Edward Selzer

There's some cosmic irony that a man like Edward Selzer would reign over Warner Brothers animation division during its heyday. When Warner Brothers bought the studio in 1944, Selzer was assigned as studio head, essentially replacing former owner Leon Schlesinger. Whereas Schlesinger was undeniably cheap and disdainful of animation as art, Selzer proved to be a humorless interfering bore who had no knowledge or love of animation. In fact, the crew sometimes got story ideas from him out of defiance. For example, Selzer ordered the crew never to make any cartoons about bullfighting. Jones was immediately inspired by this idea and created Bully for Bugs (1953), which is considered one of the best of the Bug's Bunny shorts. Despite their loathing for him, Chuck Jones valued him in retrospect as an essential nemesis that inspired them to do their best, if only to oppose him.