George and Junior | |
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MGM Cartoons character | |
![]() George (left) and Junior (right), seen in Red Hot Rangers | |
First appearance |
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Last appearance |
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Created by | Tex Avery |
Designed by | Irven Spence [1] |
Voiced by | George: Dick Nelson (1946–1947) [2] Wally Maher (1948) John Rubinow (1995) Benjamin Diskin (2019) Junior: Tex Avery (1946–1948) [2] Tony Pope (1995) Stephen Stanton (2019) |
In-universe information | |
Species | Bears |
Gender | Male |
George and Junior are cartoon characters, two anthropomorphic bears created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All of the George and Junior shorts were directed by Tex Avery in the 1940s. They appeared in four cartoons: Henpecked Hoboes (1946), Hound Hunters (1947), Red Hot Rangers (1947), and Half-Pint Pygmy (1948). [3]
The cartoons would usually follow the misadventures of two bears inspired by George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men : [4] George, the short, short-tempered, intelligent one (voiced by Dick Nelson [2] ) and Junior, the tall, dim-witted, strong one (voiced by Tex Avery [2] ). George would usually come up with a plan to fix their current situation. Junior would accidentally mess it up somehow, then George would get angry and say "Bend over, Junior", and, when Junior does so, George delivers a hard kick to his rear end.
The characters' looks and voices were altered for their fourth appearance.
A gray-purple version of George made a headshot cameo appearance during the final scene of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the octopus from Half-Pint Pygmy also made a cameo as a bartender at The Ink and Paint Club). Junior was planned to have a cameo in the film, but was later dropped for unknown reasons. They would later make appearances in Dark Horse Comics with Tex Avery's Wolf and Red and Screwy Squirrel .
Later, they were brought back to life by Pat Ventura on the Hanna-Barbera anthology franchise What a Cartoon! in the 1990s voiced by John Rubinow and Tony Pope, respectively.
Lucky Ducky was originally planned to feature George and Junior. [5]
In 2019, both George and Junior make an appearance as zoo catchers in the fourth season of The Tom and Jerry Show episode called "Shadow of a Doubt". They also make various cameos in the series. In the show, George is voiced by Ben Diskin, while Junior is voiced by Stephen Stanton.
# | Title | Release Date |
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1 | Henpecked Hoboes | October 26, 1946 |
2 | Hound Hunters | April 12, 1947 |
3 | Red Hot Rangers | May 3, 1947 |
4 | Half-Pint Pygmy | August 7, 1948 |
5 | Look Out Below | April 9, 1995 [6] [7] |
6 | George and Junior's Christmas Spectacular | July 23, 1995 [8] |
In 2020, Warner Archive released the cartoons Hound Hunters and Red Hot Rangers uncut and digitally restored as part of the Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1 Blu-Ray.