Interview with Tom Ruegger on His Animation Career

Hi, this is Tom Ruger and you are listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Enough with the gratuitous

cameos. Don't go there, I'm on the verge. Hey

there, Tom Ruger here and you are tuned into

Tooncast. Don't worry, it's cool, Pop. Shuggy's

my favorite person in the whole world. A human

person, that is. Aw, sucks. Sucks, Waggy. Hello?

Hello and welcome to Tooncast. I am one of your

hosts TF2 and Mike and joining me as per sometimes

usual Steve Megatron. Hello, sir. Hello In the

first Tooncast interview since Pat Fraley in

2012 and Ichi Daily in 2015, we welcome the man,

the myth, the legend, the one who sent us to

Loonaversity and then locked our pals in the

water tower. He's a cool cat daddy -o, but we

doubt he'll try a Scooby snack, not even if Vincent

Van Goole was offering it to him. He's a man

that strikes enjoyment in all of our hearts and

minds for all the cartoons he has given us in

the past 30 plus years. He's the father of Skippy

Squirrel, and so much more. He knows what we're

doing tomorrow night and every other night, which

is to take over the podcasting world. There is

a little bit of all of the 7D inside his personality.

We are here to freak out over having this discussion

with Mr. Tom Ruger. Hello, Tom, how are you?

Whoa, oh my god, that was... I need that for

every time I'm anywhere, I want that introduction

because you have covered my entire career. I

can now retire. Thank you. Good night, everybody.

That's right. We just need, you know, Yako right

here. Good night, everybody. Good night, everybody.

Mike, thank you for such a glowing introduction.

I won't be able to live up to it, but I'll give

it a try. Oh, sure you will. Yeah, no, I looked

at your IMDB page and I'm like, oh, I can work

every single thing he's done into the intro,

at least everything that we're going to cover.

I think the only thing I didn't mention that

you're really the terror that flaps in the night

of Gotham City. Oh wait, that's a Darkwing Duck

Batman crossover. What? Wrong one. That's why

he has 14 Emmys and we don't. Exactly. Well,

you know, I try. Where are you two right now?

Are you in the same room together? Oh no, no,

no, no, no. Sadly not. That has only happened

once in our 10 year friendship when I got married

the end of last year. I'm in Chicago land area

and Steve's up there in Michigan. Wow fabulous

yes, so are you football fans or do you avoid

that? Yes to answer this question without getting

a deflated gate answer we watch cartoons for

a reason No, that's fine. That's fine. I know

Michigan gets them they go pretty crazy on the

football stuff sometimes Yeah, too bad our team's

not very good The Bears aren't that much better

either but I'm you know I'm originally from Massachusetts

so I'm die -hard Patriots Celtics Bruins and

Red Sox all the way. I'm from Rob Paulson's neck

of the woods so. Hockey hockey well yeah we'll

do cartoons tonight and we'll do sports some

other night. Before we get started, can you give

us the scoop on what's going on in the world

of Tom Ruger? Any upcoming projects that you

can reveal that you're allowed to without, you

know, getting Disney to give us a stomp in the

head? Well, yeah, I'm working on several show

developments. So you don't you tend not to want

to announce much about those things until they're

sold or you know in production and then you want

to you want to be pretty cagey so I I'll tell

you I'm as busy as I can possibly be and I think

I've got some I'm working on some really fun

Funny and and even in some cases dramatic Show

ideas and series ideas, so we'll see But yeah,

I'm staying above water. There you go. Definitely

good news. Yeah. Hell hath no fury like the Sith

Lord of the Mouse incurred on you. But I was

just talking to Paul Rugg briefly today, and

we're probably going to try another Freakacon

one of these days. So that's one thing I know.

Nice. Nice, very cool. Alright, so the traditional

questions, where did you grow up and did you

always want to be a writer, producer kind of

a thing or did you, were you like the rest of

us when you were a kid, wanted to be a policeman

or a fireman or something like that? Well I grew

up back in New Jersey and I loved cartoons when

I was a kid right out of the gate. I mean I had

a really great childhood neighborhood of kid

played, you know, softball, all summer football,

all fall basketball. You know, we we went sledding.

It was just a great life. And but in the evenings,

I would love to sit in front of the TV with like

a sketch pad in front of me and I'd draw the

cartoon characters I'd see on TV. And, you know,

Basically, it started with the Hanna -Barbera

stuff, Huck, Yogi, Quick Draw, and then on Saturdays,

you'd see the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the Daffy

Duck, Porky Pig, and those were clearly from

another era, but they were very, very funny.

So I just loved cartoons, so I would draw a lot.

And my parents thought I was tracing. I said,

no, I'm not tracing. I'm just doing it freehand.

And so they gave me more paper and crayons and

pencils. So I definitely gravitated toward drawing.

And I did the editorial cartoons for my school

newspaper. And then when I went to college, I

applied and received a grant from the Arthur

and Lily Mayer Foundation, who sponsored me to

make an animated cartoon. So even in college,

I was still sort of pursuing it. I wasn't sure

I would make a career of it because I lived back

in New Jersey and there wasn't really much of

an animation industry there. So after I graduated,

I finally came out to Los Angeles and I got a

job at Hanna -Barbera like my first day out here.

I was staying at a a shabby motel on Sunset Boulevard,

literally. I could see the building where Chuck

John's offices were, but I couldn't get in the

building from the motel I was staying in. And

the motel was really very inexpensive, didn't

have phones in the room. So I'd have to go out

to the phone booth till I call around the studios

to see if anybody was hiring. And this phone

booth out front was controlled by several working

women who used the phone booth as like their

central office to get calls. And this is what

they did for a living. And so when I tied up

their phone booth, it kind of ticked them off.

I said, get them on. This is a business line

for these lovely ladies who worked out there.

So I went back to my room and I was trying to

figure out I was looking at the Hollywood Reporter

that listed every animation studio in town and

there's a knock on the door I had I had earlier

that day I'd called every studio and I had asked

for you know, Ralph Bakshi or Chuck Jones or

I called Hannah Barber Who do you want to speak

to I said? Bill Hanna and they actually connected

me to his to his office Wow Wow The secretary

said, well, who is this? I said, well, my name

is Tom Ruger. I've come from New Jersey. I'm

just new in LA, and I'm an animator. Kind of

lying there. And she said, well, I'll give your

name to Mr. Hanna. I don't know if I'll call

you, but give me the number. And so I gave the

phone booth number. So I'm back in my little

hovel of a room at this motel, and there's a

knock on the door. And it's one of the ladies

of the night that works the phone booth. And

she says, are you Ruger? I said, yes. Well, there's

a phone call for you, but hurry it up. That's

a work in line. We got a customs call. So I get

out to the booth and it's Bill Hanna's. Please

hold for Mr. Hanna. Wow. It's wild. Yeah. Who

is this? Tom Ruger, sir, oh yeah, yeah, get right

over here, we're really busy. So, they had bought

the concept that I was an animator in town. You

know, I drove over to Kiwanga and brought my

portfolio and I had it on, some of it was on

slides and, you know, because you never know

what your job's gonna be, so I... I could draw

sort of like Hannah Barbera stuff, but I didn't

know if they were hiring. Anyway, I showed him

these slides. I said, well, he said, what the

heck is that? I said, well, that that's a dog.

That's not a dog where I come from. You know,

so he was already criticizing my stuff, but he

gave me a one month trial period where I had

to I was an assistant animator working for animation

legends like Dave Tenwear and Bolas Jones, who

both of whom were, you know, making Popeye cartoons

and Donald Duck cartoons in the 30s and 40s and

So I was cleaning up their work and I survived

the first month and I was there for two years

and then I segued into writing and so So yeah,

it starts with the drawing for me Wow Very cool.

Very cool Alright, so we're here for two very

specific reasons. We are also going to talk about

a lot of Tom's other work, but Two shows that

he pretty much got off the ground are celebrating

anniversaries this year. This episode, this interview

will be online September 13th, 2018, which is

25 years ago to the day of when the Animaniacs

were launched and put on television. I have a

confession to make. When I was 13 years old,

I could not stand the Animaniacs. I don't know

why I loved them. I Don't know what it was. I

don't think it was the show itself I'm one of

those people which is strange because I hype

people on stuff that I love all the time Yet

if stuff is shoved in my face, I'm like no get

away I think we've gotten a bad rap there because

there are a couple of cartoons that had educational

value like United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama.

And people said, oh, you should watch this because

it's educational. And that's, of course, death.

Kids don't want to watch educational stuff. So

some kids felt like that might have been a problem.

I don't know what it was because I grew up on

Transformers, G .I. Joe, Mask, Thundercats, He

-Man, Turtles, all that stuff. and I grew up

watching Looney Tunes and Hannah Barbera as well,

but it's one of those things where somebody that

I was close to at the time just absolutely loved

it, and I just couldn't get into it. I've since

come around, obviously. I actually, when Animaniacs

hit Netflix, obviously it's on Hulu now, but

when it hit Netflix a couple years ago, I marathoned

the entire show within a week. Wow, all of it

Mike so Mike's our resident crazy person. Yeah

He'll watch everything like within a certain

time span Wow and Tell me cuz I've never done

that. I've never watched Animaniacs in a week,

you know, like the the hundred episodes you did

something like that you watched maybe a Hundred

episodes over a month or something. It took me

about a week and a half to get through All of

it. And how were, what were you like before and

then after? Before, I don't know what I was,

I don't know what I was before. After I was a

little bit more zany, I would say. And I was

already zany enough as it was, so it just influenced

me even more. What did you, what did you come

away with? How do you, how would you, Put it

in a few words. What what atomaniacs is after

doing that? What is what is it now? It is one

of those things where Again, it goes back to

when I was 13 when I didn't understand it. I

didn't get it Yes, I got certain skits and segments

and I remember it but because it was so far What

I felt at the time shoved down my throat. I didn't

care I when I did this when I did the rewatch

it was I don't know 20 like I said whenever it

originally hit Netflix I think it was like 2015

20 it was two or three or four years ago at this

point and When I did I was like, ooh Animaniacs

is on on Netflix. Yes, because I had been listening

to Obviously Rob's got talking tunes and he does

the animating you guys do Animaniacs live and

all those stuff and I had been listening to that

and I Had been like, oh, I'd like to go back

to that I'd like to actually go get the DVDs

and then Netflix is like DVDs. What do you need

those for? Here's everything right here. I'm

like, oh, okay, cool and Different episodes hit

me in different ways Yeah As an adult, I appreciate

the humor more, obviously, than a 13 -year -old

would. There's so many hidden elements in there

that when you're a kid, it just kind of flies

over your head. But when you get older, you're

like, I get it now. Yeah. Well, there's like

the cartoon where the Warners, it's like Heart

of Darkness, or it's like Apocalypse Now, where

the Warners go to get Jerry Lewis, who's the

director that's gone out of control. And it's

like Apocalypse Now. I mean, I can't imagine

a kid getting any of that. Yeah, no. Freud -Levin!

Yeah, no. Freud -Levin, yes. Oh, the cuteness,

yes. Yes, the, uh... And I'm a brilliant cartoon

and one of my all -time faves, but clearly Animaniac's

target audience was all over the place. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it was. Yeah, between the educational songs

and then the jokes that you wouldn't get until

you're much older. I mean, it's funny that it

still resonates either when you're a child and

when you're a grown adult. And then there's that

line, you know, looking for fingerprints and

we bring prints in and fingerprints and I don't

think so. That was not in the script. The way

it's written there, it just wasn't in the script.

But Tress McNeil, she's reading the, you know,

we're recording the thing, and he says, no, no,

no, fingerprints, because she's, I found prints,

no fingerprints. And it's the way Dot, Tress

McNeil, she completely ad -libbed, I don't think

so, I mean, she completely ad -libbed a response

there that, The network didn't know where putting

in and we just it made us laugh and we just kept

it in we kept it in the board we kept it in the

soundtrack we animated it and We thought well

eventually someone's gonna cut this He didn't

They didn't yeah, it's pretty wild yeah, I had

originally you know had been watching tiny tunes,

and I love tiny tunes Tiny Toons is just as amazing

as Animaniacs in my mind. Obviously, watching

that back now, it's like that was clearly a 90s

cartoon. Obviously, it started in 1990 when it

first aired, but just everything about most of

those references and everything else is so totally

90s. Oh, yeah. Yes. Which is... Which is not

a bad thing. It's so funny you brought up the

dot fingerprints thing, because the first question

under Animaniacs that I have written down for

you that I'm supposed to ask is, so you've left

your fingerprints all over this series. What

was it that made you go from Tiny Toons to Animaniacs?

Well, we had succeeded with Tiny Toons, and that

wasn't a foregone conclusion. We certainly had

a nice budget. We had good music. But I think

Steven was scared to death. We were going to

really humiliate him with the show. He had wanted

us to do a great job. But every now and then

he would say, jeez, I'm not sure the animation's

good enough, the line quality. I don't know.

I said, oh, it's going to be great, Steven. You'll

see. After Tiny Toons was a hit, it was, then

it was, you know, the gates were open. Stephen

and Gene McCurdy, my boss at Warner's, came to

me and said, okay, okay, what's next? What's

that? What are we doing next? And I said, well,

they said, well, how about, how about the Plucky

Duck Show? How about a spinoff from Tiny Toons?

And I said, oh no, I can't. Do any more of Tiny

Tunes and Plucky. I mean, I love Plucky, but

no, please. Let's do something new and, you know,

brand new characters. And they said, so Steven

said, fine, but you have to have a marquee name.

So you're the marquee name, Steven. Steven Spielberg

presents. That's the marquee. So no, no, no,

no, no. So I need a marquee. Because we had like

Bugs Bunny inferred with Tiny Toons. There was

a certain quality to that. So we needed Marquis.

And anyway, I came up with the title, Animaniacs.

I just thought it was great. I wanted a variety

show. But new stuff, all new. No retreads. bugs

and daffy all over the place, just really new

Warner Brothers stuff. But he kept saying, we

need a marquee name, marquee name. And it's like,

oh, golly. So literally, I'm walking across the

studio a lot, going to a screening, and I walk

past that water tower. And it's like a billboard,

which is a little bit like a marquee. And it's

got advertising. Warner Brothers with the big

WB Shield logo up there and honestly it was like

a convergence of thoughts and ideas because I

had been working on some cute little duck -like

characters and so I see the the tower and I think

there's a marquee and there's the name the Warner

Warner Brothers that they could be the cartoon

characters and so anyway it turned into this

concept of three crazy cartoon characters locked

away in the tower because they're too nutty.

Because I like to keep the cartoon characters

crazy and they're running around a lot. So Stephen

totally loved it, bought it because it was a

marquee because everybody that goes to Burbank

sees that tower. But it also kind of paid tribute

to the tradition of animation from the 30s and

it paid tribute to the studio itself. so work

worked pretty well and Then I I managed to sell

them on the pink in the brain concept By singing

the main title, which was the first thing I wrote

about it The pink in the brain the pink ever,

but I sang it to the tune of singing in the rain,

which I won't do But but it all the words fit

to it started with singing in the rain. They're

saying they're pink and then Sherry Stoner, who

was there at this pitch, she started doing slappy

squirrels voice. So within the first meeting

or so, we had the Warners, Yakko, Wacko and Dot.

We had slappy, we had pink in the brain. So and

honestly, creatively, I think That's the beauty

of and the growth that went from Tiny Toons to

Animaniacs. There was much more creative freedom

with Animaniacs because we didn't have to pay

tribute to Bugs and Daffy. We didn't have to

like worry about keeping all the Looney Tunes

traditions alive. We could come up with new traditions

and new franchises and new characters and new

people trying to take over the world. And I think

that's one of the beautiful things about that

series that made it work Well, yeah, we did have

fresh fresh new character even though the the

Warners and daughter are theoretically from another

era. They're pretty much pretty sassy and and

very much I Love that there they go up against

authority figures. That's to me. That's what

every kid out there is trying to figure out,

because there are a bunch of a -holes out there

in the world, and how do I deal with them? Well,

the Warners deal with them in a very comic, fun

way, and I think that's what really appealed

to a lot of the audience. So what were some of

your favorite characters to write for in Animaniacs

out of those, out of, like, the Warners, Slappy

Squirrel, Kinky and the Brain, and so on? You

know, I would say those three franchises where

I lived, I mean, Yackawackawin Dot, you know,

they were the heart and soul at the center of

the series and every one of their stories sort

of, you know, they really kind of carry the series.

I think Paul Rugg wrote I think the funniest

of all the Warner cartoons, just brilliant, brilliant

stuff. Clowning out, you know, just cookies for

Einstein, de -sanitized. He really was awesome

with them. I worked on one called, entitled,

Hooked on a Ceiling, where they go to the Sistine

Chapel and help. Michelangelo painted and they

paint like ET and Elliot instead of God and Adam

Stevens like I like it Yeah, he's the Pope at

the end. Yeah, then Yakko the topper. You gotta

know your audience. Yeah Anyway, we had great

writers great artists slappy squirrel. I you

know, I love Bumby's mom. I love Woodstock Slappy

There's one that I wrote that's really kind of

Very violent. It's called critical condition.

I love critical condition Yeah, that's one of

my faves too and Slappy gets really negatively

reviewed by Siskel and Ebert or in this case

his goal his goal is kill and Egbert She and

skippy just are getting relentless revenge. College

nothing. I'm going to Vegas. Quite literally,

Tom, I know that cartoon front and back. As soon

as it hit Netflix, and even when it came to Hulu,

I'm like, the first thing I searched for was

critical condition to watch it. So glad to hear

this, because I think you and I will get along

very well, because I think that's one of our

great cartoons. And not a lot of people bring

it up. And I'm really glad to hear that you like

that one. That's great. Now, did you like, and

just to jump, because another very violent cartoon

that I'm very proud of, that it went, I gave

the assignment, this was back in Tiny Toon days,

and nobody would do what I you know, I said,

please write this script and Everyone would dance

around it but not do it and then finally I said

alright You're not gonna do it and I gave it

to several people and finally I did the final

draft on it of it and I made it what I thought

it needed to be which was Thousands of anvils

dropping onto plucky duck. Oh, yeah. Yeah And

it is just fabulously violent, and one of my

faves of the Tiny Toon era. I love that one,

yeah, absolutely. But Critical Condition is definitely

one of slappy, and I really like it because we

have clips from some of her earlier cartoons

that Siskel and Egbert particularly hate. Well,

she gets to get even for once. Oh, she does.

with heat -seeking missiles. Yes. That is a brilliant

episode, though. It's so funny. I just love that.

They had a life of their own in their own series,

but we started out very simple. They needed to

come up with money -making plans to... Financed

their their missions to take over the world.

So I mean the first one that went on Jeopardy

and went big and And then and it was in the suit,

right? So John brain, you know Brian no, it's

brain. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I love that

suit that he puts on and the temptation was to

use and reuse that suit, and we really had to

fight that. We needed to get them out there in

different modes. He became a jockey for the Kentucky

Derby. We needed to not just fall back on the

easiest way for them to take over the world,

which is in disguise, because it's kind of funnier

when he's just a lab mouse and he's a little

tiny mouse and people are like... accepting this

little mouse talking to them as someone who wants

to like run for president or I mean Bubba Bubba

Brain is one of my faves too. Sherry Stoner wrote

that one. Yeah, Bubba Bubba Brain was hilarious.

Yeah, I love Pinky and the Brain. That's one

of the ones that I still enjoy watching. Yeah,

Brain and Pinky and the Brain just you know being

a little lab mice that they are trying to take

over the world. is a respectable thing. Meanwhile,

Chicken Boo gets no respect whatsoever. Zero.

Zero. Now, do you know how that came about? No.

Tell us. So, uh, now Deanna Oliver, she came

up with the Mindy and Buttons concept because

she was living in Sherman Oaks and next door

to her, in the yard next door, there was a little

kid who was basically on a dog leash a dog run

dollar and she she could run around the yard

but was on a wire she was on and she would call

a high lady and so basically Deanna's job was

done by this little child came in and say let's

do a show this little kid that was next door

and but So, and she had also, she did a great

job creating that and she basically created the

good feathers and wrote some of the best of those.

So she had this idea about a chicken who is a

human -sized chicken who, it looks like a chicken,

but if he puts on a hat or a mustache, suddenly

people don't recognize him as a chicken and he

could be Valentino. or if he was wearing like

a little mustache and a little flat hat, or he

could sideburns and guitarneys like Elvis. And

so she said, I think we should make some of these.

I said, no. That's a terrible idea. No, no, go

away. And then two weeks later, she would send

me a title, you know, Chicken Boo and the Good,

the Boo and the Ugly. I would just walk down

the hall and say, Deanna, stop torturing me about

this stupid chicken. And so then, like three

weeks later, she comes into my office and says,

chicken boo, what's the matter with you? You

don't look like the other chickens do, but you

wear a disguise to look like human guys, because

you're not a man, you're a chicken boo. That's

funny. So she's really just relentless. Selling

it. So Deanna Oliver is definitely the pride

and joy of chicken land because she fought, she

fought like nobody, no one's business to make

that a reality. Chicken boo. Absolutely. I always

wondered what was the deal with the kid? The

kid shorts, the Randy Beeman shorts. I never

understood those. Well, again, we must return

to Deanna Oliver. Poor Deanna, we're not picking

on you, we promise. No, the person who is speaking

in those cartoons and who wrote some of them

is Deanna Oliver's son, Colin Weller. That was,

and he was a little kid. And he would come home

and say, Mom, Randy Beaman did this. He did that.

And so Deanna, with Colin, started concocting

these little vignettes, these little stories

of Randy Beaman's mother. She was eating marshmallows

and then woke up and her pillow was gone. I mean,

just weird stuff. And so then what we did, which

I think was really effective, we sent the whole

batch of these little weird recordings, and we

just recorded all of them at once. We sent them

all to Star Tunes in Chicago, who they animated

some of the best of the Slappy Squirrels, and

they animated all of the Randy Beamons. And they

just had a very charming quality to their animation.

They did like the main, the sub -main title for

the Slappy Squirrel cartoon where the Warners

are singing, you know, the Slappy Squirrel theme

song. Anyway, very cute stuff. So I think the

Randy Beeman cartoons, they look very consistent

and they're simple and they're bizarre. They're

just bizarre. But they're like, you know, they're

our filler when we have a show that's like...

oddly timed and maybe we have a pinky in the

brain and a Warners and we don't have time for

a third cartoon, we'll put in some, you know,

good idea, bad idea or Mime Time or Randy Beeman.

One of my favorite skits in that show of Animaniacs

was Good Idea, Bad Idea, which I thought was

hilarious with Tom Bedette in there, and Mr.

Skullhead. Good idea, feeding straight kittens

in the park. Bad idea, feeding straight kittens

in the park to a bear. I know. Almost all of

them are morbid. Finding an Easter egg on Easter

morning, bad idea. Finding an Easter egg on Christmas

morning, and then it's disgusting and smelly.

Yeah, most of them, most of the Tombow debt material,

you know, everybody pitched in, all the different

writers, but Sherry Stoner and her husband, Sweeney,

Mark Sweeney, he was one of our writers early

on and he and I were sharing these Tombow debt,

Tombow debt rights. writes novels. And so we

had all these Tombodet tapes and we were listening

to them when we'd drive in our cars and we were

flipping them back and forth. And we realized,

this guy, this guy's voice really is just fabulous

and we need to exploit it. And so a lot of it

has to do with, we just love Tombodet. So Sweeney

wrote some of the best of the, of like, the good

idea, bad ideas. He also wrote one of my favorite

Wheel of Moralities. Oh yeah. He wrote, if you

have nothing nice to say, you're probably at

the ice capades. Wheel of Morality, turn, turn,

turn, tell us the lesson that we should learn.

The very tire damage, do not back up, severe

tire damage. You know Tom Baudetta, I always

thought he was just the guy that left the light

on. We'll leave the light on for you Well, he

also narrated Wacko's wish which was our long

form that we did a run and Yeah, Steve actually

didn't you use good idea bad idea? Or you used

the concept? I used the concept for a college

project And and animated it and everything and

oh my golly it like recreated the the good idea

bad idea screen and then I took like different

things and tried to narrate it as close to Tom

Odette as I could but. I'm hearing your voice

I think you could get away with that yeah. Yeah

it was a lot of fun though you know doing good

idea you know and then. whatever I put in there

and then doing the bad idea and having the light,

you know, light up on it. So it was, yeah, it

was a lot of fun to kind of recreate that. It

was the only thing I could think of in that scenario.

Well, you should call Warner Brothers and have

them hire you to write some new ones. I would

love nothing more than to do that. They probably

need help. Wow, alrighty then. 25 years later

and so many people love Animaniacs. What do you

think it is about the show that has people coming

back for more by rewatching the classic series

now? Wow. Well, I think... I think it holds up

pretty well. It's not so brutally topical that

you get lost with... I mean, you know, there

might be the occasional Regis Philbin joke that's

like, what, who? But I think it has classic sort

of slapstick and animation, verbal humor, sassiness.

It definitely tweaks its nose at authority, again,

which I think is an important aspect of it. It

shows... It displays with Pinky and the Brain

the futility of trying. And yet you realize that

if you don't try, you get nowhere. So I think

Pinky and the Brain have an intrinsic value in

our society right now. And I think our society

wishes they would take over the world. I think

Slappy is the curmudgeon in all of us. And I

think the Warners themselves, I mean, she's cute,

he's wacky, and Yakko is just verbally one of

the most brilliant characters ever. I mean, the

songs he sings, the voice by Rob Paulson, it's

just, I think, it's a very appealing batch of

stuff. And if you're watching a half hour, I

mean, if you don't like a segment, well, you

can hang on and there'll be another segment,

maybe you'll like that one. And you realize,

and I don't know why, do you realize how few

animated variety shows that are being made, they're

always like, you know, they seem to all be like

half hours or 11 minute cartoons now, and they

have to stay very much on topic. I've noticed

they have to stay very consistent. I worked at

another company not too long ago and they said,

okay, here, you know, we want you to work on

this show, but we want this show to be one show.

We want it to be all about this character and

just about this, this character and that character.

And I don't, we don't want you going off on tangents

and because see the beauty of Animaniacs is Creatively,

it was just like no other experience that I ever

had. And I think a lot of the gang that worked

on it felt the same way because we really could

tell almost any kind of story. We had such a

wide, vast cast. We could handle almost anything.

I mean, we had Slappy Squirrel and Skippy setting

up the three tenors. We had a flame character

that would tell historical events. I mean, we

really covered a lot of ground. And then we would

do Godfather, you know, good feather takeoffs.

Anyway, it was really truly a variety show. And

creatively, we were allowed to go anywhere. And

I think people appreciate it. I don't think anyone's

doing it right now. I don't think so either.

No, I don't think so either. And I think it's

kind of a lost art to be honest. Well, also visually,

I mean, I don't know how, as we all know, CGI

is very big and very popular. But some of the

art and craft of making that show back in the

90s, we were actually still making that thing

on cells that were being hand painted. It's hard

to even Steve, just the amount of man hours and

woman hours put in creating that thing. And we're

never going to see in the cartoons made today,

the little dust particles that you would see

when you watch like the movie Pinocchio. But

even Animaniacs is one of the, you know, it was

still made on sale. You could almost feel the

handmade quality of it. And there's some charm

to that. Yeah, that's that's one of the things

like Mike and I sometimes go back and forth about

you know The the animation styles of today and

it all being CGI. We're like, I don't know like

we just we're kind of I don't know Old -fashioned

in that way. We kind of enjoy the the older stuff.

I Think the last and we'll talk about this a

little bit more later I think the last animated

series I watched that is in today's standards

Was the 70 and I'll talk about that a little

bit later Steve, you want to hit that last question?

So, you know, I know that the Animaniacs is coming

back to Hulu for a new series, and, you know,

what do the new seasons have in store as vaguely

as you can tell us, obviously, because... If

you can tell us at all. If you can't tell us

anything. Well, uh... I'm not involved, so I

can't say. Oh. Yes, I'm not involved. Hard to

believe. That's sad. And quite honestly, I don't

know who's involved from the original group.

It's my understanding that. I mean, the people

that. If I were making the show, the people that

I would hire first. Those people, from what I

know, are not involved. So I don't know. I don't

know what they're doing. I hear that the voice

actors, some of the voice actors might be involved,

which I think, I can't imagine they wouldn't

want them involved. So again, I don't know. I

think, let's see what happens. I didn't think

you were, but I was just, you know. hoping yeah

we were hoping well i'm i'm still uh you know

it's it's my baby and i care a lot about it so

uh if they gave me a call tomorrow i'd probably

uh go over there so we'll see all right Also,

we are celebrating 30 years of a certain show

as of three days ago 30 years ago September 10th

1988 a pup named scooby -doo came online or on

television at least with a bicycle built for

boo I love The Pup Named Scooby -Doo. I still

love it. I am so glad I have a Boomerang subscription

right now and that pretty much all of Scooby's

stuff is on there. What was it like working with

Casey and Don and all that? What was it like

doing that show at the time? Well, I had been

doing Scooby for about four or five years at

that point. I arrived at Hanna -Barbera in the

writing department four or five years prior to

Pup Named Scooby -Doo. and I became the dog writer.

I wrote a lot. I did Pound Puppies, I did Huckleberry

Hound, I did a bunch of Scooby shows. Again,

I didn't create the shows, but I wound up being

the story editor on various incarnations of Scooby,

whether they were 15 minutes or 11s or 22s. I

did not create Scrappy Doo. I was told Scrappy

Doo had to be in those episodes. So anyway, we

built on that. I learned a lot of things about

Scooby. I didn't know him prior to arriving at

Panda River. And then Mitch Schauer came along

and is a great artist, great producer, and he

had an idea for the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo.

So I worked with him on that show, which had

real monsters and ghosts, which I think we got

letters from, you know, the Bible belt that said,

what though, it's supposed to be, you're supposed

to pull the mask off. And it turns out there

aren't any monsters or ghosts in it. Well, 13

ghosts of Scooby Doo changed all that and people

were not everyone was happy with it. So then

Scooby took a little break, a one year break.

And during which I was working with ABC, Jenny

Trias, Amy Simon, and Gene McCurdy at Hanna -Barbera

to make the Muppet Babies version of Scooby,

and it was originally called Scooby -Doo the

Puppy Years. A pup named Scooby -Doo is much

better. Yes. Yeah. Mean I I I had known I I now

knew scooby so well backwards and forwards that

I Basically, I wanted to do this show to make

fun of it Which is I think one of the charming

aspects of a pup named scooby -doo. It doesn't

take itself seriously at all It's sort of it

makes fun of the entire franchise. It's red herring

Yeah, red herring makes it makes Fred into like

a conspiracy theorist nut And what kid is wearing

an ascot by the way? And that Daphne we made

her into like the Veronica of the the series

where she's like the rich girl and kind of stuck

up and very prissy and the Kelly Martin who went

on to adult roles and you know Meaning I mean

she's a really good actress doing that when she

grew up. She continued to be an actress Uh, she

got the job of, uh, Daphne. She came into the

audition and said, okay, and she's like, oh,

and we said, so can you, can you scream because

we're going to have like these scary moments

where people are going to need to scream. And

she screamed the most blood curdling, high pitched,

real genuine, like. Faye Ray, god -awful scream.

It like broke glass. It was unbelievable. And

really, she got the job for that scream. No one

can scream like Kelly Martin. Just ask her someday.

Anyway, so the show, Bill Hanna directed Bicycle

Built for Boob that you mentioned. He hadn't

been asked to direct a cartoon in like over a

decade. I went to him sucking up the way I do

and I said, Mr. Hanna, you know, and this is

the first show that I ever produced. This is

my first producing job and I definitely wanted

it to be a hit. And I felt we had some pretty

good ideas going. We were going to do tech savory

style wild takes. We had awesome music. John

Debney and we had a acapella girl chorus doing

scadooby, ba dooby da scooby. Our background

music was going to be this a cappella singing

group. And so I got Bill Hanna to take basically

a week off and go up into his lofty perch on

the top of the roof of Hanna Barbera, where there's

this office, hidden office up there. He went

there with a metronome and stacks of exposure

sheets. and the storyboard and the soundtrack,

and he directed the crap out of the first episode.

And it's definitely, he hadn't directed a cartoon

in years, and he hit it out of the park. He really

just made it, you know, his timing is impeccable

and funny. So I think the first episode really

set the tone for that series and and really let

it take off beautifully Absolutely And was that

correct me if I'm wrong, which I probably am

Was that the last thing Don Messick did for Scooby

or one of the last things? Wow Well, I know it

may be for Scooby I don't I don't know. I know

that we you know, I right after scooby I went

over into Tiny Tunes and We immediately hired

Don to do Hampton for us. Okay, right. Yeah But

that was so he was doing that for several years.

I mean we Hampton He was playing Hampton In other

words, no one else has ever played Hampton on

Tiny Tunes. So even Night Ghoulery, one of the

later specials that we did. So he must have been

going pretty strong for a while. So I suspect

he might have done some Scooby after that. He

did do a couple of Scooby TV movies in the 90s.

But I was going to say, yeah, he didn't die until

97. See, I thought it was before that. But yeah,

man, love that guy. Oh, me too. What a tragic,

I think, was it Alzheimer's? I mean, he died

quickly. I mean, in other words, he seemed fine.

Oh, you know, he's getting a little old, but

he seems fine. But then boom, gone. It's so funny.

It's it depends on what it is But I can usually

fall asleep to almost any television program,

but for me to get good sleep I have to fall asleep

to something that I can I know I can just do

it and For some odd reason since I've seen it

so much And I know almost every episode back

to back and whatever a Pup Named Scooby Doo along

with anything on the investigation Discovery

Network will get me a good eight hours sleep

Watching it before I Oh, that's good. Is that

good for Scooby? Yes, that's good for Scooby.

Because then I have to go back and rewatch all

the things I missed while I was sleeping. Scooby

puts you to sleep, and we're saying that that's

a compliment. Yes. Okay. I'm strange. I told

you, I'm strange. Did you have any access or

did you ever get to meet Casey or Don? Did you

ever get to work with them? Oh anything like

that? What was that like? Absolutely Casey and

done. Well, first of all as the producer of the

show, that's the one well, that's one of the

perks is that and and it's Different producers

approach their jobs in different ways. But for

me, it's all the recording session is really

where a lot of the magic happens, because if

you get the right reading on a line, it makes

all the difference in the world. You get the

wrong reading, and the show just sucks. So I

would go to all the Tiny Toons, all the Animanax,

and all the Scoobies, all the recording sessions.

I was going to Scooby recording sessions from,

like, 80, 83 to 89. You know, so I spent a lot

of time with Casey and Don. And Don Massick,

This is true, and don't ask me. I think it has

to, I think he probably had something, I mean,

can you have two vocal cords? Probably not, but

when you have like walla and you know, a dialogue

where people are chattering or they're just supposed

to like fill in the stuff like background noise,

he, Don Messick could, Say could speak for scooby

and scrappy at the same time That he did both

voices, but he can have them. Oh That's right

baggy and He uncle scooby he could have both

of them talking at the same time. That's crazy

It's insane, but he he you know it's sort of

like he was ventriloquism, but he He had special

vocal chords. And he, of course, did both Scrappy

and Scooby. And really, when you're looking at

them doing the voices, and they're talking back

and forth with each other, and you realize these

two voices are as distinct and different as any

two voices could be, that he's doing them both

is kind of remarkable. Don't care what anyone

says even Steve because we actually had a debate

about this on the on our website Yes several

years ago. We I wrote a thing Defending scrappy

and why I think he is good for Scooby and the

franchise and whatever else and Steve wrote a

Rebuttal a rebuttal to that that basically says

no, you're wrong. I don't care. Anyone says I

love scrappy scrap. He's awesome You know I know

he got a bad rap, and I know they made him the

villain in one of their movies, which was actually

funny, but a little bit misguided, I think. Now,

Scrappy, the first season, I don't know if these

exist anymore, whether they re -recorded them.

I don't think they did. The first season that

Scrappy existed, he was voiced by a guy named

Lenny Wine Rip. And he really was obnoxious.

And you wanted to kill him. So whether they just

don't show those episodes or did they go through

the trouble of redubbing them with Don Messick.

But Don's Scrappy was much calmer, much more

of a gentler soul. And, you know, puppy power

and, you know, he was just trying to help. He

was more misguided than anything else then. Yeah,

the first season, the first season, Lenny Weiner,

Scrappy was like an A -hole. Yeah, I remember

the Lenny Weiner version. I do too. I always

gravitate to Don's version because... Yeah. the

way I look at it and if I tried I actually tried

to find the articles before we did this and they're

they're gone now I guess I don't know where they

are um but for me I never could fit I never could

fit my personality my kid as a kid I could never

fit my personality into any of the main characters

I wasn't a Fred I wasn't a Velma I wasn't a obviously

Daphne or Velma but Wasn't okay in Shaggy's case.

I guess yes, because I love food. I need to know

food ever since I was a kid, but like and Even

scooby I could never really fit in and then scrappy

came along and it was the Don Messick version

It was like I just want to help. I just want

to yeah Yeah, exactly like yeah, that's why I

love scrappy. That's why I think scrappy is good

It has nothing to do with whatever Earlier version

there was I worked on a lot of cartoons. That's

scrappy You know, he was featured in the years

that I was doing Gooby and I had no problem with

him. I mean he he served a function I did I did

have We I did a bunch of cartoons where the the

group was Scooby Shaggy Scrappy and Daphne Right?

Yep. And boy, Daphne, you know, I love, I love,

is it Noel? Noel Northler. Yeah, yeah. I loved

her. But she was tough to write for because she

was not the most sparkling personality that Daphne

as a character. So it was a little tough. Yeah.

But Scrappy, you see, in that one, Scrappy is

carrying a lot of energy because she's She's

handle he's handling Scrappy and those is handling

what fred and velma needed to do like which is

like solve the crime and and have some energy

and move things along so yeah absolutely last

thing i'll say i'll move on to something else

that you've let me mention something about uh

uh casey casey casey yeah and uh by the way in

voice in the voiceover world everybody all the

voice guys do casey casey and they just love

doing it And they like to repeat the famous Casey

Kasem thing about the dog dedication. But Casey

was a vegetarian. Did you know that? He probably

did. Yeah, I think we did, yeah. So whenever

we had a pizza, you know, come on, Scoob, let's

get a pepperoni pizza. Oh, he would flip. Why

are we having pepperoni pizza? I will not say

this line. We're gonna make it a veggie pizza

with extra zucchini. Anyway, that was my Casey

Kasem story. So, wait a minute, because I know

Casey was obviously still working on this at

the time. The Pup episode where it's the Scooby

Snack Factory and they're like, we created the

only unsuccessful flavor of Scooby Snacks, zucchini

squid. Was that a poke at Casey? Yeah, yes. I'm

hungry. Okay, Maggie. It's amazing. It's funny.

You mentioned Kelly Martin, who voices Daphne

and a pup named Scooby -Doo. The sad thing is

the only I've seen her in other things. I just

haven't recognized her. When you said her name,

I'm like, I know that she did a this is so sad

on my part. Back in 2013, she did a Hallmark

Christmas movie with Cameron Matheson. That's

the only thing I've seen her in live action in

a long time. Well, she had a whole series of

she had a series where she was a sleuth. I think

it was like. The Haley Dean mysteries, yeah,

those are still going on. But what I'm saying

is like before and since A Pup Named Scooby Doo,

yes, I've seen her and I remember her in some

of these other things. But what I remember her

most for was a Hallmark movie from 2013. Yes.

And she, of course, was in the car for several

years. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. All right, Steve,

freak out on him. All right. So. Obviously, we're

talking Freakazoid since Mike dropped that subtle

hint. I love the series, you know, getting at

Asner, Ricardo Montalban, David Warner's characters,

which were among my favorites in the show. What

inspired Freakazoid and all the zany characters

there within? Well, Freakazoid, I inherited that.

Steven bounced it over to me when Paul Dini and

Bruce Timm developed it, but then bailed on it

because Stephen wanted it to be funny. And they,

I mean, Paul Dini's done all sorts of comedy,

but I think there was reticence on Bruce's part

to go as sort of zany as Stephen was pushing

for. So I'd say I'd give a lot of credit to Paul

Rugg for the brilliance of Freakazoid and the

zaniness, because I'll tell you how it all kind

of came about. We wrote some stuff. We wrote

a bunch of different scripts, short pieces, long

pieces for Freakazoid. We were up against it

on the schedule. It was like February or March,

and we had to be on in September, and it's usually

a longer gestation period to get these animated

shows on the air and So we had some funny material,

but we didn't have an actor to play Freakazoid

and Freakazoid is a you know, it's sort of like

do you have Robin Williams? Well, if you don't

I don't know what you're gonna do For like the

genie in Aladdin, so we needed someone to come

in and be this great Freakazoid character So

we sent out the sides all over town and every

actor on earth came in and every I mean not every

actor but a lot of the actors came in and Yeah,

that's kind of what they did those were the standard

auditions That's not Freakazoid no hours of listening

to these tapes you want to blow your brains out

so So we were doing an audition one day for yet

more auditions and And Rug was there because

he had written some of the stuff. I said, Paul,

go on in there. And I, of course, been hanging

out with Paul Rug along with all the other writers

for several years now. We had done Animaniacs

and Pink in the Brain. And Paul Rug does different

voices when he's just talking. He does his dad.

He does Jerry Lewis. He does serious Paul, and

crazy Paul, and he does different talk show hosts

like Tom. Anyway, different talk show hosts.

So he went in there and just read Freakazoid

as he would do it in these different voices.

And it all kind of came together at like an audition

session. What made it work was I said Paul so

you've just read all these script lines the scripted

lines I said so I gave him some spots where I

wanted Paul to just At this spot in the script

Paul. I want you to just go off script. I just

want you to just start Go anywhere you want because

Paul rug is a master improv guy. So that's what

he did. He just went off and and improv all sorts

of crazy, crazy stuff. And so I went back to

the studio and I edited together some of the

script, but mostly all the crazy improv stuff.

And it almost made almost absolutely no sense.

It was insane because they were non sequiturs

upon non sequiturs. So I sent that over to Spielberg

and I thought, well, I'm going to get fired.

or they're gonna come get me and put me in a

net. But he totally got it and laughed hilariously

and that's how Paul Rugg became Freakazoid. That's

awesome. That is so cool. And he really is. We

did this, yeah, we did a Freakacon thing. He's

just one of the funniest people on the planet.

I'd say that He and Sherry Stone is one of the

funniest women on the planet. Deanna Oliver is

one of the funniest women. And anyway, we were

blessed to have all these great writers. We had

Peter Hastings and John McCann and Charlie Howe,

Gordon Breslek, Nick Hollander. So many great,

great writers. And not to diminish the incredible

art of all the artists and directors, Rich Aarons

and the entire crew, but We were very fortunate.

I was very fortunate because I got to laugh because

I was around all these funny people. I'd go to

the recording sessions and Paulson and Jess and

Tress and all these great voice artists would

be in there just making me laugh. I had a great,

great job. Great job. Absolutely. That's awesome.

Very cool. Very cool. All right. So let's head

to Gotham City. What was it like? being in the

BTIS Batcave. What was that? Because I know you're

listed as an executive producer. So that job

normally is very vague in Hollywood. But what

were your contributions to the show? This were

in the first season. I was crisis management.

I was very supportive. Because I thought the

show was great. I thought Bruce and Bruce Tim

and Erica Domski were just perfect for it together

and Separately separately they came to it Bruce

with characters Eric with the background designs

and they really Wanted to make it go and before

Alan Burnett arrived There were some story issues

So, at the beginning of the process, I got stuck

story editing and writing stories and scripts.

So, I wasn't serving as an executive producer

so much as I was a story guy. But at the same

time, I think I had Tiny Toons and Animaniacs

both kind of... Cranking along so I couldn't

do that much on it. So I probably wrote maybe

five five or six scripts in the first season

and Story edited I wrote the Bible certainly

a version of the Bible and and basically I along

with Gene McCurdy our job as as the executive

producers was to keep everybody at Warner Brothers

happy because There were different people having

concerns like Tim Burton, you know, hey, that

sounds like my show or my movie. Danny Elfman,

hey, that sounds like my music. Trying to make

everybody realize we're all in it together and

making sure Bob Daly and Terry Semmel were having

their valuable Batman property wrecked by our

cartoon show. And then we had to keep the network,

Fox in this case, quiet. Because with Tiny Toons

and Animaniacs, we had Steven. And we could just

say to the network, well, no, Steven likes it.

And they're, oh, OK, that's fine. But with Batman,

we didn't have that 800 -pound gorilla. We couldn't

say, well, Bob Kane likes it, because that's

not going to work. So we had to convince them

that we were, because we're making a show that

wasn't like any other show on TV. It didn't look

like anything else. And they were absolutely

terrified. Oh, my God, we're going to have every

parent in the country coming down on us for making

this horrible violence that is going to warp

their children. And basically, we weren't trying

to make something offensive or brutal. We were

trying to make something that was convincing,

that was dramatically sound, that had some dramatic

integrity, and was cinematic. I mean, each one

of those half hours has a real cinematic quality.

And you look at them today, and they're not the

most... expensive things, but they're really

beautifully done. Not every one of them, but

a lot of them are just gorgeous. They really

hold up the test of time. Especially now that

the Blu -ray release is coming out for it. Yes,

yes. May we all get a copy. Let's hope. The last

thing we're gonna talk to you about and we'll

let you go here in a few moments the 70 I love

this show. Well, you're That's great. You're

the one you're the one. Oh, yeah I wish it had

had more seasons. Sadly, it didn't what was the

genesis of getting that series off the ground?

I wasn't there at the beginning. I was brought

in. Emily Hart, who's just an awesome creative

executive at Disney. I mean, you know, Disney

takes a lot of wraps, but then there are people

like Emily Hart that make it kind of all worthwhile

because she is just, she's brilliant, she's smart,

she's funny, she knows how to tell a story. Nancy

Cantor is also great, and they're both key people

at Disney Junior. So Emily had been nursing this

7D project, and they wanted a producer. And they

gave me the designs. They said, these are the

approved designs. So that was the one thing that

I felt like, oh, I wish I could have gotten in

there and. Kind of chiseled away at these a little

bit, but so we had the designs and then it was

just We want a really funny show and I said,

oh god, that's that's that's wonderful and I

think the first season we were making it for

Disney jr. The first batch and so those episodes

I think read and play younger, but then They

switched us over to Disney XD and we realized

that it's the second batch we could get slightly

more sophisticated and so that's when we were

able to like pull in people like Phil Henry to

do crazy bizarre improvs and Dr. John Jacob Jingleheimer

Schmidt and other crazy stuff but again, we had

the I think just brilliant writing we had All

sorts of Animaniacs people. We had Alfred Gimeno

and Charlie Visser and Bronwyn Barry and we had

Sherry and Deanna and Paul Rugg and Paul Dini.

We had Randy Rogel writing songs and shows. Really

nice. And Perry Gripp's music. He did some great

songs. And he won an Emmy for the 7D, I'm Not

Very Nice, Kelly Osborne. How difficult was it

writing for all those different all those the

seven personalities and everybody else in the

show was it a difficult process for the writers

or was it something that just came naturally

once they knew the personalities of each character

Yeah, honestly, I mean for stoner and for me

in the end. I mean we've been through Tiny Toons

and Animaniacs together. So we had a lot of characters

to write for and The trick this in this show

is they have to all all of them All of them are

in each story. So they have the seven voices

in your head that's one thing and then there

are three or four other voices we had grim and

and Hildy Hildy and we had a scratch and sniff

we had the Queen So we had, I think it was 11

regulars, then we had Sir Yip's a lot too. Though

we had a lot of different voices to keep in mind.

And quite honestly, a lot of the episodes, not

everybody is speaking up much. So you'd have

episodes where Sleepy is featured or Bashful's

featured. I love the Bashful one where he's singing

like Tom Jones. I really loved that. Yeah, that

was hilarious. Yeah, if Dr. Scratch and Sniff

was there, he would call them all loonies, but

Starch Bottom was just nuts. Starch Bottom was

just crazy. Who was your favorite character from

that series, if you had to pick one? Well, Starchy

was a lot of fun because he was so comic. I think

Grump... Maurice Lamar says grumpy and Kevin

Michael Richardson is happy Those two I think

you could do a whole series with grumpy and happy.

I mean, I honestly I think it would be a great

idea Starts the odd couple animated. I know and

and really it's just sitting there. It's waiting

for someone to come along and do that and I'd

like to do it. We'll see All right You've over

the over the years recently here. You've been

to plenty of the conventions. Do you have a favorite

convention story or favorite fan interaction

story that you'd like to share? Well, OK, so.

Ken Micharone, great artist storyboard guy. It

was before the San Diego Convention. This is

back in Animaniacs days and I'm trying to get

him on the phone. I'm trying to get him on the

phone. I need to get the storyboard. I need to

get the storyboard. Where is it? Where is it?

And he's gone, you know, radio silence. I cannot

find him. Get the storyboard. I think he's in

Florida. Oh, my God. So it's San Diego Comic

Convention. And I'm there with my three kids.

And this is after the Tiny Toons cartoon had

been on. Water go down the hole and elevator

go up. Elevator stop with baby. So I'm. I'm in

a really crowded elevator at one of the hotels

right there. Is it the Marriott? Anyway, my kids,

my three kids and I are in the elevator. It's

crowded. And Cody, who was the inspiration for

Baby Plucky, you know, water run out of the hole

and elevator go up. He is at the control of the

elevator. And he starts doing, no, you push the

button. I push the button. No, you push the button.

I push. And Nathan, who does the voice, he starts

doing the voice, too. He did the recording. And

people in the elevator start completely freaking

out. Oh, my God! It's a cartoon! Now, what would

you like to do? I want to go on the elevator.

I want to push the button. You want to go on

the elevator, darling? Yes, sir. I want to go

on the elevator. OK, dear. Let's do that. No,

I push the button. No, you push the button. I

push the button. Now your turn, my turn. I push

the button. Okay, okay. I push the button. So,

and it really was, it was just a remark. I said,

yeah, that's a good one. So we get to the lobby.

We step out, crowded, crowded lobby, crowded

elevator, and there standing right in front of

me is Ken Miturone. Whose storyboard is missing

and I leap at him and I grabbed by the thrush.

Where's my storyboard? So that is my That is

so amazing Alright, would you like to inform

the people or the fans where they can interact

with you online? Well, I've got a Facebook account.

I got Twitter. I've got Instagram I can be found,

I'm just reach out and you will find me. So,

easy enough. Awesome. We would like to thank

Mr. Ruger for taking the time to chat with us

in this Tooncast interview. We will catch you

next time here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

Good night everybody. I don't know what to say,

the monkeys won't do. And I also don't know what

to say about those crazy producers from the Geekcast

Radio Network. You're driving me crazy!