Atlanta Season 1 drew inspiration from real-life situations and scenarios and spun it all into an often surreal story lauded by critics and audiences alike. With Season 2, the FX comedy will try to do the same, although Donald Glover flipped the script recently in revealing a chunk of this season drew inspiration from the world of Tiny Toons Adventures. No, this doesn't mean Season 2 features Dizzy Devil dropping a fiyah mixtape that rivals Paper Boi's, but it does mean future installments were crafted similarly to the classic animated series' direct-to-video feature:
DONALD: In the writers room, we spent a lot of time talking about How I Spent My Summer Vacation by the Tiny Toons. That was kind of the inspiration.STEPHEN: If you watched them all together, they were a movie. We kind of took that idea of a whole story, but being told in a bunch of little parts that could be a show.
For those that don't have a Hulu account to watch the entirety of Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Summer Vacation -- which was recently added when the Animaniacs reboot was announced -- the film features the characters of the show all having their own summer adventure. Based on that description, it sounds like a chunk of Atlanta Season 2 -- a.k.a. Atlanta Robbin' Season -- tells one large story with characters from the show not necessarily all together as events unfold. For the record, other shows have obviously used that form of storytelling in the past, but Donald Glover is apparently quite attached to the way Paul Dini and the Tiny Toon Adventures writing team executed the concept.
Donald Glover also told those attending the Television Critics Association winter press tour (via Variety) that Tiny Toon Adventures was one of his favorite shows growing up, which may be why he's adamant about crediting it as an inspiration for Atlanta Robbin' Season. It sounds as though Glover could be having a laugh, or perhaps trying to drum up silly headlines for attention's sake, but executive producer Paul Simms assured any skeptics that it wasn't the first time Glover compared the upcoming season to the animated series and its special.
This is one of those things that sounds like a TCA joke that someone makes, but for nine months now, I've been hearing Donald say, 'Well, did you ever see Tiny Toons?'
Season 2 of Atlanta premieres on FX on Thursday, March 1 at 10:00 p.m. ET. Those wishing to watch Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Summer Vacation for research into Donald Glover's mindset can find out by streaming the TV movie on Hulu. For a look ahead at what else is coming to television in 2018, head over to our midseason premiere guide.
