Bonkers (American TV series)
Bonkers is an American animated television series and a spinoff as segment series called "He's Bonkers" of "Disney's Raw Toonage". It aired from February 28, 1993, to February 23, 1994, in first-run syndication (after a "preview airing" on The Disney Channel in early 1993). The syndicated run was available both separately and as part of the programming block The Disney Afternoon. Reruns of the show continued in syndication until 1995 and were later shown on Toon Disney until late 2004. The show is currently available for streaming on Disney+, having been included upon  its November 2019 launch. However, this only applies to US territories. It is also currently available in Europe. Premise. The premise of the series was that Bonkers D. Bobcat, an anthropomorphic bobcat who was a popular cartoon star, had washed out of show business and became a cop. He was made the junior partner of Detective Lucky Piquel, a grim and ill-tempered human who hates toons. Throughout the series, the pair work together to solve crimes in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, region. Bonkers repeatedly tried to win Piquel's praise, but usually just ended up ruining missions with  his antics. But often those goofy antics would prove to save the day. After multiple episodes of working with Bonkers, Piquel was given an FBI job in Washington, D.C., and with great glee was finally able to leave Bonkers, but finally realized that after all the time spent hating working with Bonkers he had grown to love him. He took along the police radio, the light, Toots and Fall-Apart Rabbit. At the end of the "Lucky" episodes, Bonkers was given a new partner, the attractive cool-headed Officer Miranda Wright. Although also human, she was far more patient and  tolerant of his antics than was Piquel. With Miranda, Bonkers was more the brunt of the slapstick. Characters. Bonkers D. Bobcat. Bonkers D. Bobcat (voiced by Jim Cummings) is an overly energetic and hyperactive cartoon anthropomorphic bobcat that works in the Toon Division of the Hollywood PD. Once a big name cartoon star for Wackytoons Studios, he was fired due to his show being bumped out of first place in the ratings. He was introduced to law enforcement when he unknowingly saved cartoon celebrity Donald Duck from a park mugger (mostly due to the help of officer Lucky Piquel) and  was given full credit for the mugger's capture. For his actions, he received the Citizen of Valor award by the Chief of Police, Leonard Kanifky. Bonkers, while soaking in the praise, told the chief about how his experiences starring in police cartoons helped in the capture of the mugger. Chief Kanifky mistook his fictional roles as real life, worldwide police accounts and, thinking that Bonkers would be a benefit to the police force, asked if the former cartoon star would like a job working for the Hollywood PD, which Bonkers accepted because of his recent unemployment from Wackytoons Studios . Bonkers then requested Lucky as his partner, and the two established the beginning of the Toon Division. When Bonkers first came home to Lucky's house, he was treated as a sort of adopted son to Lucky. Although Bonkers means well, he usually messes up cases for his fellow officers due to his lack of experience in law enforcement and his wild, exaggerated, cartoony nature. He even tells Lucky at one point that he is not good at logical police thinking because he is a toon. Not only does Bonkers make a design change between the 'Lucky' and 'Miranda' episodes , his personality is slightly tweaked as well. Despite being a police officer, Bonkers is unarmed. However, he still carries a badge. In the 'Miranda' episodes, he's portrayed as a rather clumsy, somewhat foolish character who ends up being the show's punching bag. In the Lucky episodes, he's less of a buffoon and more of an Inspector Clouseau-type, in control of himself (though still hyperactive), and carries an extensive knowledge about the toon and their behavior, which is an asset on cases dealing with rogue toons (Lucky would very rarely acknowledge this, although he knows it deep  inside). The joke is his lack of law enforcement experience and procedure is still his "Achilles' heel". Production. The series played 65 episodes, as part of "The Disney Afternoon". They were not created in chronological order: The "Miranda" episodes were actually produced first, excluding the two-part series premiere, which featured Piquel and Bonkers meeting for the first time. This discrepancy becomes evident when observing the look of the main character in both sets of episodes. In the "Raw Toonage" shorts, Bonkers was orange with one brown spot, golf-club-like ears, and an undone tail. When the Lucky Piquel -era episodes (produced by Robert Taylor) were made, the character had a major overhaul: skinnier ears, two black spots on each his tufts, black Tigger-like stripes on his tail, and a different uniform. The Miranda Wright-era episodes (produced by Duane Capizzi, Robert Hathcock & Greg Weisman) use Bonkers's original look from "Raw Toonage". The series also occasionally featured episodes of "cartoons" from Bonkers's pre-police actor days, all lifted from the "Raw Toonage" series. The two-part premiere can be seen to show the reason for the difference in appearance as he mostly appears with his Black  Dot Lucky design, but when he goes into makeup, his sweater is put on, and when his head re-appears, his spots have turned brown, then his ears are 'puffed' up. While this works for explaining the two designs in context, New partners does not show or explain why he then decided to use his 'make up' version for every day. The "Raw Toonage" shorts were an after-thought of production. While "Bonkers" was in pre-production, the "Raw Toonage" team headed by Larry Latham produced 12 "He's Bonkers" shorts. These shorts were, in the context of "Bonkers", explained  to be some of the shorts Bonkers made at Wackytoons Studios before he was fired. The animated short entitled "Petal to the Metal" was originally shown in theaters in 1992 before the feature movie "3 Ninjas", while the rest were shown on the program "Raw Toonage". In syndication, the shorts were collected into four full episodes with fillers of new material in between. Meanwhile, Duane Capizzi, making his producing debut, was brought into the fold and teamed with animation veteran Robert Hathcock and charged with making 65 episodes (a full season's worth in syndication). The episodes theoretically would feature  Bonkers with Wright as his partner. These episodes came back from overseas animation studios looking less than spectacular, causing considerable concern at Disney. Ultimately, the original team was replaced, and a team headed by Robert Taylor came in. Only 19 of the original-order shows survived to air; they are what is known as the "Miranda Wright episodes" of "Bonkers". Nine of these episodes were aired on The Disney Channel during the first half of 1993 as a preview for the series, before its syndicated premiere in the fall. The 19 Miranda Wright episodes are shown toward the end of  the series in the official continuity. Greg Weisman (co-creator of Disney's Gargoyles) worked on the Miranda episodes, and Bonkers's relationship with Miranda inspired Goliath's relationship with Elisa Maza. Taylor threw out the old premise of the show. He replaced it with the Lucky Piquel scenario, but his episodes were revised and established to occur before the original episodes. 42 episodes of the "Piquel Era" were made, including one ("New Partners on the Block"), which attempted to bridge the gap between the two somewhat contradictory storylines. The series was long incorrectly rumored to have originally been intended  as a "Roger Rabbit" spin-off series which ended up being scrapped due to licensing issues from Amblin Entertainment, with "Bonkers" being created instead. However, in 2008, Greg Weisman, who was a writer on the series, denied this. While confirming that the title character was inspired by Roger, and the Toontown concept had also been influenced by the film, Weisman insists that Bonkers was always meant to be his own character. The syndicated version of the series (which omits several of the original episodes that survived first-run) was last seen on Toon Disney until late 2004. The series became  available to stream on Disney+, upon its launch on November 12, 2019. New Partners on the Block. New Partners on the Block was a transition episode that showed how Bonkers went from having Lucky Piquel as a partner to having Miranda Wright as his newest partner. The episode was much like the pilot episode/movie "Going Bonkers", using the CGI rain and bringing back the characters that were associated with Bonkers, those characters being Fawn Deer, Jitters A. Dog, and Grumbles Grizzly and, unlike the pilot, had more speaking and screen time. At the end of the episode, Bonkers, along  with Miranda and Lucky, captured the main villain, bomber Fireball Frank and Rescues FBI Agent Tolson in the process, making Bonkers and Miranda a team and giving Lucky a job as an FBI Agent in Washington, D.C. Piquel, his family Dyl (wife) and Marilyn (daughter), Fall-Apart Rabbit, Toots and Brodrick the toon radio all subsequently relocated to Washington, D.C., allowing them to be written out of the show. This episode was removed from rotation in the United States after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing due to its bombing/terrorism plot, and was consequently never rerun on Toon Disney, even  before Disney's stricter censorship policies following the September 11 attacks. (Another episode, "Fall Apart Bomb Squad," was also not shown on Toon Disney for similar reasons. However, both episodes have been rerun in Europe (especially in Italy).) In addition, both episodes are available to stream on Disney+. Home media. "Bonkers" was released on three VHS tapes and Betamax tapes in 1995 by Walt Disney Home Video, each containing no more than two episodes. They include the following: Argentinian in Chilean releases. Three VHS cassettes and Betamax cassettes containing seven episodes were released on Argentinian in Chilean (from Video Chile : ADV Garantía Original Video). Video games. "Bonkers" inspired three video games. The first, released for the Super NES, "Bonkers", was published by Capcom and released December 15, 1994. In the game, Bonkers is on his first case alone due to Lucky being hospitalized, and must retrieve the Toontown treasure of the Sorcerer's Hat (from "Fantasia"), the Mermaid's Voice ("The Little Mermaid"), and the Magic Lamp ("Aladdin"). The second game, for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis on October 1, 1994, was also titled "Bonkers". In the game, Bonkers notices that an Employee of the Month award will be given  to a cop who captures 4 criminals: Ma Tow Truck (from the episode "Calling All Cars"), The Rat (from the episode "I Oughta Be in Toons"), Mr. Big (from the episode "Hamster Houseguest"), and Harry the Handbag (from the episode "In the Bag"). Since Lucky is on vacation, Bonkers has to capture the crooks. The third game, for the Game Gear and Sega Master System (Brazil only) was titled "".