The Real Animaniac

Get any Looney Toons fan talking about children's television, and you risk hearing a diatribe on the cheap quality of today's cartoons. But take heart, Bugs aficionados: Warner Bros, and Steven Spielberg have brought new life to the genre of animated shorts, and old-time cartoon enthusiast Tom Ruegger '76 is the guy in charge of the nursery. When Spielberg got the notion a few years back that S what the world needed was a new generation of quality animation shorts, he got Warner Bros, to form a company to make them. Ruegger came on board in 1989 to produce and help develop Steven SpielbergPresents Tiny Toons, which features miniature counterparts of Bugs, Daffy, and co. and is made the good oldfashioned way: with quality animation and writing and more animation eels for fluid motion. The show's success led Ruegger to head up development of TazMania, Batman—TheAnimated Series, and, of course, the hyperactive child prodigy of the new cartoon era, Steven Spielberg PresentsAnimaniacs.

The show's stars, the Warner brothers, Yakko and Wakko, and their sister, Dot, delight in using their silliness to torment characters who take the trappings of adulthood too seriously. Kids like 'em because they're zany; adults like 'em because of the smart puns and barbed references to politicians and celebrities.

"For years the Warner Bros, animation department didn't even exist," says Ruegger. "I've been given the amazing chance to bring that back to life. It really is the perfect job for me."

A film major, Ruegger started his animated career at Dartmouth. As Film Society president the year after graduation he oversaw development of a year-long animation series. After that he took his dreams to California and immediately landed a job at Hanna-Barbera as an animator. He has won six Emmy Awards while at WB, and not just for producing the best shows. One was for writing (Tiny Toons), and two were for penning the lyrics to Tiny Toons and Animaniacs. "I've had my hands on about 500 hours of cartoons over the past five years," he says with pride,

Toonedin: Rueggerand his creations.

WILL TO EXCEL UPDATEGOAL: $500 MILLIONCAMPAIGN ENDS OCTOBER 7, 1996 TIME LEFT: AMOUNT TO RAISE: 6 19 MONTHS MILLION FIGURES CURRENT AS OF MARCH 31. 1996