Roll Over Beethoven/The Cat and the Fiddle is the 17th episode of the original Animaniacs. It originally aired on October 5th, 1993. Both episodes have a theme in classical music.
This was the first script Paul Rugg wrote for Animaniacs (and his first paid writing job ever). Based on this script, Sherri Stoner hired him as a series writer.[1]
As the scene starts, a caption says, 'Vienna, Sausage Capital of the World' is a play on word, Vienna Sausage.
As the Warners siblings are looking around, after Beethoven says, 'Now see here', one can see a painting of Elvis on the wall and a few gold records.
The episode title is a reference to the Chuck Berry song of the same name, which has been covered by artists such as Electric Light Orchestra and The Beatles.
This is the third time that Yakko, Wakko, and Dot were seen getting kicked out, the first time occurred in "Cookies for Einstein," and the second instance occurred in "The Big Candy Store."
The songs that Beethoven plays at the beginning are "Chopsticks", "Merrily We Roll Along" (the Merrie Melodies theme) and the Animaniacs theme song.
The Goodfeathers make a cameo appearance at the beginning of act two.
The scene of Dot on top of the piano is a parody of the scene in the film The Fabulous Baker Boys.
At the end, Vincent van Gogh is their next appointment, and Wakko makes a reference to his painting Still Life with Sunflowers.
Beethoven as he appeared in this episode would reappear in the Histeria! episode "Music".
Quotes
Beethoven: Do you know who I am?
Yakko: No, but maybe if you hum a few bars.
Beethoven: I am Ludwig van Beethoven, world famous composer and pianist.
Rita and Runt wander through Italy. Rita gets lured to the front of a new door by the smell of a good meal and the cat and dog find a home with noted violin maker Antonio Stradivari. The violin maker only wants Rita for her catgut to make strings and distracts the suspicious and frightened cat with yarn. The violin maker tries to get rid of Runt by throwing a ball for him to catch with the intent of him getting lost, which turns out to be very difficult.
Before the violin maker can cut up a distracted Rita, Runt breaks through the door and causes a massive mess in the house just to relieve the ball. The maker looks to his broken violins and angrily yells at the cat and dog to get out, to which the two strays flee.
The Warners make a cameo while being chased by pizzamaker Ralph while stealing his pizza.
Catgut is made using the fiber found in the walls of the intestines of animals, namely sheep and goats. Ironically, despite its name, catgut strings are never made from cats, and using Rita for catgut wouldn't be as effective as using a sheep or goat as catgut.
