Tom et Jerry Comédie Show

« Tom and Jerry were rechanneled into "safe" rivalry: athletic events, competition at the workplace, and the like. Filmation also brought back from the Void several other MGM favorites of the 1940s and 1950s, who appeared in component cartoons: Droopy the Dog (see Droopy, Master Detective), his nemesis The Wolf, here named "Slick," and father-and-son canines Spike and Tyke. Tom and Jerry remained as silent as ever, while Frank Welker did the vocal honors on the remaining component characters (except during a 1980 industry strike, at which time all voices were provided by Tom and Jerry Comedy Show co-producer Lou Scheimer). Filmation chroniclers Michael Swanigan and Darrell McNeil have reported that the series generated an esprit de corps in the Filmation headquarters, with many artists developing unscripted sight gags right on the storyboards as part of a genial rivalry with the writing staff. This overall sense of euphoria carried over into the cartoons themselves: Though hobbled by stock footage, limited animation and network censorship, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show was, for Filmation at least, a remarkably fast-moving and funny program. It wasn't the "true" Tom and Jerry, and never would be, but it was an acceptable bush league facsimile. As the many Tom and Jerry TV cartoons from both Hanna-Barbera and Filmation ran their network course, they were absorbed into Turner Television's MGM package along with the theatrical originals. »