "Looney Tunes Collection" omitting 'Golden' from the title. There were no boxes to group the various volumes, and no numbering on the spine of each individual cover, so storage order was not easily maintained. The Region 1 box set has since been released in Regions 2 and 4. ==Releases==