This innovative show became the proving ground for many new animators to test out their original creations that went on to find success as new cartoon series. World Premiere Toons alumni include Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

The series was produced by Fred Seibert, president of Hanna-Barbera, and featured cartoons that were patterned after animated theatrical shorts of the 1940s and 50s. At first, the series presented one cartoon that took up a 10-minute slot of programming but eventually moved to the half-hour format and included three segments.

Though some very notable cartoon series were born on the show, many of the shorts didn't make it past the pilot episode. In fact, some of the cartoons were designed to be one-off stories with no plans to turn them into series. They included "Short Orders," with Yuckie Duckie the waiter, "Shake and Flick," about a dog and his unwanted flea passenger, "Rat in a Hot Tin Can," about one rodent's life on Skid Row and many more.

When the show changed into the half-hour format, it was retitled What a Cartoon! Show and continued to air on the Cartoon Network. It was a good experiment and it gave us some fantastic new classics; animators really need to do this more often.