...is set in the universe where Roger Rabbit exists, but decades later.
Roger Rabbit takes place in 1947. Bonkers clearly takes place in The '90s. Disney is still around, so their characters exist. The companies that Maroon Cartoons parodied no longer do. The absence of the Warner Brothers characters is explained in other television series, where many are implied to be at the Warner Brothers studio in California.- This was almost Canon. Bonkers was meant to be a WFRR cartoon, but legal and bureaucratic red tape forced them to respin it as Bonkers. It is up to personal Fanon whether it is truly WFRR'verse or just a similar parallel verse.
- There was a Bonkers comic in which the Toon-killing concoction is not only shown but also used by Bonkers' partner - to no effect, since he used it on a ghost. Still, that is one corrupt cop.
The Lucky Episodes were actual (in-universe) police cases. The Miranda episodes were an in-universe show after Bonkers made a comeback
At the end of the episode with the Straw Critic, said critic (whose scathing reviews had gotten Bonkers's first show cancelled), changes his mind and suggests that Bonkers should get back in show-biz as the star of his own cop show and that his partner should be a woman. This guess holds that the critic was so influential in the industry that, in-universe, that's exactly what happened.The bridging episode between the Lucky and Miranada eras was the pilot episode of this new show. Lucky agrees to appear in it simply because he's all to eager to help Bonkers get back in show business (and subsequently rid himself of that annoying bobcat once and for all). The Chief shows up in it because he thought it'd been fun to be in a cartoon.
Always one to look out for his friends, Bonkers - once the actual series gets picked up - invites the toon actors who he had worked with in his old show (the Raw Toonage shorts) to be regulars on his new show. Also, in celebration of the Chief's birthday (or retirement or something), he has the Chief show up again in a later episode (the bank robbery episode).
Bonkers is a D.
Bonkers cried crocodile tears often as a means to get Lucky to do what he wanted.
This is as good as canon though, right? Bonkers's extreme reactions are not only because he's a toon, but because he's an ex-actor. Other toons that appeared in the series were not as dramatic.