''ToonHeads'' is an American animation anthology series consisting of
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer t ...
,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
,
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, and ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.animators and
voice actor
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talen ...
s of the shorts. ''ToonHeads'' was originally broadcast on Cartoon Network from October 2, 1992, until November 23, 2003.
The series was first announced on the Cartoon Network Special "Droopy's Guide to the Cartoon Network" as part of a promotion advertising the various blocks that would appear on the channel and what order they would be shown in. This special was the very first broadcast on the Cartoon Network's launch on October 1, 1992, and was re-aired throughout October 1992. The series includes more than 102 episodes (many undocumented), when including five specials (four one-hour specials and one half-hour special, two of which ("The Best of the Worst Cartoons Ever" and "The Twelve Missing Hares") were never aired).
Format
Early seasons feature an announcer stating each episode's theme and three cartoons to be showcased. Then the show underwent two format changes. The first happened in late 1995 when
Don Kennedy
Donald J. Kennedy (born March 2, 1930) is an American radio and television personality and voice talent, whose career began in the late 1940s with a radio announcer spot on Pennsylvania station WPIC.
In the mid-1950s, Kennedy was a contributor ...
was added as the
narrator
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...
and would tell the history and facts of each cartoon shown (Don Kennedy would also have narration duties on The Tex Avery Show that same year).
The second format change came in 1998 when George A. Klein took over as producer and writer of the show. He wanted the show to be a "Ken Burns" type of weekly documentary on specific cartoon history. Creating specific "themed" episodes utilizing the Warner Bros. cartoons. Three basic concepts used for these episodes are directors (e.g. Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng), characters (e.g. "Evolution of Tweety" and "The Year Elmer Fudd Got Fat"), and themes. Episodes include themes like cartoons that lampooned Hollywood celebrities and movies; cartoons where the humor comes from a character trying to get some sleep and being interrupted; cartoons that make fun of sports; obscure and rare works from Warner Bros.; and a look at the allegations of plagiarism between "The Cat Concerto" and "Rhapsody Rabbit". Trivia questions were also added about the related cartoons used in each episode's theme. From 1998 to 2003 Leslie Fram did the narration for each episode's final tracks and George A. Klein narrated the rough-cut scratch tracks.
Episodes
''ToonHeads'' is notable for showing cartoons that were rarely seen on television, such as on "The Wartime Cartoons" special, "The Lost Cartoons" special, and one series of episodes in January 1996 featuring the long-unseen ''
Nudnik
''Nudnik'' was a Czechoslovak/ Czech animated film series directed by Gene Deitch, produced by William Lawrence Snyder, and distributed by Paramount Studios. Twelve shorts were released during 1965 and 1967. The character's tagline is "Whateve ...
'' shorts There was also a special that aired on October 20, 1996, titled ''A Night of Independent Animation'', which featured independent student films, such as ''Another Bad Day for Philip Jenkins'' by
Mo Willems
Mo Willems (born February 11, 1968) is an American writer, animator, voice actor, and children's book author. His work includes creating the animated television series '' Sheep in the Big City'' for Cartoon Network, working on '' Sesame Street' ...
, and ''The Wire'' by Aaron Augenblick.
As of August 2022, the two unaired episodes "The Best of the Worst Cartoons Ever" and "The Twelve Missing Hares" have been found. These episodes were preserved on tape by episode writer Jerry Beck and transferred through media loan by Jerico Dvorak who made them available.
Season 1 (1992–95)
Season 2 (1996)
Season 3 (1998–99)
Season 4 (1999)
Season 5 (1999–2001)
Season 6 (2001)
Season 7 (2002)
Season 8 (2003)
References
External links
*
* on
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...