Okay, hands up who else finds the idea of toons fading away to be quite
disturbing?
Well, as you've probably already guessed I'm one of those people and I have to
confess that I found the story 'The Final Episode' slightly painful to read. It's just
that after spending so many years watching these characters and their antics I've
grown quite attached to them.

So here, for mainly purposes of my own amusement but hopefully yours too, is a
short, unofficial sequel to said tale. ( With apologies to Nathan East )




                                   THE LOONEY REBIRTH

                              A Mini Fanfic By S. Campbell




April 4th 2139

     A heavy cloud of dust rose slowly into the air as Dr. Harrison carefully unsealed
the hinges of the silver painted doorway with the sharp blade of a gleaming
hunting knife.
     Paul Ahern stood perhaps ten feet away, shielding his eyes with his arm and
coughing twice as the cloud swept him by. He watched the Doctor's movements
carefully, more out of boredom than actual interest, buttoning up his jacket as a
cold breeze filtered through the semi collapsed structure of the dilapidated
building.
     "And just what do you expect to find in here Doc?", he asked after a few
moments.
     "An archive," replied Harrison, removing his gold rimmed spectacles and rubbing
them with a cloth. "Thousands of artefacts... Thousands of stories."
     "Stories?"
     "Why of course. In order to fully understand the people of the late twentieth
century we need to immerse ourselves in their culture. We need to rediscover
their pastimes."
     "You mean movies don't you?"
     "Or television shows as is the case here. This used to be a tv studio before total
immersion holograms took over. It's been closed now of course for more than 75
years but the film canisters should still be sealed and in pretty good condition. It
would have cost the studio far too much to arrange for their destruction and as
nobody ever moved in on this property after the earthquake, they're all still here."
     Paul simply nodded and followed Harrison inside. He didn't really care much for
history. He was just a helper really, only working with the Doctor for the extra
income. Still, working with a guy like Harrison meant that he was never lost for a
good conversation.
     They shifted eight boxes of film canisters that day, most of them containing
material of an animated nature.
     "Cartoons were filled with an enormous amount of satire," explained Harrison.
"Designed just as much for adults as they were for children. They'll give us great
insight into the political arena of the time."


     They discovered the show known as Tiny Toon Adventures early the following
week. Although the original tapes were far too old and brittle to be played, they
were all digitally scanned onto computer disk by subjecting the original film
canisters to Harrison's own experimental laser read system.
     And far from being watched as a mere experiment, Harrison soon found himself
getting great enjoyment from the various episodes, as did the other staff members
at the University. 
     Within a week, multiple copies of the episodes were circulating amongst their
families.
     Buster and Babs were frequently mentioned during work hours and one guy, a
chap named Harry, became quite fascinated with Fifi's home. As an enthusiast of
antique automobiles, he found the concept of her living in an old Cadillac to be a
perfect representation of the late twentieth century's obsessive car culture.
Although the 2D nature of 1990s television seemed primitive to them, it also
seemed quite quaint and oddly 'cute'. It was like a reminder of much simpler
times.
     Seeing the delight that the old cartoons gave to his staff, Harrison done a bit of
research and discovered that the series was long out of copyright. So, in order to
make some extra money, he transferred them all to disk and offered them for sale
via the net.
     Business was slow to take off at first but soon positive word of mouth turned the
series into a sleeper hit.
     Within three months, TTA was a cult sensation, some of the episodes even being
converted into total immersion holograms. 
     And Harrison soon became a rich man, his research much easier now that he had
a massive boost in his funding.
     Within six months he had uncovered countless more long forgotten animated
treasures, treasures that would never be buried again.


     Bright light. Then a silence which gradually resolved itself into a persistent hum
of softly mumbled whispers. Buster opened his eyes to find himself sitting at his
desk in Foghorn's class, eyes darting instantly from side to side. Everyone was
sitting in their usual spots. Babs, Plucky, Hamton, Fifi, Shirley...
Just another normal day at the Loo.
     He thought for a moment, sure that something was wrong. But like a fading
dream, he couldn't work out what it was. Why did he feel as if he'd been asleep
for a very long time?
     As soon as Foghorn turned his back to the class, Buster tapped Babs on the
shoulder with a pencil.
     "We were away for a while weren't we?" he whispered.
     "I think so," she replied. "I'm not sure... Either that or the last Weenie burgers
gettin' to me."
     "But how long?"
     Babs smiled and shook her head.
     "Does it really matter?" she asked.
     "I suppose not," he replied.
     As he spoke he noticed that Plucky was as usual, trying to copy his work.
Buster grinned.
     Just another day at the Loo.
     And then, quite suddenly, he felt sad.
     "Our fans," he said slowly. "All our old fans... the ones who kept us going for as
long as they could. I think... I think they're all gone now."
     "But we have new fans," replied Babs. "Fans who'll love us just as much as they
did. And as long as we live on, we'll keep the spirit of our old fans alive."
     "We relied on them to stay young," sighed Buster. "They laughed at us all their
lives... wrote stories about us... drew pictures of us."
     "But we'll never forget them," answered Babs. "We may have new friends now
but the old ones, the originals... they'll always be our true fans.
     The two bunnies fell silent for a moment, the distant ringing from the
Looniversity clocktower merging with stray birdsong.

                                      The End