Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain

Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain
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Genre	Crossover comedy
Created by	Tom Ruegger
Starring	Maurice LaMarche Rob Paulsen Cree Summer
Composer(s)	Richard Stone It's a Brand New Day (Opening Theme) & Living a Double Life (Ending Theme) performed by Cree Summer
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Steven Spielberg
Running time	11 minutes (22 minutes in "Teleport A Friend")
Production company(s)	Warner Bros. Animation Amblin Television Warner Bros. Television
Release
Original network	The WB (Kids' WB!)
Original release	September 19, 1998 (1998-09-19) – April 10, 1999 (1999-04-10)
Chronology
Preceded by	Tiny Toon Adventures The Plucky Duck Show Animaniacs Freakazoid! Pinky and the Brain
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (originally titled Pinky & the Brain Meets Elmyra, The Continuing Adventures of Pinky & the Brain, Return of Pinky & The Brain and Pinky & the Brain: The Elmyra Years) is the retooling of the American animated television series Pinky and the Brain (itself being a spin-off from Animaniacs), with the title characters being joined by Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toon Adventures. The show is executive produced by Steven Spielberg and the series was produced by Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation, and aired from 1998 to 1999 on The WB Television Network, running for 13 episodes. It was also Spielberg's last collaborative effort with Warner Bros. Animation.

Premise

The story of the series starts with Pinky and The Brain's home, Acme Labs, gone (due to the accident that The Brain had made during an experiment, although the episode "The Ravin!" shows that Acme Labs converted itself into a Dissy Store):

"The situation's changed/For Pinky and the Brain/No laboratory, alone in the rain/And someone's looking 'round for where they might be found ..../It's stinky for Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain/Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain ..."

Pinky and The Brain end up in a pet store, where Elmyra Duff purchases a turtle named Mr Shellbutt which is accidentally carrying Pinky and The Brain in his shell:

"Trapped inside a store/A girl ran in the door./She bought a discount turtle/but ended up with more."

Pinky and the Brain go through new methods of trying to take over the world, sometimes with the useless help of Elmyra.

New characters

• Wally Faust (voiced by Jeff Glen Bennett)
• Rudy Mookich (voiced by Nancy Cartwright)
• Vanity White (voiced by Jane Wiedlin)
• Andrew Loam (voiced by Pamela Segall)
• Ms. Entebbe (voiced by Andrea Martin)
• Principal Cheevers (voiced by John Vernon)
• Shad Equipo (voiced by David Paymer)
• Mister Pussy Wussy (voiced by Frank Welker)

Controversy

Warner Bros. network executives had wanted Pinky and the Brain to be part of a sitcom "more like The Simpsons". In a press release, Warner called the move "a fresh approach to popular favorites Pinky and The Brain." The idea, however, was panned by animation fans and even the producers of the series. Writer and producer Peter Hastings had even left Warner Bros. for Disney over the decision.

Dissatisfaction shown in work

Dissatisfaction with Warner Bros. decision to change Pinky and the Brain even showed up in the actual cartoons of Pinky and the Brain and Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain. On Pinky and the Brain, the last script Peter Hastings wrote before leaving Warner Bros. was the cartoon "You'll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again", in which the demise of Pinky and the Brain are caused by network decisions to change the show.

Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain had also shown dissatisfaction towards Warner Bros.; the theme song for the series had said: "Now Pinky and the Brain share a new domain. It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?", referring to the means of executive meddling. A clip during the theme showed Pinky and The Brain getting kicked out of the Warner Bros. office during that line. Furthermore, a spoken line by The Brain towards the end of the theme adds "I deeply resent this."

Nominations and awards

During its short run Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain received critical acclaim, winning major animation awards. The series won an Annie Award, in 1999, for "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production." Both Rob Paulsen for his voicing of Pinky, and Cree Summer for her voicing of Elmyra, were nominated in the category, with Paulsen winning the award. That same year Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain was nominated for another Annie Award, "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production," as well aswinning a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000, for "Outstanding Children's Animated Program."

Media information

File:Peatb.jpg

Screen shot from the Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain opening title sequence.
From left to right: Pinky mouse, the Brain mouse, and Elmyra.

Broadcast history

The series's initial run was from 1998 until 1999; the series ended up being unsuccessful with only 6 episodes being shown before the series was cancelled. The rest of the episodes were chopped up into segments as part of The Cat&Birdy Warneroonie PinkyBrainy Big Cartoonie Show along with segments from other Warner Brothers cartoons. The show's part in the Big Cartoonie Show lasted from January to September 1999. In United Kingdom the series was fully broadcast on CITV, during 2001.

Episode lengths

Many Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain episodes had been split into two parts and aired at different times. The split sections of these episodes were only 10 to 11 minutes long, versus the standard 22 minutes for most animated cartoon series.

Home video

A 2-disc complete series DVD set of the show was released by Warner Home Video on January 28, 2014 (2014-01-28).

Toys

Carl's Jr. and Hardee's offered a collection of four Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain toys with meals.

Episodes

On Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1a	"Patty Ann"	Nelson Recinos	John P. McCann	September 19, 1998 (1998-09-19)
In his robot suit, Brain poses as "Patty Ann". The illusion is so convincing (not) that Elmyra's crush, Rudy, falls head over heels for him.
1b	"Gee, Your Hair Spells Terrific"	Nelson Recinos	Tom Ruegger and Charles Howell	September 19, 1998 (1998-09-19)
Brain plans to clone dinosaurs from fossilized amber mosquitos. To get the money, he'll have to somehow get Elmyra to win a spelling bee, but the only way to make that work is to help her cheat.
2a	"Cute Little Alienhead"	Russell Calabrese	Kate Donahue and Scott Kreamer	September 26, 1998 (1998-09-26)
Using an intergalactic radio Brain manages to flag down a passing alien, in hopes of trading for advanced weapons. Unfortunately the alien is driven away by an annoying Elmyra.
2b	"Better Living Through Cheese"	Russell Calabrese	Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard	September 26, 1998 (1998-09-26)
Brain wants the prize money from a science fair and builds a high-tech device for Elmyra to show off. Rudy decides to get a cheap laugh and punches and destroys the device right before it can be judged by "Bob Quack the Science Hack."
3a	"My Fair Brainy!"	Nelson Recinos	Doug Langdale	October 3, 1998 (1998-10-03)
In a parody of My Fair Lady, Brain devises a plan to take over the world from outer space through Elmyra, who's entered a contest to become the first child aboard a space shuttle.
3b	"The Cat That Cried Woof"	Nelson Recinos	Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard	October 3, 1998 (1998-10-03)
Brain creates a formula that makes Elmyra's cat think that he is a dog.
4a	"The Girl with Nothing Extra"	Russell Calabrese and Rob Davies	Gordon Bressack and Charles Howell	November 7, 1998 (1998-11-07)
Brain tries to make Elmyra popular so that he and Pinky can work through her fame to take over the world.
4b	"Narfily Ever After"	Russell Calabrese and Rob Davies	Gordon Bressack and Charles Howell	November 7, 1998 (1998-11-07)
Brain tells Elmyra a bedtime story that closely follows the plot of Cinderella.
5a	"The Icky Mouse Club"	Nelson Recinos	Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard	November 21, 1998 (1998-11-21)
Brain decides that he should organize the neighborhood kids into a gang, and when they grow up they will still see him as their leader.
5b	"The Man from Washington"	Nelson Recinos	John P. McCann	November 21, 1998 (1998-11-21)
Wally Faust tries to steal Brain's latest invention and kill Brain.
6a	"Yule Be Sorry"	Nelson Recinos	John P. McCann	December 12, 1998 (1998-12-12)
Christmas episode. After Brain gets angry at Pinky and wishes that Pinky was never his friend, he has a dream that shows him what things would really be like if they were in Acme Labs with Elmyra instead.
6b	"How I Spent My Weekend"	Nelson Recinos	Charles Howell, Wendell Morris, and Tom Sheppard	December 12, 1998 (1998-12-12)
Elmyra narrates the story of Brain's plan to build a giant robot that will fly to France, and shoot out laser beams that turn all the cheese into stupid American tourists.

On The Big Cartoonie Show

Less than halfway through the series's run, Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain began airing on The Big Cartoonie Show, in which one episode segment was shown at a time, rather than complete episodes. The exception to this airing change was episode 10, which was shown completely on its respective airdate.

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
7a	"At the Hop!"	Rob Davies	John P. McCann	January 16, 1999 (1999-01-16)
Elmyra wants to go to the school dance with Rudy, but Rudy actually wants to go with Patty Ann, which is actually Brain in disguise. This suits Brain, because he needs to rescue his cologne that makes people instantly attractive.
7b	"Pinky's Dream House"	Rob Davies	Gordon Bressack	January 23, 1999 (1999-01-23)
When Pinky dreams of living a normal family life Elmyra dresses up both he and Brain and places them in a doll house.
8a	"Squeeze Play"	Nelson Recinos	Erin Ehrlich and Alex Borstein	January 30, 1999 (1999-01-30)
Rudy takes Brain's latest invention, which Brain needs to take over the world. To get it back, Brain and Pinky will have to get past Rudy's snake.
8b	"The Ravin!"	Nelson Recinos	Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard	February 6, 1999 (1999-02-06)
Brain reads an altered version of the Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven". This episode shows what happened to Acme Labs, in which the laboratory changed into a Dissy Store (a spoof of The Disney Store).
9a	"Wag the Mouse"	Rob Davies	Ken Segall	February 13, 1999 (1999-02-13)
Elmyra runs for class president, but she doesn't stand a chance against the other candidates. This cartoon introduces Vanity White.
9b	"A Walk in the Park"	Rob Davies	Gordon Bressack and Charles Howell	February 20, 1999 (1999-02-20)
Elmyra takes a trip to a Disney-esque theme park, and Brain makes plans to switch the looping song recording at the "Small World" ride with a hypnotic message. This fails because Brain uses the wrong tape and “Baloney's Greatest Hits” comes out instead.
10	"That's Edutainment"	Nelson Recinos	Wendell Morris and Tom Sheppard	February 27, 1999 (1999-02-27)
Pinky and the Brain get their own children's entertainment program.
11a	"Teleport a Friend"	Rob Davies	John P. McCann and Mitch Watson	March 6, 1999 (1999-03-06)
The only full-length Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain cartoon. Brain's body is fused with Elmyra's, and if Brain can't reverse the transformation caused by the device he built, they will remain that way forever. Brain’s only hope is Pinky, who, unfortunately for Brain, is spending most of the cartoon chasing a pig.
11b	"Mr. Doctor"	Nelson Recinos	John P. McCann	March 13, 1999 (1999-03-13)
Elmyra takes some of her pets--Brain, Pinky, the extraterrestrial from "Cute Little Alienhead", and Mr. Pussy-Wussy--to the vet, who notices her cat is acting like a dog.
12a	"Fun, Time, and Space"	Rob Davies	John P. McCann	March 20, 1999 (1999-03-20)
Brain creates a black hole in Elmyra's room, hoping to exploit that theory that black holes can transport someone to other universes or send someone back in time.
12b	"Hooray for Meat"	Rob Davies	Earl Kress, Wendell Morris, and Tom Sheppard	March 27, 1999 (1999-03-27)
Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain go to a "Meat Festival". Brain discovers a plan to take over the world using "Meats of Evil".
13a	"Party Night"	Nelson Recinos	John P. McCann	April 3, 1999 (1999-04-03)
Vanity throws a party, and invites Rudy but not Elmyra. Elmyra shows up anyway thinking Vanity just forgot to invite her.
13b	"The Mask of Braino"	Nelson Recinos	Earl Kress, Charles Howell, Wendell Morris, and Tom Sheppard	April 10, 1999 (1999-04-10)
Brain becomes "Braino", a masked crimefighter, and an allusion to "Zorro".

See also

• Elmyra Duff
• Pinky and the Brain
• Animaniacs
• Tiny Toon Adventures

External links

• Article on Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain
• Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain at IMDb