Welcome My Fortress Of Solitude!:)

Anyone with a name that starts with a “Z”, ends with an “i”, and isn’t some kind of Italian pasta, IS SERIOUS

or a superhero

or a gunslinger

or a gunslinger and a queen

spiderman dances to the beat

For those who don’t know: 

Tom Ruegger is the original creator of Animaniacs. He’s the guy you have to thank for the iconic characters Yakko, Wakko, and Dot (for whom the primary inspiration was his own three sons.) Among many others, including the equally popular Pinky and the Brain.  He was also an involved writer/lyricist for the show and played a huge part in coming up with new song & story ideas.

Yet despite all of this, Tom was never asked back for the 2020 reboot. In fact, he wasn’t even aware that a reboot was in production until it was announced to the public. Although Tom has expressed plenty of interest in being involved in the reboot, WB/Hulu has repeatedly turned him away.

Tom’s oldest son, Nate Ruegger (voice of Skippy Squirrel,) has spoken out about this on his twitter: 

“the naked greed on display here to reboot a series without involving any of the original creative team so they can make *more* money, & then joke about it, is gross.” (x)

And he’s absolutely right. Outside of the main voice cast, none of the original team was consulted for the reboot. Tom was/is an integral part of Animaniacs. Without him, the show would never have existed, let alone become a cultural phenomenon. It doesn’t seem right for him to be cut out of the revival of a show that he is largely responsible for bringing to life in the first place.

The mistreatment and blatant disrespect of creators by big-name companies is something I’ve seen way too much of lately, and even though this is far from the first time, that doesn’t make the practice in anyway right or okay.

I’ve seen petitions for this going around, but they rarely gain enough traction, so I’m taking a more direct approach:

I’m asking fans of the series - new & old alike, regardless of your opinion on the reboot itself - to please reblog this. Or, simply spread the hashtag #BringBackTomRuegger somewhere on your social media.

So that we can let the new showrunners know that we, the fans, want to see Tom brought back for future seasons!!!

Like yourself, I was also ticked off when the news got out. Without Ruegger and his team, there wouldn’t be Animaniacs; at least, not in the way that we’ve come to know and love them. I can somewhat relate to Nate in that my dad also worked on the original show as a director and, like most of the crew, was not asked to return. I could see the disappointment in his face and feel bad for him and others who were left out of this. Only the voice cast and composers got to walk through the door. At least they brought them back, which I’m grateful for.

The sad reality is that the people who are in charge at WB now are most likely not the same people who were there in the 90s. It’s a whole different crew. I even heard that Spielberg himself wanted a younger crew, although I’m not 100% certain about this. On top of that, I’m sure they wanted to ensure that the new show carried with it modern sensibilities so as to relate to a younger audience. I am not opposed to this. My qualm is that there is no respect for who came before in regards to consultation. I wish that they’d brought in both the old AND the new – have a marriage of the two, so that you have a portion of the crew who knows these characters best, inside and out, yet also a younger side of the crew who can better relate to today’s audiences and is in-tune with how social media and other modern avenues operate. Perhaps they purposely avoided this so as to avoid any animosity?

I know that the crew who was hired on put their heart and soul into the show and tried to be as respectful to it as possible. I’m not blaming the artists here at all, as they did a great job; I’m blaming the studio heads, which is also who you’re blaming, and that’s probably exactly who to point fingers at if we’re gonna point them at anyone at all.

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