George and Junior was a short-lived cartoon series by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s directed by Tex Avery. Beginning with the theatrical animated short Henpecked Hoboes, released October 26, 1946, the shorts followed the misadventures of two bears inspired by George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: George, the short, short-tempered intelligent one (voiced by Frank Graham) and Junior, the tall, dim-witted one (voiced by Avery himself). The characters' looks and voices were altered for their fourth appearance. Later they were brought back to life by Pat Ventura on the Hanna-Barbera anthology franchise What-A-Cartoon! in the 1990s voiced by John Rubinow and Tony Pope. George would usually come up with a plan to fix their current situation. Junior would accidentally mess it up somehow resulting with an angry George saying "Bend over, Junior", and, when Junior does so, George delivers a hard kick to his rear end. A grey-purple version of George made a cameo appearance in a headshot during the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the octopus from Half-Pint Pygmy also made a cameo as the bartender at The Ink and Paint Club).