At this point -- near the end of the series -- the show had gotten even more inside than usual, so here's a brief explanation of some of the references:
- The guy holding up the cryptic "Yogi Bear" message is writer Tom Minton ("Toby Danger"). The caricature makes him look like Tweety because he was producing "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries" at the time.
- The guy representing "Superman" is Paul Dini. "Superman" was just about to premiere on the WB in 1996, so the audience was mostly asking questions about that show.
- "Hilary Bader," the writer of the Klingon book, was a writer for "Superman" and other Kids' WB series (she passed away in 2002).
- The line about Freakazoid! being popular in "state institutions" was something the writers put in when they learned that their show was particularly popular in prisons.
- The characters who show up at the end are all supporting characters from the first season who weren't used regularly in the second and final season.
Also, the Earthworm Jim narrator mentioned earlier in the clip was played by Jeff Bennett who also played The Huntsman and Lord Bravery at the end of the clip.
ReplyDeleteMystery Freakazoid moment origin explained: that "Yogi Bear is made of metal" sign is a reference to a question asked by Jean MacCurdy in a Warners writers' meeting in 1996. She asked me if I'd like to develop a show about Yogi and I said "Only if he were made of metal." (a reference to the DC comics slant then taking over much of WB animation - you had to be there.) At any rate, this quick response got a big laugh because everyone knew I meant 'no.' A few weeks later, for reasons known only to them, John McCann and/or Paul Rugg re-interpreted the moment as me writing and holding up that sign in this Freakazoid episode, with absolutely no set-up. Freakazoid is brimming with such arcane stuff. As the late composer Richard Stone once lovingly described the series, "the inmates took over the asylum." Now this statement will live on the Internet for seventy-five years.
ReplyDeleteTom Minton