“I looked up and saw the water tower with the big ‘WB’ emblem on it and had what they call the ‘cartoon epiphany.’ I just realized, that’s it. lot, tormented by the concept of needing a marquee name,” Ruegger remembers. “Just days before meeting Steven at his home to pitch the new show, I was walking across the Warner Bros. But the famed director had also wanted a marquee name with it that carried weight. “And in college, I had these three duck characters that I was working on, so I sort of combined those ideas into one.”Īfter a few sketches of the mutant Mickey-ducks, and knowing he wanted to do a variety show of sorts, Ruegger had a solid outline of a pitch for Spielberg. “When I was a kid, I had a dream about these sort of mutant Mickey Mouses,” he laughs. To that end, Spielberg suggested Ruegger do a Plucky Duck spin-off, but Ruegger didn’t like that idea after 100 episodes of Tiny Toons, he wanted to try something new.

“They go, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ And I responded, ‘Uh, what do you mean?’ They were already ready for a follow-up series or a spin-off,” Ruegger says. But it wasn’t long into that success that Spielberg and MacCurdy called Ruegger back into Spielberg’s office. Tiny Toons, of course, was a huge success and ran for five years. Spielberg immediately took a liking to him, and the two would go on to create some of the greatest cartoons in television history. “The big music, the absurd zaniness, the intensity, the energy and just the basic charm of them all,” he explains.

“She told me to talk about my favorite cartoons,” he says, “which is a great way to look at and translate your personal creativity.”Īnd so, Ruegger went into Spielberg’s office and explained everything about the cartoons he loved growing up, specifically Looney Tunes. His wife, however, offered him some sound advice that eventually calmed him down. He may not like my idea and I’ll be fired tomorrow,” Ruegger continues. “Here I was, about to meet Steven Spielberg, and I started to freak out: What have I done? I quit my job. and work on a new animated TV show with Steven Spielberg,” Ruegger tells me.

“She asked if I wanted to come over to Warner Bros. He had just finished developing what would be the first Scooby-Doo series to be nominated for an Emmy when his old boss, Jean MacCurdy, gave him a call. Tom Ruegger was 35 when he quit a coveted gig at Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1989.

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