I never "got" the Spielberg WB shows. I enjoyed Maurice LaMarche's performance as The Brain, and I liked the Toby Danger segment in Freakazoid, but the remainder of the shows left me flat. Tiny Toons seemed to be a late attempt to jump on the Muppet Babies/Pup Named Scooby Doo/Flintstone Kids craze. Animaniacs seemed forced and Freakazoid came across as a watered down Jim Carey character.

This came up over the weekend as I watched the Freakazoid first season on DVD. A big letdown.

What was the draw for these shows?

They weren't any good. They came out before proliferation of content, and Spielberg's ability to get them on the air was the most special thing about them. They helped usher in an era of cartoons that kept getting better and better. Although it did offshoot into cartoons that are more and more "fartier" and lowbrow.

Phineas and Ferb sits at the pinnacle now, in my view. But there have been bunches of worthy efforts over the past 10 years.

I'll agree with you on everything except for Pinky and the Brain. I love that show. They ruined it with Elmira or whatever that little girl's name was.

Animaniacs was hilarious.

Listen to Monk.

I loved Animaniacs mostly for all the songs, and the often Gilbert-and-Sullivan-inspired lyrics.

I loved Freakazoid for all the playing with superhero tropes, and the common gags about the show being low-budget.

Tiny Toons had its moments; the episode where that dodo thing went to Wacky Land (a reprise of an old Porky Pig cartoon) was great. So was the feature length "Summer Vacation" movie. I never cared for any of the other shows.

I loved Tiny Toons, but I was a kid, and I've never watched it again, so I don't know.

But that was the show that gave Paul Dini to the world, so don't knock it too hard.

I am thankful to Tiny Toons for introducing me to the sweet sounds of They Might Be Giants.

Dini wrote for the Shazam cartoon in the early 80s.

Monk is correct.

Animaniacs was great for those of us who ere stoners at the time. I hear that Spongebob plays a similar role with today's youth.

Ren and Stimpy as well.

Pinky & the Brain was great.

Narf.

Only problem with that was that they often defaulted to gross-out humor which made it hard to enjoy cheeseburgers and doritos while watching.

I thought Animaniacs was the closest anyone came to capturing the spirit of the classic WB cartoons.

Tiny Toons was crap... just like every other Babies/Kids cartoon on TV.

THIS. 1,000 times this. And what Monk said.

Animaniacs Ruled! Pinky & The Brain even moreso.

The rest? Stanky stank stank.

I only saw little bits and pieces of these and was not too impressed. Seemed like EVERYTHING they did involved breaking the fourth wall and showing awareness of the fact that they were cartoon characters in some way. I know the old Warner Brothers' cartoons helped to pioneer this, but when it's pretty much the only trick you seem to have it gets old really fast.

That's a product of only seeing little bits and pieces. It was the basic premise for the Animaniacs themselves (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot), but wasn't really a part of the other portions of the show (Pinky and the Brain, Good Idea/Bad Idea, etc). And it definitely wasn't the only trick they had.

Plucky Duck..."Water go down the hoooooole!"

Classic.