As you probably already know by now, the popular '90s cartoon Animaniacs is back on The Hub network and drawing a new generation of kids into the zany world of The Warner Brothers and The Warner Sister, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot. I had the privilege to talk 'toons with all three of the main voice cast members, Jess Harnell (voice of Wakko), Tress MacNeille (voice of Dot), and now Rob Pauslen, who voices Yakko as well as Dr.

Scratchnsniff, the psychologist (or p-sychologist, if you prefer!) and Pinky the lab mouse from the short Pinky and The Brain.

Now, if you're used to reading my interviews, you know that I have a lot of questions that I usually ask. My interview with Rob was a little different. He had my questions, and I had them all ready to ask, but we ended up talking so fluidly that I didn't end up asking many of them. So this interview is a bit different from the others in that it was far more conversational than others I've done, which I think makes it more personal.

Tori Michel: So let's talk about Animaniacs! You're the voice of Yakko Warner, obviously. What did you do to prepare for the role and what parts of Yakko come from parts of Rob?

Rob Paulsen: Well, as far as preparing for the role, it was a series of auditions as I recall that were quite onerous, that is to say, lengthy between them. As you know, it was a very big deal having Mr. Spielberg running the show and Warner Brothers and having come off the success of Tiny Toon Adventures, which both Tress and I had worked on as well, and was also quite a bit of the same production team that ended up doing Animaniacs.

It was a big audition process. So Tress and I, after each audition, would call each other and say "did you hear anything?" and "how'd it go for you today?" and all that. Honestly the preparation for the role was sort of, to use a hackneyed actor phrase, an organic by-product of going on so many auditions. In other words, it'd start with something and they would say "why don't you tweak this?" or "we want you to come back and this time do that" or "this time do this" or "throw out that and add this." So, as you progressed, it was clear that at least Yakko had sort of the sensibilities comic-wise and sort of smart-ass-wise, of a Groucho Marx. That was by design. I just kind of added my own tweaks and I would have to say that hopefully the pleasant, sort of fun smart-ass parts are me. Not the parts that people find offensive! I've been known to be relatively caustic, but in a playful way. I try not to be off putting or rude, and I don't think Yakko does. He's sort of a merry prankster. So certainly those aspects of my personality come through in Yakko, because I like a good joke and I like to be a bit of a smart-ass, but I don't end up going through a lot having people chasing me!

TM: What is your favorite Yakko catchphrase? He has dozens!

RP: I really liked Hello Nurse. So many people to this day, when I do a personal appearance or I'm doing a workshop or go to a college, or when I speak about cartoons, when I say (Yakko voice) "Helloooo Nurse!" they just love it. It's great fun for me. I also liked "dumber than advertised", that's pretty good.

TM: That was one that we were watching an episode with my son, and I thought "wow, there's a phrase I haven't heard in twenty five years!"

RP: I know, how about that! It's crazy! What's interesting is that people like you, folks your age and even a bit older, remember all those catchphrases and when they come up to me they'll say (Yakko voice) "Helloooo Nurse!" or "Goodnight everybody!" or make the joke about fingerprints or finger Prince, which I still can't believe got by the Fox censors! But they love all of those... or you know, Wakko saying "potty emergency!" or (Wakko voice) "I never get to get it!" all those sort of things. Or Tress when she says "my name is Princess Angelina Tessa Banana Fanna Fo Fesca the third, but call me Dottie and you die!" They love that. It's pretty tough. I'm not trying to dodge your question! It's pretty tough to pick one because we all know how lucky we were to do it, and every time we'd show up for work it was great! Clever people, and beautiful writing. And so now, to have it all coming back almost twenty years later. I mean, we started recording those in... well twenty years ago... it started airing in 1993 in September, but we started recording them in March of '92! So we had a year and a half lead time before it made it to the air. So we began working on the show in March of '92 and started auditioning in January of '92... it was a three month audition process as I recall. So it's a big deal for all of us. And as I said, those of us who had the pleasure of working on Tiny Toons with Todd Reuger, Jean McCurdy, Andrea Romano and all those actors, and Mr. Spielberg also, we knew that Animaniacs was going to be yet even clicked up a notch or two. There was so much stuff that we kind of went on to work on a bunch of other shows, and it's great now getting this second breath of air from folks like yourself and fans that are coming back saying "oh my god I loved that show!". It really holds up well. It's still very funny, very clever, the cultural references are hip. I think that people really just get a whole new sense of what a clever show it was.

TM: It definitely was! Now you did Pinky and Dr. Scratchnsniff too, correct?

RP: (Pinky voice) Yes I did! I was Pinky, and we had our own spinoff of course, and (Dr. Scratchnsniff voice) I was Dr. Scratchnsniff as well. That was yet a whole other fun kettle of worms because as we progressed in the show, pieces would come up and we'd say "well, what have you got for this guy? This goofy doctor Scratchnsniff?" and I'd say "well, I've got this ripoff of Peter Sellers and Dr. Strangelove and why don't we try this and that?" The same with Pinky and The Brain. We knew that Pinky and The Brain was going to be a significant part of the show, but certainly no one ever knew that it was going to spin off, at least at the beginning. I mean, I get people that interview me just about Pinky and The Brain. So that's really lovely too. People still love Pinky and The Brain!

TM: Yes! We were watching with my son, and I'm a big Jeopardy fan myself, and it was the episode where The Brain goes on Jep-parody. He said "mom, that's your show!" So it still holds up very well.

RP: In fact, I think one of the lines in that was something like Brain says "Kings named Moshushu for thirty, Alex" and I'm like, kings named Moshushu? Are you kidding me? It was really crazy. Maurice LaMarche who does the voice of The Brain, and I have also been friends with for decades. We're going up to do a sketch-fest up in San Francisco in a couple of weeks to do sort of An Afternoon with Pinky and The Brain, and you know the [expletive] show is sold out! I mean, forgive my French, but I was so shocked that I actually used that word! I can't believe the f-ing show is sold out! It's not a five thousand seat theatre, but it's a few hundred seats, and people are paying X amount of dollars to come see Mo and me talk about Pinky and The Brain, which is so flattering! I can't even tell you how amazing that is twenty years after the fact! It's astonishing to me!

TM: Well, if I was living on the West Coast, I would be there probably front row myself! Unfortunately, I'm all the way out in Ohio! Where it's twenty degrees!

RP: You're in Ohio? I grew up in Flint, Michigan, so I know what that area is like. Where are you in Ohio?

TM: Columbus, actually.

RP: Oh, my niece goes to school there, well she's a Buckeye.

TM: Ah, at Ohio State! Yes, I'm an alumnus myself, as is my husband.

RP: I love that part of the world, and I hopefully want to do a personal appearance at Ohio State. What's really fun now is... fortunately I've done enough work where I get an audience of people who watch things with which I've worked that are literally sort of 8 to 10 years or older, to like 35 or 40! Which is amazing! Because not only was I in Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs, but I was Raphael on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and now I'm on the new Turtles, which is crazy!

TM: I had questions about that actually! New Ninja Turtles! You did the voice of Raphael and now you do the voice of Donatello.

RP: I do! I was just in Starbucks in Studio City and literally thirty seconds ago, putting milk in his coffee was Corey Feldman who was one of the voices of the turtles, I think Michelangelo in a couple of the movies. I actually worked with Corey on something something, but I was talking to you and talk about kismet! I haven't seen Corey Feldman in years, and here I am talking to someone, probably about Ninja Turtles, and here's Corey, two feet away from me! What a weird business! (Laughs)

TM: So which one do you like better, Raph or Donnie?

RP: You know, it's a really tough call. Raphael was of course a big deal for me because that was the first really big show I did. We started recording those really twenty five years ago, summer of 1987. That was a very big deal for me, for obvious reasons. Nobody knew that it was going to become Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So that was not only a seven or eight year job, but the first time I had a show that became part of the culture, pop culture. Not just in the United States, but it's famous all over the world. So that was a big deal. Now, twenty five years later for the folks at Nickelodeon, they say "hey, why don't you do this, but be Donatello?" It was an amazing gift, again, for the same reason Animaniacs was a gift. I've reached this point in my career where nice people like you want to talk to me and come out and see me. We have the best time because there's a special part in all of us that relates to that feeling of being a kid and watching Turtles or Animaniacs or Bugs Bunny or Flintstones, whatever it is. When you hear the voices, they take you back to a place immediately that, by and large, is a pretty happy place. It meant a lot to me to get involved with the Turtles on the ground floor, and then to get another crack at this franchise twenty five years later having seen how profoundly in love people are with the Ninja Turtles. I just did another show today and I can't believe I'm getting another shot at this, not only with the franchise but now I get to do it knowing how much people love it. The new show is excellent. What's happening is a lot of folks your age who send me emails and Facebook stuff saying "why are they messing with Turtles, it's part of my history!" Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. I totally get that. What I was saying to them is like look, these people who are making the show now are people who were fans of the show as kids. That is an unusual position to be able to get the money and the support from Viacom, which is substantial, and then have people make the show who were fans of the show and totally get the youth ethos and the mythology of the Turtles, and it's a very neat position. I believe that's why the show is so successful. Now I get people like you who call me up and say or write me and say "I didn't want to like the show, but it's excellent!". And it is, it's really well done.

TM: It's definitely hard not to like it. I will admit, I was a Turtles purist and I went in pretty skeptical, and even the first couple episodes I was kind of on the fence. But having watched it now for close to almost six months, having seen it and seen where they're going with it, I do actually appreciate some of the changes they're making with it.

RP: Honestly that means a lot coming from you, really. You are a microcosm and a cross-section of millions of people. Fortunately your sentiments are shared by a lot of people. When I go do a personal appearance, I get that all the time. What's really sweet is I'll get somebody who is say, 35 or 36, and he'll bring in his 6 or 7 year old who is crazy about Turtles, and this guy will say "I was a Turtles fanatic when I was 13 or 14. And I watched Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs when I was in high school or college, and I watched Jimmy Neutron when my kids were very small and I loved that show, and now you're doing Ninja Turtles and I can watch it with my 10 year old. We'd watch the DVDs of the originals, and we'd watch the new ones, and we both love them!" I can't tell you not only how gratifying that is, but you're talking to an incredibly fortunate fellow. And for the record, it's not lost on me! I get how really lucky I am. What really makes it all, just ties it up in a nice little bow, is hearing what you just said. It would not be nearly as lovely if people who were around for the first batch and who had that soft spot in their heart for the Turtles, looked at it and said "Dude, I'm sorry. My kids might want the toys, but I just don't get it." And that happens a lot, but in this case I think we're quite fortunate. I have to give that credit to Ciro Nieli, the executive producer, because he, like I said, gets it. He grew up not only loving the Turtles and being an artist, but get this: his father had his own pizza parlor. So he used to draw Turtle pictures for the pizza parlor, and he was given the reins. Man I'm telling you, this kid really gets it. What's really interesting is... how old is your son?

TM: Three and a half.

RP: Well, we're going to be around a few years, and I'm telling you, you wait a while, and this kid is going to be Turtle maniacal! Because my son was the same way. He's 28 and when he was 4 or 5 years old, when Turtles really hit, it was so wonderful for both of us. For him, and for me to have a little boy and be Raphael was just fantastic. But what's really cool is that he also is in show business and he calls me the other day and said "you know what man? This is a great show, Dad! It's really good!" and I said, "Thanks! I appreciate that!"... and he's had no problem telling me when it isn't! I'm really grateful. I keep getting pictures from all over the country, which is kind of cute, of people saying "hey I'm in Toys R' Us in Denver" or "I'm in Toys R' Us in Buffalo" or "I'm in Toys R' Us in Miami, and the Turtles toys are GONE!" (Laughs) Isn't that great? It's pretty exciting. You can tell, I have a tendency to ramble, but I get very excited because I've had a great career. If I were to die tomorrow, I've had a hell of a ride. But to get to this place in my career now, where we' have Animaniacs back on the air, people love it, it hasn't lost any of its appeal. The DVD collection is coming out next month. Turtles is back on and a huge hit. I am so incredibly grateful. So I feel like I have a whole new... I'm still working every day on all sorts of stuff. I do a great show for Disney, which I really love called Doc McStuffins. It's great! I've been doing a lot of those and I just love it! Very clever. I'm really fortunate. If you get a chance to revisit these huge franchises like Animaniacs and Turtles, and be in the middle of it again is a great thrill. And again, I'm grateful that you folks want to talk to us because it's very flattering you take the time to do so!

TM: So I have one question that I ask everybody, and it's kind of a strange question. What is your favorite cartoon character personally, past or present?

RP: Boy, that's a tough one! If I had to pick one, the one cartoon character that always makes me laugh and I think is so clever, and was only used, I believe, in one cartoon is Michigan J. Frog, who was... remember the episode, it was a Looney Tunes episode where the frog comes out "Hello my baby, hello my darlin'..." That's a Chuck Jones cartoon, no dialog... the only dialog is Michigan singing, and I think it's the most clever, wonderful, single cartoon because I love not only the character but I love the way that the guy that makes him sing, that manipulates him and puts his fingers behind the frog's legs and moves him up and down, and the guy doesn't believe he's got a singing frog. It's Chuck Jones who invented Porky Pig and Daffy Duck and all those... it's Chuck, I believe, at his best. It is a one-off cartoon that has made an indelible mark on everybody. Everybody knows that cartoon. It's a brilliant cartoon. He may have shown up in one or two other cartoons, but I think it may have just been that one. But that single character, I think, is my all time favorite animated character. But if you gave me a top five or ten, obviously I'd have to say Bugs, Boris and Natasha, Rocky, all that stuff.

As a matter of fact, you'll get a kick out of this, I do a podcast every week called "Talkin' Toons", which is free. If you like cartoons, you'll probably really enjoy it. You can get it on iTunes or you can get it from my website which is RobPaulsenLive.com, or I have an app. I have a free app, which right now is only available for Apple products, but it will be available for Android phones too, but you can also go to my app and that all my podcasts on it too. So they're all free, but what's cool is it's me talking to the folks I've worked with over the last thirty years. It's usually out every week. I talk to Andrea Romano who directed Batman and Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs, and now she's directing Turtles... or it's Mark Hamill who you know as Luke Skywalker but he's been the Joker on Batman for twenty years... Jess is on there... or Jim Cummings who's Winnie the Pooh and the Tasmanian Devil. The point is it's all people you would enjoy and they're my personal friends. It's like having a microphone on when I go to talk to Billy West, who was on Ren and Stimpy, or John DiMaggio who is Bender on Futurama... Tara Strong who is on so many shows, now she does My Little Pony, and I talk to Tara for ever and ever. Lot of fun. I think I've got 75 of them now.

TM: Well, I know what I'm doing for the next month and a half! (Laughs)

RP: You guys will really dig it. It's a lot of fun, and again it's completely free. It's really something you would enjoy. The reason I rambled on that road is because when you asked me about my favorite cartoon character I said Michigan J. Frog, but one of the people who I had on my podcast was June Torray. June, who was the original voice of Rocky and Natasha, and Witch Hazel and Granny on the Tweety show... she was 95! She's old enough to be my grandmother. What's crazy is she's still working! I met her 25 years ago on Smurfs when she was 70 and she's still around.

This is where, unfortunately, Rob and I had to cut our conversation short because Tress MacNeille called me. That's what I get for scheduling interviews back-to-back! Rob, if you're reading this, I'd love to talk to you again and for much longer! Honestly, I could have talked to him for hours on end. He's a cool guy and a lot of fun to talk with. He's another person who you can definitely tell loves what he does, loves his characters, and most of all, loves his fans. Be sure to click the link for his podcast and check that out. Tell him Tori "The TV Mom" sent you! Thanks again to Rob for talking to me and to Crystal at Hub Network for hooking me up with these amazing interviews! Check out more from Hub Network at TheTVMom.com!