"New Tom & Jerry" Show #13 (11/27/75)

EPISODE 13

Broadcast Number:

TJGA-13

Original ABC Airdate:

Noon (EST), Thursday, November 27, 1975—
a Thanksgiving—as part of ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival

80-32"CHICKENRELLA"
(narrated by John Stephenson)

Tom and Jerry indulge in a little fowl play in this retelling of the Charles Perrault 17th-century fairytale classic. Tom and Jerry fall asleep reading Cinderella and dream themselves into the fairy tale. The traditional story unfolds with Tom and Jerry as Cindy's faithful companions, helping her with the housework while her mean stepmother and ugly stepsisters nag. When Cindy is forbidden to go to the ball, her blundering fairy godmother steps in, turning herself and Cindy into chickens and Jerry into a pumpkin before she straightens it all out and sends the happy trio off to the castle. Cindy wins the prince and rides off with him and Tom and Jerry, while the ugly stepsisters whine and complain that "this fairy tale always ends the same way!"
TRIVIA & NOTES:

The second New Tom & Jerry cartoon to use a fairytale as inspiration, following Episode #80-22, "Beanstalk Buddies." A third is #80-35, "See Dr. Jackal And Hide."
Uses portions of the underscores from The Jetsons (ABC, 1962-63) and The Adventures Of Gulliver (ABC, 1968-70).
Tom and Jerry talk once more; here, they say "Yuck!"
Janet Walso voices Cindy. She had previously voiced Jeannie, the teenage baby sitter seen in 2 of the MGM CinemaScope Tom & Jerry shorts Busy Buddies (1956) and Tot Watchers (1958), which was the last of the original T&J shorts.
Joan Gerber voices the fairy godmother. Fans of DuckTales (Syn., 1987-88/1989-90) recognize Gerber as the voice of Ms Beakly.
As this particular installment of The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show initially aired on Thanksgiving 1975, notice a certain theme which runs through these segments: these concern fine-feathered creatures. Here, The Fairy Godmother accidentally changes into a hen; the next cartoon, "Double Trouble Crow", finds a crow creating havoc on corn farmers Tom & Jerry's crop; and the final installment, "Jerry's Nephew", sees Dinky create further havoc for his uncles T&J in a chicken farm. Even the segments of The Great Grape Ape Show sandwiched between these episodes, the 20-minute 2-part special "S.P.L.A.T.'s Back" (#79-20 [Part I]; #79-26 [Part II]), took on this fowl-related theme as well, as its main antagonist concerned a criminal mastermind called The Chicken!

80-33"DOUBLE TROUBLE CROW"

Corn Farmer Tom and Corn Farmer Jerry are plagued by the arrival of Judd, a persistent, corn-eating crow who is the continuous cause of a crisis in their cornfield. Tom and Jerry do everything in their power to get rid of the pest. They set traps, they net him, crate him and mail him, but each time they think he's gone, he mysteriously reappears right behind them. Finally, after they have put him into a rocket and watched it land on the moon, they surrender when he reappears perched on their telescope. To their dismay, he reveals that they have been pestered not by one crow, but by his whole family of look-alike cousins Fudd, Ed, Ted, Ned, Ben, Len, and Ken. They all fly south for the winter (Miami to be exact!), laughing at the futile farmers behind their back all the way!
TRIVIA & NOTES:

This cartoon originally ended with Tom and Jerry collapsing in defeat rather than waving their white surrender flags.
Tom's right paw is accidentally painted grey in one scene. This flub is previously seen in "The Sorcerer's Apprentices," which briefly sees both of Thomas's paws painted grey, and in "Beanstalk Buddies," in which his right paw is grey.
Here, Tom & Jerry runs a corn farm. The very next cartoon, "Jerry's Nephew," sees them chasing their nephew through a chicken farm.
This is the first New Tom & Jerry cartoon to reuse cues from the underscore of Hanna-Barbera's Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines (CBS, 1969-71). Also it recycles underscore cues first used in the It's the Wolf! and Autocat and Motormouse segments of Cattanooga Cats (the crow riding in a remote-controlled toy plane).
This episode also contains a trap baited with a stick of dynamite, but no explosion is heard or implied. Could there be cut footage or storyboard elements?

80-44"JERRY'S NEPHEW"

During Tom & Jerry's relaxing game of table tennis, Dinky, their nephew comes for a visit. After a refreshing intake of a saucer of milk, Dinky goes outside to play...with T&J dashing after him to protect him from any further harm. A swing on the swings leads to a game of follow-the-leader, on a tree limb, down a drainpipe and eventually into a chicken farm. Tom and Jerry employ all sorts of methods to get Dinky back---through tunneling under, Jerry masquerading as a chick, and Tom disguised as a hen---but each and every time, the farm's head rooster shows up to foul their plans. Tom & Jerry eventually snatch up Dinky and flee for their lives, race inside their house, and slam the door behind them---so hard that it brings the house down around them! It is here that Dinky's mom shows up to take him home, but Dinky returns to report some great news: his mom says he can come back tomorrow! Tom & Jerry decide this is the perfect opportunity to hop the next bus for Australia!
TRIVIA & NOTES:

"Jerry's Nephew" is in homage to an earlier MGM Tom & Jerry cartoon sporting a title relating to a relative of Jerry: 1951's Jerry's Cousin.
This is probably a remake of The Milky Waif (1946). Tom previously ran afoul of barnyard fowl in Fine Feathered Friend (1942).
The animation of T&J close together during their game of table tennis with the ping-ping ball tapping on each other's paddles is inspired by a pivotal scene from Tennis Chumps. "The Tennis Menace" also makes use of such animation.
Jerry talks. He says, "Uh, cheep, cheep." He does this while being disguised as a chick, the same as he did in Fine Feathered Friend.
The very evening of the day these 3 New Tom & Jerry cartoons aired as part of Episode TJGA-13 of New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape on ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival, CBS broadcasted a 60-minute Hanna-Barbera-produced animated special, The Last Of The Mohicans, as part of their "Famous Classic Tales" series. The Last Of The Mohicans was H-B's only other project (besides The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show) for the 1975-1976 television season.
The Goodson-Todman game show Showoffs and the soap opera All My Children had the distinction of being the ABC Daytime programs to be preempted by this special telecast of The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show.

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