History Trivia / TomAndJerry

** In the early 1960s, Tedd Pierce of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' fame penned a script involving WesternAnimation/{{Sylvester|the Cat and Tweety Bird}} and WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales that Creator/RobertMcKimson disapproved of. Pierce sold it to Creator/GeneDeitch, who was desperate for a good ''Tom and Jerry'' story; the script became 1962's ''Tall in the Trap''.

** Good luck finding any of the [[Bowdlerise bowdlerised]] edits of various Hanna-Barbera episodes done by the Chuck Jones team. Only two of them were released on home media: Saturday Evening Puss (both video and audio) and The Framed Cat (audio synced to the original animation with the black Maid).

* FandomLifeCycle: Like ''Westernanimation/LooneyTunes'' and the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts, it is one of those cartoons that never goes away, helped by constant reruns, the limited dialogue making it very easy to export, and revivals like ''Westernanimation/TomAndJerryKids''.

** Since 1940, Tom and Jerry characters (including Tom and Jerry themselves) have had multiple voice actors, notably William Hanna, Mel Blanc, June Foray, Daws Butler, John Stephenson, Don Brown, Spike Brandt and even Frank Welker. Yeah, Tom & Jerry suffered DiedDuringProduction for years, even their creators' [[note]] William Hanna and Joesph Barbara [[/note]] deaths. Also Hanna provides the voice of Tom's screams. Some or most of these screams provided by William Hanna are still reused and recycled to this day.

** Since 1940, Tom and Jerry characters (including Tom and Jerry themselves) have had multiple voice actors, notably Clarence Nash, William Hanna, Mel Blanc, June Foray, Daws Butler, Don Brown, Spike Brandt and even Frank Welker. Yeah, Tom & Jerry suffered DiedDuringProduction for years, even their creators' [[note]] William Hanna and Joesph Barbara [[/note]] deaths. Also Hanna provides the voice of Tom's screams. Some or most of these screams provided by William Hanna are still reused and recycled to this day.

* TheWikiRule: The [[http://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Tom_and_Jerry_Wiki Tom and Jerry]] Wiki.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: Cats prefer to communicate and show emotion through body language rather than vocal sounds and mice vocalizations cannot be heard by human ears.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first Tom and Jerry short [[WesternAnimation/PussGetsTheBoot "Puss Gets the Boot"]], the housemaid refers to Tom as "Jasper;" this is because the original name for the pair was "Jasper and Jinx" (the name "Jinx" is never mentioned onscreen, but appears in pre-production materials). When MGM decided to make a series with the pair, a studio contest was held to rename them, with the $50 prize going to animator John Carr, who is reputed to have taken the names from a 1932 Damon Runyon story (Runyon himself got the names from a cocktail, which derives its name from a 19th century stage play).

* NamesTheSame: There was an earlier ''Tom & Jerry'' cartoon series in the early 1930s by Creator/VanBeurenStudios featuring a ComicStrip/MuttAndJeff-type duo. And Joe Barbera worked in it.

* FandomLifeCycle: Like ''Westernanimation/LooneyTunes'' and the Westernanimation/ClassicDisneyShorts, it is one of those cartoons that never goes away, helped by constant reruns, the limited dialogue making it very easy to export, and revivals like ''Westernanimation/TomAndJerryKids''.

* ImageSource:
** AmusingInjuries
** AnimalJingoism ("Truce Hurts")
** AttackTheTail
** BangingPotsAndPans
** CartoonCheese
** CartoonThrobbing ("Quiet, Please")
** ElongatingArmGag ("Busy Buddies")
** FatalFireworks ("Yankee Doodle Mouse")
** FellAsleepStandingUp
** ForciblyFormedPhysique
** InvisibilityInk
** IrisOut ("Tennis Chumps")
** LavaSurfing
** MouseHole
** NarrativeShapeshifting
** PetHeir
** RumpRoast
** SapientEatSapient
** SleepDeprivation

* In the early 1960s, Tedd Pierce of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' fame penned a script involving WesternAnimation/{{Sylvester|the Cat and Tweety Bird}} and WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales that Creator/RobertMcKimson disapproved of. Pierce sold it to Creator/GeneDeitch, who was desperate for a good ''Tom and Jerry'' story; the script became 1962's ''Tall in the Trap''.

* FanNickname:
** Surprisingly, the allegedly official name for the otherwise unnamed Maid, Mammy Two-Shoes, turned out to be one all along. The misconception stems all the way back to the 1970s and likely stems from a very similar Disney-owned character (from the short "Three Orphan Kittens") having the name Mammy Twoshoes (note spelling), but in truth the Maid was never given an official name in the theatrical cartoons, and no evidence exists in either art or interviews that she was ever intended to have one. The comics only muddle things further, as she alternated between the names Mandy and Dinah in them.
** Jinx is also one for Jerry's early unnamed form in [[WesternAnimation/PussGetsTheBoot "Puss Gets the Boot"]], which stems from an apocryphal statement made by Bill Hanna in his biography. Joe Barbera claimed the mouse originally was [[NoNameGiven nameless]], and MGM's press came up with their own name for the mouse, Pee-Wee.

** Since 1940, Tom and Jerry characters (including Tom and Jerry themselves) have had multiple voice actors, notably Clarence Nash, William Hanna, Mel Blanc, June Foray, Daws Butler, Don Brown, Spike Brandt and even Frank Welker. Yeah, Tom & Jerry suffered AuthorExistenceFailure for years, even their creators' [[note]] William Hanna and Joesph Barbara [[/note]] deaths. Also Hanna provides the voice of Tom's screams. Some or most of these screams provided by William Hanna are still reused and recycled to this day.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: There's a recurring rumor that final original short released was one where Tom and Jerry [[TheHeroDies die]] by being SpurnedIntoSuicide. That short ''does'' exist but the rumor is false. The episode is the 103rd episode, 1956's "[[WesternAnimation/BlueCatBlues "Blue Cat Blues"]]. It is not the last episode. Heck, one month later "Barbecue Brawl" was released. The final MGM short was 1958's "Tot Watchers" but the franchise continued even after that.

** Several females have played Jerry's nephew, Nibbles/Tuffy.

* CreatorBacklash: Both Gene Deitch and Creator/ChuckJones stated they believed their renditions didn't match up to Hanna Barbera's. This is [[LetsSeeYouDoBetter quite ironic]] in the case of Jones, who created the Road Runner series specifically as parody of the simplicity of the Tom and Jerry series.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first Tom and Jerry short "Puss Gets the Boot," the housemaid refers to Tom as "Jasper;" this is because the original name for the pair was "Jasper and Jinx" (the name "Jinx" is never mentioned onscreen, but appears in pre-production materials). When MGM decided to make a series with the pair, a studio contest was held to rename them, with the $50 prize going to animator John Carr, who is reputed to have taken the names from a 1932 Damon Runyon story (Runyon himself got the names from a cocktail, which derives its name from a 19th century stage play).
* FlipFlopOfGod: Regarding the name of the proto-Jerry in ''WesternAnimation/PussGetsTheBoot''. Joe Barbera claimed the mouse never had a name, while Bill Hanna claimed in his biography that the mouse was named Jinx, though some have questioned the validity of that statement since it was made decades after the fact, and ''no'' physical evidence has surfaced of that ever being the mouses name, not even in the characters original model sheet. Muddling things further is that according to [[https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2020/02/metro-myths.html?spref=fb&m=1 a press story made for the cartoon]], the mouse's name was supposed to be Pee-Wee.

* FanNickname:
** Surprisingly, the alledgedly official name for the otherwise unnamed Maid, Mammy Two-Shoes, turned out to be one all along. The misconception stems all the way back to the 1970s and likely stems from a very similar Disney-owned character (from the short "Three Orphan Kittens") having the name Mammy Twoshoes (note spelling), but in truth the Maid was never given an official name in the theatrical cartoons, and no evidence exists in either art or interviews that she was ever intended to have one. The comics only muddle things further, as she alternated between the names Mandy and Dinah in them.
** Jinx is also one for Jerry's early unnamed form in ''Puss Gets the Boot'', which stems from an apocryphal statement made by Bill Hanna in his biography. Joe Barbera claimed that the mouse originally [[NoNameGiven never had a name]], and MGM's press came up with their own name for the mouse, Pee-Wee.
* InMemoriam: ''Tom and Jerry: Return to Oz'' was dedicated to the memory of Creator/JoeAlaskey, who voiced the Wizard of Oz, Butch and Droopy, and died several months before the film was released.

** Starting sometime around 2010 or later, Cartoon Network and Boomerang ceased to broadcast any of the shorts which feature Mammy Two-Shoes in them, in acknowledgement of the character being racially insensitive or outright offensive (though this doesn't stop the two networks from including clips from cartoons with her in their promos [albeit without the character]). They are also absent from Boomerang's streaming service and Creator/HBOMax.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: There's a recurring rumor that final original short released was one where Tom and Jerry [[TheHeroDies die]] by being SpurnedIntoSuicide. That short ''does'' exist but the rumor is false. The episode is the 103rd episode, 1956's "Blue Cat Blues". It is not the last episode. Heck, one month later "Barbecue Brawl" was released. The final MGM short was 1958's "Tot Watchers" but the franchise continued even after that.
* PosthumousCredit: Creator/JoeAlaskey, the voice of The Wizard of Oz, Butch, and Droopy in both ''Tom and Jerry: The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Tom and Jerry: Return to Oz''', passed away several months before the latter film was released.
* RecycledScript: "Busy Buddies" was later remade as the final ''Tom & Jerry'' cartoon, "Tot Watchers"; while the type of gags were different, the basic premise (Jeannie the babysitter is talking on the phone instead of watching the baby, while Tom & Jerry have to make sure the baby doesn't get into any harm) is the same.
** The very first T&J short, "Puss Gets the Boot", was later remade as "Mouse Cleaning". In both cartoons, the black mammy-type maid warns Tom not to make a mess or out he goes. Naturally, Jerry tries to make the biggest mess possible, while Tom tries frantically to clean it up. The main difference between the two films is that "Mouse Cleaning" is, befitting the cartoons of the period, DenserAndWackier, something out of a Creator/TexAvery cartoon of the same period.

* ReferencedBy: Has its own page.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Tom's Japanese voice had to be replaced twice due to their deaths. The first was Kazue Takahashi (1970-1999) and the second was Kaneta Kimotsuki (2000-2016).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Less than a week before MGM's animation unit closed, a studio messenger boy named Creator/JackNicholson (yes, THAT Jack Nicholson) was interviewed for a job as a cleanup artist.