Some Backgrounds For A New Animated Series

Paul Dini and I have been developing a new animated series!  Here's a sneak peek of a few B.G.s...

 

FREAK-A-CON! Thursday March 15, 2018 -- 8pm Eastern Time, 5pm Pacific Time

 
Don's miss "FREAK-A-CON," the live online virtual Comic-Convention dedicated to all things FREAKAZOID.   It's Thursday, March 15th 2018 at 5pm to 6pm Pacific time, 8pm to 9pm Eastern time.  Go to  --


              https://www.facebook.com/FreakACon/


...and Freak-Out!

Silver Anniversary: "Tiny Toon Adventures"

Greetings Toonsters!  

"Tiny Toon Adventures" premiered on Friday night, September 14, 1990 -- 25 years ago today!

It began its daily weekday run on the following Monday, September 17th.

Thanks to all who made "Tiny Toons" happen.  

There's a book in this adventure.  Until then, enjoy a few visual memories...

"Tiny Toon Adventures" pep rally, Warner Bros. lot, 1990.  

"Tiny Toon Adventures" at the Rose Bowl parade, 1992 (above).  And below, a pre-internet visit to the bizarre.   

  

Tiny Toon Adventures on DVD: How I Spent My Vacation

Coming August 14, 2012, on DVD:  Tiny Toon Adventures' How I Spent My Vacation. 

Above:  On the left, the new artwork for the 2012 DVD cover.  To the right, the artwork on the VHS cover, when "How I Spent My Vacation" was first released in 1992 as the first direct-to-video original animated feature.  

Back then, the folks at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment were dedicated to the notion that short movie titles were the only way to go, so they insisted that we change our original title, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," to the insignificantly shorter title that omitted the word "summer."   

These are the same marketing geniuses who demanded that we change the title of the Animaniacs direct-to-video feature from "It's a Wakko Wakko Wakko Wakko Wish" to "Wakko's  Wish."  

I much prefer our original titles on both.  

As for the cover art, new and old, above  --  what can I say?   It's like the current regime at Warner Bros. isn't even trying.    

The People Who Made "Tiny Toons" and "Animaniacs" -- Part One

Here's Part One in a gallery of some of the very talented people responsible for making Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.


Barry Caldwell

Barry Caldwell, director, designer and storyboard artist on both Animaniacs and Tiny Toons, is pictured here in his office at Warner Bros. Television Animation in Sherman Oaks, California, circa 1994. 

Among Barry's many achievements, his story board designs breathed new life into the personalities of Babs Bunny, Shirley the Loon, Fifi LaFume and Elmyra in many of the best Tiny Toon episodes, including "Prom-ise Her Anything" and "Fields of Honey."  

And Barry's boards and direction gave us some of our funniest and most memorable Animaniacs segments, including "Bumbie's Mom," "Sir Yaksalot," "Ragamuffins," "The Flame Returns" and "Puppet Rulers."  

 

Also on Animaniacs, Barry directed both the first Minerva Mink cartoon produced ("Meet Minerva") and the first Mindy and Buttons cartoon produced ("Cat on a Hot Steel Beam").


                                                                **************

The People Who Made "Tiny Toons" and "Animaniacs" -- Part Two

Sherri Stoner

Sherri Stoner served as a writer, story-editor and producer on Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.  Here, she holds up one of the segment cards from Tiny Toons.

Sherri started writing cartoons with Babs Bunny's very first Tiny Toons script, "Debutante Devil," and Sherri hasn't stopped since.  She wrote a bunch of Tiny Toon episodes that have become fan-favorites, including "Hollywood Plucky," "Fields of Honey" and "Thirteen Something."  

In the photo above, Sherri stands in front of the Wall of Cards, which we used to build half-hour shows from various segments, each segment written up on an index card.  Sherri is holding up the card for the Tiny Toons segment "Milk It Makes A Body Spout."

By the way, directly behind Sherri is a Steven Spielberg Bop-Bag, drawn by Bruce Timm (on the back of a Yogi Bear Bop-Bag™.)   This sits in my office to this day, still fully inflated with 1992 air!  

On Animaniacs, Sherri not only helped write and produce the series, but provided the voice for one of the show's stars, the cranky octogenarian, Slappy Squirrel.  

Above, Sherri and fellow Tiny Toons story-editor Paul Dini  celebrate Easter 1991 by posing with the Easter Bunny at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.  Apparently, Paul was traumatized by the bunny and had a meltdown.  

Tiny Toon Adventures: Steven's First Emmy

In May 1991, "Tiny Toon Adventures" won the Daytime Emmy for "Outstanding Animated Program."  Our executive producer Steven Spielberg was shooting his feature film "Hook" at that time, so a few members of the crew visited him on the set to present him with his very first Emmy Award.  

In the photo, from left to right:  me, during my brief beard phase, partially obscuring the view of our voice director Andrea Romano;  writer and co-producer Sherri Stoner;  of course,  Steven in the middle;  writer and story editor Paul Dini;  and directors Art Vitello and Rich Arons. 

And, in the background, pirates.  

Steven, Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall sent us the following telegram on the night of the Emmy event.   Telegrams were cool!  You sure don't hear much about telegrams anymore.