The Flea Family

The Flea Family, as seen in Flea For Your Life

The Flea Family (consisting of Papa Flea, Mama Flea, Itchiano, and Fliorello) are minor characters on Tiny Toon Adventures. Although they only appear in a few episodes, they are the main focus of the episodes they appear in. Papa Flea is voiced by Jim Cummings, Mama Flea is voiced by Tress MacNeille, Itchy is voiced by Cree Summer, and Flio is voiced by Whitby Hertford.

Starting From Scratch

The Flea Family first appears in the Season 1 Episode Starting from Scratch. Their former home was one of Elmyra's pet hounds. When Elmyra found out he was itching, she sprayed him with flea spray and the Flea Family were forced to evacuate. Papa, Mama, and Itchy land on a pit bull that was chasing Furrball, while Flio lands on Furrball. Furrball discovers Flio when he begins to itch. Flio promises to treat Furrball with respect until he is safely returned to his family. The next morning, Flio gets chased by a hungry bedbug, causing Furrball to itch uncontrollably. Meanwhile, the rest of the Flea Family ask fleas on various dogs if they have seen Flio, with little success. Furrball goes to the Looniversity to tell Buster and Babs, and forbids them from flea-spraying his new friend. So instead, the Bunnies and Plucky are shrunken by Calamity to help rescue Flio. Back at Elmyra's house, Elmyra discovers Furrball itching, and attempts to flea-spray him, but she runs out of flea spray and decides to bathe him instead. During Furrball's bath, the bedbug is washed away and Buster and his friends take shelter in Furrball's ear, where they find out his greatest fear is the pit bull where the rest of the Flea Family is. Furrball reluctantly battles the pit bull as the rest of the flea family boards him. He scrapes the pit bull's nose, causing him to whimper. Having realized his mistake, he promises to be nice to him as long as he is treated the same way. The Flea family is reunited and Furrball is their new home.

Flea For Your Life

The Flea Family returns in the Season 3 episode Flea For Your life, still living on Furrball. They use Furrball's fur to make fur coats for the evil Boss Tick, a job Itchy heavily dislikes. Boss Tick announces they will be working overtime, much to her disapproval. He offers to take Itchy on a date, despite the fact that he is already in a previous engagement with Flick, one of his employees, and threatens to bathe Furrball if she refuses. Itchy reluctantly agrees, and she and her family are stuck making fur coats. She teams up with her new friend, Gnat, and they travel to Boss Tick's lair on Byron Basset. There, they discover that the reason why Boss Tick works Itchy's family overtime is because he is after their fortune. Itchy tries to stop him but she is captured and is forced to marry him. Flick, upset that Itchy is in the way of her engagement to Boss Tick, threatens to exterminate her. Boss Tick imprisons Itchy in one of the spikes on Byron's collar, where Gnat, having heard Flick's plan, rushes to tell Itchy everything and send the rest of the Flea Family to help. On his way, he finds out that Furrball ran away, ending up in the animal shelter. He spends all night finding his way to the animal shelter and tells the family that Itchy is Boss Tick's prisoner. They wait for Elmyra to pick up Furrball and help her notice him. Back at Elmyra's house, Flit and Flick activate a flea spray cannon, turning against Boss Tick. Gnat snatches the key from Boss Tick's pocket, rescues Itchy, and returns her to Furrball. Shortly afterward, Elmyra finds Byron itching and bathes him.