Saturday, August 14, 2010

When "Tiny Toons" Was "Tiny Tunes"

Initially, "Tiny Toons" was titled "Tiny Tunes."

And this is the one and only official piece of art commissioned by Warner Bros. with that title:


This very first logo was drawn by the brilliant and multi-talented artist, director and producer Mitch Schauer.  It was featured prominently when production of the series was announced in Cannes as the first animated television collaboration between Warner Bros. and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.

The boy rabbit in the rings was referred to as "Bitsy."   That name made me cringe. 

Once development began, the first thing Steven did was change the title from "Tiny Tunes" to "Tiny Toons."

The first thing I did was change Bitsy's name to Buster.

I stopped cringing.    That was a good thing!  

                                                                                                       Tiny Toon Adventures (C) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

20 comments:

  1. Bitsy? Who chose Bitsy? That's a horrible name for such a likeable character. I love that art, I just might print it out if i had enough ink at the momment

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow, i never knew that, thx for explaining this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The ring is shiney and gorgeous. Something about this looks like a vintage looney tunes screen shot

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for letting me know one this rare fact...
    Bitsy...sounds like a girl's name in my opinion...

    I like those classic rings.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! I didn't know that. Thanks for posting. I love the colorful rings and the fact that Buster looks a little more like Bugs than his normal TTA appearance.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Whoa. I wondered what Bitsy looked like when you told me about him. It's interesting that the colored rings were there from the very beginning. Did Schauer come up with them too?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Also....was Mitch Schauer ever a stand-up comedian? The guy pictured on this page (under the Comedy Club) has the same name (I misspelled Schauer).

    http://www.platypuscomix.net/history/onbeyondyeller.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am not aware of Mitch doing stand-up.
    Not sure if the colored rings were from Mitch, Jean MacCurdy, Steven or someone else.
    Mitch is pictured at this website:
    http://www.cataroo.com/hschauer.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love the picture and I know this might be a little random, but I always wondered how it would've been like if "The King of Voice Acting" (Mel Blanc) played some of the Tiny Toons and maybe even some of the Animaniacs or oh yes let's continue, some of the HISTERIA!!! characters. That would've been so awesome. Anyway, this picture does have a vintage feel like what takineko said and Buster does have a Bugs look too like what allyson said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mel Blanc passed away on July 10, 1989 Monday at 2:30 pm Pacific during the production of Tiny Toon Adventures at Warner Bros. Animation.

      Delete
  10. Mel would've been a great addition to any cartoon!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for sharing that bit of history. I for one am glad Buster was changed so that he didn't look quite so much like Bugs. It helps set him apart a bit. Out of curiosity, how long was it before Babs was added to the show?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Babs was created the very first week of development. I named her, wrote up a character profile, Ken Boyer took the first crack at drawing her, and the name and personality and drawing stuck.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I suppose it's worth mentioning that Mitch has an original graphic novel coming out from Fantagraphics Books, entitled " Rip MD":
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1606993690/ref=nosim/cartoonresearch/TARGET=


    BTW, I know that back in 1987-1988, WB and Spielberg were developing a Tiny Tunes movie before deciding to instead make a TV show. I wonder how far they got in coming up with ideas for such a film. I can't help but imagine the film might have been considered as live-action/animation hybrid (maybe live-action children characters would somehow turn into the animated Tiny Tunes or something along those lines), considering that Who Framed Roger Rabbit was in the middle of its chaotic (post-)production around that time (Who knows, maybe Spielberg got wind of Terry Semel's plans for a "babyfication" of Looney Tunes whilst negotiating with WB about Bugs and co.'s appearances in Roger Rabbit).

    By chance, have you heard anything about any possible concepts for the Tiny Tunes film that never was, Tom?

    ReplyDelete
  14. My understanding is that a "Tiny Tunes" feature never got past a 1988 discussion of whether it was even possible. Turns out it wasn't. A series was.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I know of Mitch Schauer.
    He made The Angry Beavers and helped produce Freakazoid.
    Tom,what do you think of The Angry Beavers?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow. Cool. I didn't know about this, until now. I think. :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I can see how "Bitsy" is cringe worthy.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I´m amazed! Now we know where this particular "Mandela Effect" came from.

    https://mandelaeffect.com/looney-tunes-or-looney-toons/

    ReplyDelete