Hello and welcome to Concept Crash, a new segment where I go on about previously good concepts that have somehow been ruined in later attempts…
Today’s Crash: Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain.
Gee Brain, what are we going to do tonight? - The same thing we do every night Pinky, upstage the other Animaniacs characters and ensure our own primetime show!
Anyone who’s grown up in the 80’s and 90’s (and maybe even the past few years) will be aware of probably one of the best comedy duos in animation. Pinky and the Brain started off as one of the first regular segments of Animanics and by far one of it’s best. Most Animaniacs episodes featured a Pinky and the Brain short, and I do remember being very disappointed when an episode of Animaniacs finished without them appearing.
The concept itself was simple, yet brilliant. A pair of lab-mice spending their nights trying to take over the world. There was something wonderfully twisted about having the heros of show actually being a pair of villians. Because really it’s only ever villians who want to take over the world (of course!). I’m not going that much into the plots of the show itself, as I’m guessing that most readers here have already seen it. (If not, why are you reading this? Go watch it.)
It’s not at all surprising that Pinky and Brain ended up as it’s own half-hour show, independent of Animanicas. (On a side-note; did anyone ever like Slappy The Squrrel? I always hated her Animanics shorts! No chance in hell of her ever getting a show…). Pinky and Brain had won itself a primetime slot, 6 seasons, and all was well in the world of WB.
Until 1998…when the concept was crashed…
Warner Bros. network executives had seen Pinky and the Brain’s potential as primetime sitcom and wanted to further promote this idea…by adding another character. It seems that 2 main leads weren’t enough and an increased cast was needed to give the show a more sit-com’ish feel. (They’d have probably thrown in canned laughter ala ‘The Flintstones’ too, if that was their thinking.)
Original Pinky and the Brain writer Peter Hastings, and various other members of staff began to become very displeased with the network’s attempt ‘re-tool’ their work into something else. Thier displeasure was actually put into the intro, of what would eventually crash and burn.
Of all the characters they could have chosen to add to the show, of all of the directions they could have gone…they paired Pinky and the Brain up….with Elmyra from Tiny Toons.
For the love of Nuggan, why?!!
Pinky, Elmira and the Brain is pure example of why Network heads should never be involved in creative decision making. Elmyra was a regular of the earlier Tiny Toons Adventures, where she became it’s answer to Elmer Fudd. Although instead of gun-violence, she would use a very cruel form of ‘love’ against the animals of the show.
Her inclusion in a Pinky and the Brain spinoff was an unusual cross-over. Animaniacs had mentioned and even featured Tiny Toons characters during it’s run, but that was usually limited to jokes. And now we had one of their cast, appearing outside of Acme Acres within the canon of Animaniacs. That on it’s own is odd, but can be ignored. What can’t be ignored however, is her inclusion in the first place.
I'll do my bestest work in the whole wide world...to make you not want to watch this show!
In Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain, she becomes the new ‘owner’ of the titular pair and inflicts her own brand cruelty on them (as expected for her character.). Because of this, the plots of this show change from what was expected from the classic series. Brain’s schemes for world domination (the main driving force and source of humor for any Pinky and the Brain episode), now had changed in order to include Elmira, or evade her attention.
I suppose they thought that this was clever…or at least the best they could do with the characters they were permitted to use had available.
But in the end, it just ruined everything. The fact that Elmira was there at all, spoiled the flow of any storyline or plot of this show. She came across as larger, louder and stupider version of Pinky, how had none of the advantages that the mouse had. Show suffered thanks to this.
Pinky Elmyra and the Brain was canceled after only one season. Thereafter it’s episodes were broken up and used as filler material for WB Kid’s ‘Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBriany Big Cartoonie Show’. A fitting punishment.
Pinky and the Brain did go on to make further seasons of their original show without their Tiny Toons co-star, until finishing in 2001. Apart from a timeless animated classic, they also left us with a monument to the saying: ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’. This spin-off should never had seen the light of day, and the ambition of Network heads wanting turn one of their shows into a ‘Simpsons beater’, was a fatal mistake. Pinky and the Brain was a modern answer to Loony Toons, no more, no less and should never had been made otherwise.
For it’s crimes, Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain is now mostly forgotten, as it should be. I’m sorry for reminding you about it, if you had forgotten. But like me, a large dose of classic Pinky and the Brain should cure that problem in no time.
-Rawr
(Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures are property of Warner Brothers. And unfortunately for them, so is Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain.)
