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Animaniacs was
a co-production of Warner Bros. Animation and Steven Spielberg’s
Amblin Entertainment. Most of the staff was the same as on WB Animation’s
earlier shows; Tiny Toons producers Tom Ruegger and Sherri
Stoner were two of the three producers of Animaniacs, the third
being Rich Arons,one of WB Animation’s best directors. The Fox
Network ordered 65 episodes of the new series, slating it for the daily
time slot formerly occupied by Tiny Toons – a risky venture,
considering that Animaniacs, unlike Tiny Toons, featured
characters who were all-new rather than based on classic cartoon stars.
The risk paid off, however. Animaniacs premiered on the Fox
network on September 13, 1993, and soon became the second-most popular
kids’ series on American television, after Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers. Even more than Tiny Toons, Animaniacs
called into question the label of “kids’ show”; its
deftly timed slapstick and abundant pop-culture jokes appealed to viewers
of all ages, and a number of news stories were written about its sizeable
college-age and adult fan followings.
But after the 65th episode had aired in the spring of 1994, fans discovered,
to their dismay, that Fox had ordered no more episodes. The problem,
as it turned out, had to do with Warner Bros’ decision to start
its own network. With Animaniacs being treated on Fox as distinctly
secondary to the the blockbuster Power Rangers, it was decided
to remove the show to the new WB Network, where it would at last be
the centerpiece of a kids’ TV block.
Knowing that they were going to lose the show, Fox let it go into reruns
for a year (except for four episodes hastily assembled from material
that didn’t make it into the first season), and in September of
1995, new episodes of Animaniacs premiered on the WB Network.
The 13 new episodes were produced by Peter Hastings and Rusty Mills,
who (along with Ruegger) were also the producers of the WB’s new
Animaniacs spinoff, Pinky and the Brain. Unfortunately,
while Animaniacs was successful on the WB, it wasn’t successful
in quite the way that the
network expected. The show’s adult appeal, which had been an asset
on Fox, became a liability for the WB, which had sold its new cartoon
lineup as being perfect for very small children, and was hard-pressed
to explain to advertisers why the very small children didn’t seem
to be watching in great numbers. The first sign of the network’s
dissatisfaction with Animaniacs came in the spring of 1996,
when an order for 18 new episodes was suddenly reduced to only 8. Peter
Hastings left WB Animation soon after, and no new writer-producer was
appointed to replace him on Animaniacs. With most of the unit’s
attention focused on Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs
made it through two more short seasons, using a lot of leftover scripts
and storyboards. Finally, the WB cancelled it; a direct-to-video movie,
Wakko’s Wish, was relased not long after, but it was a disappointing
film that failed to capture the verbal or visual wit of the series.
Since then, Animaniacs has not gotten much
respect in reruns; no good time slots, no DVDs. But the show is not
completely forgotten, and I hope future columns will help to show why
it deserves to be remembered. So until next time…goodbye, nurse!
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