Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain

Premise

The series starts with Pinky and The Brain's home, Acme Labs, destroyed, and the two mice are on the run from a man named Wally Faust. Pinky and The Brain end up in a pet store and take refuge inside a turtle named Mr. Shellbutt, and Elmyra purchases the turtle with the mice inside. In their new home, Pinky and the Brain continue to attempt new methods of trying to take over the world.

New characters

Development

Warner Bros. network executives had reportedly wanted Pinky and the Brain to be part of a sitcom "more like The Simpsons". In a press release, Warner Bros. stated that the new series was "a fresh approach to popular favorites as Pinky & The Brain move from ACME Labs to America's suburbs when they are adopted by the extremely excitable Elmyra." The idea was reportedly met with resistance from the producers of the series.

The apparent dissatisfaction with Warner Bros.' decision to change Pinky and the Brain showed up in episodes. The last script that producer Peter Hastings wrote before leaving Warner Bros. for Disney was the episode "You'll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again", in which the demise of Pinky and the Brain is caused by network decisions to change the show.

The theme song for Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain included the lyric: "Now Pinky and the Brain share a new domain. It's what the network wants, why bother to complain?". An image during the theme showed Pinky and The Brain getting kicked out of the Warner Bros. office during the song lyric. In addition, a spoken line by The Brain towards the end of the theme states: "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 as winning a Daytime Emmy Award in 2000, for "Outstanding Children's Animated Program."

Broadcast history

The series's initial run was from 1998 to 1999 with a total of six episodes. The rest of the episodes were split 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 inclusion 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 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.

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.