"Towering Fiasco" is the twenty-ninth episode of The Tom and Jerry Show (1975).
Synopsis[]
Professional dog walkers Tom and Jerry are hired to walk an English sheepdog who keeps running into trouble.
Plot[]
Tom and Jerry try professional dog walking, taking Boo-Boo, a wealthy lady's English sheep dog puppy for his afternoon outing. The huge, exuberant pup drags Tom and Jerry through one harrowing adventure after another, from chasing a cat to chasing a butterfly, finally swinging through the framework of a high-rise building under construction, his terrified "protectors" behind him. When the exhausted pair is wheel barrowed by Boo-Boo to his mistress, she tells them to walk him again right now! Boo-Boo runs off, chasing a small gnat, dragging Tom and Jerry behind him.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
Minor Characters[]
- Doorman
- Woman
- Non-Anthropomorphic Cat
Trivia[]
- The title is a takeoff of The Towering Inferno.
- The scenes where T&J pursue Boo-Boo through the construction site (and Tom falling into a vat of cement) are inspired by similar scenes in the very last original MGM Tom & Jerry short, Tot Watchers (1958).
- The title "Towering Fiasco" is derived from Irwin Allen's 1974 20th Century-Fox/Warner Bros. disaster movie The Towering Inferno, starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.
- "Towering Fiasco" originally ended with the lady owner inviting them to come again the next day, but Tom and Jerry react in horror and flee.
- Speaking the only lines of dialogue throughout this entire cartoon is Jean VanderPyl, who voices Boo-Boo's female owner. She is best remembered for her role as Wilma Slaghoople-Flintstone on The Flintstones (ABC, 1960-66) and its many sequels and incarnations.
- Notice that Boo-Boo's mistress never once shows her face, which is a nod to the MGM T&J theatricals through the mid-1950s which occasionally featured humanoid characters (including maid Mammy Two-Shoes) whose faces were deliberately hidden.
- Boo-Boo chases a cat during their walk. Boo-Boo didn't chase Tom when he first met him and Tom is a cat. Except, Tom is an anthropomorphic cat, while the cat Boo-Boo chased is non-anthropomorphic.
Gallery[]
