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Animaniacs Title Sequence
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The title sequence to the animated series Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs was a theme song that served to introduce the characters to the audience and the general premise of each of the shows plots. The sequence was composed by Richard Stone, written by Tom Ruegger, The theme song had a variety of alternate endings and in the series' first season won an Emmy Award for best song. The final bars of the Animaniacs theme (as well as Bugs Bunny and the WB shield) were commonly used by Warner Bros. to begin various animated series until 2005, when Warner adopted a snippet of the song "As Time Goes By" for its logo sequence.
Change
During its run, the title sequence had gone through several changes in its lyrics. In the original lyrics, a line referenced former President of the United States Bill Clinton's saxophone-playing appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show during his initial presidential campaign ("While Bill Clinton plays the sax"), and Pinky and the Brain were the first cast members introduced by the Warners in the second-to-last verse ("Meet Pinky and the Brain, who want to rule the universe"). For the second season, the Bill Clinton reference had been removed and replaced with a video clip from the episode "Taming of the Screwy," with the lyric, "We've got wisecracks by the stacks." Senior producer Tom Ruegger told the group of fans from the internet who visited the studio in 1995 that this change was made because he felt that the line had become dated. For season 3, Pinky & The Brain had been spun off from Animaniacs into their own show, causing a further alteration to the lyrics: the Pinky and the Brain line with an introduction to three other cast members, becoming "Meet Ralph and Doctor Scratchansniff, say hi to Hello Nurse". Additionally, the "wisecracks" lyric was changed again, with new animation (albeit from a different studio than the rest of the title sequence) set to a new line, "We pay tons of income tax."
Rotating Lyric
The second-to-last line of the title sequence was a "rotating lyric", a line that was changed from episode to episode. The lines of the rotating lyric ended with words that rhymed with the title sequence lines, "We're Animan-y, totally insane-y...". The rotating lyrics were sang by either one or all of the Warners, and the line was usually a pop-culture reference. Lines in the "rotating lyric" of the theme include:
*"Here's the show's namey" (Dot) (This was the first line used, appearing in the premiere episode)
*"Pinky and the Brainy" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
*"The rain in Spainy" (Dot)
*"Eisenhower, Mamie" (Yakko)
*"Where's Lon Chaney?" (Wakko)
*"Andromeda Strainy" (Yakko)
*"Chicken chow meiny" (Wakko)
*"Dana Delaney" (Yakko)
*"Hydroplaney" (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)
*"Shirley MacLainey" (Dot)
*"Come Back Shaney" (Dot)
*"Citizen Kaney" (Yakko)
*"Uhhhhh..." (Yakko)
*"Novacainey" (Yakko, Wakko and Dot)
*"No Pain, No Gainy" (Dot)
*"Penny Laney" (Wakko)
*"Tarzan and Janey" (Dot)
*"Hunchback of Notre Damey"(Wakko)
*"Frasier Craney" (Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)
*"Miscellaney" (Yakko)
*"Money down the drainy" (Yakko, Wakko, Dot)
*"How Urbany" (Yakko, Wakko, Dot)
*"Nickelany" (Dot) (only used in Nickelodeon and Nicktoons Network airings)
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