The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show
Encyclopedia
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show is an animated television program produced by Filmation
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...

 for MGM Television
MGM Television
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television is an American television production/distribution launched in 1955 and a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc....

 in 1980, on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 for Saturday mornings. The show lasted two seasons (with season two consisting of reruns) and the individual episodes were eventually added to syndicated Tom and Jerry packages, and also occasionally appeared on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....

 and Boomerang
Boomerang (TV channel)
Boomerang is a 24-hour American cable television channel owned by Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner. Boomerang specializes in reruns of animated programming from Time Warner's extensive archives, including pre-1986 MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...

. Most voices were done by Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...

 and Lou Scheimer
Lou Scheimer
Louis Scheimer is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning American producer, one of the original founders of Filmation, an animation company, and also an executive producer of many of its cartoons .-Career:Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed...

.

Description

This was the fifth incarnation of the popular Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...

cartoon franchise, and the second made-for-television production. The series was notable in being the first attempt since the closing of the MGM studio in the 1950s to restore the original format of the cat and mouse team. After the original 114 theatrical shorts run of the Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

 directed series, the characters were leased to other animation studios who changed the designs, and eliminated all of the supporting characters. The previous made for TV Tom and Jerry Show for the ABC Network in 1975 was produced by Hanna and Barbera, but had made the cat and mouse friends in most of the episodes, due to the reaction against violence in cartoons.

The version by Filmation (Hanna-Barbera's leading competitor for TV animation at the time) was able to restore the familiar slapstick chase format, and reintroduced not only Spike, Tyke
Spike and Tyke (characters)
Spike and Tyke are fictional characters from the Tom and Jerry series, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Spike is a stern but occasionally dumb British bulldog who is particularly disapproving of cats, but a softie when it comes to mice, and later, his son Tyke...

 and Nibbles
Tuffy
Tuffy is a fictional character from the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. He is the little grey, diaper-wearing orphan mouse whose cartoon debut came in the 1946 short The Milky Waif. Tuffy was later featured in the 1949 Academy Award-winning short The Little Orphan...

, but also some of the other MGM stars. Half hour shows would consist of two 7 minute Tom and Jerry episodes, plus one Droopy cartoon in the middle, featuring some other characters such as Barney Bear
Barney Bear
Barney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The titular character was an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing but peace and quiet....

. Spike from Tom and Jerry was used in many of these Droopy episodes as well, filling in for the other "Spike" bulldog created by Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...

 for the old Droopy films, who was not used as a separate character here. The villainous wolf from the classic series was also included, and named "Slick Wolf". Still missing was the "Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field...

" character, who would not reappear until the following made for TV series, Tom & Jerry Kids, in 1990. Characters not seen in this series of Tom and Jerry shorts are Mammy Two Shoes, Butch, Topsy, Lightning, Quacker and Toodles Galore.

The show's opening begins with Tom chasing Jerry through a blank yellow screen. They continue chasing, as all of the other stars build a giant "Tom & Jerry" sign (similar to the second opening of Tom & Jerry Kids). The familiar rotating executive producer credit of Lou Scheimer
Lou Scheimer
Louis Scheimer is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning American producer, one of the original founders of Filmation, an animation company, and also an executive producer of many of its cartoons .-Career:Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed...

 and Norm Prescott
Norm Prescott
Norman "Norm" Prescott was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Studios. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he began his radio career in the Hub, becoming program director at station WORL in the late 1940s. He went to work for Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Pictures Corp. in 1959, serving as...

 briefly runs as Tom chases Jerry past the screen, knocking things over and running over others along the way.

After the opening sequence, the wraparound segments, hosted by Droopy, would begin. He would start by painting the whole background with a single large brush stroke (making stylistic use of Filmation's characteristic "limited animation" technique), and he and the other speaking characters would engage in brief comedic sketches. (Like Droopy's opening poem "Roses are red, violets are blue, painting's my job, that's what I do; cute and somewhat wet").

In addition to the animation, the show was characterized by very limited music score; all of the episodes, both Tom & Jerry and Droopy, used the same stock, mostly created new for the series, but consisting of only a handful of largely synthesized tunes, either with minor variations or played at different speeds or pitches. This did match the chase scenes, but gave the episodes a very monotonous soundtrack, making these episodes "stand out" to many Tom & Jerry viewers when they aired. Where the original series and the third series by Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...

 would have favorable endings for Tom occasionally, this series followed the second series by Gene Deitch
Gene Deitch
Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch is an American illustrator, animator and film director. He has been based in Prague, capital of Czechoslovakia and the present-day Czech Republic, since 1959. Since 1968, Deitch has been the leading animation director for the Connecticut organization Weston...

 in never having definite "wins" for Tom (although in "When the Rooster Crows", he and Jerry ended off mutual). Also similar to the Deitch films is the character design, in them being drawn similar to the original, but still slightly different. The Droopy episodes would usually feature Slick and sometimes Spike being antagonists to Droopy. Barney had miscellaneous roles, such as being the boss of movie studio guard Droopy in "Star Crossed Wolf", and a frightful companion to Droopy in a haunted house in "Scared Bear".

List of episodes

# Title Description
1a "Farewell, Sweet Mouse" Disrupted by Jerry, Tom throws him out. Believing him to be dead, Jerry tricks Tom into thinking he is a ghost.
1b "Droopy's Restless Night" Slick Wolf is the construction foreman on a building. Droopy and Spike are his workers. Droopy keeps getting Spike in trouble with the boss all day. Droopy falls asleep, and as he sleeps, Spike has him finish the building. Slick comes in the next day and congratulates Droopy, while Spike is behind a brick wall.
1c "New Mouse in the House" Tom uses a remote control mouse to lure and trap Jerry, but his plans backfire and have his owner kick him out.
2a "Heavy Booking" Tom chases Jerry in a library where Jerry tries to make noise to wake the enormous sleeping librarian.
2b "Matterhorn Droopy" Droopy wants to be a rescue dog. Pretending to own the rescue school, Slick Wolf takes his money and tries to do him in.
2c "The Puppy Sitter" While Tom is left with Spike's little Tyke, trying to keep him amused, Jerry tries to make Tom's job difficult.
3a "Most Wanted Cat" Tired of Jerry toying with him, Tom leaves the house. Jerry tries hard to get Tom back before his owner calls the pest control.
3b "Pest in the West" Droopy is a stagecoach driver. Slick Wolf and Spike make several attempts to rob the coach (Spike frequently dressing in drag to stop the coach), but they are not successful, and they eventually land in jail.
3c "Cat in the Fiddle" Tom plays a violin, but Jerry tries to stop Tom due to his cacophonic tunes and they trash the orchestra.
4a "Invasion of the Mouse Snatchers" Tom tricks Jerry into thinking he's an alien that's going to blow up the earth. Jerry gets revenge by activating his secret weapon.
4b "The Incredible Droop" An oriental mad scientist has invented a mystery ray gun. He tells Droopy and Barney Bear
Barney Bear
Barney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The titular character was an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing but peace and quiet....

 to guard it from people. Droopy must protect it from falling into the wrong hands by using a rather unusual method: a Jekyll and Hyde formula. Slick Wolf tries to steal it, but Droopy keeps turning into a large monster, who then beats him up. Droopy frees himself and Barney from Slick's trap, and chases Slick away.
4c "The Plaid Baron Strikes Again" Tom chases Jerry as he flies in a model airplane, destroying Spike's big plane model in the process.
5a "Incredible Shrinking Cat" Jerry gets hold of a mad scientist's size modifier in order to shrink Tom and enlarge himself.
5b "Scared Bear" Droopy and Barney Bear explore an old house looking for treasure. Slick Wolf decides to scare them off by disguising himself as a ghost.
5c "When the Rooster Crows" Jerry uses a stranded circus rooster to rudely awaken Tom, but it gives itself away with an intensified crowing.
6a "School for Cats" Tom is sent to a school for cats, coached by Spike. Jerry makes Tom's training a torment.
6b "Disco Droopy" Droopy enters a disco contest at The Slipped Disco nightclub. His opponent is a conceited Slick Wolf, and the master of ceremonies is Spike. Despite Slick's many attempts to beat Droopy, he loses the contest, and Droopy wins.
6c "Pied Piper Puss" Tom is sent to catch Jerry and Nibbles
Tuffy
Tuffy is a fictional character from the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. He is the little grey, diaper-wearing orphan mouse whose cartoon debut came in the 1946 short The Milky Waif. Tuffy was later featured in the 1949 Academy Award-winning short The Little Orphan...

 using a flute to lure them, until Nibbles gets a hold of it.
7a "Under the Big Top
Under The Big Top
Under the Big Top is a 1938 American film directed by Karl Brown.- Cast :*Marjorie Main as Sara Post*Anne Nagel as Penny*Jack La Rue as Ricardo Le Grande*Grant Richards as Pablo Le Grande*Fred 'Snowflake' Toones as Juba*Betty Compson as Marie...

"
Jerry gets Tom involved in a circus act and proceeds to make his act a dangerous and humiliating performance.
7b "Lumber Jerks" Droopy and Slick Wolf are competing against each other in a series of lumber-related games.
7c "Gopher It, Tom" Tom is sent by his master to catch a gopher eating the garden vegetables, but Jerry thwarts his efforts.
8a "Snowbrawl" Tom and Jerry outsmart each other to get one locked outside the house.
8b "Getting the Foot" Droopy and Slick Wolf are photographers for the Daily Bugle. They are assigned to get a picture of Bigfoot (kind of a purple Tazmanian Devil), and Slick tries various schemes to sabotage Droopy's pictures, including dressing in drag as a female Bigfoot. Droopy ends up getting his pictures, and Bigfoot throws Slick in the newspaper press.
8c "Kitty Hawk Kitty" In a WWI history, Tom was chosen to be test pilot of the Wright Brothers airplanes, but Jerry was credited for a successful flight.
9a "Get Along, Little Jerry" Tom chases Jerry on a Texan ranch, where he causes inconvenience for Spike and gets tangled in Cowboy events.
9b "Star-Crossed Wolf" Slick the Wolf tries to get in a Hollywood movie studio, only to be foiled by security guard Droopy.
9c "Spike's Birthday" Jerry takes advantage of Tom, who is left to guard Spike's party grub and Tom barely escapes his predicament.
10a "No Museum Peace" Tom chases after Jerry and Nibbles around a museum to get his fish back, but Spike keeps kicking him out.
10b "A Day at the Bakery" no description
10c "Mouse Over Miami" Spike restricts Tom from catching Jerry, but Tom tries to anyway and Spike sends Tom back to his house in the middle of winter.
11a "The Trojan Dog" Jerry uses a robot dog to scare off Tom and access the fridge. Tom tries to use a Trojan dog to get at Jerry, but the plan backfires.
11b "Foreign Legion Droopy" Droopy is sent out on a dangerous assignment. He must track down the wolf in sheik's clothing!
11c "Pie in the Sky
Pie in the Sky
Pie in the Sky was a light-hearted British police drama starring Richard Griffiths and Maggie Steed, created by Andrew Payne and broadcast in five series on BBC1 between 13 March 1994 and 17 August 1997 as well as being syndicated on other channels in other countries, including the Australian...

"
A peckish Tom chases Jerry around a construction site, getting pinned down by Spike.
12a "Save That Mouse" Tom's owner's sister mistakes Jerry for a hamster and won't let Tom touch him.
12b "Old Mother Hubbard
Old Mother Hubbard
"Old Mother Hubbard" is an English language nursery rhyme, first printed in 1805 and among the most popular publications of the nineteenth century. The exact origin and meaning of the rhyme is disputed...

"
Droopy is in Storybook Land. Red Riding Hood is delivering food to Grandma's house, and Slick Wolf tries to steal the food. Droopy foils Slick, and he goes to visit Goldilocks. She lives with three gorillas (subletted from the Three Bears), and while Slick looks for food to steal, the gorillas return and chase him away.
12c "Say What?
Say What?
Say What? is a music video series that aired on American MTV in 1998. It was created at a time when MTV was being heavily criticized for not playing as many music videos as it had in the past...

"
Tom's owner has received a parrot. When Tom rounds on him, the parrot and Jerry work together to make Tom's chase double trouble.
13a "Superstocker" Tom chases Jerry in a supermarket in order to protect the food products. They both end up trashing the place.
13b "Droopy's Good Luck Charm" Slick Wolf sells Droopy a good-luck charm for $5. Spike tells him that it was really a good-luck charm, and the two try various ways of getting it back, with their attempts backfiring each time. Spike offers to buy it back for $10, and Droopy sells it back to him. Slick and Spike see a sidewalk salesman selling about 30 of them, and Slick chases Spike for wasting their money.
13c "The Great Mousini" Jerry joins a circus as the escape artist Mousini with Tom as his co-star. They lose their jobs after their latest performance.
14a "Jerry's Country Cousin" Jerry's identical, yet strong cousin comes to visit. Tom retreats after Jerry's cousin ruins his mistress' gourmet with a herd of pigs.
14b "The Great Diamond Heist" Inspector Droopy searches for a stolen diamond.
14c "Mechanical Failure" Tom's owner has brought a robot maid, which Tom and Jerry use against each other until it goes out of control.
15a "A Connecticut Mouse in King Arthur's Cork" Tom dreams his chase with Jerry as a medieval quest scenario.
15b "The Great Train Rubbery" Droopy is the mail clerk on a train out West, and receives a package to deliver to a bank. Slick Wolf hears this, and he proceeds to try and steal it, figuring that it must be money. After a number of attempts, he succeeds, but is arrested by the sheriff. The package contains not cash, but "Wanted" posters for Slick Wolf. Droopy receives the reward for his capture. This is the last Droopy short.
15c "Stage Struck
Stage Struck
Stage Struck may refer to:*Stage Struck , a live album by Rory Gallagher released in 1980*Stage Struck , a 1925 film produced by Paramount Pictures, starring Gloria Swanson, restored by George Eastman House...

"
Jealous of Spike's appreciation for Jerry's dance talent, Tom tries to interfere, but they go along with their performance.

International Release

Country Channel(s)
 United Kingdom Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 United States CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 France France 4
France 4
France 4 is a french public channel owned by France Télévisions, dedicated to the entertainment. At first named Festival, the channel took its current name in 2005, to mark better its membership to the group France Télévisions...

 Australia ABC1
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

 ABC2
ABC2
ABC2 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 7 March 2005, it is the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television division, and is available nationally to digital television viewers in Australia...

 ABC3
ABC3
-Future shows:Programming confirmed for future broadcast will include:* After School Care * Bindi's Boot Camp * Bushwacked! * Dance Academy * Dancing Down Under...

 Poland TVN Style
TVN Style
TVN Style is a Polish channel aimed at women featuring the latest in fashion, health and beauty. It launched in August 2004 and is a part of the TVN network, owned by ITI Group.-Line-up:...

 Finland Nelonen
Nelonen
Nelonen is a Finnish commercial TV channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1989 on the HTV cable network, which name was changed first to PTV4 and then to Nelonen. It started on June 1, 1997. Nelonen, in Finnish, means the glyph of the number four. The channel is...

 Sweden SVT
 Thailand TrueVisions
TrueVisions
TrueVisions is Thailand's leading cable satellite television operator, broadcasting largely in English. Now owned by the True Corporation, the company was formerly known as the United Broadcasting Corporation , but it was rebranded in February 2007....

 Cyprus Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation
Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation
The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ) or CyBC is Cyprus's public broadcasting service, transmitting island-wide on four radio and two television channels. CyBC is a non-profit organization that utilises its entire income for the promotion of its main mission, which is the objective provision of...

 Greece Star Channel
Star Channel
Star Channel is a Greek television network that broadcasts a mix of foreign and Greek programming. It launched in December 1993 and is owned by Nea Tileorasi A.E.. The main news bulletin is called Star Eidiseis, which is currently hosted by Aimilios Liatsos...

 South Africa DSTV
DStv
DStv is MultiChoice's multi-channel digital satellite TV service in Africa, launched in 1995. It operates from two satellites over Africa, broadcasting on Ku band via Eutelsat W7 and Intelsat 7 , which only requires a small satellite dish...

 Serbia Happy TV
Happy TV
Happy TV is a Serbian television network with national frequency. It started as a children's television, then got national coverage, which it broadcasted across Serbia in time-sharing with TV Košava, who it later came together and made a one television....

 Brazil SBT
SBT
Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão is a Brazilian television network. The network first aired in 1981, and its headquarters are based in Osasco, at the CDT Anhanguera complex. SBT is owned by Silvio Santos , a popular Brazilian TV host...


Note

This seires is rarely aired in the United States due to low ratings, but it is recently aired in other countries.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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