Babs-A-Maniacs

by Beth Ann Bryant
e-mail: bbryant@rio.com

     Barbara Ann Bunny, more commonly known as Babs Bunny, looked into her
dressing room mirror and sighed.  She was NOT having a good day.  After
years of visits to Acme Acres, the adventures had stopped along with the
lights, the cameras, and the action.  Babs laughed to herself at her use of
such a tired show business cliche.  She glanced at her chair, 'property
of Tooneywood Squares' stenciled on it sloppily.  "So, this is what it
comes down to...game show cameos!" She sighed again to herself.
     Babs changed from her trademarked yellow tunic and purple skirt, and dressed
in something trendy.  She thought to herself. "Why didn't I stick with
Thirteensomething?" and then laughed, "heh, that was off the air before
Tiny Toons was!"
     She left the Tooneywood Squares studio building still uncharacteristically
dejected, and wandered the Warner Brothers lot.  Animaniacs posters
littered the walls.  As she neared Steven Spielberg's office, the beginning
of an idea came to her.  Maybe they could use her on Animaniacs!  Babs
entered the lobby and hopped over to the receptionist.
     "Hi Babsy, love the new look!"
     Babs did her best to hide that she was down, "Thanks, living in yellow and
purple all the time can get tiring!  How have you been?" The receptionist
bantered for a while about her life, while Babs politely laughed and waited
for a chance to jump in.  "Think I might be able to see Steven?"
     "I'm supposed to say he's in a meeting, but I bet he'll see you.  Just a
sec."  While she waited, Babs surveyed the office.   Animaniacs art took
all the prominent places.  Babs smiled at the one small Tiny Toon
Adventures cast photo tucked away in the corner.  "Yes, I was right, he
always has time for you!  Go on in!"
     "Babsy!".   Steven greeted the pink bunny with a big smile and a hug.  "How
are you?  What have you been up to?"
     Babs tried to keep up appearances. "Oh fine, I just love appearing on
Tooneywood Squares," but Steven saw right through it.
     "You miss it, don't you?" He asked.
     "Miss what?"
     "You can't fool me, hon, I've known you too long.".    Steven patted his
desk.  "Hop up here and tell Uncle Steve about it."   Babs took him
literally and in one bound, hopped to a standing position on his desk. 
"Remind me never to use the word hop around a bunny," he laughed.  "Now
Babs, sit down and talk to me."
     Tears started to form in her eyes, but Babs held them back.  "I miss being
creative."
     "I've told you that you always have a place on the Animaniacs writing staff,
I'll call over there right now and set it up."  Steven picked up the phone.
     "Oh, Steven!  Not that kind of creative!  I want the lights, the
excitement..." Babs trailed off.
     "Babsy, look at me!"  She looked up at Steven.  "You are one of the most
talented toons to ever grace this studio, but you have to be happy with
what you have done.  Very few shows go on to 100 episodes, that's enough to
ensure that you will live on forever!  You have a video, a prime time
special..."
     "I just can't accept that it's over, isn't there something I can do?  You
know I can act!  I don't have to be limited by my past. I've even been
working on spin changes!"  Babs hopped down from the desk and spun around
very fast a la Dizzy Devil.  When she stopped, she was wearing just a black
skirt with her ears tied together on top of her head with a yellow flower. 
She posed in 'TaDa' fashion.  "I'm the cute one!"
     Steven laughed, "That part is taken, hon.  And besides, you are a bit too
developed up top to go around like that.  The censors would have a field
day!"
     Babs blushed inside her pink fur and instantly spun into a pair of pink
Capri pants and a white off the shoulder blouse. "I could be work at Acme
Labs with Pinky and the Brain!"   Babs started to sing, "It's Babsy and the
Brain, Babsy and the Brain.  One has the cutest toes, the other's..."   Her
song faded as Steven appeared deep in thought.
     Babs, dejected, started to leave the office muttering to herself, "I wonder
if pink and white counts for 'Two Tone Town'?"
     "Babsy, wait!"  Babs turned back to face Steven.  "That spin changing thing,
does that work just for clothes, or could you make some other changes?"
     Babs perked up, "Like what?"
     "Well, keep the same outfit and look a little more human..."
     Babs spun again and turned into a young woman toon.  Well, a young woman
toon with pink fur, a white tummy and big pink ears instead of hair.
     "Close, Babsy, but let's try for some human skin tone, less fur, and maybe
some hair on your head."
     Babs concentrated and tried again.  She spun.  When she stopped, she smiled
because she knew she had done it.  Babs' skin, a beautiful pale peach; her
fur, gone; and her blond hair, beautiful.  Babs raised her new eyebrows and
joked with Steven, "Do you like my hair better blond..." she spun again,
"Or brunette."  Babs hair was then long and chestnut.
     Steven laughed as Babs spun and became blond again.  "Babsy, I'm going to
try something for you, but we need to keep it quiet, just in case this
doesn't work out."  he gestured for Babs to follow him out his backdoor.
     Babs wondered what she was getting to as she tried to walk on such tiny
feet.
     "Tell me," Steven asked, "have you ever thought about dating a giant
chicken?"
**********
     Steven escorted Babs to a large conference room on the Warner Brothers
Studio lot.  She peered in the window and saw some story boards and
background paintings set up on easels.  She knew so many of the people
sitting around the large WB emblem shaped table, would she be able to fool
them?
     Tom Ruegger was just leaving the room with Skippy and the BlueBird in tow. 
He paused for a moment to talk with Stephen.  "This must be our Katie."
     Babs smiled and shook his hand.  She had worked with Tom for years now, this
would be the hardest test.  Would he know her?  "It's a pleasure to meet
you, Mr. Ruegger" she lilted with her best manners.  Would he recognize her
voice?
     Tom nodded to Stephen, "Looks like you found yourself a winner!"  Babs hid
her sigh of relief.  "I'm taking the boys over to the commissary for lunch,
care to join us?"
     Skippy looked up, "SPEW! Commissary food!"
     Steven smiled as only a man that truly loved all children could smile,
"Sure, save me a place, I'll be right there."
     Tom shook Babs' hand again, "A pleasure to have met you, Katie.  I'll see
you around the set!"
     As Tom Ruegger and company left for lunch, Babs heard BlueBird talking to
Skippy, "She sounds just like Babs!"
     Skippy tried to poke the little BlueBird's wing, "Yeah, right!"  Skippy
poked again.  "You think everyone sounds like her.  You even think Dot
Warner sounds like Babs!"
     The artists and directors quieted down and looked up when Steven entered the
room.  "Uh...everyone?" Steven's characteristic stutter returned when
speaking before a group.  "I...I have someone for you to meet."  Babs,
still trying to balance on such tiny feet, tripped, but was able to save
herself with what looked like a very balletic move.  This enchanted the
artists, who started to talk among themselves about how well some dance
type movements would work in the show open.
     Babs' introduction as Katie did lead to some confusion.  "Hi!  I'm B..." she
quickly corrected herself, "Katie!  Katie KaBun...KaBoom, no relation!" 
Very puzzled looks were exchanged throughout the table.  She gave her first
of many courtesy laughs, and tried to cover her faux pas by shaking hands
and introducing herself personally.
     "Heh,  heh, not that I could be a relation to anyone being that I am a new
human toon and all."  She moved to the next hand down the line, "It's just
me, Katie, human toon,"  and with another courtesy laugh and another shake
of a hand, "Uh, KaBoom and all, nice to meet you!".
     Steven then introduced Babs to the director.  "I'd like you to meet your
director, Greg Reyna.  And this is Andrea Romano, she'll be your voice
director."
     Babs shook their hands as well and exchanged pleasantries.
     Steven excused himself "W...well, I'll let you get back to work.  I'm
meeting Tom and the kids for lunch, I..I just hope Skippy doesn't spit up
on me again."
     There was an almost unison "Bye Steven" as Babs watched Steven leave the 
conference room.  With that, the director, Greg Reyna showed Babs the
storyboard.
     He pointed to the different frames he spoke.  "Here is your house, here's
your room, and your parents.  You'll meet them later today, nice toons, but
your father unfortunately has a Jimmy Stewart complex."
     Babs was starting to wonder what she was getting herself into, but when they
got to the drawings of her character turning into a large green creature
all doubts went away.  Anything involving turning into a monster couldn't
be that bad.  Her excitement built higher as she saw herself as a monster
of fire!
     "What I see here is a typical teenager, sweet, pretty..." Greg handed Babs a
copy of the first two scripts, "but very volatile."
     Babs started to glance over 'Katie KaBoo' and 'The Driving Lesson,' but
after one look at the cover she let out a scream reminiscent of a certain
ice water wakeup from 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation,' "Aie!"  Her eyes
had stopped on the name 'Nicholas Hollander'!  What trite moralizing in
this otherwise amusing premise would she have to endure?  Since he wasn't
in the conference room, she had assumed she was safe.  Noticing the puzzled
looks, Babs, who had been doing far too much courtesy laughing already,
smiled, giggled nervously, and stammered, "Uh, I..I was just trying to get
in character."
     Being used to temperamental toons, Greg continued.  "We are shooting Katie
Ka-Boo tomorrow, but take a look at both scripts so you have more than a
'stew' episode to go by."
     Babs skimmed though the scripts, and after getting more of an idea of her
part, she launched into a perfect imitation of Slappy Squirrel,
"Stereotypical, yet demeaning!"
     Andrea, the voice coach, was pleased.  "What a talented little mimic you
are, Katie.  We may have to work that into the show."
     Greg noticed she had finished skimming through the scripts, "Ready Katie?"
he asked?
     Babs put on her best Sunset Boulevard voice, "I'm ready for my 'blow up,'
Mr. Reyna!"  There was laughter around the table and Babs smiled with
genuine happiness.  It was great to be the center of attention again.
     Greg and Andrea both pulled out their copies of the script.  Greg took
charge, "Let's do a quick run through.  Show us what you can do with it."
     Babs opened her script to 'Katie Ka-Boo' page 1, and launched into a perfect
Shirley the Loon imitation.  "Like, you are going to totally like my
parents or some junk, they're mondo weird, but they have good karma."
     Everyone in the conference room was absolutely in stitches.  After the
laughter died down, Greg gave Babs some direction.  "That's cute, Katie,
but I'm looking for something a bit more serious, you'll have time to be
silly when you turn into a monster."
     Babs nodded her head, but there was a gleam in her eye!  She had an audience
again!  She took a deep breath and tried another read, very serious this
time.  Babs clasped her hands across her chest and began to speak.  "Thou
whilst adore mine parents, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing..."
     This time not waiting for the laughter to die out, Andrea interrupted, "you
are far to clever for your own good, young lady!  Let's try something in
the middle this time?"
     It was a lesson hard learned, but Babs had matured enough to know when to
joke and when to be serious.  She became the character.  "You're gonna like
my parents, they're weird, but they're nice.  Mom!  Dad!"
     Greg and Andrea smiled at each other, and then he nodded his head.  This
'Katie' had exactly what they were looking for. "We're in here, hon!"
Andrea answered as her mother.
     "He's here!" Babs exclaimed as Katie
     "Who's here?" asked the director in a dad voice.
     "It's CB, we're dating!"
     Greg stopped the run through for some direction.  "You are going to be
wearing his class ring around your neck on a chain, go ahead and use that
when you talk."
     Babs fingered an imaginary class ring as she gave the line another read.
*************
     And so, that was how Babs Bunny came to have a small recurring role on
Animaniacs.  Despite excellent work on the character, the scripts were very
one dimensional, and the shorts were very unpopular.  Babs chose to
continue to keep her presence a secret.  Despite the characters
stereotypical nature, she tried to look at it from another perspective. 
Sometimes everyone's life has little details that seem very insignificant
to others, but it is sometimes those little details that mean the most.
     By the time season three came around, all the Katie KaBoom shorts were
completed.  Babs thought she had heard the last from Katie,  until one
day...both Babs and Katie got a call to report to the set at the exact same
time to shoot "The Big Wrap Party," but that's another story.......