02.06
Hey there guys, just in time for Halloween, here is part two of the Tiny Toon Adventures specials, this time featuring Night Ghoulery. This special first aired in primetime on Fox on May 25th, 1995, five months before Halloween(why it aired at this time I have no idea). Like Tiny Toons’ Spring Break, this special was only aired once, but unlike Spring Break, it was made available on VHS in 1997.
The special starts off with a parody of Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, with the Jack Skellington parody singing of his boredom of Halloween and wishing for something new. He goes into the forest, just like in the actual movie, and instead of becoming intrigued by the Christmas door, it is the door that features the colorful rings from the TTA titlecard that peaks his interest. As soon as he opens the door though, the Tiny Toons come out of it and start singing a Halloween variation of the theme, squashing Jack with the door in the process. At the end of the song, Jack re-emerges, charred from a lightning strike, and wondering how long it is to Mother’s Day.
True to the name of the special, the overall theme of the episode is a parody of the television show Night Gallery, with Babs as the curator walking from painting to painting demonstrating each story(a similar theme was done on The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror IV, broadcast nearly two years prior, only with Bart in place of Babs). Some of the stories include parody of Edger Allen Poe’s classic The Telltale Heart, titled The Telltale Vacuum, with Plucky Duck going crazy over destroying Hamton’s vacuum, which in the end he admits to Hamton after being eaten by guilt, and he repays Hamton by posing as his new vacuum ; Fuel, starring Calamity Coyote and Little Beeper, a parody of the bossman Steven Speilberg’s directorial debut Duel, one of my all time favorite car chase movies; Hold That Duck, which features Buster and Plucky as a parody of Abbot and Costello, complete with black-and-white; Frankenmyra, which features Elmyra as Dr. Frankenmyra and her sidekick Dizzygor trying to create the perfect pet, which involves the Looney Tunes’ own Gossemer ; The Devil and Daniel Webfoot, a story of how Plucky Duck goes to court against the Devil to see who keeps Montana Max’s soul(the Devils’ jury contains the most vile scum to ever walk the earth, including a network executive who believes wholeheartedly that The Chevy Chase Show is a success); and Gremlin on the Wing, which is of course a story of how Plucky sees a little demon on the wing of the airplane he is on that is focused on downing the plane, whilst all the other passengers are blissfully unaware of their impending doom.
Like Spring Break Special(and many other episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures) many characters from various WB productions make cameo appearences. Several characters from both Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, including the Jerry Lewis-esque director, the Beavis and Butthead look-a-likes Beaver and Hoghead, and the Barney the Dinosaur parody appear in a shot in The Devil and Daniel Webfoot segment. The segment Gremlin on the Wing features many references to the original Star Trek series, with Plucky imitating William Shatner’s Captian Kirk, and Nichelle Nichols’ Lt. Uhura herself appearing. Brain from Pinky and the Brain appears in Frankenmyra, and is mentioned during the end credits(the gag credit reads “The Brain appears courtesy of Acme Labs”). Even a couple of characters from the original Looney Tunes shorts appear; the gremlin who first appeared in Bob Clampett’s 1943 short Falling Hare appears in Gremlin on the Wing, and Gossemer the red monster from Chuck Jones’ 1946 short Hare-Raising Hare appears in Frankenmyra, albeit having the traits of Elmyra herself.
Overall the special is a pretty good Halloween special that is on par with several other childrens’ shows of the type, and some of the segments are similar to segments done on The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror episodes, but it’s understandable, since stories like The Telltale Heart are well known and often parodied. Like Spring Break Special, this particular episode never re-aired on Fox Kids, Kids WB, or on cable once the show made it’s jump to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. It’s a shame too, since it would have done well alongside all the other Halloween episodes of the various cartoons of the era. It was however released on VHS a few years after it aired, and can still be found on sites like Amazon.
Some of the Tiny Toons’ costumes, including Plucky Duck as Freddy Krueger, Montana Max as businessman J. Paul Getty, and Gogo Dodo as “the scary Soupy Sales”.
Originally posted on Sunday, October 31, 2010.