Animated Anthology
Animated series featuring a collection of short subjects. Often uses recycled material that was originally intended for an adult, movie-going audience and can result in controversy and censorship (ie: All the Warner Brothers' cartoons from the 1930s to 1950s that were recycled on the various Bugs Bunny shows).
Recent shows that are made for the anthology format can vary the relative lengths of the shorts under their umbrella, and can vary which short series are shown episode to episode. For a more rigid structure, see Three Shorts, a variant on this format.
Note that modern, packaged AA shows use the conventions and devices of Sketch Comedy quite liberally. Shows of this type occasionally devote their entire time slot to one single story, or do the entire show with a single theme.
See also: Animation Tropes.
Examples:
Classic Compilations:
- The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show
- Tom and Jerry
- Most of the early Cartoon Network lineup, as in the early days it was essentially MTV for short cartoons.
- The Bob Clampett Show
- The Tex Avery Show
- The Chuck Jones Show
- Toon Heads
- The Disney Channel had a few shows in this format for showcasing its theatrical shorts from the 1920s to the '50s, such as Donald Duck Presents.
- Rolf's Cartoon Time.
- Stay Tooned.
Newer Sketch Show Style:
- Tiny Toon Adventures
- Animaniacs
- When production began on the Spin-Off Pinky and The Brain, production was already underway on segments for Animaniacs starring the two lab mice. Those were collected as anthology episodes, along with a few classic segments from previous seasons of Animaniacs. Most of the show proper followed a full-length half-hour format.
- Garfield and Friends
- Freakazoid! - Did about half its episodes in AA form, and the rest as full-length episodes.
- Histeria - Sketches revolved around the historical lesson du jour.
- House of Mouse does this with a Framing Story. Before that, it was known as Mickey Mouse Works, which was a straight-up anthology.
- Disney previously did Raw Toonage, with the series Marsupilami, Bonkers and Totally Tasteless Videos (the last one, completely random shorts) and a wraparound (which starred guests such as Scrooge McDuck and Sebastian.
- Cartoon Network is in the process of developing a show called "Cartoonistute" created by Craig McCraken and Rob Renzetti that fits this format.
- And previously did What a Cartoon Show, with some of the showcased shorts later becoming "Cartoon Cartoons" such as Dexters Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, The Powerpuff Girls and Johnny Bravo.
- Fairly Oddparents, Chalk Zone, and My Life As a Teenage Robot were all spin-offs of the Nickelodeon anthology program Oh Yeah Cartoons.
- Ka Blam, better known for its spin-off Action League Now, was an anthology show of animated shows. It had four-to-five recurring sketches each week.
- The Comic Strip
- The Wacky World of Tex Avery
- My Little Pony and Friends aired in this format. First was My Little Pony, and then one of three other shows. My Little Pony was the only segment to get aired every week. The other properties, Glo Friends, Moondreamers, and The Potato Head Kids (yes, really) alternated each week.
- 1989's Maxie's World featured episodes from Beverly Hills Teens and the animated Punky Brewster.
- Several Hanna-Barbera shows were anthologies, starting with Huckleberry Hound. Others included The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series (Lippy & Hardy, Touchè Turtle, and Wally Gator) Magilla Gorilla, Peter Potamus, The Cattanooga Cats, CB Bears, and 1985's The Funtastic World Of Hanna-Barbera (which ran as three separate half-hour shows but were all under the same umbrella title).
- The Schnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show.
(Don't know which category this goes in):
- The Hentai series Cool Devices.