Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain DVD's

Well, finally Warners got past all their legal deals with Amblin and have released the first volumes of Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain to DVD. I haven't said much about this since they began talking to me about them last year. I'm very happy that so much of my work will finally be available in this way. It's too bad Warner's wouldn't put more into the extras. It's great to have the interviews and all but so much artwork exists and little if any is included. Hopefully on future volumes we will be able to include some of it. For most of the 1990's this was my life and an extraordinary run it was. Like many things it was the right time, place and people who made it happen. I recently was told by one of the people putting the extra material together that the diversity in people who were involved is pretty amazing. I believe that's why it worked so well. From the voices to the writers to the artists involved everyone cared about what they were doing. We would have regular screenings of new shows that had been completed and the crew was always laughing. I knew things were working well when the same people who had written, drawn, and directed the show were still laughing at it after having seen it over and over. The Emmy's I won from these shows hold a special place in my heart. It was nice to be recognized for doing something I loved. After having directed so many of the first Animaniacs it was nice once in a while to be able to step back in as Director after I had become the Producer on both shows. It was especially nice on the Pinky and the Brain Christmas show which is included on this first volume. Here's a little behind the scenes goodie for you that probably isn't mentioned in the extras.
There is a part in the Pinky and the Brain Christmas episode that accidentally got left out. Pinky and Brain are attached to the reindeer rig of Santa's sleigh. Santa walks up and inquires about them. One of the elves says "that's one of those noodle noggin dolls." As it exists now Brain just winces. Well, there was a different reason he winces. Originally Santa then lifted Brain's tail and said, "Where do you put the batteries?". This little bit of business got left out when the storyboard was duplicated to send overseas to TMS for animation. It wasn't noticed until the show came back and by then there was no time to correct it and still get it on air. So it stays the way it is for history.
I hope everyone who enjoyed these when they aired gets to enjoy them again and share with a new generation of viewers.