Clampett began work on a short that would pit Tweety against a then-unnamed, lisping black and white cat created by
Friz Freleng in 1946. However, Clampett left the studio before going into full production on the short (which had a storyboard produced, where it was titled "Fat Rat and the Stupid Cat"), however Freleng would use Tweety in his own separate project. Freleng toned Tweety down and gave him a cuter appearance, resulting in his long-lashed blue-pupil eyes and yellow feathers. Clampett mentions in
Bugs Bunny: Superstar that the feathers were added to satisfy censors who objected to the naked bird. The first short to team Tweety and the cat, later named
Sylvester, was 1947's
Tweetie Pie, which won Warner Bros. its first
Academy Award for Best Short Subject. Sylvester and Tweety proved to be one of the most notable pairings in animation history. Most of their cartoons followed a standard formula: • Sylvester wants to catch and eat Tweety, but some major obstacle stands in his way – usually Granny or her bulldog
Hector (or occasionally, numerous bulldogs, or another cat who also wants to catch and eat Tweety). • Tweety says his signature lines "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" and "I did! I did taw a puddy tat!" (Originally, like in
A Tale of Two Kitties, it was "I did! I taw a putty tat!", but the extra "did" got inserted, starting with Freleng's first cartoon, somehow). In later cartoons, such as
Home, Tweet Home, Tweety says "I did! I did! I did taw a puddy tat!" • Sylvester spends the entire film using progressively more elaborate schemes or devices to catch Tweety, similar to
Wile E. Coyote in his ongoing efforts to catch the
Road Runner,
Tom's attempts to catch
Jerry, and the
Aardvark's attempts to catch the
Ant. Of course, each of his tricks fail, either due to their flaws or, more often than not, because of intervention by either
Hector the Bulldog or an indignant Granny, or after Tweety steers the enemy toward them or another device (such as off the ledge of a tall building or in front of an oncoming train). In a few of the cartoons, Sylvester does manage to briefly eat Tweety up with a gulp. However, either Granny or another character makes him spit Tweety out right away. In the 1952 Christmas-themed short
Gift Wrapped, Sylvester was also briefly eaten by Hector the Bulldog, and forced by Granny to spit him out; as punishment, both Sylvester and Hector were tied up with their mouths gagged shut. In 1951, Mel Blanc (with
Billy May's orchestra) had a hit single with "
I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat", a song performed in character by Tweety and featuring Sylvester. In the lyrics Sylvester sings "I'd like to eat that Thweetie Pie when he leaves his cage", implying that Tweety's name is actually Sweetie Pie. Later the name "Sweetie Pie" was applied to the young, pink female canary in the
Tiny Toon Adventures animated TV series of the early 1990s. From 1945 until the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio closed, Freleng had almost exclusive use of Tweety at the Warner cartoon studio (much like
Yosemite Sam), with the exception of a brief cameo in
No Barking in 1954, directed by Chuck Jones (that year, Freleng used
Pepé Le Pew, a Jones character, for the only time in his career and the only time in a Tweety short,
Dog Pounded). == Later appearances ==