History and Production
The idea for the show had an unusual genesis. Disney TV was developing a 65-half hour series for their Disney Afternoon block entitled He's Bonkers D. Bobcat. The premise was similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit in that the series dealt with the lead character's adventures post-stardom. The actual production of this series was troubled, in large part because the so-called real characters in the series were also animated, only not as broadly as Bonkers and friends.
At the same time, Michael Eisner had purchased the rights to the popular Belgian comic strip Marsupilami. At some point, someone had the post-modern idea to actually make the cartoons that Bonkers had starred in before becoming a policeman, and the show that would become Raw Toonage was born. The additional segment, Totally Tasteless Video, was intended as a satire of popular culture, not a proving ground for new stars. The host was added to give the show the familiar feel of the World of Disney show.
Due to the shorter production schedule, Raw Toonage, with its Bonkers shorts, was on the air before the 65-half hour show, thus adding some credibility to the back story.
Raw Toonage typically opened with an introduction by a famous character from Disney (such as Goofy with his Goof Troop style), who attempted to share some of their expertise with the audience; then the show had a few of the above mentioned shorts chained in a row, rounding out the half hour.
The premise of the Bonkers shorts was that Bonkers was a delivery person, usually assisted by Jitters A. Dog. Conflict was provided by Bonkers' unrequited love for Fawn Deer.
The Marsupilami cartoons took the look of the character from the Belgian comic and gave him a free-spirited personality. He was most often opposed by Foreman Norman, a building contractor.
Totally Tasteless Video did each show in a different style. They were story edited by Tom Minton, who later would write many Pinky and the Brain episodes at Warner Bros.. The first Totally Tasteless Video segment was a parody of movie coming attraction trailers, followed by a spoof on the TV series Doogie Howser. One show dealt with a purposely badly animated super-hero; another was a Robin Hood twist in the Jay Ward style.
Larry Latham produced and directed the Bonkers, Totally Tasteless Video and host segments; Ed Wexler produced and directed Marsupilami. At least one of the Marsupilami cartoons was produced with the idea of a theatrical run in mind.
Music composed by Stephen James Taylor (character themes and underscore), Mark Watters, Eric Schmidt, Jerry Grant, Walter Murphy, and Craig Stuart Garfinkle.
Reruns of the show were aired on both Disney Channel and Toon Disney. Disney's Raw Toonage was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in the category of outstanding writing in an animated program and Outstanding Music Direction and Composition in 1993.
Read more about this topic: Raw Toonage
Famous quotes containing the words history and, history and/or production:
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)