Animaniacs was part of an attempt to 'recreate' the original 'Termite Terrace' animation ethic. Paritally successful - the first attempt was "Tiny Toon Adventures", which was primarily a children's cartoon. 'Animaniacs' tried to incorporate enough other material - occasional 'standards' used as music, a skew towards adult referentials (a la the opera used in Bugs Bunny and the like), and an attempt to get the... well, "feel" of the old shows.

Interesting attempt - they didn't use as much of the now-traditional music as the original Warners stuff did, but they still snuck some in on occasion.

M