Animaniacs

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This article is about the television series. For the Tiny Toon Adventures episode of the same name, see Animaniacs! (Tiny Toons episode).

Animaniacs
Animaniacs logo featuring Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, plus Pinky and the Brain
Genre	Animated series
Creator(s)	Steven Spielberg Tom Ruegger
Starring	Rob Paulsen Jess Harnell Tress MacNeille John Mariano Chick Vennera Maurice LaMarche Frank Welker Bernadette Peters Nancy Cartwright Julie Brown Laura Mooney Sherri Stoner Nathan Ruegger Jim Cummings Tom Bodett
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	99 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	FOX (1993-1995) The WB (Kids' WB block) (1995-1998)
Original run	September 13, 1993 – 1998
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as the shorter title Animaniacs, is an American animated television series, distributed by Warner Bros., and produced by Amblin Entertainment. The cartoon first aired on FOX Kids from 1993 until 1995, and the show later appeared on the WB from 1995 to 1998 as part of its "Kids' WB!" afternoon programming block. Like many other animated series, it has continued to appear on television through syndication long after its original airdate.

Animaniacs was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation during the animation renaissance of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The studio's first series, Tiny Toon Adventures, had proved to be a big hit among younger viewing audiences, and it had attracted a sizable number of adult viewers as well. Tiny Toon Adventures had drawn heavily from the classic Warner Bros. cartoons of old for inspiration, as well as plots and characterization. The modern Warner Bros. writers and animators, led by senior producer and show-runner Tom Ruegger, used the experience gained from the previous series to create brand new animated characters that were cast in the mold of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett's creations, but were not slavish imitations.^{[citation needed]}

The comedy of Animaniacs was a broad mix of old-fashioned wit, slapstick, pop culture references, and cartoon wackiness. The show also featured a number of educational segments that covered subjects such as history, math, geography, science, and social studies. The show itself was a variety show, with many short skits featuring a large cast of characters. Each episode was traditionally composed of three short mini-episodes, each starring a different set of characters.

Contents 1 The Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister) 2 Animaniacs characters 3 Reputation and Legacy 3.1 Popularity of Animaniacs 3.2 Music 3.3 Parodies 4 Episodes 5 Incarnations 5.1 Television 5.1.1 United States 5.1.2 United Kingdom 5.1.3 France 5.2 Home Video 5.2.1 VHS 5.2.2 DVD 5.3 Print 5.4 Electronic Games 5.5 Music 6 References 7 External links

[edit] The Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister)

This show focused on the adventures, or the misadventures, of the Warner Brothers (Yakko and Wakko Warner) and the Warner Sister (Dot Warner), who, in the show, are the stars of some of the early Warner Bros. animated cartoons. These cartoons were so insane that the studio executives locked the films away in vaults and locked the warners in the Warner Bros. Studios water tower in Burbank, California. The description of the Warners is a tongue-in-cheek homage to Bosko, Warner Bros.' first cartoon character.

The red-nosed Warner siblings bear a striking resemblance to the portrayals of Bosko and his girlfriend Honey (who looks remarkably like Dot) in a 1990 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures entitled "Fields of Honey", also produced by Steven Spielberg. Afraid that the portrayals of Bosko and Honey might be deemed controversial, they were changed to anthropomorphic dog-like characters, and that episode served as the "bridge" between Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.^{[citation needed]}

The characters also bear a notable resemblance to animated characters from the 1920s and 1930s from other studios, including Felix the Cat and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Bimbo, and the original, early Mickey Mouse, as well as Bosko. Simple black drawings with white faces were very common in cartoons of the 1920s and 1930s, and it is these sorts of characters that the Warners are meant to pay homage to.

Originally, the Warners were intended to be ducks,^{[citation needed]} but producer Tom Ruegger realized that ducks had been used enough by Disney (see DuckTales), so he made the warners indeterminate "cartoon character" children. Although they looked somewhat like dogs, their specific "species" remained a mystery and was made fun of in many episodes.^{[citation needed]} Ruegger also modeled their personalities a bit after his three sons (who all did voices on the series at one time or another).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Animaniacs characters

Main article: List of Animaniacs characters

[edit] Reputation and Legacy

[edit] Popularity of Animaniacs

While some segments proved less popular than others, a number of popular cartoons were aired during the series, as the new Warner Bros. animators poked fun at everything and everyone, including their own fans ("The Please Please Please Get A Life Foundation", which took some of its material directly from the alt.tv.animaniacs FAQ).

Although the show was popular among younger viewers (the target demographic for Warner Bros.' TV cartoons), a great deal of the show's subversive humor was aimed at an adult audience. One example is the 'Wheel of Morality' that appears at the end of some episodes. Looking closely, it can be seen that one of the spots on the wheel reads "Bankrupt". Not only is this a parody of Wheel of Fortune (US game show), which most children might understand, but it is also a play on the phrase "morally bankrupt". (While the wheel never landed on "Bankrupt" on the show, it did once in the comic book.) Furthermore, one character, Minerva Mink, was soon de-emphasized as a featured character because her episodes were considered too overtly sexually suggestive for the show's intended audience.^[1] (Many adult jokes, such as a warning to not play with Dr. Scratchansniff's "bust"--a sculpture on his desk--are signified by Yakko blowing a kiss and shouting "Good night, everybody!", as well as statements that could be considered double entendres, such as Yakko explaining the planets of the solar system, but only eight. Wakko then appears and reminds Yakko that he forgot the planet Uranus, to which Yakko does his trademark goodnight kiss and promptly ends the sketch.)

Adults responded in droves, giving the show cult-hit status and leading to one of the first Internet-based fandom cultures. During the show's prime, the Internet newsgroup alt.tv.animaniacs was an active gathering place for fans of the show (most of whom were adults) to discuss the latest antics of the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister. The online popularity of the show did not go unnoticed by the show's producers, and several of the most active participants on the newsgroup were invited to the Warner Bros. Animation studios for a gathering in August 1995 called Animania IV (gatherings of Animaniacs fans from the net were dubbed Animanias; most of them were simply groups of friends getting together to talk and watch videotaped episodes).

[edit] Music

Animaniacs was a very musical cartoon, with every episode featuring an original score (and in many cases, several original songs). Each group of characters had its own sub-theme in the score, and the Hip Hippos, Pinky and the Brain, the Goodfeathers (a parody of the ubiquitous That's Amore made famous by Dean Martin), Chicken Boo, and Katie Ka-Boom even had their own full theme songs. The Slappy Squirrel and Rita & Runt themes, as well as one of the two versions of the Pinky and the Brain theme, were sung by the Warners. The Animaniacs series theme song (music composed by Richard Stone, lyrics by Tom Ruegger), which has a variety of alternate endings and was primarily sung by the Warners, won an Emmy Award for best song in the series' first season.^[2]

The three Warner siblings often performed songs, including parodies of classical and folk music, often with an educational twist, listing, for example, U.S. states or American presidents. Pinky and the Brain occasionally got songs to sing as well, and the most complicated songs in the series usually went to Rita, voiced by singer Bernadette Peters (poking fun at Broadway shows in general, and Stephen Sondheim's works in particular). Rita and Runt even took on Broadway directly with a parody of Les Misérables called Les Miseranimals, which aired early in the first season.

Three albums of music from the series were released: Animaniacs, Yakko’s World, and Variety Pack, and the sing-along videos, especially "Yakko's World", remained some of the best selling skit compilation VHS tapes.

The final bars of the Animaniacs theme (as well as Bugs Bunny and the WB shield) were commonly used by Warner Bros. to begin various animated series until 2005, when Warner adopted a snippet of the song "As Time Goes By" for its logo sequence.

The song "Yakko's World," with lyrics by Randy Rogel, is perhaps their most famous. Other well-known songs include "Wakko's America", The Warners' Presidents, "Schnitzelbank", and "Yakko's Universe".

Lines in the "rotating lyric" (second-to-last line), of the theme song with the singer(s), include:

• "Here's the show's namey" (Dot) (This was the first line used, appearing in the premiere episode)
• "Pinky and the Brainy" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
• "Cockamamie!" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
• "The rain in Spainy" (Dot)
• "Eisenhower, Mamie" (Yakko)
• "Where's Lon Chaney?" (Wakko)
• "Andromeda Strainy" (Yakko)
• "Chicken chow meiny" (Wakko)
• "Dana Delaney" (Yakko)
• "Hydroplaney" (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)
• "Shirley MacLainey" (Dot)
• "Come Back Shaney" (Dot)
• "Citizen Kaney" (Yakko)
• "Uhhhhh..." (Yakko)
• "Nickalaney" (Dot) (Nickelodeon only)
• "Novacainey" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
• "No Pain, No Gainy" (Dot)
• "Penny Laney" (Wakko)
• "Tarzan and Janey" (Dot)
• "Hunchback of Notre Damey" (Wakko)
• "Frasier Craney" (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)
• "Miss Celaney" (Yakko)
• "Money down the drainy" (Yakko, Wakko, Dot)

In the original lyrics for the theme song, a line referenced former President of the United States Bill Clinton's saxophone-playing appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show during his initial presidential campaign ("While Bill Clinton plays the sax"), and Pinky and the Brain were the first cast members introduced by the Warners in the second-to-last verse ("Meet Pinky and the Brain, who want to rule the universe"). For the second season, the Bill Clinton reference had been removed and replaced with a video clip from the episode "Taming of the Screwy," with the lyric, "We've got wisecracks by the stacks;" the change was made because senior producer Tom Ruegger felt that the line (written by his oldest son, Nathan, when Ruegger found himself stuck for a line while writing the lyrics in 1992) was excessively dated. For season 3, Pinky & The Brain had been spun off from Animaniacs into their own show, causing a further alteration to the lyrics: the Pinky and the Brain line with an introduction to three other cast members, becoming "Meet Ralph and Doctor Scratchansniff, say hi to Hello Nurse". Additionally, the "wisecracks" lyric was changed again, with new animation (albeit from a different studio than the rest of the title sequence) set to a new line, "We pay tons of income tax." In all versions, the instrumental track was never rerecorded, so the saxophone that doubles the Warners on that one line remains clearly audible.

Additionally, there were two separate title sequences for the "Pinky and the Brain" segments, each with distinctly different animation. The lyrics of the theme song are different for each version. One version states that, "They're laboratory mice/Their genes have been spliced;" the other says, "To prove their mousey worth/They'll overthrow the Earth." No explanation has ever been given for the difference in lyrics. When Pinky and the Brain were spun off into their own series, the extended theme song used for it included both lyrics. (The Slappy Squirrel shorts in the first season also had two separate title sequences, but they used the same audio track with different animation.)

One song, titled "The Presidents", named and described every president to the tune of the William Tell Overture. For example, it mentions Richard Nixon's near impeachment and Gerald Ford's oft-broadcast fall. In the original lyrics, it mentions the Kennedy Assassination, "John Kennedy, he gets shot", but was later changed to "John Kennedy had Camelot".^{[citation needed]} After this censorship, the only assassination mentioned was that of James Garfield. Also, the lyrics "Warren Harding he does fine/It's Calvin Coolidge next in line" was changed to "Warren Harding next in line/It's Calvin Coolidge he does fine" and "But the one in charge is plain to see/It's Clinton, first name Hilary" to "But the ones in charge are plain to see/the Clintons, Bill and Hillary."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Parodies

Animaniacs often parodied popular TV shows and movies. Through all this parody, Animaniacs was able to appeal to adults, as well as children.

• An early episode featured Hearts of Twilight, a lengthy parody of the classic Francis Ford Coppola film Apocalypse Now, as well as also spoofing the documentary about the filming of "Apocalypse Now", "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" and the soundtrack by The Doors.
• Super Strong Warner Siblings lampooned the 90's TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, featuring replicas of the "real" show's costumes and "Megazord".
• Another parody, albeit a cold opening rather than a full "segment", depicted the Animaniacs characters as babies in a parody of the title sequence to Rugrats.
• Popular kids' character Barney was also represented as "Baloney", a goofy character whose upbeat personality remained unaffected by the massive amounts of abuse to which the Warners subjected him, in the style of Anti-Barney humor.
• Friends was parodied as "Acquaintances", where the character Chandler had his sarcastic putdowns horrifically enacted upon him.
• A long segment called Star Warners, which appeared on the Animaniacs Super Special, parodied the Star Wars films.
• The Wizard of Oz was spoofed and referenced a few times in the show, most prominently in the Mindy and Buttons sketch Buttons in Ows.
• The end credits of episode 84, entitled "Cold Closing #1," features Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, following their closing sign-off, mocking the people listed in the closing credits of the show without realizing that their microphones are still on. This is a parody of the famed "that ought to hold those little %!$#@&*#" urban legend. [1]. This can also be taken as another homage to the riffing done in Mystery Science Theater 3000.
• The Circle of Life intro to The Lion King was parodied, with Yakko taking on the role of Rafiki. He accidentally drops the Simba character from the cliff and exclaims "I thought they were supposed to land on their feet."
• Many spoofs were multi-layered. For instance, "Hooked on a Ceiling" was not only a parody of The Agony and the Ecstasy, but it also featured Quasimodo shouting "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!", a direct reference to The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film).
• Late into the series run, the parody "Macadamia Nut" aired, a spoof of the infamous music video/song "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. The song was mainly performed by the Warners, but the music video featured almost every major character to ever appear on Animaniacs (all doing The Macarena dance), the only time this occurred outside of the opening sequence.
• An entire Rita and Runt segment was devoted to parodying the hit musical Les Misérables; a number of the songs were parodied, and Runt was referred to as "Runt Valrunt".
• In another Rita and Runt segment, Rita sings a song, the tune of which closely resembles the title theme from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. At the song's end, Runt remarks, "That was beautiful, Rita. I hope we don't get sued."
• A long segment parodied Star Trek with "Star Truck" where the Warners are beamed aboard the Enterprise. Spoofed characters include "Squatty" instead of "Scotty" and "Spork" instead of "Spock." Also, when the Warners are all hugging the crew, Wakko quips, "We're cling-ons, get it?"
• A number of Animaniacs spoofs were rather "high class", or at least above the heads of most children. The operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, most notably Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore were parodied in "HMS Yakko". The final scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mistranslated by Dot and featured an appearance by Batman and Robin (who were also Warner Brothers animated characters at the time). Hamlet was parodied, with Yakko delivering the "Alas, Poor Yorick" monologue which Dot again mistranslated. "King Yakko" spoofs not only Duck Soup, but also Blackadder.
• The Goodfeathers had three notable musical parodies. Their West Side Story parody involved Squit falling in love with a female sparrow, which caused unrest between the two bird gangs because the Sparrows wanted to perch on the head of the statue of Martin Scorsese, which was Goodfeather territory. The second musical parody was of Fiddler on the Roof where the Goodfeathers try to work out their relationships with their female companions. The cartoon ends with the statue of Martin Scorsese being replaced with a statue of Regis Philbin. When faced with the prospect of perching on the head of Regis, the Goodfeathers each decide that they would rather be a "Pigeon on the Roof." Amusingly, this cartoon is followed by a short segment in which Pesto rants and raves to Bobby that the cartoon story was stupid, and Bobby launches into a parody of a West Side Story song, encouraging Pesto to "stay cool, bird! Beak it, buzz it, easy does is...stay cool, bird. Real cool." The third parody is of Rocky, where Bobby has to train to box another bird. Bobby is trained by a bird similar to Burgess Meredith, who constantly calls Bobby a bum. When Bobby asks him, "Why do you keep calling me a bum all the time?" his trainer responds, "Because you're a bum, you bum!"
• The Animaniacs comic series carried on this tradition, spoofing Pulp Fiction, The X-Files, and many other TV and comics standards.

Animaniacs also mocked an abundance of celebrities, including the likes of David Hasselhoff, Whoopi Goldberg, Howard Stern, Jerry Seinfeld, Jaleel White, Regis Philbin, Shirley MacLaine, and Sigourney Weaver on several occasions (usually preceding the appearance of a xenomorph, see Dot's pet - above). They have also paid tributes to now-dead celebrities, such as Christa McAuliffe, who was scheduled to be the first teacher in space, before she was killed in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

They even made spoofs of various other disasters, such as the sinking of the Titanic and a full-length song about the 1994 Northridge Earthquake in where they proclaimed that "L.A. Town Is Falling Down!".

Other parts of Animaniacs parodied were acts of war, such as the Goodfeathers serving in the First World War as passenger pigeons, which were not yet extinct at this time. The Warners also had a film about the Second World War, in which the Warners are teaching about wartime rationing and conservation, such as curtailing automobile usage, growing victory gardens and donating products to the war effort. The Warners also collect fishnet stockings to be converted into mosquito netting, in which the Warner brothers are their usual aghast selves to see so many ladies donate their stockings. J. Edgar Hoover collects the nylon and awards Yakko, Wakko & Dot medals for their service, to which Yakko considers himself a patriotic American to be so honored.

In reverse parody nature, the three actors who lent voices to Yakko, Wakko and Dot did an episode of Duck Dodgers as cousins to Porky Pig (all sounding the same as their Animaniac characters) but instead were named Puerco, Porko and Sow.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Animaniacs episodes

[edit] Incarnations

[edit] Television

Animaniacs premiered on September 13, 1993. New episodes of the show were aired during the 1993 through 1998 seasons, and episodes were rerun in syndication for several years after production of new episodes ceased. One feature-length direct-to-video Animaniacs movie, Wakko's Wish, was released on VHS only (there has not been a DVD release) in 1999. The series was popular enough for Warner Bros. Animation to invest in additional episodes of the show past the traditional 65-episode marker for syndication; a total of 99 episodes were finally produced. One theatrical cartoon short film starring the Warner siblings, I'm Mad, was produced and released to theaters in 1994 with the feature Thumbelina. It was later included in episode 69 of the series.

The show introduced the popular cartoon characters Pinky and the Brain, who were subsequently spun-off into their own TV series in 1995.

Animation fans consider Animaniacs the high point of the Warner Bros. revival of the 1990s that was inspired by the original Termite Terrace. After Animaniacs, Spielberg collaborated with Warner Bros. Animation for a third time to produce the short-lived series Freakazoid, along with the Animaniacs spin-off series Pinky and the Brain. Warner Bros. also produced two additional "zany" and "madcap" series in the later half of the decade entitled Histeria! (much like Animaniacs, but focusing on American and World history, and designed to satisfy US government requirements for educational programming) and Detention (an animated sitcom of several quirky junior high kids trying to get out of after-school detention), but neither of these series found a sizable audience, and they were both swiftly canceled. At that time, Animaniacs shorts were being shown as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show.

Warner Bros. cut back the size of its animation studio (the high cost and relatively low profit of its animated feature films of the period also had an effect on the studio), and production on further Warner Bros. animated comedy series ceased. Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures continued to rerun in syndication through the 1990s into the early-2000s. It reran on Cartoon Network from 1998 to 2000. When Nickelodeon got the syndication rights to air it on Nickelodeon and later Nicktoons Network, they altered the theme song and the Warners came out of a Nickelodeon logo and the song was cut. Animaniacs was still airing on Nicktoons Network until 2005, when it was removed and has not aired on United States television since except for the movie Wakko's Wish. Animaniacs was airing on Boomerang until March 2007. Currently, it is only seen on television in France on Cartoon Network.

[edit] United States

• 1993-1995: Fox Kids
• 1995-1998: Kids' WB!
• 1998-2000: Cartoon Network
• 2001-2002: Nickelodeon
• 2002-2005: Nicktoons Network
• 2003-2005: Boomerang

[edit] United Kingdom

• 1994-1999: ITV1
• 1998-2000: Cartoon Network
• 2004-2007: Boomerang

[edit] France

• 1994-1996: Canal +
• 1995-2002: France 3
• 2000-present: Cartoon Network

The series will re-run on Warner Bros and AOL's new broadband internet channel Toontopia TV. As of the start of 2007, the first 50 episodes have been released in two DVD boxsets; the remaining 49 are expected to be released by the end of the year.

[edit] Home Video

[edit] VHS

[edit] DVD

Volume Releases

Cover Art	DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
	Volume 1	25	July 25, 2006[3]	Animaniacs Live!: Maurice LaMarche hosts an in studio via satellite big screen TV with Animaniac friends (voice actors, composers, etc.) as they comment on the show.
	Volume 2	25	December 5, 2006[4]	The Writer's Flipped, They Have No Script: Maurice LaMarche leads a gathering of writers on what their favorite Animaniacs episodes are that they wrote, and what they think Mr. Spielberg's favorites are.
	Volume 3	25	June 19, 2007[5]
	Volume 4	24	TBA 2007

Volume 1 of Animaniacs was released on DVD on July 25, 2006, containing the first 25 episodes on five discs. The extra material consists of Animaniacs Live!, in which Maurice LaMarche (the voice of The Brain) hosts a satellite interview with various Animaniacs cast and crew as they comment on the show. The video is presented in its original television aspect ratio, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio in English, with French, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles.

Volume 2 of Animaniacs was released on DVD on December 5, 2006, containing episodes 26 through 50 on five discs.^[4]

On February 28, 2007, volume 3 was announced to be released on June 19, 2007. The announcement confirms that it will have episodes 51 through 75 on five discs, which includes the final 15 episodes of the first season, all four episodes of the second season, and the first six episodes of the third season.

If this pattern continues, volume 4 will be released in time for Christmas, 2007, and include the final 24 episodes.

So far, these DVD box sets are available only in United States and Canada. Sales overseas have yet to be confirmed.

[edit] Print

An Animaniacs comic book, published by DC Comics, ran from 1995 to 2000 (59 regular monthly issues, plus two specials). Initially, these featured all the characters except for Pinky and the Brain, who were published in their own comic series, though cameos were possible. Eventually, the Pinky and the Brain comic was discontinued, and were merged back into the Animaniacs series, now titled as Animaniacs! featuring Pinky and the Brain.

[edit] Electronic Games

• Animaniacs for Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy
• Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley for PlayStation and N64 (canceled)
• Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley 2 for PlayStation
• Animaniacs Game Pack for PC.
• Animaniacs: A Gigantic Adventure for PC.
• Animaniacs: Splat Ball! for PC.
• Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt for GameCube, PS2, and Xbox
• Pinky and the Brain: The Master Plan for GBA (Europe only.)
• Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action! for Nintendo DS and GBA.
• Pinky and the Brain: World Conquest for PC
• Animaniacs for GBA (canceled)

[edit] Music

• Animaniacs (1993)
• Yakko's World (1994)
• A Christmas Plotz (1995)
• The Animaniacs Faboo! Collection (1995)
• Animaniacs Variety Pack (1995)
• A Hip-Hopera Christmas (1997)
• The Animaniacs Go Hollywood (2003)
• The Animaniacs Wacky Universe (2003)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Animaniacs at the Internet Movie Database
• The official DVD website
• Cultural References Guide for Animaniacs
• New Cultural References Guide for Animaniacs
• Keeper's Modern Warner Bros. Cartoon Files
• How I Ended up Writing for Animaniacs (including the secret of "Hello Nurse") by Michael Dare