Now featured on my site is a filmography of the MGM cartoons from 1938-58 by production number. Given that much of this information was available (via Jerry Beck), I thought it was about time to do something elaborate with it. I didn’t add many title cards because as we all know by now, nobody knows what’s an original or not on these cartoons any more.
These numbers are extremely useful because they serve as an indication of when the production of each cartoon was started, and likely the order in which they were written and recorded (not necessarily completed though), something you just don’t get from the filmographies by release date. Remember too that almost all MGM cartoons after World War II (and the Warner Brothers and Famous Studios cartoons too) were in the can for as long as 18 months before being actually released to theaters, making matters even more perplexing.
Note the number of abandoned cartoons too. I only noted the unit doing the cartoon when absolutely certain. I welcome any additional information that could make the list even more complete.
Very cool. It’s interesting how many abandoned cartoons there were in ’39. Seems that Hanna-Barbera and Tex Avery provided some much needed focus and stability to MGM’s cartoon department.
“Big Bad Baby Sitter”, just by the title alone I would like to have seen anything from the development of that one.
Nice to see these transcribed from the typewritten page Jerry had.
I would guess the last cartoon .. ‘Bird Mouse’ .. morphed into the Pixie and Dixie cartoon ‘Little Bird Mouse.’ It’s so unlike any P&D cartoon that I can see it more as a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
They were doing all kinds of TV development on MGM’s dime, so it’s totally possible.
I can easily imagine BIG BAD BABYSITTER being another outing for Junior Pig (a la ONE HAM’S FAMILY).
Thad—thhanks for getting this out here. Yowp—Thad has also added extra information here from the copyright synopses he and I acquired awhile back.
A handful of Scott Bradley scores appear in the Library of Congress Catalog of Cpoyright entries for musical compositions.
http://books.google.com/books?id=GxthAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Library+of+Congress.+Copyright+Office%22&hl=fr&ei=nufTTPWQEsf2sgbpx6XsBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAw#v=snippet&q=Scott%20Bradley&f=false
Is it really safe to assume that a separate score for these cartoons exist?
No entry for “Seaman Tarfu”?
My, this looks in-te-res-ting. I agree with Kevin at the number of abandoned Avery/HB cartoons present on that list there. One wonders how most of those would have turned out had they still been made – although I’ve a sneaky feeling that “Lionhearted Mouse” and “Cowboy Cat” would likely have been remakes of “Jerry and the Lion” and “Posse Cat” with UPA BGs judging by the time period there.