In anticipation of the debut of the weekday "Toon In with Me" morning show on January 4, 2021, MeTV aired two special "Cartoon Kick-Off" programs on the evenings of January 1 and January 2. (The January 1 show would be the official debut of MeTV's slate of classic WB, MGM, and Popeye cartoons, before the first installment of the new "Saturday Morning Cartoons" block aired the following morning.) In each of the "Cartoon Kick-Off" shows, as well as the three-hour "Saturday Morning Cartoons" block that aired on January 2, the cartoons were slightly cropped from their original 1.37:1 aspect ratios to better fill a widescreen television frame (often with parts of words cut off at the top and bottom of the opening logos). The cartoons featured within the hosted weekday morning show, however, preserve the full frame of their original release.
Features classic animated theatrical shorts licensed from Warner Media's cartoon library, which includes classic cartoons from Warner Bros. (the Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes shorts) and MGM (the "Tom & Jerry" series, Tex Avery's Droopy series, etc.), as well as the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios "Popeye the Sailor" cartoons, which were originally released by Paramount Pictures. Over years of business mergers and rights acquisitions, these disparate animation properties have all found their way under the Warner corporate umbrella, where many of them have been restored or digitally remastered in an ongoing preservation effort that has yielded numerous DVD and Blu-ray releases since the 2000s (unlike some cartoon properties from other studios, which may have been neglected or fallen into public domain limbo).
This morning cartoon show is meant to evoke the hosted cartoon programs of decades past, which aired on local/regional television networks and often featured colorful characters and puppet sidekicks that are remembered fondly by the adults who grew up watching them. And while the show may be fun for all ages, instead of chasing a grammar school audience, Bill and Toony's show seeks to play to MeTV's largely adult viewership, with a more "grown-up" sense of humor (jokes in the second episode about tax audits and having a car towed away, for example).
The cartoon shorts that are showcased on this program (dating from the 1930s through the 1960s) were originally shown in movie theaters ahead of feature-length films, though they've been broadcast for decades in various television packages and are often remembered for being shown on TV.
In May 2021, the show added the United Artists-distributed DePatie-Freleng Enterprises cartoons starring the Pink Panther, The Inspector, and Roland and Rattfink to its cartoon library. Along with some public domain Betty Boop cartoons from Paramount/Fleischer Studios, these 1960s-1970s DePatie-Freleng shorts expand the "Toon In with Me" cartoon library beyond the Warner Media content that makes up the majority of the programming (the classic Warner Bros., MGM, and Popeye cartoons).