Fare thee well, Paul Rugg
Jaime J. Weinman
I've decided to cast my farewell tribute to Paul Rugg in this form:
THE PAUL RUGG DEPARTURE FAQ
Q: Who is Paul Rugg?
A: Paul Rugg is a writer, comedian, and voice actor.
Q: What did he do at Warner Brothers Animation?
A: He worked as a writer, supervising story editor, and voice actor on
"Animaniacs," and the lead voice actor as well as a writer, story
editor, and producer on "Freakazoid!"
Q: What's all the fuss? What did he ever do for you?
A: He wrote many absolutely hilarious cartoons, and gave many equally
hilarious performances, usually of his own material. He made us laugh, a
lot.
Q: "Animaniacs" has a lot of characters; which ones did he write for
the most?
A: Apart from the one-shot "Hollywoodchuck," all of Paul Rugg's
Animaniacs cartoons starred the Warner Brothers and their Sister Dot.
Q: Always the same characters, same formula, every time? His scripts
must have gotten awfully repetitious.
A: No, because with those three characters, and the rules that go with
them (they've got to annoy somebody, each sibling has to do his/her own
shtick), Rugg managed to work amazing variations. The basic formula of
the Warners annoying some authority figure was, in Rugg's hands,
flexible enough to incorporate a Gilbert-and-Sullivan spoof, a Marx
Brothers-ish courtroom routine, satire of do-nothing studio bosses and
overly inquisitive psychiatrists, parodies of "Apocalypse Now" and "The
Sound of Music," digs at historical figures like Einstein and Beethoven,
and sheer surreal silliness. It was rarely business as usual with a Rugg
script; as with the classic Warner Brothers cartoons (though in a
different style), a lot of the fun was the sheer inventiveness of the
variations on the basic theme. Other writers wrote fine cartoons
starring the Warners, but no one wrote as many good ones as Rugg, nor as
many great ones. Some of his best work was in solo vehicles for Wakko
Warner, especially "Clown and Out" and the classic "Potty Emergency."
Q: What voices did he do on Animaniacs?
A: His specialty was the Jerry Lewis caricature Mr. Director, who
appeared in "Hello Nice Warners" and "Hearts of Twilight," both superbly
scripted by Rugg, and (disguised as Mr. Clown) in the equally funny
"Clown and Out," scripted by Rugg and Nicholas Hollander. Other
characters included Albert Einstein, animator Lon Borax, vaudevilian Sy
Sykman, elevator guy Goyt Fermin, old woman Mrs. Mumphead (in "No Place
Like Homeless"), and, on the Pinky and the Brain show, the mice's
strange neighbor Mr. Sultana-Sultana.
Q: But then he went on to another show?
A: Right. "Freakazoid." He and fellow Animaniacs scribe John McCann
were called in fairly late in the development process to turn the show
into a bizarre, far-out comedy. They obliged by getting more bizarre and
farther-out than just about any network television show now or before,
past, present or future. Rugg outdid himself as a writer on
"Freakazoid," coming up with outstanding pieces of work such as "Candle
Jack," "The Chip," "The Cloud," "The Freakazoid," "Normadeus," and two
short cartoons starring the irascible British superhero Lord Bravery,
who was the occasion for Rugg to create verbal routines as funny and as
quotable as the best of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Q: How did he wind up doing the voice of Freakazoid?
A: Desperation, basically. The show's creative team couldn't find
anyone who sounded like the Freakazoid they had envisioned, so Rugg made
a demo tape to demonstrate how he thought the character should go, and
after listening to the demo tape Steven Spielberg gave Rugg the job of
voicing the central character. It was a perfect choice. Rugg's charming,
natural-sounding "regular" voice established Freakazoid's basic
likeability, with his other, crazier voices occasionally slipping in to
remind us that Freakazoid is also very silly and extremely perturbed. No
voice actor captures the essence of Paul Rugg's humor better than Paul
Rugg himself.
Q: But then the network cancelled Freakazoid after only 24 episodes,
despite the fact that it was still in its prime and had a loyal fan
following.
A: Is that a question?
Q: Uh, well, moving on, after F! was cancelled, what did Rugg do then?
A: He and John McCann worked on developing a "Daffy Duck Show" for the
WB. Apparently it didn't work out, because now Mr. Rugg has left WBA
after five or so years of service above and beyond the call of comedy
duty.
Q: Is this a bad thing?
A: No, not really. I, as the Answer Guy, look forward to whatever Paul
Rugg may do in the future, and I think I speak for all the fans of
Rugg's brilliant WBA work. This is a very funny guy. Here's hoping for
more funny stuff from him. But in any case, what he's given us in the
past few years, in terms of quality, quantity and sheer laugh-power,
qualifies him as...as...as a really, really, really funny writer and
performer. Thanks to him from everyone in alt.tv.animaniacs and
alt.tv.freakazoid, and good luck to him in whatever he does.
Q: Are you finished?
A [Wally Llama voice]: That's a question! I will answer no more
questions today!
THE END
Thanks, Paul.
Jaime J. Weinman
Bryan Chaney
What sadness me most about Mr. Rugg's departure from WBA is this
effectively kills any chance that Freakazoid will be revived. I have no
idea how much this played into his decision to leave, but I'm sure The
WB's treatment of the show certainly didn't help any. As for working for
any other animation house, I really don't see him fitting in into any
other than WB (except *maybe* H-B, but I'm sure he wants to get away from
Time Warner for a while). Maybe he'll turn his talents to live action...
[Sidenote: while Freakazoid! the show is dead, buy buy buy the January A!
comic! Show WBWP we want more Freakazoid!]
Go long, Mr. Rugg and thanks for all the fish...er laughs. Hope to hear
from you again soon.
"You have no life, do you?" "No sir!",
"Wilford" Bryan "Wolf" Chaney
wbw...@darkwing.uoregon.edu http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~wbwolf
"Some of my best friends are Warner Brothers" - Groucho Marx
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Jaime J. Weinman
Bryan Chaney wrote:
>
> What sadness me most about Mr. Rugg's departure from WBA is this
> effectively kills any chance that Freakazoid will be revived.
Too pessimistic. If Cartoon Network got it into its collective head to
want new episodes of F!, then the show could *still* be revived as long
as Rugg was willing to do the voice (and he is going to be doing the
voice of Nostradamus on the WB's "Histeria!," BTW). Obviously he
wouldn't have left if there was *currently* a chance of reviving F!, but
that doesn't mean we should give up completely. Things change. Let's try
and change them for the better. (In other words, don't stop with the
letters to CN, folks.)
Jaime J. Weinman