The cat and mouse tale
PANKAJA SRINIVASAN
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The world of cartoons remembers a favourite creator, Joseph Barbera, whose Tom and Jerry are perhaps the most watched characters on television.
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In December 2006, a man by the name of Joseph Barbera died at the ripe old age of 95. Does his name ring a bell? It should, because you see it all the time on television.
He was, along with William Hanna (who died in 2001, aged 90), the creator of perhaps the most watched and most loved characters on television. Any guesses?
Here are a few clues: The first movie these characters appeared together in was "Puss Gets the Boot". And, they won an Academy Award nomination for it.
At first, one was called Jasper, and the other had no name. Then, everything changed when they became a regular couple.
The couple
Do you know who this couple was? Tom and Jerry. The cat and mouse then went on to win seven Academy Awards, besides being nominated for the Awards more than a dozen times.
Hanna and Barbera met in 1937. Their first cartoon movie about a cat and a mouse was "Puss Gets the Boot".
Then MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) launched a contest to name the protagonists and John Carr came up with the prize-wining entry of Tom and Jerry. And, life for millions of children since then has never been the same.
It was not only Tom and Jerry. Hanna and Barbera formed their own company in 1957.
Many more
What followed was the creation of some of the most loveable creatures. Huckleberry Hound (on the Kellogs Cornflakes cover), Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Johnny Quest, The Jetsons all made it their home. So did the loveable Great Dane and Scooby Doo.
There is a story about Flintstones and Barbera.
It was 1960, and Alan Reed was recording his funny voice for Flintstone. At one stage in the script Flintstone has to yell "Yahoo"! Reed stopped his recording and asked Barbera who was present, "Can I say `yabba dabba doo', instead?" Barbera immediately said yes. He knew a great line when he heard one and "yabba-dabba-doo" went down in the annals of cartoon land as one of the most loved happy-yell.
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