Trivia / Toon Heads

• Keep Circulating the Tapes: If you happen to own recordings of this show, keep good care of 'em. The really early episodes, which were shorter and had Don Kennedy as the narrator rather than Leslie Fram, are lost to time and include a lot of obscure cartoons that weren't from Warner Bros., MGM, or Fleischer. Also, the original version of the "Midnight in the Bookstore" episode included a Frank Tashlin cartoon called, "You're An Education". Because of that short's extensive ethnic stereotyping, it was replaced in reruns with a redrawn, edited version of "I Like Mountain Music". The Lost Media Wiki has most of the episodes as they were back when they premiered (though mostly the Leslie Fram episodes).
• Screwed by the Network: Toonheads overall had a good run but in the end was one show caught up in the change of direction by the network in the early 2000s which even ended with the show's producer out at Cartoon Network. There was also criticism of the program sticking mainly to WB and MGM shorts at the end of it's run, which was apparently a request of the goal of segmenting the network down more and that those were the most appropriate for the market being targeted.^note At the time the network took Kellner's stance the Periphery Demographic was worthless as such if Toonheads was only for the classics are the best crowd it should only air those they prefer.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Wartime Cartoons was one special that did get to air unlike the next two examples but it was originally envisioned as one of the network's big stunts to push the boundaries of what the network would air. It and June Bugs of 2001 were serious attempts at airing shorts that had long been considered off limits. Obviously such attempts were pretty much doomed upon Cohen's exit.^note  What became [adult swim] and Toonami's running at Midnight were pretty much the only parts of that initiative that survived and mostly did so by giving them a Kicked Upstairs old management with some freedom from said new management.
  • After the above mentioned June Bugs incident in 2001, there was talk of doing an episode called "The Twelve Missing Hares" to try and cover at least partially the cartoons that had been forced out of the marathon. However as mentioned above once Betty Cohen was out as president the new management that was fine with their removal had no interest in such an episode, though in 2022 it was uploaded on Youtube with the permission of Jerry Beck.
  • Another episode that was considered was called "The Best Of The Worst Cartoons Ever", which apparently was an idea pushed by Jerry Beck who ended up doing his own version in panel form later. This seemingly got nixed early by people at the network as being in bad taste. While the network had no problem being a Trolling Creator and parodying their characters at the same time they aired them, it would seem calling some in their library "the worst ever" in the documentary program just didn't fly with people who promoted the wide use of the library. It was later uploaded in 2022, with the permission of Jerry Beck.
• For those curious, here's the list of what Toonheads deemed "the worst cartoons ever."
  • Goober and the Ghost Chasers
  • Clue Club
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids
  • The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan
  • Rickety Rocket, a segment of The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show
  • Turbo Teen
  • The Super Globetrotters
  • Mighty Man and Yukk, another segment on Plastic Man
  • The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • Trollkins
  • The Great Grape Ape
  • Jokebook
  • CB Bears and all of its backup segments
  • Pac-Man
  • Richie Rich (1980)
  • Casper and the Angels
  • The Tom and Jerry Show
  • The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show - specifically the cartoon "Disco Droopy."