End of an era
Andrew Gumbel

A cat. A mouse. A never-ending chase, in which the predator never quite manages to capture his prey. As a premise for a cartoon, it could not be germ of the idea that was to become Tom and Jerry. They were told it was a cliche that had been done to death.

Sometimes, though, the best ideas are the simplest. Hanna came up with the basic storylines and paid close attention to timing and structure.

Joseph Barbera, a co-founder of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon company, with three of the legendary characters Scooby-Doo (centre), Tom and Jerry (right)

Barbera, meanwhile, was the artist who gave the characters shape and thought up the crazy scrapes they got themselves into—tearing through kitchen appliances, ripping up the hammers in the innards of a piano, coming to grief with garden rakes and playing with fire, literally, by lighting sticks of dynamite.

Whole generations of children have come of age watching Tom and Jerry on Saturday mornings. As they have been enjoying Hanna-Barbera’s other creations: The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby Doo and many others. The formulas have never got old because they tap into some of the most fundamental wellsprings of story-telling: Tom will never catch Jerry, just like Sisyphus will never get his rock to the top of the hill.

Some kind of era has nevertheless come to a close now that Barbera has died at the grand old age of 95. He is the second of the pair to go—Hanna died in 2001—but managed to stay active right until the end. Just last year, he wrote, co-storyboarded, co-directed and co-produced a new Tom and Jerry short called The Karateguard. Colleagues at Warner Brothers, announcing his passing, said he was reporting to the office as recently as a few weeks ago.

— The Independent