Animaniacs

This is Tooncast episode 2 Animaniacs recorded

June 10th 2009. This is TFG1Mike from the Geekcast

Radio Network. I would just like to say really

quick that there were some audio issues. It was

not as bad as the first recording that we did

of episode 2. It's significantly better now.

Also, as a programming note, Geek of Todd will

not be in this episode. He was going to be originally,

but for some odd reason, there was feedback for

us getting on his end. I don't know what it was.

I'm not really sure. He will be back for some

episodes in the future, though. So please enjoy

Tunecast Episode 2. So just sit back and relax,

you'll laugh, you'll laugh, you're Animaniacs

Come join the w - Welcome to Tooncast episode

2, the Animaniacs redux because yeah, the first

episode we recorded did not work out. I am TFD1Mike

and I am joined by BossKDog Kevin and TheMusicMan08.

Yes, that's right. And we will be talking about

Animaniacs, a very funny 90s cartoon. Let's see,

where are we? I guess we can start with some

general chat. Yeah, we've had some audio issues.

It's Skype, we found out. It's not anything that

I did or that they did or whatever. If there

was an episode that we had to do twice, it should

be the Animaniacs. So yeah, I'm not really sure

So I think we're just gonna get straight into

it and we're gonna go to the history lesson with

the teacher All right. Good evening cartoon nerds.

This is Kevin professor boss K dog bringing you

this week's history lesson for episode 2 We travel

back in time to 1993 for Steven Spielberg presents

Animaniacs The Animaniacs was a Warner Brothers

production which aired in half -hour installments,

sometimes consisting of one single half -hour

cartoon, but more commonly consisting of two

or three shorter cartoon components, a la Pinky

and the Brain and others. And it could be seen

in both weekdays and Saturday morning time, so

it's just dependent on which year you were watching

it. The show premiered on Fox on September 13th,

1993, and remained there until September 8th,

1995. It was then immediately picked up by the

WB where it aired from September 9th, 1995 to

November 14th, 1998. It has since been rebroadcast

on numerous occasions by the WB where it was

seen as part of the Cat and Birdie, Warner, Toonie,

Pinkie, Brainy, Big Cartoonie show, the Cartoon

Network, Nicktoons, and obviously various other

outlets. After all is said and done, Animaniacs

had lasted for five hilarious seasons and had

given us a grand total of 99 memorable episodes.

And not that everyone doesn't know this anyways,

but just to give a quick snapshot of the premise

of the show, the Animaniacs was the successor

to, in the slightly more adult version of the

wildly popular Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny

Toon Adventures. The Animaniacs, Yakko, Wacko,

and Dot were three bizarre characters created

in the 1930s by Warner Brothers star animator

Tex Avery, kinda. However, their starring cartoons

were so crazy out of control and incoherent that

no theater wanted to book them. embarrassed the

studio locked them up in the famous Warner Brothers

studio water tower the show picks up in the 1990s

when the trio finally escapes from the tower

and follows them as they run rampant at the studio

getting into mischief and creating havoc every

day or should I say every episode all right now

that we have the background info let's move on

to the rest of the episode this has been the

professor and class is dismissed yes I wonder

what wacko has to say about this This was going

into the general memories recollection section

here This was something that I was when fads

start Generally if it like just everywhere like

Pokemon and crap like that I tend to go the other

way and this is one of those I did not get into

animaniacs until very late after After it was

pretty much off general airing when it was in

syndication but I mean I have I have the DVDs

now of the ones that are available and I just

I have to be in the mood to watch it but when

I do watch it I really enjoy what I see yeah

I have to agree with a couple things you just

said there first of all that a first of all that

Pokemon and stuff like that is crap. But secondly,

I too kind of shied away from Animaniacs at the

beginning. I'm going to blame it on my age at

that point. I was to the point where I was starting

to focus on sports or girls or this or that.

And I remember I had a friend that was one year

younger than me, pretty much my best friend at

the time. And every time I went over to his house,

he was watching Animaniacs. And it's not that

I disliked the show, but I just got tired of

that's all he was doing. And so I kind of got

turned off of it for a while until. until I really

had forced to watch enough episodes where I started

getting into it. But I do remember sitting at

my best friend's house and it was always me,

him, and his mom that were always watching it.

And his mom would be laughing and she could repeat

some of the lines and she knew all the segments.

So I always thought that was kind of bizarre.

But after all, looking back at it, it is definitely

one of those that does stand up to the test of

time. Yes, it very much is actually. What's your

memory of it, Dion? Maniacs for me was kind of

a, I think in my book, probably one of the funniest

damn animated shows out there for the late 90s,

early 90s to late 90s. And I would always get

my mom and dad, and they were in their 60s at

the time, but they were always wanting my...

foster sister at the time Deanna to watch a healthy

wholesome cartoon instead of lasers and violence

and this and that and I happened to flip over

to Animaniacs one day and it just happened to

be you know the debuting of Animaniacs and we

all just sat there and laughed at it because

they had very funny segments they had educational

segments they had of course the music and everything

in between so it was a healthy family show and

of course you know there were catchphrases and

of course I know some of those catchphrases and

um so did my foster sister at the time but it

was a lot it was it was a good run there were

there were and still are in my book a lot of

great memories in this cartoon and my book will

never get old yeah I I agree but you know I have

to be in the mood to watch it because some of

the skits for me they just I don't know I just

have to be in the right frame of mind. You're

always in the right frame of mind. Yeah, exactly.

So I guess we can go on to the characters and

the voice actors part of this. There were tons

of famous people in this show. And you know I

said in the in the previous recording that no

one will hear because it's been scrapped But

you know we I actually didn't realize excuse

me at the time when When I was making the schedule

for the show for tooncast that Tiny Toons preceded

this and I should have put Tiny Toons is episode

2 and Animaniacs is episode 3 but oh well We're

always backwards around here. Yeah What are you

going to do? Yeah, there's not that much that

you can do. Nope. I think the first thing we

should talk about, if we're talking about characters

and voice actors, we kind of touched on it a

little bit in the last take, but exactly what

the Animaniacs were. Were they dogs? Were they,

what exactly were they? Characters that look

like dogs and a cat. I mean, I don't know. People

thought they were dogs. I think that was the

most commonly used explanation. I've never heard

from the ones creating it, and I've never listened

to all the interviews to see what they said.

But I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be that

kind of mysterious, not able to determine what

they were type of a character. Mike you've listened

to some of the interviews. Do they ever touch

on that? I don't really I would have to go back

and watch the writers roundtable. I'm not sure

But it's funny. I actually just had a He breakthrough

thought of what they could be Everybody here

has seen spaceballs, right? Correct. They're

mugs Half man half dog That works for me But

yeah, I mean even though they say it I mean the

characters themselves yagawako and dot say that

they're not dogs in the cartoon there is one

episode where wacko is sleeping and he's having

a dream and He's like growling and kind of like

barking and wagging his tail and and all this

and he's like scratching himself and everything

else So, I mean, yeah, I I think they're dogs.

I Mean, I know they were supposed it does I know

they were supposed to be, you know, this 1930s

feel and so they're modeling them after, you

know, Felix the cat and Oswald the rabbit and

stuff like that. But, you know, those characters

were, you know, definite animals. So it was just

kind of odd that they kind of left it this ambiguous,

maybe it's a dog, maybe it's a gnat. But I guess

that adds to the maniac of Animaniacs. It adds

to the mystery, I think. Very much so. uh...

as i said before there were eight on of voice

actors uh... in this uh... a lot of them came

over from tiny tunes uh... one of the reasons

why and will and will get to this when we get

to tiny tunes one of the reasons why uh... charlie

addler uh... did not even go to this series was

because uh... He felt jaded that they offered

the lead role to Rob Paulson because at the time

Paulson did do like additional voices in Tiny

Toons. He was also, I think he was the dog, the

big German bulldogger, the white dog. Yeah, yeah,

he was that voice. It Rob Paulson back then was

was it was a virtual unknown. I mean he was he

wasn't as Supposedly as famous as Charlie Adler

and Adler was just very jealous. So he didn't

come over to the show I Got to say though Rob

Paulson if I had to pick one voice actor that

was my favorite Animaniacs attempt so I guess

I kind of glad that that they did that because

I mean Rob Paulson is far and away that my favorite

voice actor in the whole cast. Yeah, I think

Rob made I think Rob made Yakko. Yeah, he made

him who he is. And I think he made Pinky too.

Yeah, he did. He made but what I'm saying for

the Warner Brothers side, you know for Animaniacs,

you know for the Warners, he made that Yakko

role. And I don't Mean I knew that Charlie Adler

and Rob Paulson were kind of at war so to speak

I mean like I agree with Kevin I think that you

know It's a good thing that Rob did take that

role because I don't think Charlie would have

really been able to do it But I think Rob made

that role stick it made yacko what he is today

who he is today and every kid when they watch

Animaniacs They know hey, that's yacko. Whereas

they see Rob Paulson doing some skit, you know

funny skit and somebody asks him about Animaniacs,

you know, he can do that voice. I've actually

seen videos of him on YouTube and they will actually

ask him to do voices, you know, that voice as

well as Pinky's voice. And when the audience,

of course, hears that, they go crazy. Right.

While we're still on, Rob Paulson, I know you

guys already know this, but some interesting

facts just for the listeners. always called in

for Jim Carrey movies whenever Jim Carrey is

not around especially when they're doing the

the dub to bring it to television like if they

have to edit stuff out from the from the original

movie they call Rob Paulson and to do the the

edits for because he did the the voice for Jim

Carrey in the cartoon version of the mask he

did you might recognize him or maybe not but

he was Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles for about nine years played a couple

different small roles in G .I. Joe and Transformers,

nothing really notable. Of course, my favorite

casting credit for him that he played in the

cartoon, not the cartoon, but in the episode

Ugly Duckling of MacGyver, he appeared as his

live -action version, so that's awesome. And

the weird twist to all of our voice actors, the

land before time connection. Rob Paulson plays

Spike in the Land Before Time, most of the Land

Before Time movies, which has a connection to

Jeff Bennett, who played Petrie, and Trace McNeil,

who played Petrie's mom. So we have a trio of

Land Before Time voice actors. It actually should

be noted, Paulson and McNeil, they both had previously...

very good voiceover careers. Jess Harnell was

a musician that came in and auditioned. I don't

think he had any other previous voice acting.

I think Animaniacs was his first show and with

Wacko he wanted to go for an Elvis type of sound

but when he saw the character he figured it was

more of a Beatles type and that's where the Wacko

voice comes from. There were two versions of

the wacko It's noted in the interview that he's

you know, he starts out very high kind of a high

-pitched wacko voice And then the voice director

You know asks him, you know, hey, can you can

you drop that a little bit lower but still keep

that British accent and so that's what he did

and there you go and for all the Sci -fi and

the cartoon nerds out there. You've heard Rob

Paulson I'm sorry, not Rob Paulson. You've heard

Jess Harnell recently If you've watched the the

last Transformers live -action. Oh, yeah, that's

right. He was Ironhide and something else. Ironhide

and Barricade. So Ironhide and Barricade from

the Transformers the 2007 live -action movie.

So you've heard him recently. Yes, we have Well,

I think there's a couple other Go ahead Kevin

I just want to say I think there's a couple other

voice actors that we should probably make a note

on. I think you're going to probably get to one

of them, so I'll let you go ahead. Well, I was

just going to say, you know, in the first episode

of Tooncast, we're talking about the Nintendo

cartoons, but I'm going to bring up one in particularly.

The Super Mario Brothers Super Show, where Maurice

LaMarche had small roles in the Super Mario Brothers

Show. Of course, he also portrays Brain in the

Animaniacs. Yeah, and I don't think we had mentioned

that when we were talking about the Super Mario

Brothers Super Show, but to piggyback on... We

did not. To piggyback on that trivia fact, he

also in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show played

the voice of Inspector Gadget, which gives us

another little ironic twist because he was also

in the original Inspector Gadget as Chief Quimby.

So, Maurice LaMarche is the man. Also in Animaniacs,

he... I also saw him out of... What are those,

comedy deals? Comic -Cons? Yeah, Comic -Cons.

Oh, um, and he was also another we talked about

some carryovers from Tiny Toons He was also obviously

in Tiny Toons as dizzy devil You may have heard

him in Captain Planet as verminous scum or in

any of the ghostbusters I didn't know that was

him in any of the ghostbusters. It doesn't matter

It could be real ghostbusters extreme ghostbusters

ghostbusters in the slimer one. He was dr. Egon

Spangler and all she was As far as as far as

animaniacs goes he was also squits or squid or

whatever the hell the Goodfellas name is yeah

Just the just the voice cast on the on this show.

I mean you've got tons of people Bernadette Peters

she was not actually the original role of Rita

uh... the rid of the original person to play

it but she they wanted to bring in because this

is so musical we need to bring that up it is

very musical in nature uh... and she brought

that really well bernadette wasn't you know like

you said mike you know she they had somebody

else but i guess at the last minute she dropped

out so unfortunately we will never with the original

voice of rita the cat would have been What just

going down the list of a couple people we haven't

mentioned you had Frank Welker You had We didn't

really talk too much about Jeff Bennett, but

he's also recently been in the Transformers animated

as prowl We had You had someone from that you

mentioned the first time that I had forgotten

something about. Oh, yeah Tom Bodette from Motel

6 Yeah, so that's pretty cool. Do you have Ron

Perlman? See? I didn't know that I didn't know

about Ron Perlman. I was like, wait, what? And

it lists it on IMDB. It lists Cory Burton as

doing a couple of additional voices, too. So

I don't know which ones they would have been,

but that's another famous person that was involved.

Yeah, I mean, there's tons of people. Just tons

and tons. I had a quick question for you. still

on the voice actors, but more so just the character

standpoint for both you and Dion. If you had

to pick a favorite character, who would it be?

I'll let Dion go, because I have to think. You

got one, Dion? There's so many of them. Well,

you both are thinking, I think it's a tie for

me between... Yakko and Pinky for me. I mean,

yeah, I guess it's both the same person that's

doing them, but for some reason, I didn't know

that when I was a kid. Obviously, I didn't know

whose voice and who, and I had no clue that it

was the same person, but I just really liked

Yakko and Pinky both there. The way the voice

was done, the character, I just liked everything

about them. And my least favorite character when

I was a kid was probably Katie. Yeah, I didn't

like Katie either. Katie was horrible. you say

wacko and buttons because i felt so bad for buttons

i did i felt so bad for him i i felt so bad for

buttons just because mindy's this little kid

but yet she gets into mischief and they think

buttons is the one who is you know doing all

the mischief and it isn't And then of course

to hear Frank Welker say bad. Bad dog. And the

other thing, it should be noted about Welker.

I mean, we all know that Frank Welker is a voice

acting god. I mean, he pretty much invented the

fucking art of voice acting as far as I'm concerned.

But I mean, it is just the way it is. He has

voiced every animal and almost anything that's

been animated ever. Well, no, I know he has well

runt runt talks, but I mean as far as animal

sounds that's the person that Yes, exactly No,

not at all, but he plays I think he plays pretty

much every animal in this show That wouldn't

surprise me I don't know either but I think he

does I'm not really sure Yeah, it kind of does

As far as my favorite character, I really can't

pick one I think my favorite part about wacko

and we didn't really mention this in intake one

Which we really need to talk about is his gag

bag. I loved that He always had the gag bag around

forgot about that Yeah Yeah, that's I like that

as well. I remember that actually I think the

best episode is, I forget what the title is,

it's where Scratch and Sniff has gone to get

him and Mr. Plotts wants to see him and they

get stuck in the elevator. And Dr. Scratch and

Sniff is like, Wacko, do something about this.

Take something out of your gaggy bag. I didn't

bring it. It's at home. You always bring it everywhere.

Why didn't you? I don't know. I just didn't bring

it. But yeah, I mean. the the gag ag yeah and

the other thing that was funny about but not

that episode but just another a whole gag bag

deal was um... it's party timer i got a party

or whatever we're we're all three of them are

in the movies and he has to go to the bathroom

he can't find anywhere to go to the bathroom

yes uh... party over here that's what is called

party emergency yes exactly i have to party have

to potty what yeah and then he starts and he

starts going through the gag bag I know I have

a party in here somewhere it's just it was just

so so funny yeah yeah I think the only person

we didn't really mention too much on, and I'll

just give her a shout out real quick, I didn't

necessarily love Dot, which was done by Trace

McNeil obviously, but I will say that I liked

her version of Dot better than, which we'll get

to next week, her version of Babs Bunny. For

some reason I was a bigger fan of Dot than Babs.

So if you listen it's the same it's the same

voice it's the same voice But it was just I don't

know it was something with the inflections or

the way that it was done No, because if you listen

to both, it's the same thing, but the difference

between I can tell you the difference between

the two dot was kind of a Whiny type voice. Well,

you also have to look good. Sorry I'm gonna say

Dot was kind of a whiny type voice, whereas Babs

was kind of more of a grown -up voice. Because

when I first heard Dot, I thought they put her

on talking helium. I did! I mean, I was a kid,

so obviously when I was a kid, I'm not going

to figure, how the hell did they do those voices

like that? Is she sucking down helium the whole

entire show? She kind of sounded like that in

some of her roles in Chip and Dale's, too. Chip

and Dale's Rescue Rangers, not Chip and Dale's

The Dancer. With Chip and Gadget and Zipper,

she had a couple of those that were kind of that

same sound. I don't know, it's just something

about Dot. Maybe it was the lines that they were

given, Dot compared to the other lines. Well,

the other thing you have to look at is the fact

that Dot, Wacko, and Yakko are all supposed to

be... you know kids are supposed to be on nine

ten eight nine ten eleven you know twelve you

know preteens and babs and buster and all of

them are supposed to be close to like early teens

so you really have to look at that uh... and

i didn't even i mean i i kinda knew interest

did babs but i wasn't really because i've been

watching the the uh... well i've been watching

the dvds for next week but uh... just the the

range of voices like in that first episode aloni

beginning she's asking buster about what voice

which she and she goes to like a whole list of

voices and i didn't even know that that was trust

me on it of course it is uh... do we have anything

else to say about the cast or the voicing well

besides animaniacs trez also appears in well

yeah that's right alright well we're gonna now

go into the creators writers producers animation

behind the scenes and before we do that i would

like to point out one quick thing most people

do not know this uh... everybody always asked

jess harnell about the burping with wacko and

the great wacko roddy and uh... in a behind the

scenes clip that i grabbed this is what he has

to say about it This is revealed for the first

time publicly. Everybody always wanted to talk

to me on those signing things about the burping.

Everybody was always like, you know, when you

burped, you have to drink a lot of soda. And

I go, well, you know what's really funny. because

I did, because you know, you would - And who

is it? My stunt burper is the best in the business.

And it's that gentleman right there. And I don't

want to, Mo, I don't want to put you on the spot

and you're so well dressed and handsome today.

Not at all. But if you wouldn't mind, Mo, would

you give us a little, just a little example of

the magic you used to do on my behalf? Go to

zero. It takes a second to warm up. Center, center,

now. uh... i didn't even know that i thought

that was just but i didn't even know that at

all uh... what i thought what i thought they

used to do like tape him record different tracks

of him burping Then no they most of those most

of Andrea Romano who is the voice and casting

director most of her voice sessions and anything

She's ever done. It's been an ensemble cast unless

they couldn't get the actor to to come to the

studio They would do it by satellite, but most

of her voice sessions from all the all the DVDs

and stuff that I've seen her on. It's been an

ensemble cast and I would have loved to have

been a fly on the wall in that casting room on

a day that they were doing a great Whackerati

session because I was exactly Because I am betting

I am very much betting that they had just Harnell

doing The voice stuff and then Mo sitting right

across from him or down or down the line from

him doing the burping I'm betting they did it

simultaneously Yeah, and there's just too many

there's just too many out very much so serious

outtakes of that stuff I would love to yeah very

much so at that moment i thought i'm sure it

just sounds sick way does it i mean that's uh...

it's it sounds like he's not even not natural

so yeah uh... who do you want to read the creation

part kevin uh... yet shirt that they may accept

cast characters brady inspiration uh... from

celebrities to writers family members uh... to

other writers Steven Spielberg said that the

reverence in Looney Tunes cartoons inspired the

Animaniacs cast. The general premise of Animaniacs

and the Warner siblings were created by Tom Ruger,

who also came up with the concept and characters

of Pinky and the Brain. Ruger was also senior

producer and creative leader of the show. And

he modeled some of the personalities after his

own three sons. Besides that, because the Warners

were portrayed as cartoon stars from the early

30s, Ruger and the other artist made the images

as similar as they could to characters in the

1930s that we mentioned a little bit before,

but you should see similarities between the animaniacs,

the way they're drawn and animated, and the characters

like Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,

and very early versions of Mickey Mouse. Yeah,

I mean it's just, he also, Ruger, his son plays

Skippy. And it says on here, Tom Ruger created

Pinky and the Brain after being inspired by the

personalities of two of his Tiny Toon Adventures

colleagues, Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton.

Ruger thought of the premise of Pinky and the

Brain when he wondered what would happen if Minton

and Fitzgerald tried to take over the world.

And then it goes on to say stuff about Sheri

Stoner, who was a writer on the show. She created

the voice of Slappy the Squirrel. uh... and another

writer friend of stoner uh... john mccain made

a fun of stoner's career in tv and movies playing

trouble teenagers and i think they really hit

the nail on the head was sloppy sheets sherry

said in the in the d on the dvd that uh... sheet

you know cartoon characters never age she wanted

to make an old card Was she in the Tiny Tunes?

Was she in Tiny Tunes? Just out of curiosity?

Yeah, she was involved with it. I don't know

if she was any voices, but she was definitely

involved in it. I don't think she did. I'm not

sure I'd have to look. I didn't know if she did

a voice or not. But in creating Slappy, she wanted

to create an old cartoon character who could

make all kinds of references to classic actors,

actresses, in times of like 30s and 40s and stuff

like that. And I thought that was a really great

way to give a different cartoon character. Right.

She's not that she was just really, she said

she was just really kind of, she was looking

at Slappy and she was trying to figure out if

she did that voice, what kind of voice she would

have, you know, Slappy would have. And when she

did that, I thought, yep, pure New York. Cause

that's exactly what she sounds like. It's someone

from New York or Brooklyn. She is not listed

as a voice at all. Say that again, Kevin. I'm

sorry. She's not listed at all as any voices

from Tiny Toons, just as a writer. Oh, okay.

Okay As far as the production We all know Spielberg

was the editor producer during the entire run

Ruger was the senior producer Jean McCurdy was

the executive in charge of production There's

a there's a whole bunch of names from the early

90s. Actually the I think the entire The entire

Animaniacs crew is probably a majority of the

old tiny tunes crew as well Yeah Andrea Romano

Said that Spielberg also came up with story ideas

read storyboards and came to recording sessions,

which I think that's great. I mean Yeah, I think

that's something that makes Spielberg who he

is. He's not just someone that's gonna, you know,

slap his name on something He's gonna get involved

and everybody that you read, you know or interviews

that you see about Whether it's Tiny Toons or

Animaniacs. He was involved with everything,

you know He and he wasn't just coming in and

walking through he was checking scripts. He was

approving shows He was giving his yes. He was

actually in I think it was one of the very first

episodes where the Warner's go to uh... rome

and they go to the sistine chapel and i have

to help michael angelo paint the ceiling and

uh... michael angel keeps going on oh my god

his eminence is going to be here is that and

you know we go to the end of the episode and

it's an animated version of spielberg with his

with him doing i believe he did his own voice

i think he did i'm not sure Yeah, that's impressive

and what it was even more impressive if you consider

the time frame We're at because this is when

Stevens this is like in the same time period

that Steven Spielberg is doing Jurassic Park

So and you know and Sequest on TV amongst other

projects and he's you know, those are huge Overtakings

in and to to still be in as involved as he isn't

just a little simple cartoon show as it You know

is usually perceived. Yes, very much how much

he wanted this to be a success There is one other

character. There's one other character that I

do not know his name, but he isn't an Animaniacs

He was very oh, yes. I don't know who did that

voice. I don't know But I think this is what

you're talking I Don't I I Think it was It was

I don't know the actual character name I mean

in that scene in that in that little clip He

is a director on a movie that the warners come

in and kind of just take over But Right, yeah

exactly if I had to bet I would say it was sure

or Paulson or somebody Unless yeah, who is it?

unless that you there is a character listed oh

yeah that's right he was one of the writers was

that it's paul rug i'm not familiar with yep

okay yeah let's him as a mr director for eight

episodes yep all right did that okay i always

wondered who you know who was behind that voice

because When you know, like Mike was mentioning

the one which come in and take over this movie

it was very hilarious very much so There were

so many funny, you know, just moments in it.

Yeah Going back into the behind the scenes something

we didn't really touch on the first time around

but going into the actual writing There's some

quotations and some lines from some of the people

that were involved from uh... one of the writers

peter hastings as a we're really there to tell

compelling stories as a writer you could do a

real story if you want to you could recite star

spangled banner you could parity a commercial

you could all these kinds of things and uh...

that tremendous freedom to do basically whatever

they wanted to as writers so i guess uh... actually

it's funny what i didn't really go into this

either uh... as far as uh... the writers for

the series wrote uh... Yeah, they wrote episodes

that happened to them stories that happened to

them Ups and downs survey ladies and I got your

can were episodes based on true stories that

happened to Paul Rugg, Dianne Oliver and Sherry

Stoner respectively another episode Bambi's mom

both parodied the film Bambi and was a story

based on Stoner's childhood reaction to that

film Which we didn't cover I'm trying to see

here. No, I don't think so. I didn't grab any

beforehand. I don't know. Another thing about

the writers that could separate it from some

of the other shows at least that I'm familiar

with is you had a lot of shows where just a writer

would take over one episode and that was his

or her episode and they did everything about

it. I'm not maybe not true with all cartoons,

but a lot of the ones I've seen that's the case

that it was and Animaniacs it talks about how

Yeah, it talks about how they they could collaborate

if they were you know struggling with an ending

They would they would you know go to another

writer get their advice So it seems like there's

a lot more teamwork on this and it wasn't just

yeah There were multiple writing credits in each

episode one's doing another episode Well computer

animation hadn't really come into play yet, I

don't think. I know for a fact, and this is kind

of off topic, but I know for a fact that computer

animation didn't really go into as far as Warner

Brothers using it until like late 95, 96 because

uh... bruce tim in them who did the dc in the

universe started using computer animation on

the later seasons and episodes of superman uh...

the animated series so yeah i don't think i think

this is all hand -drawn well the the the and

uh... another thing that is off -topic uh...

the super mario really super show at any nintendo

stuff that we ever saw one computer done It was

never in yes, it was computer -animated if you

look very closely at its computer -animated Because

of the way if you look at if you look at the

way For example Super Mario the way he walks

if you know a bit of a jerky walk with him. That's

computer. It's computer drawn Touching on what

since we're on kind of moved on to the animation

part It is important to note that animaniacs

was a very costly animated project and it was

a much higher standard of animation than most

of the cartoons you would have been watching

in the 90s or beforehand. The sell counts very

much higher and definitely a lot more went into

that. Steven Spielberg especially was one of

the main people that was powering that through.

He wanted it to be just about as perfect as he

could get. Oh yeah. He was a perfectionist back

then. I think he still is in my book, yes. And

I think the animation is one thing that he really

keyed in on. He was involved in a lot of the

different processes, but I think animation is

the thing that he took the most from. Oh yeah,

very much so. And they actually, over the course

of the show's production, they used several different

animation studios. TMS, Star Tunes, Wang Film

Productions, which, wow, bad joke. Rough Draft

Studios, Freelance, Animators, New Zealand, and

ACOM. Most Animaniacs episodes, the segments

were just character layouts and backgrounds were

produced at Warner Brothers in California, while

third -party companies did the animation and

ink and paint work. More of the later Kids WB

episodes were animated by Wang Film Productions

and ACOM. What Mike speaking of shut the hell

options you have some of those don't you god

good thing this podcast is explicit And to kind

of go back to the tiny tunes and animaniacs is

predecessors Oh Crap wrong one. Damn it That's

the first time that's the first time I think

it's been directed at me yeah, well I think we're

gonna go to the actual show itself it was on

may you know some people may not know this it

originally started on Fox Kids and um... the

first sixty nine episodes are on there and you

wacko or not wacko yakko usually made fun of

fox which everybody makes fun of fox nowadays

yeah i was going to say now that was in fox's

early days though in some respects as far as

if i'm remembering this right for a lot of their

programming like cartoons and stuff that was

when fox was good yes i i believe they're very

i can't be for certain but i believe their very

first cartoon was the simpsons uh... in nineteen

eighty nine and that yes so they're fairly fresh

on the scene so this is a huge a huge deal for

us very much so i'd like it's not it's nineteen

eighty nine 87 because it was on the Tracy Allman

show. Okay. I'm not I'm not talking about that

I'm talking about when the first season premiered

on Fox I'm not talking about the drawings groaner

did in in in Tracy Allman I'm talking about when

it for when the first when the show got picked

up it was December 20th 1989 Yes, but he was

doing those back then too, but I'm just saying

it was The animation show, god damn it. You son

of a bitch. Now I just got real explicit. Well,

I don't care. I curse all the time anyway. Going

into this being a huge deal for Fox, not only

was it really important that Animaniacs was successful,

but some of the shows that it was going up against,

it was a big deal. Gained a lot because it was

pretty much the second most popular show for

children at the time. I'm not saying You know

because a lot of people saw it they were like

this is not gonna last this will last one season

I wish it would have been the most popular children's

show at the time because I can't stand what was,

but we'll just say that Animaniacs was the second

most popular show. And that they made fun of

the first most popular show. If you don't know

what it is, you need to rewatch all the Animaniacs

episodes. uh... and then they switched over to

uh... wb kids wb uh... from episode seventy to

ninety -nine and yeah uh... wait what issue yeah

i don't know what well you know i don't miss

you jay frog is uh... i was saying like you know

i kind of missed that fraud yeah i did because

they have a they have a singing frog singing

about the freaking Animaniacs and then they walk

away. True, true. Let's see in finally in 1998

animaniacs was cancelled by the WB led by executive

Jamie Kellner who has also been held responsible

for the cancellations of Freakazoid and pinky

in the brain the last new animaniacs episode

was aired November 14th 1998 animaniacs was ended

one episode short of having 100 episodes afterwards

Damn them all to hell! That's too funny. I think

one thing we haven't talked about with the show

is kind of next on our list. We should mention

a little bit about some of the, you know, the

recurring jokes, the catchphrases, the hallmarks,

the humor, you know, the stuff that really made

anime. Yeah, I was going to get to that. I was

just trying to keep you from a couple things

that would have ended up here. Yeah, I mean,

there was tons of parodies in this show. Yeah,

it parodied everything and you weren't safe If

you were out there you were gonna be parodied

and something we kind of mentioned the first

episode or the first take on this one is You

at least how I looked at it You were parodied

or made fun of or whatever for one of two reasons

and it was either you were really bad Your show

or whatever it is that they were parodying or

you know, we good if you if you were in the middle

They're probably not touching you. But if you're

really bad or really good you were you were on

the anime at some point If you were really good,

it's actually me. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Very much

so. Yeah, just some of the humor in the show

was actually very dark sometimes. Only adults

would say that. Exactly. And usually, Wacko would

say, after a certain line or something, he would

say this. Good night, everybody. It's usually

signified. Yeah exactly what it was and that

wasn't you know, that's obviously not unintentional

They wanted this to be a little bit more of an

adult show than Tiny Toons was and I succeeded

I mean that I mean, I think they're both very

adult shows I mean if you go back and look at

there, you know where these both shows the main

Influence came from tiny or not tiny Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes was and we'll get into this once

the Looney Tunes episode comes around it's Yes,

it's way down the line But and I did that for

a specific reason anyway You know Looney Tunes

was the creators have said they made it for themselves.

It's not for kids It's for it's for themselves.

It's for grown -ups And Animaniacs and Tiny Toons

as well would you know it does have the kid element,

but it also has adult stuff Yeah, but I do think

animaX is definitely kicking it up a notch from

Tiny Toons They're both they both have the adult,

you know parts, but animaX is a little bit more.

Oh, yes But I think so I think too though they

wanted it to Stay around the kids understanding,

you know the kids comprehensions level. So that

way, you know, obviously parents wouldn't be

writing into the network You know getting a lot

of hate mail And I'm actually glad that they

did that but I'm also glad in a sense that they

kind of tuned it up You know turned it up a notch

for adults too. Of course. The other thing I

want to mention is that Minerva Mink had a very

very small role in the cartoon due to her Yes,

Minerva Mink had episodes that the network censors

considered too sexually suggestive for the show's

intended audience for which she was soon de -emphasized

as a featured character. In the case of double

entendre such as earlier mentioned, oh yeah,

the planet song, Yakko forgot Uranus and Wacko

comes in at the end and you forgot Uranus. And

then of course Yakko would pop into the frame

usually saying goodnight everybody. Since many

of this... Good The good night everybody that

that kind of reminds me of Going back up a little

bit some of the you know recurring catchphrases

that we heard over and over and over again You

know, yes exactly funny. Yeah you had the I think

you have some of them but The Hello Nurse, the

Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering from Brain.

And I know you don't have this one because you

hate pink in the brain, but the G brain that

Pinky always says, you know, that stuff was just

awesome. Hey, brain, what are we going to do

tonight? I love that. Yes, exactly. Same thing

that we always do, Pinky. Try to take over the

world. You know, I actually at one time, and

I wish I still had the clip, but I actually had

a clip where they actually screwed up that ending.

It was an outtake. It was an actual outtake from

a recording session. That would be funny to hear.

And I'll have to get it, but my friends got it.

But yeah, it was an actual enemy. Yes, this one

here actually wanted that to be an homage to

What's Up Doc from Bugs. That's what it's supposed

to be. Yep. Yes, it was. The Animaniacs characters

had personalities and character traits similar.

Oh wait, I already read that part, sorry. Crap,

I'm losing my... In addition to the show's recurring

Goodfellas segment was populated with characters

based on characters from the 1990 WB film Goodfellas.

an already crime drama neither marketed nor intended

for children uh... which i think they dumbed

down the good fellows good feathers thing very

well uh... it wasn't as well and other than you

know squirt up as to always beaten up squit uh...

well yeah but that's what i think that's the

way that you should be in your car yeah that's

true curse black Something else that I really

liked about the... Call for the pigeon feather,

anyone? Was the whole fourth wall concept though

that we talked about last time with the characters

breaking the fourth wall. making faces or talking

to the audience I thought that was cool even

you know back I can remember originally watching

the show and think that was so cool that the

characters on the show were actually interacting

with me as a as a viewer and obviously you know

they you they're not actually doing it but you

just had the sense that they were actually you

know speaking to you you had Dot you know explaining

her jokes to you you had Yakko making fun of

the story which was always kind of bizarre when

you're watching it you're like you're making

fun of your own story but it's really cool and

then you had you know Slappy complaining about

things in her segments. I just thought the interaction

between the characters and you and the way that

they were breaking that mold and doing that was

really cool. What I thought was very interesting

was in one of the ending episodes, the credits,

if you will, when the Warners pop out, before

they pop out of the tower. Actually, they're

at the top of the tower, but you don't see them

but wackos getting some stuff out of a bag and

then he creates this escalator that goes up to

the tower and The guard gets underneath the tower

and then you see an anvil come down and pop them

on the head and then the Warner Brothers Yeah,

there was always You know, we got to remember

that this show and I know this is slightly off

the the parodies and stuff like that but I mean

the show was basically to You know, from start

to finish it was trying to capture them to get

them back in the tower after they escaped. At

the end of every show there was always some sort

of gag and this goes back to me talking about

Wacko's gag bag. I remember one specific episode.

They used a chair to get up there. Once they're

up there, something else comes down on Ralph

the guard and then it goes back up to the water

tower and they just, all three of them, just

kinda like shrug their shoulders and go in. You

know, we should also... Yeah, exactly Yeah, oh

yes, but that's what made it cute I think if

I had to pick an overall my favorite wacko moment

other than you know Some of the more famous stuff

that he that that that wacko did was his birthday

episode where him and both plots uh... were scared

death of clowns and just what he did to that

clown was so hilarious uh... yet and you do you

have uh... do you have a favorite uh... favorite

episode or a favorite one of your favorite episodes

i don't know the title of it but it's when The

Warner Brothers are getting some foreign investors

and they get this they're gonna the investors

if they like the Warners and everybody They're

gonna give them a billion dollar check and at

the end of the episode remember that one the

Warners run off with the check Dr. Scratch and

Sniff is standing there waving and Plot is like,

hey, give me back my check. That's my check.

And you hear his voice fade out at the end. Oh

yeah. And they're running off with the billion

dollars. Nice. And they're like, and. And before

everything that I just described happens, Jaco

goes, you know Doc, there's one thing that I've

learned about this. And Scratch and Sniff goes,

yeah, what's that? And Jaco goes, I don't know,

but apparently it's worth a billion dollars.

Yeah, I like that episode. And I think I like,

there's a lot of episodes I like. I think I like

HMS Jaco. Yeah, yes, I love that so that one's

great. I Don't know if I I don't think I have

a favorite episode, but I I have some favorite

things that they would do or favorite segments

I like the episodes where the oh, yeah, the mixing

up of the scripts. Yeah, I really liked it when

Yeah, when you had people completely in the wrong

script, you know in the wrong skit you had character

showing up or just like the occasional walking

by and being like I'm not in the right place.

It just always kind of caught me off guard and

I'm like, that's awesome. I just like the Wheel

of Morality. I don't know why, but that was just

pretty good. Let's see, do I have a Wheel of

Morality? Let's see. Let's see, what do I got?

What do I got? Let's see. It's that time again.

To make fun of the Disney Channel? No, it's time

to learn the day's lesson. And to find out what

it is, we turn to the wheel of morality wheel

of morality turn turn turn tell us the lesson

that we should learn moral number five and the

moral of today's story is if you can't say something

nice you're probably at the ice capades that

is so true excuse me but yeah um And then my

favorite plots line was this That come through

Damn it Still nothing Yeah, yeah, that's it.

That's it. Yeah, and then I like that Yeah Yeah,

I know I think we're gonna unless we have anything

else Yeah Yeah, just my my only other favorite

thing about it besides those skits that I said,

you know with the characters break on the fourth

wall and being in the wrong skits my other favorite

moments which should be a oh yes very much so

and i think uh... we're gonna get one of the

uh... songs out of the way now because we'll

have a discussion about it in a minute and please

no talking during this song uh... not sure i'd

have to look that up so uh... here is yakos world

United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti,

Jamaica, Peru, Republic, Dominican, Cuba, Caribbean,

Greenland, El Salvador, too, Puerto Rico, Colombia,

Venezuela, Honduras, Guyana, and still, Guatemala,

Bolivia, then Argentina, and Ecuador, Chile,

Brazil, Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda,

Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan, Paraguay, Uruguay,

Suriname, and French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway and Sweden and Iceland and Finland and

Germany now a one -piece Switzerland, Austria,

Czechoslovakia, Italy, Turkey and Greece Poland,

Romania, Scotland, Albania, Ireland, Russia,

Oman Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Cyprus,

Iraq and Iran There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel,

Jordan, both Yemen, Kuwait and Bahrain The Netherlands,

Luxembourg, Belgium and Portugal, France, England,

Denmark and Spain India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan,

Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan, Cambodia, Malaysia,

then Bangladesh, Asia, and China, Korea, Japan,

Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia, the Philippine

Islands, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra,

New Zealand, and Borneo, and Vietnam, Tunisia,

Morocco, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Djibouti,

Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia,

Guinea, Algeria, Ghana. Yeah, that But that was

just great and as much risque as this show was

it was It did balance out with the educational

stuff Yeah, and as as the teacher of the group

I do have to admit that I I do offer this as

extra credit We actually watch the video in class

and anyone that can can sing that song Flawlessly

does get extra credit So I love I love the educational

songs like this one and a couple others that

we'll talk about here in a bit Looking at some

of the stuff heading into this episode, I do

have to admit, I was watching some of these skits

and some of the stuff on YouTube. I kinda got

sidetracked and if you haven't done this, you

should. If you're an Animaniacs fan or if you're

a fan of that song, you gotta go to YouTube and

do a search, not for the animated version of

the song, but do a search for Rob Paulson doing

it live. And it's just absolutely hilarious to

watch his facial expressions and the things he

does. while he's doing that because everywhere

he goes he gets asked to do that song and he

can just rattle it off like nothing which I think

is very impressive because I've never really

tried to do it but I can imagine that once I

got to Africa I would I would crash and burn

because and I think that's what made it so funny

you you get this thing and it's going fast and

it gets to Africa and it just like goes even

faster. He actually does it on the DVD. He what?

Does his facial expressions look tiring? No,

he just does these crazy eyes that like look

like he's going and well Sometimes it looks like

he's tiring. Sometimes it looked like he's like

he's actually insane And then he does like the

little accents a couple times. It's just it's

impressive I've seen it and from like three different

place three different Interviews. Yeah where

he busts out into it and it's just it's just

amazing to watch They actually good Kevin On

the educational thing, we also had the US states

and capitals. We had all the presidents. We had

so many things that if a kid could pick that

up and if the kid uses that and learns something

from it, I mean, there's a definite bonus from,

like you said, the educational standpoint of

the cartel. Yeah, there very much was. And I

think that's good. I mean, there wasn't many

cartoons then, and there's not many cartoons

now that offer an educational standpoint. I can

reword that statement. Well, yeah, I know, but

I'm saying back then and now. No, I'm talking

about now. I'm not talking about back then. I'm

talking about now, just in general. Yeah. Animaniacs,

though, I think I can only think of one other.

I mean, you have to go to Schoolhouse Rock to

get anything even close. Yeah. As far as the

music goes, I said before, it's very much a musical

cartoon. One original score in almost every episode.

They had a 40 -piece orchestra. uh... the music

was composed by richard stone and assistant composers

steve and julie burnstein they're actually steven

julia actually uh... on the uh... on the dvd

set in i'd believe in the voice uh... version

in the voice uh... special uh... and then they're

talking about and they were actually going for

a carl stalling type of uh... you know you know

the music follows the action And that kind of

brings up an interesting trivia note that we

didn't say in the first time, but that not only

were they going for that, but they used the same

studio and piano that Carl Stalin used. Yes.

So that's kind of interesting. Well, you were

talking about what your favorite episode was,

and I got to go back to it. I don't know the

title. That's when Slappy is Driving. Yep. And

they use the little old lady from Pasadena tune.

And I thought that was pretty funny. And then

at the end, you see her getting dragged off by

the police. And before she gets dragged off,

you see her put her car in the garage. And she

looks at the camera and says, and I never took

a lesson in my entire life. It was pretty funny.

And another thing that we. I can't go without

mentioning, I know we talked about her in the

early on when we were talking about one casting,

but this is where Bernadette Peters came in huge

too. She could take the most complicated songs

and you could give it to Rita and we had the

Broadway voice there that could handle that,

so that was huge. Yes, it was. I thought Bernadette

did a very good job as Rita. And it was just

very, very, you know, she did a very, very good

role and very, very, she was just very, very

well rehearsed for this role and it was very,

you know, good to hear her doing the voice of

Rita. It was probably, it's probably best that

she was the one chosen. Very much so. Animaniacs

had a variety of music types. Many Animaniac

songs were parodies of classical or folk music.

with an educational twist such as Wacko's America,

which listed all the states and the U .S. capitals

to the tune of Turkey and the Straw. Another

song titled The President's Name, which we already

mentioned, U .S. President to the tune of Cavalry

Charge, segment of William Tell Overture. You

also have some non -educational songs as well,

simple parodies of other songs like Slippin'

on the Ice, a parody of Singin' in the Rain,

songs mocking things in everyday life such as

Be Careful What You Eat that made fun of all

the ingredients in junk food, songs making fun

of celebrities in other media such as the video

review which listed movie stars and films, and

most of the show's songs were sung by the Warners

as far as Wacko, Yakko, and Dot. You had Pinky

and Brain doing that. Occasional songs and obviously

like I said we had Rita And I will play, if I

can find it here, I will play Wacko's America

Crap take two we did Okay, let's see All right

then in the category of the United States the

answer is This is the capital of Ohio. There's

Montgomery, Alabama. South of Helena, Montana.

Then there's Denver, Colorado. Under Boise, Idaho.

Texas has Austin. Then we go north to Massachusetts,

Boston, and Albany, New York. Tallahassee, Florida,

and Washington, D .C. Santa Fe, New Mexico, and

Nashville, Tennessee. Hell, this used to hang

out there a lot. North of Jefferson, Missouri,

you've got Richmond in Virginia, South Dakota

has Pierre, Harrisburg's in Pennsylvania, and

Augusta's up in Maine, and here is Providence,

Rhode Island, next to Dover, Delaware, Concord,

New Hampshire, just up with John's, to Montpelier,

which is up in Vermont, Hartford's in Connecticut,

Subriti in the fall, and Kansas has Topeka, Minnesota

has Saint Paul. Juneau's in Alaska, and there's

Lincoln in Nebraska, and it's Raleigh out in

North Carolina. As Madison, Wisconsin and Olympia

in Washington Phoenix, Arizona and Lansing, Michigan

Here's Honolulu, Hawaii's a joy Jackson, Mississippi

and Springfield, Illinois South Carolina with

Columbia down the way And Annapolis and Maryland

on Chesapeake Bay They are wonderful clam chowder

Cheyenne is in Wyoming and perhaps you make your

home in Salt Lake City out in Utah where the

buffalo roam I would just like to point out that

if you listen to the CD and the TV version They

take the TV version and mix it onto the CD, okay?

They it's like they They take the singing track

and then just mix it with the music. I don't

know It's like they they rerecord the music track,

but they take the the the singing, you know versus

Mike you got to explain the buzzer Oh, yeah,

the but I I meant to get the whole thing, but

I wanted to end it on the buzzer they were doing

they The whole point of the episode was they

were in school with Miss Flamil and they were

doing Jeopardy for their categories for their

lesson that day. And Wacko, as we heard in the

beginning, he blew the wad, meaning he, insert

bad joke there, but anyway, anyway, he went for

it. Back to Wacko production. He went for a full

Daily Double and because he didn't answer in

the form of a question, he lost. So even with

that song, he lost. Yeah, because you'd have

to say what is or what are and then the 50 states.

Yeah, you can't just remember 50 states and capitals,

you gotta remember those two things. Before we

get too far completed with the music segment,

we have to mention, obviously, the theme song,

which did win an Emmy Award. And I'll get this

out of the way, because you're going to be hearing

me reference this multiple times throughout the

lifespan of Tooncast. But when I was in college,

I... I got crazy obsessed with cartoon theme

songs. I listened to over 400 different shows

and their theme songs, one after the other, and

kind of went through a whole thing, created two

different CDs. One of them was 1980 through 1995,

which had, I listed the top 70 from that time

period, and I put in Animaniacs at number eight,

but obviously it... A lot of people put it higher,

it won the Emmy. And I think the best thing about

the theme song was the alternate ending. Oh yeah,

they changed constantly. The actual intro that

people will hear at the beginning of this show,

I believe Dot says, and here's the show's name

-y. But there was tons of other stuff. There

was tons of different ones that they did. It

was just crazy. Trying to think of some of them.

Dion, you got some of those endings? Let's see.

the show's name -y, Eisenhower Maney, Chicken

Chow Maney, Pinky and the Brainy, Pinky and the

Brainy. Let's see, some of them were reused.

And then there's one where Yakko just stands

there at the camera and goes, uh, because he

couldn't think of what the hell to say. Let's

see, Andromeda Stringy was one. The series actually

the theme song itself Richard Stone did the music,

composed the music for the title sequence, and

Tom Ruger wrote the lyrics. And several Animaniacs

albums and sing -along VHS tapes were released,

including the CDs Animaniacs, Yakko's World,

and Variety Pack, the tape Animaniacs, Sing Along,

Yakko's World. And there was tons of other Animaniacs

CDs. The music for the show... What like I said

before it's very both this and tiny tunes It's

very looney tunes esque and I and I do like that.

I like having You know seeing a cartoon with

these characters that especially buttons and

Mindy I mean the buttons cartoons were probably

buttons is basically a dog version of Wiley Coyote

That's what he is And it was just super awesome

to see the music go along with the cartoon Yeah

did you grab any of the bad bad dog no i did

not um but i believe uh which we have not mentioned

yet which is um mime time and this it's time

for another good idea bad idea those segments

are always so funny um the mime time really doesn't

lend to audio i mean i could i i could use the

um I could use the, you know, it's mime time

and then, you know, this was mime time, but I

mean, the actual, what you see on screen, it

doesn't really play out for an audio podcast

because there's no sound, obviously, except like

a loud crunching sound from an anvil or something.

And that's something else we haven't brought

up. That or football players. Well, there's something

else we haven't brought up, the over and the

ever loving use of anvils in this show. I mean,

they use an anvil for anything and everything.

Yeah Yes, yes Let's see what else I think we

can get on to the popularity unless you guys

have anything else to say about the music I was

gonna get one, but I figured it would put the

listeners to sleep Play this. It's only 30 seconds.

Heading into the response the show got, we said

this was a huge show for Fox originally. And

it did receive ratings higher than its competitors

usually. We'll get into a little bit to the awards

it ran. But going into the ratings, we mentioned

second most popular. children show in both children

ages 2 to 11 or if you take the 6 to 11 bracket

And it helped bring Fox Kids ratings much larger

than most of its competitors for instance November

1993 Animaniacs and Tiny Toons together almost

doubled the ratings of Darkling Duck and Goof

Troop And we had about a million. Yeah, and we

had about a million Children or adults viewing

every week, so that's huge Well, it's a was it

furthermore the series gained high ratings under

Disinvent this advantageous circumstances during

November 1993 the Dallas Fox affiliate had a

three -day transmitter failure in this time period

11 ,000 homes turned are tuned into the blank

screen during the Animaniacs time slot, which

was almost double the rating of the rival KXTX

TV children's show. Yes, very much. That is weird.

Hey, let's watch a black screen! Going back up

just a little bit to reiterate the adult angle,

there's some stats that showed that about 21

% or 23%, depending on what time of the week

you were looking at, of the viewers were 25 years

or older. So you're looking at almost a fifth

to almost a fourth of the viewers of the show

being 25 years or older. So obviously they were

successful with trying to aim that at that adult

fan base. Or even just the older kids group,

remember they're trying to keep the same audience

that tuned in for Tiny Toons, which by this point

has aged a couple, they're all getting a couple

years older, so they're trying to keep that.

Oh, yes very much so well and One thing that

we kind of briefly mentioned on mentioned the

first time I want to actually go a little bit

more into it this time was the The fan base leading

to one of these almost cult culture followings

And it was about the same time that we really

have the internet getting going, you know, with

these different groups of fan bases. And this

is one of the first ones. I mean, we have obviously

everybody that's listening to this is probably

part of some type of fan base out there, whether

it be Transformers. I know you guys with the

Knight Riders, different comic books or whatever

you got. And Animaniacs was one of the very first

ones as far as on the internet. And it talks

about how the online popularity of the show did

not go unnoticed from the show's producer. And

actually, 20 of the most active participants

in some of the things, the news groups and stuff

like that, were invited to the Warner Brothers

Animation Studios. Yeah, and I thought that was

really, really cool of them to do that. That

was cool. I read about that. Ironically, they

got a sneak preview of a sketch called Please,

Please, Please Get a Life Foundation. Yeah. It

should be noted kind of going into the nominations

and awards The first major award came in 1993

its very first season when the series won a Peabody

Award in 1994 it was nominated for two Annie

Awards for best animated television program and

the other for best achievement for voice acting

Frank Welker Animaniacs also won two daytime

Emmy Awards, which I think it's awesome that

daytime Emmys. I mean, you know recognized cartoons.

Yeah. And I think the educational and the musical

really helped that out. I think that with as

many parodies and as much music as there was

in this show, you could not... Oh no, not at

all. No. Not to mention the gags too. Right.

Oh the visual gags or the audio gags, you know

Go ahead could not look away you would you would

look and you'd be like, okay I don't want to

watch this anymore You'd have the remote in your

hand and you put the remote down you sit down

you watch at least 30 minutes of it You know

22 to 30 minutes of it, you know, depending on

how long it ran and you found out Probably without

after one episode. Yeah, you know, I'm a fan

And that was what cartoons were back then. You'd

watch it, and you thought, OK, this is so stupid.

And you come back for more. That's what Animaniacs

was about to me. And that's why I love the show,

because the gags that they did, they took old

gags and made them new again, or they expanded

on them. And that's what makes them funny. Oh,

yeah. Yeah. I have to sound like another. Ooh,

ooh, Ron Paulson fanboy moment. There was only

two actors that were basically nominated for

awards in the show. Trust McNeil and Rob Paulson

twice for Annie Awards for voice acting in the

field of animation. So that was pretty impressive,

too. I really wish they had gotten the other

actors and actresses nominated, though, because

it was just more than those two. And I think

everybody knew that, but it was kind of like,

It's almost like they were looking at the most

popular ones in the class. Well, actually Kevin's

wrong. The teacher is wrong. Which part am I

wrong? Wrong, wrong. Yeah, I know. I wish I got

that. But anyway, according to the Volume 1 DVD

set, Animaniacs Live, Maurice LaMarche, Annie

Award -winning, voice of the brain interviews

Animaniac pals via satellite as they recount.

Yes, you are wrong. You didn't say Maurice LaMarche.

No, he was A. No, he was the Annie award winner

not for his work on animaniacs Whatever in the

semantics. He was an annual award winner, but

not in any X Right, right The teachers never

wrong you should have learned that a long time

ago But yeah, I mean just the the overall response

to this show was really really awesome in No,

there's so many of them there's so many in 2009

IGN named Animaniacs the 17th best animated television

show animated television series Christ I can't

talk Which is impressive. I mean it should have

been higher, but it's still impressive You know,

it's amazing that it even made the top 20 Yeah,

you know it made it to 17. So that's true I can't

complain and we'll get some more of those statistics

as we go through our episodes We'll let you know

where like next week when we do tiny tunes We'll

let you know where they fell into and hopefully

as long as it's on wiki. Yeah, that's right I'm

actually going to get the entire list here. Well,

no, I know, but that's what I'm saying. For everything

that I looked up on Wiki so far for the episodes

that we've done, especially the Nintendo episode

because it was a multiple show episode, they

had a note for IGN in almost every one of those,

I think. IGN was probably, I think IGN's pretty

good with nominating because they'll put a show

where it needs to be respectfully. If it's a

good show, they'll rate it high. If it's a bad

show, they'll give it a sucky rating. I think

that kind of brings us into where you can get

Animaniac stuff, what you can see, what's available

out there if you're a big fan. You know what

films were out there what comic books toys? Currently

there are three DVD volumes The fourth is to

be announced it has I have not heard or seen

any news about it There is VHS videos were released

in the United States in the United Kingdom all

of those videos are now out of production But

are still available on online sellers The episodes

featured are jumbled at random and are not in

any particular order with series uh... but yeah

there is three dvd volumes there was uh... some

printed did have uh... a comic book published

by dc that ran from ninety five to two thousand

uh... and there was a bunch of other stuff and

did the video games itself and they had tons

of video games uh... uh... is on the series early

notable games include plays owns pc game animaniacs

game pack uh... konami's animaniacs for super

nintendo uh... animaniacs the great edgar hunts

animaniacs lights camera action i mean there's

just tons of of merchandise and this also goes

back into uh... wb and and disney crossing over

with their stores like i remember back in those

days when the wb store in the disney store just

first started out it was a huge hit with with

everybody i mean you could not go into a mall

with the wb or disney store not go into that

store without being mauled by people trying to

get all the stuff that they had uh... so uh...

i have a question for you real quick though uh...

i don't currently have the dvds uh... and i'm

assuming i don't know how much of them you've

watched recently but could you just comment this

uh... the first volume has one special feature

which i think they should put more but uh...

it has the animaniacs live it's a voice actor

uh... thing with uh... maurice lamar interviewing

uh... paulson uh... mcneil and hard now volume

two uh... has one thing uh... the writers flip

they have no script Maurice LaMarche leads a

writer's discussion of favorite episodes. And

then volume three has, it's not the craziness,

they can't help it if they're cute, they're just

drawn that way, which is meet the character designers,

storyboard artists, art directors who give life

and lunacy to Wacko, Yakko, and Dot, and then

there's another one on there. they're totally

insane e in a cadence with richard stone uh...

the music of animaniacs however treat a little

it to the late composer how many how many of

those i've been watching the uh... the writers

one in the voice when i have not watched the

uh... the music one yet i don't believe i don't

remember uh... it If you're an Animaniacs fan,

it's worth getting on DVD. Just because you have...

You don't have to go to fucking YouTube and watch

low quality crap. You know... Right. Try to convert

it as high as you can get it. It's just good

to have them. Just because, you know, if you're

a fan of the show. And, you know, the last 24

episodes, or I think it's 24, 25, will be coming

out eventually, we don't know. Hopefully, but

there hasn't been any news since 2007. So we're

keeping our fingers crossed. But hopefully we

can - I wish they would release Wacko's Wish

on DVD. I know it's on VHS, but I wish they would

release it on DVD. And I'm sure that people that

are bootleggers, you know, they'll get it that

way. But I think it should officially be released

on Home Warner Video. Yeah, you can always hope.

But hopefully we can do that. I know we don't

have - We won't necessarily have every DVD that's

released for all the episodes that we're doing

but for the ones we do Hopefully we can give

a little you know a heads up a little not not

a whole review, but just a couple Oh, yeah, most

definitely I think the show that we're gonna

have the most problem with even though there's

probably wiki information on it And I know you

know what I'm talking about Is mask mask is not

on DVD anywhere? But we cannot know it is not

but we can't miss the an episode. Yeah, I really

don't have to watch YouTube YouTube clips I Mean

I remember the show it's not that I don't remember

it. It's just I you know Even though tooncast

is supposed to be like it an overall discussion

and kind of you know A reminiscing of all the

shows that we're gonna be talking about. I still

like to at least watch and refresh. It's It gives

you a reason to pull that DVD off the shelf and

give it another watch I know I'm looking forward

to a bunch of the episodes where I can pull you

know pull one of the DVDs up to two or three

shelves I have of a well look at what I do And

I mean, I'm not trying to no no seriously I'm

not trying to my own horn But I have to actually

watch them twice because I have to watch them

for the sheer fact of enjoyment Then I have to

watch them again to grab audio But yeah, I mean,

Animaniacs overall, the series, if we were doing

a rating scale, I would say it's a 10 out of

10. And I think in its time period, I'm a 80s

super fan, I guess, because that's the golden

era of cartoons. You can argue with me all you

want, but you're not going to win. And after

that after that golden era in the 80s you had

the 90s which really didn't have a ton to offer

Cartoon wise especially after the first you had

a few sneaking in there 90 91 92 But for the

majority of the 90s you didn't have great cartoons

and animaniacs Stan yeah, basically a lawyer

both of them actually animaniacs and tiny tunes

I know you don't like I mean, I know I know you

prefer animaniacs, but The two of them together

without those two cartoons in the 90s would be

a complete void My thing is that When you've

got two great cartoons back -to -back, you know

Coming out like that You know the Tiny Toons

cartoons, which you know, they borrowed a lot

from Bugs Bunny and whatnot and Animaniacs sometimes

would borrow from a lot of the Bugs Bunny stuff,

you know and It just they both worked. I mean,

I know we'll talk about tiny tunes next week,

but they both I'm just gonna say this they both

worked and You know, I I would definitely give

the Animaniacs a ten I mean they had everything

and had humor it had You know a bit of action,

you know It had some heart to it the music The

music was wonderfully written. Yeah, the educational

aspects. You had everything. Right, the education

side of things. The music was wonderfully written.

Jess, Rob, and Trez could... I think they could

do an album, even if it weren't cartoon related.

I'm actually surprised that it didn't last a

little bit longer. I thought it would have at

least lasted until 99 to 2000. It lasted a long

time. Thank you, Debbie, for screwing that up.

It did last a while, and it was about at the

average lifespan or so of most cartoons, not

all of them. But a lot of the cartoons we're

looking at, they they were ended for certain

reasons either the ratings dropped another show

came along that took over uh... we had all kinds

of cartoons get axed in those first two years

in the nineties when the when curse all the the

networks but animaniacs was there's a lot but

animaniacs was after that and and there really

wasn't any specific thing that took it out at

i can't find uh... at least on one more episode

before they were canceled i think they could

have at least made it to a hundred cancelled

and then it would have been all good but you

know for as many as they had running you know

you get 99 episodes yeah what more can you ask

for as a fan that's true um and i and i think

this will this will make mike happy even though

i'm a huge fan of pinky in the brain you had

tiny tunes you know it kind of ran its course

they kind of piggybacked that into the animaniacs

which then transferred into the pinky in the

brain and and maybe mike maybe thinking brain

killed um yeah I love Pink in the Brain, though.

I like Pink in the Brain to a point, but I don't

know if a spinoff show was such a good idea.

I think they were trying to just keep it alive.

Well, yeah, not only that, it's the same thing

that they were doing in the Animaniacs. So not

only did you see them in the Animaniacs, you

saw them in their own show. And it's kind of

like, OK. It's the same, it's just, it's an Animaniac.

I've often posed the question the entire run

both on Animaniacs and the Pinky and the Brain

show did they ever actually succeed and as far

as I can tell no they never did and Pinky and

the Brain has got to be the biggest running gag

throughout both series because they never succeed

it's always something to where they Right. You

know, the one episode I... If Pinky doesn't foul

it up, Brain fouls it up. If Brain doesn't foul

it up, Pinky fouls it up. If neither one of...

That's the perfect part of cartoons. Huh? That's

the joy of cartoons and the frustration, though.

I mean, you get that with... You know, you got

that with Wile E. Coyote. You get that with about

every other cartoon that you can. Right. But

if neither one of them on their own fouled it

up, it was both of them. And it was like, okay.

Yeah, exactly. We're seeing this. Why? The same

reason we watched You know every GI Joe and transformers

and all of them They never you know, the bad

guys never ended up winning or you know, the

the goal was never achieved I did however enjoy

really much even though wackos wish is not on

DVD It is shown multiple times on HBO every now

and then I've seen it Yeah, it's usually on HBO

family but I did like the continuity that they

did between the show, between Animaniacs, Pinky

and the Brain, and Wacko's Wish. They took Pinky

and Farfig Nugen into the movie. Yeah, so it

was cool that they were going for an overall

continuity thing in some aspect of the cartoon.

So yes, I think on that note, does anybody else

have any other thoughts? No, I think I'm good.

This is the this is the best of the best for

the 90s and I don't know Even though this will

probably put Even though this will probably put

into its own podcast, but I would believe that

Wolverine and some of the x -men would disagree

with you But anyway So we're going to close this

out. That's all for this episode of tune cast

Please join us next time when we will be discussing

tiny tune adventures If you'd like to send any

feedback, there are several ways to do this.

The first is you can visit the www .geekcastradio

.com and comment through Facebook. I am not sure.

I still have not had a chance to ask Steve if

he has got that up and running yet. But you can

still go to the website and look at all the other

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Yes, and Kevin actually ruined his Twitter name

this time. I know, ain't it though? It's amazing.

Kevin, did you add me on Twitter? The third is

you can see our forum topics at PredaconEmpire

.com slash CafeSpark. For now, I am TFG1Mike

with Professor BossKDog. And we'd like to thank

you for listening. Until next time.