Synopsis of Saturday Morning Show

“Set your dial for a while,
Have a laugh, wear a smile.
It’s the Tom and Jerry Show!
You’ll begin with a grin,
When you first tune us in
On the Tom and Jerry Show!”

In 1975, everyone’s favorite animated cat and mouse team were back on Saturday mornings, this time splitting the bill with a 30-foot tall purple gorilla. Hanna-Barbera’s hour-long The New Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show debuted in the fall with one major difference from the original cartoon: Tom and Jerry were good friends!

As a response to a growing concern that cartoons were becoming too violent, the producers thought it would be in the viewers’ best interest (as well as their own) to have the former enemies make amends and be on the same team. The decision, surprising at first, nevertheless proved to be a winning formula and took nothing away from the brilliance of the series.

Making Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse (donning a red bow tie this time around) friends opened up new opportunities for comedy and adventure. In each episode, the two would appear in three seven-minute shorts, getting themselves into a variety of situations—from job-related mayhem to crime-solving to foiling the plots of evil villains. Now that they were working on the same side, Tom and Jerry were twice as effective.

Although all the other characters on the show had the power of speech—and sometimes even abused that power—Hanna-Barbera stuck to their guns when it came to giving a voice to their stars. Tom and Jerry remained mute.

“Grape Ape! Grape Ape!”

Tom and Jerry’s co-star was a gentle simian named Grape Ape, who was fond of saying his name at the end of most sentences. Due to his enormous size, and the fact that he was a gorilla, most of the characters on the show were terrified of him. Their fear was unjustified. Although Grape Ape was sometimes unaware of his own strength, the big guy wouldn’t hurt a fly, at least not intentionally.

Grape's best friend was a smooth-talking canine named Beegle Beagle (or Beegily Beagily, as Grape was fond of calling him). Beegle drove a van, Grape rode on top, and together the two got themselves into constant comedic trouble. The Grape Ape portion of the show appeared in two ten-minute segments each week.

After one season, a newcomer by the name of Mumbly joined the show, now re-titled The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show. Lt. Mumbly was an undercover detective, whose most memorable features were his trenchcoat and snickering laugh. Along with his sidekick, Schnooker, Mumbly solved various crimes each week in six-minute segments.

Three months later Grape Ape defected and starred in his own Saturday morning cartoon called The Great Grape Ape Show, while the other characters finished out the season in The Tom and Jerry/Mumbly Show.

Release History

9/6/75 - 9/6/76 ABC

TV Sub Categories

animated
comedy

TV Studio

Hanna-Barbera, Norman Maurer

Television Cast

Grape Ape Bob Holt
Beegle Beagle Marty Ingels
Mumbly Don Messick
Schnooker John Stephenson

Other Saturday Morning Links