Animaniacs

I liked the "pianist" joke they had on Monday night.

"G'NIGHT EVERYBODY!"

Like at 3:12 here?

Okay, you win. I no longer hate this show.

!!!

What turned you onto the show?

edited 12th Jun '13 8:10:23 PM by 0dd1

a.) I had never really judged the show on its humor, just on Asperger-y hangups that made me decide not to like it, and in turn made me teased by my peers up until the end for not liking it. I had let the memories of teasing overpower everything else.

b.)This blog.

Also, by the by, on what episode did one of the characters perform Yankee Doodle via armpit farts? That's one of the only jokes I remember.

Oh, really? Now you make more sense! And BTW, that episode you're talking about is The Warners' 65th Anniversary Special.

edited 12th Jun '13 9:09:33 PM by x86x2

I really liked this show when I was younger. I also remember watching it on youtube back when they use to upload episodes that viacom would delete and fans wanting an 100th episode special or something like that lol Those were funny times :p

But the fact that people in almost every age group likes this show to this day is pretty cool. I should rewatch one of these days.

edited 28th Jul '14 12:07:08 AM by teddy

I don't think Viacom would delete Animaniacs episodes, considering I don't believe they have any legal ownership over the show.

idk. It may have been the people who owned the show. I just remember it being some company who would delete the episodes for copyright or even mute it. Viacom used to do that a lot to youtube videos.

edited 28th Jul '14 2:16:32 PM by teddy

Oh, yes... this show.

I like the show. I have both soundtrack albums and a couple of the comic books, and I bought the first three volumes of the DVD set when they were new.

Then I bought the fourth last year and I realized why they didn't release it at the time.

Animaniacs was already a pretty hit-or-miss show - though, admittedly, it hit more than it missed - and in its last two seasons, it underwent Seasonal Rot. Given that, IMO, Seasonal Rot turns most shows hit-or-miss, you can imagine what it did to Animaniacs...

I find the cartoon enjoyable, very funny, smart, clever... but if I had to pick my favorite WB cartoon, I'd choose Pinky And The Brain and Freakazoid any day, because they were, well, more solid.

I think that's Warner itself, which also does that to pretty much all Looney Tunes videos (oddly, they seem more lenient with Tiny Toons stuff, he said, hoping not to jinx it...)

Hi everybody! I fixed up the old Best Episode Crowner for Animaniacs! Please vote, I'm really interesting in the episodes people like most! And if your favorite episode isn't on there, please add to it, because gosh darn it, I already added 50 entries. Bye and thank you.

I remember when this show still aired on Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network. Having seen it again recently, now understanding most of the allusions and references, I guess it was fairly funny and clever, and the songs are pretty damn catchy.

And it still amazes me what it could get away with back then; why and how are children's shows no longer allowed to have a trio of cartoon creatures harass Satan himself, and even real political figures like Saddam Hussein?

Although of course this show is not perfect. The very predictable and repetitive segments, along with how 75% of the humor involved designated hapless victims getting comically abused, it just gets rather tiresome after a while.

edited 12th Apr '16 9:15:05 AM by AHI-3000

In my opinion, one of the most amusingly memorable shorts has to be this screw-you to the fans. Twenty-something years later, this is still very eerily relevant to the world of online geeky fandoms everywhere. Hell, this even predicted the behavior of a lot of TV Tropes editors!

It's amazing how much of the show's comedy is funnier and/or makes more sense as an adult. I remember being utterly stumped by a particular line from the opening credits as a kid: "We're Animaniacs! We have pay or play contracts!"

A pay or play contract is a nickname for a type of contract used by Hollywood called a Guarantee. Studios hate them and only tend to agree to them when signing star talent, because the basic premise of the contract is that if an actor, director, writer, etc. is released from his contract – a polite term for being removed from the project – they are guaranteed to be paid a sum agreed upon in the contract.

In essence, you either Play the role you were assigned, or they Pay you to leave. Pay or Play.

Thus, the joke in the theme song is that the Animaniacs have their show because the studio is contractually obligated to keep them employed; it would cost more money than it’s worth to fire them.

I'll admit, I did a bunch of research on a bunch of the stuff mentioned on Animaniacs back when it first aired just to get the jokes. And given that web access wasn't nearly as widespread back then (at the very least, I didn't have any), it was a much more time-consuming process to find out stuff like that.

It's kind of outdated, to be honest.

If they'd made it nowadays they'd have the fans talk about their Dot and Hello Nurse slash fic, or their headcanon that Wakko is a gookie-kin.

Hahahaha yeah no, because the guys in that video are the same sort of guys that shit on fanfic and headcanons. I've seen it firsthand. Folks who obsessively note every detail also work overtime to make sure no one who's actually interested in expanding on the fandom or doing anything differently makes it into their turf. And they definitely still exist.

I'll be honest, I'm glad animation's moved on from Animaniacs and its ilk. I often feel like the folks making kids entertainment in the nineties didn't actually like children and were far too happy to be talking over them. There's nothing wrong with a more adult joke here and there, but when that's where all your best material is and the most you're willing to give the kids is retreaded slapstick, there's a problem.

Kids shows today have a wonderful tendency to talk about adult subjects in a way kids can actually understand.

edited 12th Apr '16 12:21:39 PM by Wackd

Wow, that's totally not what I got from 90's animation, and I was a pre-teen or teenager for all of it (and thus not in the target audience).

Fandom's moved on from those days. Headcanons and slash fics are where it's at these days.

And posts like that are the reason why I just realized there are no more Jay Wards or Joe Murrays in the animation business.

The adult jokes were no obstacle to Animaniacs becoming the most popular show on Fox Kids, second only to Power Rangers, after all. Maybe kids these days are stupider.

edited 12th Apr '16 12:32:20 PM by Aldo930

EDIT: Eh, not sure I wanna have this conversation. Never mind.

edited 12th Apr '16 12:49:12 PM by Wackd

Ultimately, I'd say you're both right.

Creating headcanons and striking down headcanons are equally popular pastimes in fandoms. I've seen and participated in both on this very forum.

In the contrary, I APPRECIATED that the crew at Amblin TV didn't care what they put into their shows and just went with whatever they wanted, because I could see that they embraced their own individuality instead of obeying a corporation. I actually want to see MORE of that in today's animation, and thankfully a lot of TV animation in the USA has already been doing that now.

Apparently having Steven Spielberg as the executive producer was a big, big help.

Whenever the censors protested about something, they'd just say "Well, Steven liked it" - and it went through unchanged.

Yeah the higher-ups were hands-off the content, so, like the crew at Termite Terrace, they got to do whatever they wanted, even if children didn't completely understand it.

You'd think 7D would capture a bit of that free-form creativity, because it's essentially an Animaniacs reunion, but that show just feels like another by-committee show, aimed younger.

edited 12th Apr '16 1:49:21 PM by kyun