George and Junior

George and Junior are cartoon characters, two anthropomorphic bears created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All of the George and Junior shorts were directed by Tex Avery in the 1940s. They appeared in four cartoons: Henpecked Hoboes (1946), Hound Hunters (1947), Red Hot Rangers (1947), and Half-Pint Pygmy (1948).[3]

George and Junior
MGM Cartoons character
Red Hot Rangers
George (left) and Junior (right), seen in Red Hot Rangers
First appearance
Last appearance
  • George and Junior's Christmas Spectacular
  • July 23, 1995
Created byTex Avery
Designed byIrven Spence[1]
Voiced byDick Nelson (1946–1947)[2]
Tex Avery (1946–1948)[2]
Wally Maher (1948)
John Rubinow and Tony Pope (1995)
In-universe information
SpeciesBears
GenderMale

The cartoons would usually follow the misadventures of two bears inspired by George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men:[4] George, the short, short-tempered, intelligent one (voiced by Dick Nelson[2]) and Junior, the tall, dim-witted, strong one (voiced by Tex Avery[2]). George would usually come up with a plan to fix their current situation. Junior would accidentally mess it up somehow, then George would get angry and say "Bend over, Junior", and, when Junior does so, George delivers a hard kick to his rear end.

Appearances

The characters' looks and voices were altered for their fourth appearance. Later, they were brought back to life by Pat Ventura on the Hanna-Barbera anthology franchise What a Cartoon! in the 1990s voiced by John Rubinow and Tony Pope, respectively. A gray-purple version of George made a headshot cameo appearance during the final scene of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the octopus from Half-Pint Pygmy also made a cameo as a bartender at The Ink and Paint Club). Junior was planned to have a cameo in the film, but was later dropped for unknown reasons. They would later make appearances in Dark Horse Comics with Tex Avery's Wolf and Red and Screwy Squirrel.

Lucky Ducky was originally planned to feature George and Junior.[5]

In 2019, both George and Junior make an appearance as zoo catchers in the fourth season of The Tom and Jerry Show episode called "Shadow of a Doubt". They also make various cameos in the series. In the show, George is voiced by Ben Diskin, while Junior is voiced by Stephen Stanton.

Cartoons
#TitleRelease Date
1Henpecked HoboesOctober 26, 1946
2Hound HuntersApril 12, 1947
3Red Hot RangersMay 3, 1947
4Half-Pint PygmyAugust 7, 1948
5Look Out BelowApril 9, 1995[6][7]
6George and Junior's Christmas SpectacularJuly 23, 1995[8]

Voice actors

Comics

List of comics appearances

Home media

In 2020, Warner Archive released the cartoons Hound Hunters and Red Hot Rangers uncut and digitally restored as part of the Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1 Blu-Ray.

See also

References
  1. Yowp (2012-02-02). "Tralfaz: Hound Hunters". Tralfaz. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  2. Scott, Keith. ""Hello All You Happy Tax Payers": Tex Avery's Voice Stock Company". Cartoon Research. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 84. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. "George and Junior". Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  5. Adamson, Joe, Tex Avery: King of Cartoons, 1975, Da Capo Press
  6. Winfery, Lee (27 December 1994). "From Hanna-barbera, 8 New Cartoons For Cable The Cartoon Network's New Stable Of Stars Includes Two Ducks, Two Bears, And Even Dino Of "Flintstones" Fame. - philly-archives". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  7. "George and Junior in "Look out below"". United States Copyright Office. 9 April 1995. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  8. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 116. ISBN 9781476672939.
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