George and Junior are two anthropomorphic bears created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All of their 4 original MGM shorts were directed by Tex Avery in the 1940s. In their final short of the series, "Half-Pint Pygmy", their voices and designs were altered for unknown reasons. Pat Ventura resurrected them and made two What a Cartoon! shorts starring George and Junior in 1995. They were inspired by the characters of George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
George and Junior would reappear in the Tom and Jerry franchise, starting in fourth season of The Tom and Jerry Show (2014), they make their debut appearance in the series' in the episode "Shadow of a Doubt", where they work for animal regulation and desperately request detectives Tom and Jerry for an escaped panther. After the episode, the two appear as cameo characters after the episode they appeared.
Character Overview[]
Bio[]
George and Junior are both brown bears. George, the short, short-tempered, intelligent one and Junior, the tall, dim-witted, strong one. George would usually come up with a plan to fix their current situation. Junior would accidentally mess it up somehow, this would make George angry and say "Bend over, Junior", and, when Junior does so, George delivers a hard kick to his rear end. In The Tom and Jerry Show, George would have Junior hold out his hands and smack them.
Appearance[]
George and Junior are two brown bears consisting of George, who Pygmy bear wearing a blue vest and Junior being in the size of the average sized bear wearing a red vest.
Personality[]
George is the short-tempered, smarter, wiser one, while Junior is dimwitted.
Cartoon appearances[]
The Tom and Jerry Show (2014)[]
Season 4[]
- "Shadow of a Doubt" (2021)
- "Ball of Fire" (2021) (cameo)
Season 5[]
- "Professor Meathead" (2021) (cameo)
Shorts starring George and Junior[]
Tex Avery shorts[]
- "Henpecked Hoboes" (1946) (debut)
- "Hound Hunters" (1947)
- "Red Hot Rangers" (1947)
- "Half-Pint Pygmy" (1948)
Pat Ventura shorts[]
- "Look Out Below" (1995)
- "George and Junior's Christmas Spectacular" (1995)
Running gag[]
"Bend over Junior" - George proceeds to punish Junior by kicking him.
Trivia[]
- In the Pat Ventura shorts, Junior's nose is red, but in the 2014 show, it is reverted back to black.
- Also, George's eyes were yellow in the Pat Ventura shorts and reverted back to white in the 2014 show.
- In the beginning of some cartoons, they are usually are seen walking on top of a train track.
- They were originally going to appear in Lucky Ducky as hunters, but were ultimately replaced by two dog characters.
- George was miscolored gray in his brief appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
- In their fourth and final Tex Avery short, Half-Pint Pygmy, their appearances are entirely different and look a little more realistic.
- Also, George has a different voice actor, Wally Maher, sounding different from the first three cartoons. This is the only time George was voiced by Maher.