Tiny Toon Adventures

Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series that was the first collaborative effort between Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation after being conceived in the late 1980s by Tom Ruegger. The show follows the adventures of a group of cartoon characters who attend Acme Looniversity to become the next generation of characters from the Looney Tunes series.

The first episode, "The Looney Beginning", aired as a prime-time special on CBS on September 14, 1990, while the series itself was featured in first-run syndication for the first two seasons. The last season was aired on Fox Kids. The series ended production in 1992 in favor of Animaniacs, however, two specials were produced in 1994. On July 1, 2013, Tiny Toon Adventures began airing on the Hub Network.

Plot
Tiny Toon Adventures is a cartoon set in the fictional town of Acme Acres, where most of the Tiny Toons and Looney Tunes characters live. The characters attend Acme Looniversity, a school whose faculty primarily consists of the mainstays of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote and Elmer Fudd. In the series, the university is founded to teach cartoon characters how to become funny. The school is not featured in every episode, as not all of its storylines are centered around the school.

Like the Looney Tunes, the series makes use of cartoon violence anvils falling on someone, liberal use of explosives and slapstick. The series parodies and references the current events of the early 1990s and Hollywood culture. Occasionally, episodes delve into veiled ethical and morality stories of ecology, self-esteem, and crime.

Characters
Buster Bunny (voiced by Charlie Adler) — a blue male bunny

Babs Bunny (voiced by Tress MacNeille) — a pink female bunny

Plucky Duck (voiced by Joe Alaskey) — a green male duck

Hamton J. Pig (voiced by Don Messick) — a pink male pig

Fifi La Fume (voiced by Kath Soucie) — a purple and white female skunk

Shirley the Loon (voiced by Gail Matthius) — a white female loon

Dizzy Devil (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) — a purple tasmanian devil

Furrball (voiced by Frank Welker) — a blue cat

Sweetie Pie (voiced by Candi Milo) — a pink canary

Calamity Coyote (voiced by Frank Welker) — a bluish gray coyote

Little Beeper (voiced by Frank Welker) — a red orange road runner

Gogo Dodo (voiced by Frank Welker) — a zany green dodo

Li'l Sneezer (voiced by Kath Soucie) — a gray mouse with powerful sneezes

Concord Condor (voiced by Rob Paulsen) — a purple condor

Byron Basset (voiced by Frank Welker) — a usually sleeping basset hound

Bookworm (voiced by Frank Welker) — a green worm with glasses

Arnold the Pit Bull (voiced by Rob Paulsen) — a muscular white pit bull

Fowlmouth (voiced by Rob Paulsen) — a white rooster with horrid language

Barky Marky (voiced by Frank Welker) — a brown dog

Mary Melody (voiced by Cree Summer) — a young african american human girl

Elmyra Duff (voiced by Cree Summer) — Elmyra is one of the main antagonists of the series and one of the only human characters. She is also a student at ACME Looniversity and an extreme pet lover.

Montana Max (voiced by Danny Cooksey) — Montana Max is one of the main antagonists of the series and one of the only human characters. Max is a spoiled rich brat who also attends ACME Looniversity.

History
According to writer Paul Dini, Tiny Toons originated as an idea by Terry Semel, then the president of Warner Bros., who wanted to "inject new life into the Warner Bros. Animation department," and at the same time create a series with junior versions of Looney Tunes characters. Semel proposed that the new series would be a show based on Looney Tunes where the characters were either young versions of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters or new characters as the offsprings of the original characters. The idea of a series with the basis of younger versions of famous characters was common at the time, the era in which Tiny Toons was produced had such cartoons as Muppet Babies, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry Kids and The Flintstones Kids. Warner Bros. chose to do the same because Spielberg wanted to make a series similar to Looney Tunes, as series producer/show-runner Tom Ruegger explained: "Well, I think in Warner Bros. case, they had the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg on a project. But he didn't want to just work on characters that Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Bob McKimson and Bob Clampett made famous and created. He wanted to be involved with the creation of some new characters." The result was a series similar to Looney Tunes without the use of the same characters.

In 1987, the Warner Bros. Animation studio approached Steven Spielberg to collaborate with Semel and Warner Bros. head of licensing Dan Romanelli on Semel's ideas. They eventually decided that the new characters would be similar to the Looney Tunes characters with no direct relation. However, Tiny Toons did not go into production then, nor was it even planned to be made for television; the series initially was to be a theatrical feature-length film.

In December 1988, Tiny Toons was changed from a film to a television series, with Jean MacCurdy overseeing production of the first 65 episodes. MacCurdy said that Tiny Toons was changed to a television series to "reach a broader audience". For the series, MacCurdy hired Tom Ruegger, who previously wrote cartoons for Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, to be a producer. In January 1989, Ruegger and writer Wayne Kaatz began developing the characters and the setting of "Acme Acres" with Spielberg.

In January 1989, Warner Bros. Animation was choosing its voice actors from over 1,200 auditions and putting together its 100-person production staff. In April 1989, full production of series episodes began with five overseas animation houses and a total budget of $25 million. The first 65 episodes of the series aired in syndication on 135 stations, beginning in September 1990. During that time, Tiny Toons was a huge success and got higher ratings than its Disney Afternoon competitors in some affiliates. After a successful run in syndication, Fox got the rights for season 3. Production of the series halted in late 1992 to make way for Animaniacs to air the following year.

Tiny Toon Adventures, along with Animaniacs, continued to rerun in syndication through the 1990s into the early-2000s (decade) after production of new episodes ceased.

In the US, the series re-ran on Nickelodeon from 1995–1999 and again from 2002–2004, and also aired on Kids' WB from 1997–2000, Cartoon Network from 1999–2001, Nicktoons from 2002–2005, and finally on Boomerang from 2005–2006. On October 27, 2012, the series aired on broadcast television once again on Vortexx with the special "Tiny Toons' Night Ghoulery" and again on November 24, 2012. The series began airing re-runs on the Hub Network on July 1, 2013.

In Canada, the series had aired on YTV in 1996–1999 and on Teletoon (2002–2006).

In the UK, the series aired in reruns on Cartoon Network from 1999–2002 and Boomerang from 2000–2006 and again, one more time on December 17, 2011 with the episode "It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special".

In Italy, the series along with Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and Freakazoid! re-ran on Rai and later Mediaset.

In Australia, the series re-ran on Cartoon Network from 2002 to 2005 and on GO! from 2009 to 2010.

In Japan, the series along with Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain re-ran on TV Tokyo, and then along with Freakazoid! re-ran on TV Asahi.

Episodes
Tiny Toon Adventures has a total of 98 episodes spread over 3 seasons that were produced from September 1990 to December 1992.

Films and Specials
A feature-length film was released direct-to-video in 1992, entitled Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation. This was later re-edited and aired as part of the series. The length of the film is 73 minutes. Fox aired It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special in primetime on December 6, 1992. This episode is a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life. Although the Christmas episode is called a special it is only called this as it is Christmas themed and is just a regular episode. The Tiny Toon Spring Break Special was aired on Fox during primetime on March 27, 1994. Fox aired Tiny Toons' Night Ghoulery in primetime on May 28, 1994.

Spinoff
In 1992, The Plucky Duck Show was produced as a spin-off for Fox Kids, based on the character Plucky Duck. Except for the premiere episode "The Return of Batduck", the show was composed of recycled Plucky-centric episodes from the series.