The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show | |
---|---|
Genre |
Variety show Comedy |
Based on |
Tom and Jerry created by William Hanna Joseph Barbera and Droopy created by Tex Avery (original characters) |
Creative director(s) | Don Christensen |
Voices of |
Frank Welker Lou Scheimer |
Theme music composer | Ray Ellis |
Composer(s) | Yvette Blais Jeff Michael |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of episodes | 15 (45 segments) |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Lou Scheimer Norm Prescott |
Running time | 12 minutes (whole) 3 minutes (segments) |
Production company(s) |
Filmation MGM Television |
Release | |
Original network |
CBS (USA) Pop (UK & Ireland) |
Audio format | Mono |
Original release | September 6, 1980 | – September 4, 1982
Chronology | |
Preceded by | The Tom & Jerry Show (1975) |
Followed by | Tom & Jerry Kids (1990–1994) |
Related shows | Tom and Jerry (1940–2005) |
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show is an American animated television program produced by Filmation for MGM Television in 1980, on CBS 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 and Boomerang, as well as, in 2013, airing on UK satellite channel Pop. Most voices were done by Frank Welker (mainly Tom and Jerry) and Filmation head Lou Scheimer provided the voice of Nibbles (erroneously giving him an adult voice).
This was the second made-for-television Tom and Jerry production. 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 William Hanna-Joseph Barbera 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 under their own studio (with MGM), 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 Tyke and Nibbles, 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.