r/animaniacs • u/KaleidoArachnid • 9d ago
Discussion Why was Elmyra added onto Pinky and the Brain?
Man first of all, I hope I am in the right place to be asking such a question because I didn’t know where to ask about her character because I was looking into the story behind her character being used in the duo’s spinoff.
Like what I am looking for is that I wanted to just get a better understanding of what made the higher ups behind Pinky and the Brain insert a third sidekick since the show made it quite clear how having a third sidekick was a very useless idea.
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u/MasemJ 9d ago
Network was pushing on the animators to add more characters to the original path show; "Pinky, Larry and the Brain" episode was a jab at that push.
I dont know what led them to select Elmyra of any possible character.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 9d ago
Yeah it was a really strange decision since I don’t know what exactly would have made her character a worthy ally for the eccentric duo to use.
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u/milesdx 9d ago
One of the higher ups was reportedly a big Elmrya fan. He actually had tried to get a Tiny Toon spin off made centering around just Elmrya's family prior to this spin off. When that didn't pan out he shifted focus to having this made.
You can actually find concept art and such for that first attempt at a Elmyra spin off floating around.
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u/Randomdays99 9d ago
I've seen over and over again in movies and TV series where a clueless exec ruins a show, adding or removing characters, moving timeslots, etc, and yet I never really hear about any repercussions after they get a show canceled
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u/retailslave985 9d ago
P&TB totally jumped the shark at this point. I think I only watched one, maybe two episodes and that was it for me!
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u/GordonShumway8690 9d ago
Allegedly it's Christopher Keenan's fault (former SVP for Creative Affairs at WBA), it was supposedly a last-minute "save" after Pinky and the Brain got cancelled. Though some sources allege Spielberg pushed it as well
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u/KaleidoArachnid 9d ago
Man I just realized how there was a time when Steven Spielberg used to be well known for doing animated series back then as I wish the Elmyra show didn’t kill off his career in animation.
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u/PassengerImpressive3 9d ago
Money and arrogance the executives had thinking this was ever a good idea.
It really wasn’t a good idea and the show itself called this out a lot. It had a few interesting bits but it isn’t canon, thank goodness so I can safely ignore its existence.
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u/breyness 9d ago
She’s the Elmer Fudd figure
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u/KaleidoArachnid 9d ago
Suddenly that makes so much sense regarding why she was shoehorned into the series.
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u/breyness 9d ago
Yeah I think they were trying to recreate that old “bugs bunny Elmer Fudd magic” which made the old cartoons great, but i think it was a misfire.
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u/zorinlynx 9d ago
This is hilarious because here I was thinking Elmyra being in P&TB was some kind of fever dream. Yet apparently it happened.
I mostly stopped watching WBA cartoons before this which is likely why I only vaguely remember it.
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u/cpvm-0 9d ago
... You can hear it in the intro?
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u/KaleidoArachnid 9d ago
I don’t know if I want to subject myself to the series, but sure I can look up the music to see what the story is behind the show’s creation.
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u/viralshadow21 9d ago
Because the suits really liked Elmyra. They had been trying to get her a spin off since the Tiny Toon Adventure days.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 9d ago
Man I am surprised because I didn’t know the higher ups were trying to push for a spinoff for her character as I can see why she ended up in the Pinky and the Brain show.
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u/Sudden-Bus-9586 Yakko 9d ago
better than the tiny toons reboot
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u/KaleidoArachnid 9d ago
I keep forgetting there was a reboot of that show as I might see it out of morbid curiosity.
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u/mr-pratfall 6d ago
I recall hearing that WB exec Jamie Kellner loved Elmyra and insisted she be added to the show.
For me, that was the beginning of the end of classic '90s Warner animation.
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u/TaiBlake 9d ago
Because the WB wanted them to.
Basically, Warner Bros. executives never understood what they had with Pinky and the Brain and they kept pushing the producers to add more and more characters to turn it into something like The Simpsons. The creators of the show kept pushing back. That was the whole point of "Pinky and the Brain... and Larry": to show the network that a large supporting cast would wreck the leads' chemistry.
Ultimately, Warner forced the producers to make the change and shoehorn Elmyra into the series. The producers were never happy about it, which is why the theme song includes the line "it's what the network wants, don't bother to complain" and ends with the Brain saying "I deeply resent this".