Toon In with Me

Toon In with Me
GenreComedy
Anthology
Puppetry
Created byNeal Sabin
Directed byMike Schmiedeler
StarringBill Leff
Kevin Fleming
Leila Gorstein (Seasons 1-2)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes842 (1 preview episode) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerNeal Sabin
ProducersLisa Carl
Adam Manta
John Owens
Rob Rodi
Running time60 minutes
Original release
NetworkMeTV (2021–present)
MeTV Plus (2021–24)
MeTV Toons (2024–present)
ReleaseJanuary 1, 2021 (2021-01-01) –
present
Related
Sventoonie (2022–present)

Toon In with Me is an American live-action/animated anthology television series created by Neal Sabin for MeTV and MeTV Toons. It previously also aired on MeTV Plus until the launch of MeTV Toons.[1][2][3] A special preview episode aired on January 1, 2021, with the main series officially debuting on January 4, 2021.

The show is hosted in live-action segments by Bill, MeTV's "cartoon curator", along with his puppet friend, Toony the Tuna. Each episode contains four to six animated shorts taken from classic series including Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, Tom and Jerry, Betty Boop, Popeye, Color Rhapsody, Woody Woodpecker, and many others.[4]

Unlike previous anthology series or reruns of these classic cartoons, many of these airings are remastered from their original negatives. Many of these remastered shorts have not been released on home media or streaming, making these airings the first time some of the cartoons are seen remastered and restored in HD.

Premise and characters

Toon In with Me harkens back to locally produced children's programs that aired from the 1950s through the 1990s, with a live-action host, comedy and puppet segments in between classic cartoons.

The show is hosted from the MeTV studios by Bill the Cartoon Curator (played by Bill Leff).[5]

His co-host is Toony (puppeteered by Kevin Fleming[6]), a cartoon-loving tuna puppet, whom Bill has to take care of while Toony's owner, Goldie Fisher (Leila Gorstein[6]) (Seasons 1-2), is away on a world tour. As they present all of the cartoons, Bill and Toony deal with various issues in the studio, video chat with Goldie and receive useful information from game show host Mr. Quizzer (also played by Fleming). Fleming and Gorstein also play many other characters.

Each episode contains five or six classic animated shorts (except for "MeTV’s Cartoon Kick-Off Show", which contains ten), and most shows end with Bill and Toony showing off drawings and photos sent in by fans via the show's website.

On Friday, June 24, 2022, Leila Gorstein left the show in the episode "Farewell Goldie", and as Leila left the show, so did a number of her characters such as Boxcar, Bill's Mom, Lorna Green, Sue P. (from Sales) and others.

Episodes

Main article: List of Toon In with Me episodes
YearEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
2021235January 1, 2021 (2021-01-01)December 29, 2021 (2021-12-29)
2022221January 3, 2022 (2022-01-03)December 28, 2022 (2022-12-28)
2023210January 2, 2023 (2023-01-02)December 29, 2023 (2023-12-29)
2024TBDJanuary 3, 2024 (2024-01-03)TBA

Spin-off

See also: Sventoonie

Sventoonie, a spin-off television series of Toon In with Me as well as the Me TV hosted horror movie series Svengoolie, premiered on Me TV on March 26, 2022. Sventoonie is also hosted by Toony (voiced and performed by Kevin Fleming). His co-hosts are Blob E. Blob, a puppet blob fish DJ who speaks in sound effects, and Trevor Ground, an undead video store clerk (performed by Steven Fleming)[7] In the series, Sventoonie and his guests provide breakdowns and commentary of a condensed edit of a horror movie from the set of Svengoolie.[8]

On July 16, 2022, MeTV announced that Sventoonie would be renewed for a second season beginning in October 2022.[9]

Toon-In With Me showcases classic animated theatrical shorts from the Golden Age of American Animation. Most of the cartoons shown are from Warner Bros. or subsidiaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, such as Turner Entertainment Co. This includes the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons made by Warner Bros. cartoons, cartoons originally made by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio (ie. Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Barney Bear, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior, Happy Harmonies and other one-shot shorts) as well as the Popeye the Sailor shorts from Fleischer and Famous Studios originally released by Paramount Pictures (under licensed with King Features Entertainment for the original comics). On some occasions, they also showcased two theatrical cartoons of Paramount's Superman series (licensed from WB's subsidiary company, DC Comics, for the characters), plus one Private Snafu WWII instructional cartoon from the WB Cartoons studio (in the public domain).

Outside of Warner Bros, Toon In With Me also showcased cartoons owned by other studios such as Amazon's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (ie. DePatie-Freleng cartoons: The Pink Panther, The Inspector and Roland and Rattfink) from May 2021 to May 2023, Sony's Sony Pictures (Screen Gems' Color Rhapsodies), Paramount Global's Paramount Pictures (under Melange Pictures, LLC) (Max Fleischer's Betty Boop and Color Classics), and Comcast's NBCUniversal (Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, The Beary Family, plus many other color 30s-70s cartoons from his studio). During Christmas seasons, they also showcased the 1948 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer short by Max Fleischer produced for the Jam Handy Organization, which is also in the public domain.

See also

References

  1. ^ Beck, Jerry (January 25, 2021). "INTERVIEW: Cartoon Curator Bill from MeTV's "Toon In With ME"". Animation Scoop. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  2. ^ Gables, Rick; Gables, Christina (January 12, 2021). "MeTV Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Launch of 'Toon in With Me'". TV Insider. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  3. ^ "MeTV Plus Program Schedule (Effective 10/2/23)". MeTV. October 2, 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  4. ^ "'Toon in With Me' Premieres January 4 on the MeTV Network". Animation World Network. December 22, 2020. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  5. ^ Milligan, Mercedes (23 October 2020). "MeTV Announces Hosted Morning Classics Show 'Toon In With Me' for 2021". Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Can MeTV hook Boomers with Bill Leff and a talking fish?". Daily Herald. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
  7. ^ "IMDB.com Sventoonie". IMDb. Archived from the original on 1 August 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  8. ^ Feder, Robert. "MeTV expands 'Svengoolie' franchise with fishy friend 'Sventoonie'". Daily Herald. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  9. ^ "MeTV Sventoonie the Red Tuna of Terror will be Swimming Back for a Second Season". Archived from the original on 1 August 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.