Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series, and is both Warner Bros. Animation's first animated theatrical series and the second longest continuous animated series in any medium.citation needed] The regular Warner Bros. animation cast also became known as the "Looney Tunes" (often misspelled, intentionally or not, as "Looney Toons").
The name 'Looney tunes' is a word play on 'luny toons', and is pronounced the same, but whilst Loony tunes is the cartoon program, 'luny toons' is the genre of cartoon to which it belongs.citation needed] The name also is taken from Disney's Silly Symphonies.