The series is the fifth incarnation of the popular
Tom and Jerry 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
William Hanna and
Joseph Barbera-directed series, the characters were leased to other animation studios, which changed the designs and eliminated all of the supporting characters. The previous made-for-TV series,
The Tom & Jerry Show, was produced in 1975 by Hanna and Barbera under
their own studio under contract to MGM, but it had made the cat and mouse friends in most of the episodes due to the reaction against
violence in cartoons. MGM did not like what Hanna and Barbera had done with the characters, so they came to Filmation and asked the studio to do a new series and try to bring some life back to them. This series was able to restore the familiar slapstick chase format, though with Tom and Jerry as "competing rivals" rather than enemies, and reintroduced not only
Spike and Tyke and
Nibbles (here named "Tuffy"), but not
Mammy Two Shoes who was retired from the cartoons in 1953 for portraying a
Mammy archetype. Half-hour episodes consisted of two
Tom and Jerry shorts in the first and third segments, plus one
Droopy short in the middle segment, also often featuring some other classic MGM cartoon characters such as
Barney Bear. Where the original series and the third series by
Chuck Jones occasionally had favorable endings for Tom, this series followed the second series by
Gene Deitch in almost never having definite "wins" for Tom (although he won at the end of "Most Wanted Cat" (with Jerry) and "Superstocker" and they ended off mutual in "When the Rooster Crows" and "A Connecticut Mouse In King Arthur's Cork"). Spike from
Tom and Jerry was used in many of the
Droopy episodes as well, filling in for the other "
Spike" bulldog created by
Tex Avery 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"; The animators had to draw Alberto De Mello's model sheets, but Kricfalusi refused to do so, using the old model sheets instead. Despite the series' low budget, Filmation tried to let animators go wild and add slapstick. Fitzgerald, Minton and many other
storyboard artists drew lively storyboards as reference for the animators, developing unscripted
sight gags as part of a rivalry with the writing staff. After Kricfalusi did the layouts,
Lynne Naylor would animate the
Droopy episodes. == Voice cast ==