Their only role in the Buddy cartoons was to pop out of unexpected places and use giant mallets to make a pancake out of the star. In episode #65, 'The Warners 65th Anniversary Special,' we learn that the Warners were created in 1929 to be the sidekicks for Buddy, a real character from the early days of Warner Bros. THE WARNER BROTHERS (AND THE WARNER SISTER) After getting clearance from the Warner estate to use the family name, the show was off and running. As the studio artists honed the designs, Yakky became Yakko, and Smakky and Wakky were melded into Wakko. According to the show bible – a book filled with background information for the creative team on a TV show - their species is labeled as “Cartoonus Characterus.”įor a brief period, there were four Warner siblings-Yakky, Smakky, Wakky, and little sister, Dot. Although they have dog-like characteristics, the exact type of animal the Warners are meant to be is unknown. He proposed a group of siblings drawn in an animation style reminiscent of anthropomorphized animal characters from the 1930s, and called them the Warner Brothers. Ruegger was inspired by the large “WB” logo on the water tower at the Warner Bros. Spielberg agreed, but said they needed to come up with “a big marquee name” to help sell the show.

However, the team soon realized that, between Disney’s Donald Duck, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, and Warner Bros.' own Daffy Duck, there were already plenty of animated waterfowl on the market. These two concepts were combined to create three brother ducks. Meanwhile, Ruegger had been developing characters based on the personalities of his three young sons. One idea Spielberg suggested was to make the popular Tiny Toons character Plucky Duck the star of the new show.

After Tiny Toons became a huge success, Spielberg asked producer Tom Ruegger and his team to work on a follow-up cartoon. The history of Animaniacs actually begins with Tiny Toon Adventures, another animated show from Warner Bros. So if you happen to be searching for the real story behind Animaniacs-which is getting a reboot on Hulu-you're in the right place. Ruegger sent back seven pages of awesomeness instead. I expected a few sentences in response to my questions, but Mr. When I started researching the history of Animaniacs, I contacted creator Tom Ruegger to see if he could fill in some gaps.

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