Thursday, June 17, 2010

Forgotten Toons: Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain

What happens you make a spin-off of a spin-off?  If you guessed, 'a confusing mess that pleases nobody,' then you would be right.  However, this lesson was not learned by WB until after they made...

Right away, it's easy to see what's wrong here.  What is the point of introducing a new character when the other two are popular already.  Never mind the fact that you are taking a character from Tiny Toon Adventures and putting her into a spin-off of a show that was spun-off of Animaniacs.  At least having the weird little girl and her dog from Animaniacs would make a little more sense.  Either way, this is what they decided to do.  So, how does this work exactly?

Well, the girl bought a turtle from a pet store, but apparently Pinky and the Brain were under its shell and got sold too.  As a result, their plans for world domination got a bit complicated with a third- and dumb- wheel.  That's pretty much it.

From the get-go, this was not a popular decision amongst everyone- save for the network brass.  They hailed it as 'fresh new take on popular characters Pinky & The Brain.'  Writer/producer Tom Hastings took it as a reason to leave the company for their rival Disney. 

The show was not really a hit, running for five full episodes on its own before cancellation.  It reappeared on a cartoon block for another year, getting the remainder of its episodes aired- albeit in chopped-up form.  In addition, it joins Hysteria on the short list of shows that WB has 'no plans to release on DVD.'  Although, just to be ironic, it did win a Daytime Emmy Award!

As to my take on the show, I honestly have no recollection of ever seeing it.  Maybe I did, but simply blocked it out.  Given the backlash it got, that's fairly-possible.

Next up, I take a look at a Warner Bros cartoon that's a whirling dervish of childhood entertainment.  Spin spin spin!  Stay tuned...

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