80-23"THE HYPOCHONDRIAC LION"
At the City Zoo, Rex, a lion, sustains a splinter in his paw. The keeper
offers to extricate the splinter, but Rex insists on a "splinter
specialist...2 of 'em! The first one'll want a second opinion, even!" Pet
veterinarians Tom & Jerry are called in to "give 1st, 2nd and 3rd aid to
the king of beasts." Dr. Tom and Dr. Jerry attempt to simply use tweezers
while blindfolding Rex, but he has a fear of the dark! Drs. T&J make more
tries to pull out the splinter with the use of a rope, an eye chart, and a
sexy lioness nurse outfit, but they all backfire. The undaunted docs then
provide Rex with a treasure map sending him on a hunt leading to a Grab Bag
containing a "million dollars"; during Rex's hunt, Dr. Tom makes even more
attempts to relieve the splinter: from a tree, in a hollow stump, and behind a
zoo wall. Finally at The Grab Bag, Rex reaches inside and Jerry, hidden
within, plucks out the splinter. So impressed is Rex by Drs. T&J's work
that he tells all his friends, and the 2 docs are inundated with even
more animal ailments: an elephant's steady tusk ache, a giraffe's sore
throat, and so on. Drs. T&J see this as the perfect opportunity to cut
out!
TRIVIA & NOTES:
- The presence of Rex The Lion references the lion which appeared in the 1950 MGM T&J theatrical Jerry And The Lion.
- The talents of John Stephenson and Don Messick are heard throughout this cartoon.
- Stephenson's vocal interpretations of Rex recalls those of The Cowardly Lion, portrayed by Bert Lahr in The Wizard Of Oz (MGM, 1939).
- Tom is missing his eyebrows in one scene.
- Also, Rex The Lion is a second reference on The New Tom & Jerry Show to the mascot of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Tom and Jerry's distrubutors.
A previous reference can be found in 80-04, "No Bones About It."
80-31"GIVE 'EM THE AIR"
Fritz Von Spritz, The Purple Baron and his assistant, Otto Van Blotto in
their plane, The Blue Max, and Tom and Jerry in their plane, The
Sad Spad, are the only two remaining entrants in The International
500 Cross-Country Air Race; the other two contestants, Sir Athscot Paisley of
England in his Sopwith Sloucher and Pierre Vous Cafe of Paris in his
Fillet Mignon, having unfortunately dropped out. In their endeavors
to sabotage T&J's attempt to defeat them, Von Spritz and Van Blotto use a
brick wall carried on a wire by dirigible---which unfortunately snaps. The
Baron then climbs down a rope ladder and attempts to saw off The Sad
Spad's rudder, but, having passed through a cloudbank, Tom snatches the
saw. The Baron leaps off but forgets his parachute, and manages to three-point
land on a haystack. The twosome then employ The Fritz Von Spritz Flip, which
sends Tom & Jerry plummeting down through a tunnel, but the two manage to dodge
an oncoming train ahead of them. Next, Von Spritz and Van Blotto try pouring
quick-drying cement in their propeller, but cover themselves in it. Just them,
an exhausted mother duck drops in on T&J, who provide her with a lift and
refreshments. At the home stretch, Von Spritz and Von Blotto make a final
attempt at sabotaging T&J's plane by siphoning its fuel! But, just their
luck, the mother duck has given birth to ducklings, who help carry T&J and
their plane to victory.
TRIVIA & NOTES:
- This is the first of three occasions which find Tom &
Jerry in racing competition, preceding Episode #80-25, "The Super Cyclists,"
and #80-48, "The Great Motorboat Race."
- Also, it's the first of 2 sports-themed New Tom & Jerrys in which T&J aren't pitted
against each other, aside from "The Great Motorboat Race."
- The Purple Baron is based upon Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, The Red Baron (1892-1918), just as his plane, The Blue Max,
is named after the same-named military decoration (a.k.a. The Order Pour le Mérite) which was Prussia's highest military order until the end of World War I.
(Richthofen was also a notable recipient of The Blue Max.) The Blue Max also served as the title of a 1966 20th Century Fox World War I film, directed by John Guillermin,
filmed in Ireland, and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress and Jeremy Kemp.
- A different kind of Purple Baron (not Fritz Von Spritz) was the antagonist of a 1967 Hanna-Barbera/RKO-Jomar Abbott & Costello Cartoon of the same name.
And yet another Purple Baron would be the antagonist of future NT&J component co-star Lt. Mumbly, in the November 20, 1976 episode, "The Perils Of The Purple Baron".
- "Give 'Em The Air" appears to contain quickly inserted footage of the Baron and Otto dashing from their grounded plane out of the way out of a falling brick wall. After the impact, the screen stays on the crushed plane and
the offscreen Baron is heard saying "Dumbkopf!" in a 'pained' tone-making it appear as if the wall was supposed to have landed on
them, while still seated in the plane. Could the quick insert be a result of network anti-violence standards?
- "Spad," by the way, is British slang for a person whose job is to give political advice to government ministers. Also, the abbreviation SPAD is acronymed as Signal Passed At Danger, known in America as a stop signal overrun and in Canada as passing a stop signal,
an event on a railway where a train passes a stop signal without authority.
80-34"THE EGG AND TOM AND JERRY"
LOST EPISODE
When an egg falls out of a nest, the mother eagle adopts Jerry, while Tom
is stuck with a baby eagle that calls him "Mommy." The mother eagle terrifies
Jerry by throwing him into the air to teach him to fly, and Tom angers her by
trying to rescue her "baby." Finally, Tom succeeds in placing her real
offspring back into the nest and both family and friends are reunited. Tom and
Jerry are on their merry way again, but not before a box of eggs falls from a
passing truck and a hoard of baby chicks chase them down the road crying,
"Mommy!"
TRIVIA & NOTES:
- Most likely "The Egg And Tom And Jerry" was inspired by the 1949 Academy Award nominee Hatch Up Your Troubles (later made as a 1956 CinemaScope remake entitled The Egg And Jerry).
- Tom and Jerry once again speak in this cartoon. Jerry says "Mommy!" and "Yipe!" Tom
says, "Mommy? Uh, uh! Mommy."
- Tom previously had Little Quacker mistake him for his mother in 1955's
That's My Mommy.
- A brief cue from the underscore of the 1966 Columbia movie The Man
Called Flintstone is used; it can be heard again in Episode #80-22, "Beanstalk Buddies".
- As these New T&J cartoons went to air on ABC, NBC, having 86ed
Krofft Enterprises'
Sigmund And The Sea Monsters a week before, unwittingly replaced it with repeats
of Josie & The Pussy Cats--ironically another Hanna-Barbera
production!--as new competition for
New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape's first half
hour. This was one of many rare occasions in Saturday Morning TV history which saw Hanna-Barbera shows running head-to-head against one another.
- T&J encounter another baby eagle and his mother in #80-38, "Hold That Pose."
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