Animaniacs

[Drtooth]

I've been so happy that The Hub has been airing Animaniacs. I so do miss that show. Back when Animaniacs first aired. I think I was in my mid teens. My first favorite was Wakko. I just adored his accent and thought he was too cute. But then I also loved Yakko. Especially when he sang Nations of the World (Yakko's World). I love geography so much. What I'm trying to say is that they were hard to pick from, from the start as a favorite. So now I just say I love them both.

I got to see one of the first episodes they aired on that network on Christmas eve. And it was the rare one they never ever repeated (the one where Slappy's house was used as the tree in Rockefeller Center. Had the first appearance of World's Oldest Woman from Histeria! in it. I only saw it once online. Ah, Kid's WB. Always screwing with the reruns so there's always a lost episode of something.

I love the show and all, but I find myself leaning closer to Freakazoid. I'll take your "they don't make shows like that any more" and raise you a show that they just couldn't try to make again. Everything that made Freakazoid a hit was a complete accident. Freakazoid's weird breakdown in the first episode with Caveguy? All improvised. It was Paul Rugg's audition tape, since no one else was good enough to fit the role. If they found someone else, the show would have been almost the show that Bruce Timm was proposing. The slightly funnier Batman series. We wouldn't have had Jerry Lewis impersonations... no "Hula Girls," no "NOW GET YOURSELF A COFFE...WITH CREAM..OR SOMETHING!!!" In fact, if you see an episode written by Paul Dini, that's the only time an episode has any structure.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yes, I'm a FREAKAZOID! guy myself, and all this talk about it and ANIMANIACS and what have you is really making me wanna break out my old tapes and watch them again.

And it's interesting to think that Paul Rugg became a self-taught puppeteer, and performs with Henson Alternative. First time I watched that PUPPET UP! special on TBS, and they introduced the performers at the end, I was like, "No way! Freakazoid is a puppeteer now?!"

 

[Drtooth]

I want him to use his goofy foreigner/Manny the Uncanny/Zoltanna Zoltanna/Cosmo/Nostradamus voice in one of those soooo bad.

But really, buy the DVD of Freakazoid (season one at least, I got mine cheap) and watch the making ofs and commentaries. The story of why the show is nuts is just sooooo freaking interesting. Everything about it happened by accident because they didn't know what the heck they were doing. They threw "Paul Harvey" into episodes just because they loved the rhythm of his speech patterns after meeting him at some awards show they were attending because of Animaniacs.

That said, there's absolutely no love for the underrated Steven Spielberg Presents Cartoon that wasn't Warner Bros. Toonsylvania. Ah, man... I wish Dreamworks would do something with it. While no Tiny Toons, Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, or Freakazoid, it was a great cartoon. And extremely violent and ghoulish. I'm surprised that show even let half the stuff get to air. Not to mention the show was headed by Bill Kopp. And Mike Peters, the Mother Goose and Grimm cartoonist, created a wacky animated sitcom about zombies for the show. With all this internet obsession about zombies, you'd think they'd get out to the public now.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yes, I should have grabbed the DVD when it came out... I honestly don't know why I didn't.

 

[Rugratskid]

I didn't realize there were so many people on here that enjoyed Animaniacs! I knew it was a popular show but wow! I wish I HAD recorded it when it was on Nick because I would love to see the intro again. Someone has it on Youtube but it's very blurry. I never got to see it when it originally aired though.

All this talk about it and ANIMANIACS and what have you is really making me wanna break out my old tapes and watch them again.

I wish I had some of the old airings. Maybe I'm just weird like this, but I'd rather watch the VHS recordings than the DVDs. Is there anywhere where I can watch original recordings? I have Volumes 2 and 4 of Animaniacs. Somehow I missed 1 and 3. I'll get them eventually though. My Walmart is currently selling Volume 4.

 

[The Count]

Yeah, Kids Wb messing around with repeat scheduling of their shows. It took me eleven years to finally watch the final episode of Batman Beyond on The Hub last year, and that's because the original airdate of that episode was preempted by that whole 9/11 ordeal.

Toonsylvania... It was a good show... But it focused too much on either Dr. Frankenstein or The Deadman Family segments, there wasn't real growth in the series, it lasted about only a handful of episodes.

And as far as the scheduling, don't get me started on Yu-Gi-Oh GX, which got shifted around more times than a hackeysack from network to network.

 

[Rugratskid]

Speaking of 90's shows, Nick is thinking about bringing Rugrats back. All those marathons and RIP airings was them testing the water. Speaking of which, Rugrats in Paris aired last night! I don't know what will happen if its is resurrected, but let's hope they get the original creators and some of the writers back so it doesn't turn out by Spongebob.

 

[Hayley B]

I had a hard time watching it when it went Kids WB! I liked it better when Fox had it and had in the afternoon. When Kids WB made it a Saturday Morning. I kept missing it, because during that time I kept waking up late. Plus, in went into the years that I started working and didn't have the time to see it too.

I bought the Animaniacs DVDs not too long ago. I went right away to vol 4. All because I know they are episodes I've never seen before.

Recently, I love the episode with Wakko called "Go Fish". Just so cute of him playing cards by himself.

 

[Rugratskid]

I haven't gotten around to watching all the Volume 4 ones yet, but I DID see Go Fish. They should have made more Wakko Segments, it seems like he has the least segments out of the siblings and he is my favorite. The only reason I wouldn't want Animaniacs to come back is because they would probably screw it up like all other shows.

 

[animalrescuer]

I love watching Animaniacs, too and I think it was more successful than Warner Brothers' previous cartoon, Tiny Toons. I love some of the songs that they do, Yakko's World, Wakko's Fifty States song, Pinky and the Brain theme. My favorite episodes are Baloney and Kids, The Day Before Christmas, A Christmas Plotz among others. I do remember it being on Cartoon Network and also on Nickelodeon. Good times!