To those who have been reading my blog and did not have cable as a child, I apologize. I realize that not everyone was this privileged, and so I bring you some non-cable programming …
On Kids’ WB!
Let’s face it: We all agree that cartoons aren’t what they used to be. But here’s something else I realized while I pored over some old videos: Steven Spielberg needs to go back to making cartoons.
Yep.
Not only did his programs make education fun and interesting, they also … well … used a lot of dirty jokes. What can I say? They’re my weakness.
“Animaniacs,” a show about two Warner Brothers (and the Warner sister) who looked like some sort of mouse/rodent/cat/dog creature, got away with so much. Seriously. As I watched some clips from the show recently, I could not believe the stuff that went over my head as a tot. I mean, the Wheel of Morality is insane.
That wasn’t even the craziest part of the show. For three innocent-looking 1930s cartoons locked away in the Warner Bros. tower for about 60 years, Yakko, Wakko and Dot had some pretty subtle yet scandalous sayings up their sleeves. You can figure out many of these from the “Goodnight, everybody!” slogan, of course.
However, let’s put morality aside for a moment and look at the other side of adult cartoons. Some of these shows were adult but in a more cultured way. Take “Pinky and the Brain,” for example. Sure, I may have had stuffed animal versions of the two anthropomorphic lab mice and thought they were super cute, but my six-year-old brain never comprehended how many pop-culture references these rodents made.
Warner Bros. Animation actually modeled the Brain after Orson Welles. In the 1995 episode “Yes, Always,” Pinky and the Brain parody Welles’ famous “Frozen Peas” voiceover incident. By doing this, the show tried to appeal to even the oldest generation, who had seen Welles in his prime.
Sadly, both “Animaniacs” and “Pinky and the Brain” aired on Kids’ WB! for only three seasons. Although we can watch actual adult cartoons on Adult Swim, there are days when I still wish I could turn on Kids’ WB! for some good ol’ fashioned immorality. I wonder if Spielberg misses it, too.
Posts in Gator Golf appear on Tuesdays.
From 1995 to 1998, these crazy, lovable critters starred on Kids’ WB! Both “Animaniacs” and “Pinky and the Brain” are available on DVD.
