Tom & Jerry Kids - Secondary Stars

As with every other character within the animation world, many of the stars we've watched and remembered today each started out as a "bit-character" or antagonist in a previous star's short. Woody Woodpecker from Andy Panda, Snagglepuss from Quick Draw McGraw, the Blue Racer, Crazylegs Crane and the Japanese Beetle from Tijuana Toads...the list is endless.
Even Sheen from Jimmy Neutron, in a bizarre twist of fate, was given his own spin-off series..

In short, if a character has a wide enough appeal through personality or premise, then the producers understand that the audience would want to see more of them, often gaining entire spin-offs for themselves (though in case of Sheen, I'm perplexed. The kid is as likeable as a naked mole rat with anthrax).

And today's blog post is no exception. According to Pat Ventura's latest blog, when he was a writer on Hanna-Barbera's Tom and Jerry Kids series, he mentions the following:

"Being an artist, when I created a character for a cartoon sometimes I would also sketch a rough design and the producer would use it. Two of the characters even starred in a couple of their own cartoons."

In Pat's case, more than two secondary characters were given the spotlight treatment in later seasons, though not all penned by Pat - all who originally featured in the various Tom & Jerry / Spike & Tyke segments. So we'll see how Slowpoke Antonio, Kyle and Clyde Cat, Bernie Bird, Wildmouse and Calaboose Cal get on, shall we? B-)

Now arranged in a fancy Playlist!