Toon In with Me is an American live-action/animated morninganthology television series created by Neal Sabin for MeTV and MeTV Toons. It previously also aired on MeTV+ 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.
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 four to 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, Goldie Fisher left the show in the episode "Farewell Goldie", as Leila Gorstein exited the series, so did a number of her characters such as Boxcar, Bill's Mom, Lorna Green, Sue P. (from Sales) and others.
Sventoonie, a spin-off television series of Toon In with Me, as well as the MeTV hostedhorror movie series Svengoolie, premiered on MeTV 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]Sventoonie ended on February 25, 2023, with reruns of the classic Batman replacing it the following Saturday night.
