Another new head-to-head match-up between Old and New School Cartoons! Which cartoon will prove to be victorious between our two contenders this go-around–Tom and Jerry or Family Guy? Which of these two is your personal favorite? Please let me know in the Comment form below!
The information about the two shows in this comparison is derived primarily from their two wiki sites, though my analysis and thoughts about them, and the decisions I arrive at as to who is the winner of each category and who is the Over-All Winner, are totally mine, based on the evidence I use to arrive at my conclusions. The Tom and Jerry site can be reached by clicking here, and the Family Guy one, by clicking here.
Tom and Jerry was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote and directed 114 Tom and Jerry cartoons at the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood, California between 1940 and 1957, when the animation unit was closed. It won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film seven times, tying it with Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience that consists of children, teenagers and adults, and has also been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema. In 2000 TIME named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time.
In 1960, in addition to the original 114 H-B cartoons, MGM had new shorts produced by Rembrandt Films, led by Gene Deitch in Eastern Europe. Production of Tom and Jerry shorts returned to Hollywood under Chuck Jones’s Sib-Tower 12 Productions in 1963. This series lasted until 1967, making it a total of 161 shorts. Tom and Jerry later resurfaced in television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and Filmation Studios during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; a feature film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, in 1992 (released domestically in 1993); and in 2000, their first made-for TV short, “Tom and Jerry: The Mansion Cat” for Cartoon Network. The most recent Tom and Jerry theatrical short, “The Karate Guard,” was written and co-directed by Barbera and debuted in Los Angeles cinemas on September 27, 2005.
This sounds like a pretty awesome summation of one of the best classic Old School cartoons of all time, doesn’t it? It is still funny today, and it won many awards in its heyday, at the heights of its popularity. Pretty awesome beginning, huh? How can any cartoon compete against it, whether it be an Old or New School one? Let’s see!
Family Guy was conceived by its creator, consultant, and executive producer MacFarlane after developing two animated films, “The Life of Larry” and “Larry & Steve.” MacFarlane redesigned the films’ protagonist Larry and his dog Steve, and renamed them Peter and Brian, respectively. MacFarlane pitched a 15-minute pilot to Fox which aired on December 20, 1998. Shortly after the third season of Family Guy aired in 2001, Fox canceled the series. However, favorable DVD sales and high ratings for syndicated reruns convinced the network to renew the show in 2004.
Family Guy has been nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards and 11 Annie Awards, and has won three of each. It has garnered three Golden Reel Award nominations, winning once. In 2009, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first time an animated series was nominated for the award since The Flintstones in 1961. Family Guy has also received criticism, including unfavorable comparisons for its similarities to The Simpsons.
It appears as if, despite Tom and Jerry’s great history and the fact that it has won many awards, these things are not alone a guarantee that is is the winner of this particular match-up. That’s because, though it’s a much more recent cartoon, Family Guy is also incredibly humorous, and has earned many awards. Several critics have slammed it for various reasons, like its frequent reliance on vulgar, adolescent humor, but that doesn’t stop it from being funny, and also often Cartoon Network’s biggest syndication rating success.
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