Early Concept Art of the show where the main characters were all ducks.
A list of some rejected ideas (and things that almost were/weren't) for Animaniacs.For examples from the revival series, go here
The original series
- The concept for the show was originally going to star a family/group of green ducks, since the baby version of Plucky Duck from Tiny Toon Adventures went over so well, but wouldn't be related to Plucky and would have nothing to do with the rest of that cast. The team eventually decided that a show starring a group of ducks had been done before, and retooled the premise to star 1930s-style cartoon characters.
- Plucky at one point was actually going to be the host of the whole show, with one draft of the show being called Plucky Duck Theater.
- In the phase where the Warners were going to be ducks, they consisted of three brothers - Yakky (the chatty character), Smakky (an ill-tempered character with a predilection for violence), and Wakky (the odd and energetic character). As the design evolved away from ducks, a sister (who was not named in concept art) was added to the ensemble. Yakky shared Yakko's body design, but was dressed only in a blue bow-tie, Smakky had Wakko's body and clothes (albeit with a green shirt instead of a blue one), but sported a scowl and perpetually had his arms crossed, Wakky was a small, Dot-sized character who wore blue shorts, and Dot's design at this point included a pink blouse and a pink bow in her hair. Yakky would eventually become Yakko, with the only major change being swapping out the bow tie for a pair of brown slacks. Wakko was born from merging Wakky's personality and Smakky's character design, while Smakky was ultimately dropped as a character. Dot more or less went unchanged aside from abandoning her blouse and swapping out the bow for a flower.
- One very early idea was to have the cat and dog duo Rita and Runt act as hosts of the show, in a similar vein to The Abbot and Costello Show, with the two coming out on a stage and introducing each segment until they were scrapped as emcees and it was decided to have the Warners act as "hosts" of the program. Runt's catchphrase in this version would have been "Gee, Rita, what are we going to do today?" which was repurposed into Pinky's "Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?"
- Pip was originally supposed to be a dog.
- Minerva Mink was planned to be a blatant Marilyn Monroe Expy, and her first name was originally Marilyn. She was also originally going to be completely naked, but the creators realized that it was far too sexual for a children's cartoon (more so than usual, considering what the two Minerva cartoons that aired got away with).
- Another early idea for Minerva was that she would be a Distaff Counterpart to Bugs Bunny's wit, cunning, and humor. While the episode "Meet Minerva" shows that Minerva can dispatch her enemies using her sex appeal, it would be Slappy Squirrel that uses wit, cunning, and humor against her enemies.
- Charlie Adler auditioned to do voice work on this show (and his rejection is why he quit Tiny Toon Adventures).
- There were some ideas for sketches that were never used:
- Bossy Beaver and Doyle was about a duo of construction worker beavers, with the main beaver being based off of Tiny Toons artist Ken Boyer. This segment was scrapped for a few reasons: one was because Steven thought it seemed too similar to Pinky and the Brain with the smart guy/dumb guy dynamic, and that when pitching, Tom Ruegger said that the main characters' motivation was "to build the best damn dam"; it got scrapped for that reason alone.
- Another concept was entitled Nipsey and Russell, and would've been about two rhyming raccoons that were to be based on comedian Nipsey Russell.
- One crazy idea for a segment was, as Tom Ruegger put it, "dogs who had fleas who had dogs".
- Equally crazy was a never-used character known as La Tidga, as seen here
. Not even Tom Ruegger can recall exactly what the concept of her proposed segment was even supposed to be. - One unused idea for the series was a Soap Opera parody about amoebas called As the Petri Dish Turns.
- The Flea Family from the Tiny Toon Adventures episodes "Starting From Scratch" and "Flea For Your Life" was going to be featured in their own cartoons.
- C.L.I.D.E. & Egghead Jr. would've featured Egghead Jr.note from the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons going on adventures with the robotic Long-Lost Uncle Aesop C.L.I.D.E.note from the Tiny Toons episode "C.L.I.D.E. and Prejudice"
- Patrick Stewart was considered to voice The Brain.
- Slappy Squirrel was originally an older version of Screwy Squirrel, but the creators couldn't get the rights. Sherri Stoner liked the idea of an aged cartoon character because an aged cartoon star would know the secrets of other cartoons and "have the dirt on [them]". Sherri was also not originally going to be the voice of Slappy; it was only when she did an impression of what she felt the voice should sound like that Steven Spielberg suggested she do it.
- Chicken Boo originally was called Hannibal the Cannibal and as Deanna Oliver described him a chicken who lived on a mountain top and felt bad about eating eggs. But Tom Ruegger shot the idea down, and Deanna reworked the chicken into a Boo Radley type of character giving us the chicken we know and love today.
- "Yakko's Universe" was initially written with a verse describing the planets in the solar system and ending with the lyric, "It's a small world after all." This was changed not only because a song about the planets was already being conceived for the show, but they knew the Disney reference would not fly.
- Due to music rights issues, "The Monkey Song" almost never made it to air, as the rights to the titular song only got cleared the day before broadcast.
- Toby Danger from Freakazoid! was originally going to be a new segment for the Kid's WB run of Animaniacs. Each segment would've begun with a Framing Device of Wakko walking up to a TV to tune into the show.
- Randy Rogel wrote a song entitled "The Geologic Clock," in which Yakko sings about the history of the Earth, that ultimately went unused. "A Brief History of History" from the revival seems to be its successor.
- The Warners were planned to appear in Looney Tunes: Back in Action when Daffy crashes the Batmobile into the Warner Bros. water tower. This idea was used in the 2004 video game Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt almost a year later.
- Writer Michael Dare submitted a few scripts, which he claimed that while repeatedly getting ignored by Tom Ruegger ended up unused before the show's cancellation, aside from a Slappy one being adapted in an issue of the comic.
Wakko's Wish and other theatrical ventures
- Before this film there were plans for an Animaniacs movie back in 1995. The idea was scrapped due to Warner Bros. pouring their money into the production of Space Jam instead. Creators toyed with creating a fourth Warner called Lakko - to play the Only Sane Man in the spirit of Zeppo Marx. The film for which he was developed for - Wandering Warners We - never made it past the planning stages.
- Originally, Wakko's Wish was planned to be theatrically released after very good test scores, but the idea was scrapped due to the last few animated movies WB had distributed (with the exception of Space Jam) doing poorly at the box office and Warner Bros. didn't want to spend money on advertising.
- Plans for two sequels (This Means Warners, taking place in World War II, and Revolution Warners, during the Revolutionary War) were considered, but due to a number of factors such as the death of composer Richard Stone, the diminishing returns of other animated films from WB, Steven Spielberg's then-growing disinterest in Warner Bros. (though it's been rekindled in recent years and has since directed Ready Player One for the studio, and overseen revivals of Animaniacs and Tiny Toons, respectively), the decline in popularity of Animaniacs and the other Spielberg-backed shows (thanks partly to Pokémon: The Series which lead to the shifting interest towards anime for Saturday Morning at the time), the disastrous AOL/Time Warner deal and other reasons, the ideas were scrapped.
- After "I'm Mad" was released as a theatrical short in front of Thumbelina (1994), some more shorts were made that were initially meant to be produced theatrically. (All of them are indicated by the fact that they were produced in letterbox format, rather than the standard Academy ratio the show uses.) These include "Variety Speak", "Wakko's 2-Note Song", "The Ballad of Magellan", and "L.A. Dot". The former three ended up being aired as episodes, while the latter was used as a segment of "Hooray for North Hollywood - Part 2".
Pinky and the Brain
- This show as well as Freakazoid! were slated to air on The Hub in late 2014, but due to the change to Discovery Family, it never came to be.
- There was a planned Pinky and the Brain video game for the Sega Saturn, and possibly the PlayStation and N64 but it was canceled and there is little to no information about the game. The little info can be seen here on page 75.
- Russell Calabrese and Kirk Tingblad once proposed a Pinky and the Brain movie. The idea was to have an experiment fail and they get turned into their voice actors, Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche. The two go on a world wide adventure to find a certain gizmo that Brain can fix their conversion machine with. They find the gizmo they need and race to the lab to rebuild the device to return them into mice. Just as they start up the device Pinky is shot with the bullet hitting his heart. The conversion happens and as Brain is sobbing the bullet rolls off his cartoon chest and Pinky is saved. It ends with them cleaning up the lab as Brain asks Pinky "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?". It was cancelled because it was too expensive.
