Buster's Directorial Debut is the tenth episode of the third season of Tiny Toon Adventures, and the 88th episode overall.
Wraparound[]
In Acmewood, a studio lot looks much like another company famous for its water tower, among other things. Stage B has the words "for Bunny" scrawled across the front in cheap red spray paint. Inside, an announcer introduces "that Emmy award winning rabbit, Buster Bunny!" Sitting in the director's chair, he says that he's about to direct Furrball on the Roof. The clapboard claps, and Furrball is on the set roof, quite happy with the role, and begins to play his tail as though it were a violin.
The first scene doesn't last more than a few seconds before it's interrupted by Babs powerwalking through the set. Buster yells, "Cut!" and asks Babs what she's doing. She tells him she watched yesterday's show and thought she looked like a blowfish, so she's trying to lose a few pounds to save her career. She then decides that Buster is just as flabby as she is and drags him into a nearby forest backdrop where they both begin powerwalking.
Fit to Be Stewed[]
Buster laments that he's not getting his show made, but Babs is unsympathetic. As they march deeper into the unfamiliar forest, Buster begins leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind him. The crumbs are eaten a short time later by Sweetie, who asks, "Whatd'ya expect on my salary? A girl's gotta eat!"
Babs pants as she collapses on the ground from exhaustion. A wristwatch appears out of nowhere on her wrist, and she looks at it in relief, declaring that it's lunch time. The watch then disappears as mysteriously as it arrived, vanishing into nothingness. She's not happy when Buster announces that all he has to eat is a now empty box of breadcrumbs.
Babs dramatically declares that she's "Fading, fading, fading!" and falls down again. Buster responds that they've only been gone three minutes. Just then, Babs catches a scent with her nose and runs towards the source. As she parts some tall grass, she spies a house apparently made entirely out of carrot cake, and carelessly runs towards it, totally missing the name on the mailbox, "Sandy Witch."
Reaching the house, she grabs a big chunk of it and begins noisily chewing. Buster rushes over and tells her she can't just eat someone else's house. "Thank you, Miss Manners!" she replies testily, just as the door to the house opens and a sweet, innocent looking girl appears.
She greets the bunnies, asks them if they're lost, and tells them that she was just sitting down for a bite, asking if they'd like to join her. When Babs sees and smells a large carrot cooking over a fire, she floats right in and makes herself at home.
Sandy tells Buster, "I live to serve bunnies," and they both go inside. Sandy cuts some slices off the carrot and gives them to Babs, who makes quite a pig of herself with more noisy chewing. Sandy then asks Buster, "Can I fix you... a plate?" while holding a large meat cleaver.
Buster declines, saying he needs to get back because he's behind schedule and probably over budget. He turns and opens a door, which turns out to be a closet containing a broom and a witch's cape and hat. A thunderbolt crashes inside the closet as he sees them, and it sets him on edge. He turns back to Babs to see Sandy approaching her with the cleaver, smashing it down on the table to cut another carrot, and he starts to mildly panic. Babs, meanwhile, is completely engrossed in eating her carrot, and doesn't notice Sandy now reading a book entitled, How to Cook Rabits.
Buster grabs Babs and drags her out of the room, intending for them both to leave, but it's now storming outside. Babs refuses to go out in the rain and decides that they should stay because she's always wanted to stay at a romantic country inn. She points back into the other room, which contains a cozy fire and plush furniture. Buster tries to tell Babs that Sandy is a witch, but Babs slams the door in his face. When Buster opens the door to follow her, the scene has suddenly changed into a spa.
Babs is now sitting in the spa, surrounded by three hunky guys, while she's on the phone. When she sees Buster enter, she asks him if he'd like to talk to Harriet. Looking back into the other room, Buster sees Sandy preparing another carrot, this time with a magic dust as an extra ingredient. He freaks out again, grabs Babs, and tries to leave. He's stopped by Sandy, though, who offers them both a snack. Buster tries to stop Babs, but it's too late and she's already grabbed a carrot and dug in. A moment later, she's been transformed into a realistic cute little white, lop-eared rabbit, as her cookbook instructed her not to substitute toon rabbits in her stew. Sandy just laughs and transforms herself into her true witchy form. Buster panics again and bolts, leaving poor Babs behind.
Babs has been put in a cage. Sandy declares that she's going to go catch Buster, because she needs two rabbits for her "two rabbit stew." Just then the doorbell rings, so Sandy goes to answer it. At the door, Buster is dressed like a salesman and offers her a vacuum cleaner. She declines, but Buster persists, giving her his best sales pitch. He demonstrates several of its features, and forces his way into the house to show the "locksmith" feature. He turns the vacuum on and sucks the lock right off of Babs' cage. He tells her to run for her dear little life, but Babs merely grabs Buster's hat and eats it, ruining his disguise.
Buster runs from Sandy, leaving Babs behind again, while Sandy chases him on a magic vacuum cleaner. Buster escapes by running through the bottom half of a split door, while the witch crashes into the top half. Buster declares that you can't outsmart a rabbit, but the witch responds by summoning many more vacuum cleaners, all of which begin chasing Buster. He runs until he comes to another split door, and casually closes the bottom half this time, then stands and waits for the witch to arrive. Having learned nothing from the first time, the witch crashes into the bottom half this time, even though the top is wide open.
The vacuum cleaners that were right behind her can't stop, and run into her, turning into little dustbusters, all yipping and whining on the ground like hurt puppies. Buster then pulls down a chart to inform us that the first recorded occurrence of that gag was by "Chuckles Bones" (pun of Looney Tunes animator, Chuck Jones' name) in 1954.
The witch is not impressed, and continues chasing Buster on another vacuum. Buster runs, and circles back to Babs, who's still in the cage. He implores her to do one of her impressions, hoping it will snap her out of being a real rabbit, but she just yawns cutely and ignores him, then sucking on the water bottle attached to the cage.
The witch and the dustbusters catch up to Buster, but he diverts them by pointing out a large clump of dust in a corner of the room. They swerve to get it, crashing and sucking up the witch in the process. Buster uses the opportunity to finally get Babs out of the cage, picking her up by her ears.
Now the witch has had enough, breaks herself out of the vacuum cleaner bag, and shouts the spell, "Hocus pokus, Huey, Dewey! Turn these rabbits into chopped suey!" She fires a blast of magic at various items in her kitchen, including knives, pans, and anything else not nailed down. Buster sees everything coming towards him, and dashes out of the way just in the nick of time.
The knives and other items impact the wall where he was, leaving a rabbit shaped pattern. Buster then runs down a well-marked dead end hallway, and the witch corners him.
He drops Babs and looks for something to help him. On the wall, he sees a glass case marked, "In case of emergency, break glass." He figures this qualifies as an emergency and breaks the glass. Inside is a box of magic dust. He pours some out into his hand and rolls it into a ball, thanking the lazy writers for the gift. He then throws the ball at the witch and hits her, turning her into a fish in a glass bowl. He makes a stupid joke about a "Fish Sandy Witch", and then he and Babs leave the house to go back to the studio. However, Babs is still a normal rabbit, so Buster remarks that at least it'll be quiet on the set. Back at the sound stage, Buster sets Babs down, pats her on the head, and shoos her off while he returns to directing.
Ducklahoma[]
Plucky interrupts, protesting about making a musical with a cat that can't even talk.
He hits the set, causing it to collapse, and demands a rewrite. Buster grabs the script from Plucky and storms off, down some stairs, and to a dark chamber far beneath the stage to where he and an anvil rewrite the script.
Buster throws the new script at Plucky, who reads the title, "Ducklahoma, starring Plucky Duck", and is thrilled, not bothering to read the rest of it.
Plucky starts singing from the back of a horse, but with his first line, "Oh, such a wonderful anvil," an anvil drops out of the sky and hits him in his open mouth.
Plucky protests to Buster, saying the story seems familiar. Buster assures him that it has "Emmy" written all over it and proceeds to show Plucky a copy of the script with the word "Emmy" written on it many times. Plucky is convinced, and goes back to the song, which happens to be all about anvils, which repeatedly drop on him as he sings. Plucky protests again, but Buster sweet talks him and Plucky goes back in.
Plucky rides into town on his horse and approaches Shirley, who's in the process of churning butter. He asks her to a dance, but Hamton objects, and says she's going with him. After a short song, Plucky resolves the situation by dropping an anvil on Hamton, which Plucky thoroughly enjoys, only to be smashed himself a moment later.
Elmyra offers to take Hamton to the dance, but he turns her down, saying that where she goes, anvils follow. Elmyra whines the she always picks the wrong guys, and Shirley joins Elmyra in the beginning of another song, but Plucky stops them, saying that every time there's a song, he gets pulverized. He runs and apologizes to Buster, begging to let someone else get hit with the anvils. Buster takes pity on him and cues Elmyra's song, in which she dances and sings that she just can't avoid anvils. Many anvils rain down on her.
At the end of Elmyra's song, Plucky, Shirley and Elmyra surround Hamton and convince him to let Plucky take Shirley to the dance while he takes Elmyra. He asks why he should do that, and Plucky tells him it's because then they can cut straight to the finale and finish the show. Hamton decides that's a good idea.
The finale involves a big musical number by the four of them, in which all of them, even Shirley, get flattened by anvils many, many times.
At the end of the number Buster praises himself, saying how gifted he is, while the others pry themselves out from under the massive anvils. When Plucky gets himself free, he tells Buster that, speaking of gifts, he and the cast got Buster a gift. Buster says he doesn't deserve it, but Plucky assures him that he does, as he kicks a lever with his foot. A dark shadow falls over Buster, and grows larger, as the sound of a falling anvil is heard. Just as you think it's about to hit, though, the anvil lands on Plucky instead.
After the scene irises out, Babs hops onto the black screen and Buster leaps in, saying he forgot something. He pulls out the box of magic dust from earlier and sprinkles it on Babs, who transforms back to her normal toon self. Babs isn't too happy with him, though, and starts yelling at him for leaving her like that, while seemingly getting ready to kick him where it hurts.
Buster quickly defuses her by telling her she's lost weight and that she looks great. Babs just laughs and then it irises out again, this time to white, as Buster says, "Whatd' ya want? I'm a director. I'm supposed to shmooze."
Allusions[]
- In the intro, Buster is introduced as "That Emmy Award-winning rabbit...", a reference to Bugs being introduced as "That Oscar-winning rabbit..." in The Bugs Bunny Show.
- "Fit to Be Stewed" is based on the classic fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel", with Buster and Babs in the roles of Hansel and Gretel, respectively, and Sandy Witch in the role of the Witch.
- Sandy may also be a nod to Witch Hazel, with Buster in Bugs' role; the magic powder in the glass box even makes reference to the title of one of Hazel's earliest appearances, though she was turned into a gorgeous woman, not a goldfish.
- In "Fit to Be Stewed", Sandy Witch mentions Huey and Dewey, the names of two of Donald Duck's nephews, perhaps best known for their appearances in the 1987 Disney afternoon cartoon DuckTales.
- Ducklahoma is based on the classic musical Oklahoma.
- In the wraparounds, the musical Buster tries to direct, Furrball on the Roof, is a parody of the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof.
Trivia[]
- This episode first aired on the seventeenth birthday of Danny Cooksey, though his character Montana Max didn't appear.
- The gag credit for this episode mentions that "'Buster's Directorial Debut' is also - Buster's Directorial Swan Song." "Swan Song" is a euphemism referring to last work a creator did before they died or retired.
Cast[]
| Voice Actors: | Character(s): |
| Charlie Adler | Buster Bunny |
| Tress MacNeille | Babs Bunny |
| Cree Summer | Elmyra Duff |
| Joe Alaskey | Plucky Duck |
| Don Messick | Hamton J. Pig |
| Gail Matthius | Shirley the Loon |
| Frank Welker | Furrball, Announcer, The Little Man from the Draft Board |
| Candi Milo | Sweetie Bird |
| Sally Struthers | Sandy Witch |
Gallery[]
Main article: Buster's Directorial Debut/Gallery
Home Video Releases[]
