We touched on it a bit just a few days ago when we talked about The Justice League, and we’re going to do it again! What is “it?” Why, the launch of The WB, of course! The network fronted by Warner Bros. was a newcomer in the mid 90s and was here to challenge the other broadcast channels, mostly Fox. Unfortunately for Warner, a lot of their intellectual property was unavailable to start because they had signed agreements with other networks. Again, mostly Fox. In order to launch some original programming aimed at kids, they basically had to come up with some new ideas for some old characters which is how we ended up with The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries. This show would pair the often adversarial characters of Sylvester and Tweety (both voiced by Joe Alasky) in a mystery solving plot, something that felt more Hanna-Barbera than Warner Bros. With them was Granny (June Foray) who was in charge of basically steering the whole ship and also along for the ride was Hector (Frank Welker) the bull dog, because you need a dog apparently. Plus, it’s reminiscent of Gift Wrapped to have him along.

This isn’t our first dance with the show as we covered the episode “Feather Christmas” a few years back. For that reason, I don’t feel a long preamble is needed this time around. We’ll just jump right into today’s episode which is a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life, but not in the way you think. Many shows have gone that route over the years and they almost exclusively run with the plot of George Bailey who has to learn a lesson about how much the world would suck without him. Or suck more, anyway. This time, we’re rolling with the Uncle Billy character. You remember him, right? He’s the idiot who mistakenly lost two thousand dollars when trying to one-up old man Potter. It was his screw-up that nearly drove George to suicide since losing that amount of money back then could cripple a business like a savings and loan. Now, I’m not a huge fan of the film. It’s fine and a genuine classic, I just don’t feel the need to watch it on an annual basis like my parents and probably most boomers. One thing though that always bothered me when I did watch it is that Potter never gets his comeuppance. Uncle Billy mistakenly hands over that two grand to the old man and he just pockets it, basically. This episode of a cartoon starring a canary and a cat is going to try to make Potter answer for his deceit by solving the mystery of what happened to the money.

The episode begins with a cold open. Sylvester is narrating the story and it takes us to the town of Bedspread Falls, instead of Bedford Falls. Sylvester begins his narration as-if he’s going to tell us about Paul Revere’s midnight ride, but corrects himself and switches to a ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas styled rhyme. A gray-haired man of generous proportions is currently fretting about a missing sum of money in the Daily Bros. Loan & Building Building. It was established in 1946, which even if you were unaware could probably guess is the year It’s a Wonderful Life was released. This older fellow has apparently misplaced eight thousand dollars, because we need to up the amount here to make it a little more painful. While he tosses papers aside from the floor a familiar duo looks on. That would be the mice Hubie (Jim Cummings) and Bertie (Jeff Bennett). They feel for the poor guy who is just throwing himself on the floor in despair and want to do something to help him. A Christmas card gets their attention and it would appear it has an answer for them. The old man has since taken a seat at his desk with his head in his arms and the mice place the card in front of him. When he looks at it, we get to see it’s a card from Granny, who signs her cards Granny because that’s just her name apparently. Overjoyed, the fellow grabs his old-timey phone and makes a call!

The opening title then enters and it’s underwhelming considering how good the WB shows on Fox were at the time, but not terrible. When it ends, we find Granny riding through the street in a car with giant, metal, legs. It’s like an AT-ST from The Return of the Jedi. Her animal companions are riding in the car with her and everyone is decked out in some holiday attire. Sylvester continues his narration to inform us that they’re heading to Bedspread Falls and shouts out to Donna Reed. When Granny slams on the breaks to this contraption, the occupants (except her) all go flying out of it because it’s a topless vehicle which makes so much sense to ride around in during the winter. They smash into a snowman so we get a tiered look at all three occupying one of the three segments of the snow creature while Granny admonishes them for playing in the snow and wasting time. Someone needs to narc on Granny for animal cruelty.

We then head into the Daily Bros. and meet the old guy again. It turns out his name is Willy (instead of Billy, naturally) and he’s Granny’s brother (his voice is also uncredited, but I think it’s Bennett). That explains why he got a Christmas card from the old gal. She happily introduces him to her pet canary, Tweety, but he slams the door on poor Sylvester and Hector. He hears the door contact them and mistakes it for a knock, opens it, and the two waddle in flat as a pancake. Granny introduces the pair and Sylvester has to blow himself back up to return to his normal shape. Willy then introduces them to his pets, Hubie and Bertie, and Sylvester is happy to meet them as he gobbles them up immediately. Seriously Willy, why are you waving your pet rodents in the face of a cat? Granny turns him upside down and smacks his bottom until the two mice are set free all the while admonishing Sylvester for trying to eat family. The mice roll over to Tweety’s cage where the little bird chirps, “Been there, done that.”

Granny wants to get down to business and asks Willy what’s wrong? He tells her he misplaced the weekly deposit, which happened to be 8 grand. He explains he put it in a yellow envelope and brought it to the bank, but when he got there, the money was gone! She basically just pats him on the shoulder to comfort him. Meanwhile, Hector is nosing around and comes to a file cabinet. It jiggles, then opens, and he barks a whole bunch until a disinterested crow pops out (Uncle Billy had a pet crow in the film). It just casually hops with its head down like it’s not paying attention to much of anything until it reaches a waste basket which it hops into. Hector barks some more and then inspects the waste basket only to find the crow is gone! I call it a crow, but it’s actually the Minah bird and this routine is straight out of classic Looney Tunes. The character first appeared in the short The Little Lion Hunter. Elsewhere, Hubie and Bertie question Tweety about the intelligence of Sylvester. Tweety shares his very low opinion of Sylvester, which just riles the cat up. He charges, but the mice jump out of the way and onto a window sill. When Sylvester pounces again, he goes out the window. Poor, stupid, kitty. He lands in the street and leaves behind a Sylvester-shaped crater in the snow. When he pops out, Granny and Willy are there to praise him for finding Willy’s tracks in the snow. Sylvester doesn’t seem to feel much pride in his “discovery.”

We then cut to the gang following the footprints and Sylvester narrates some more to inform us that old Willy’s memory is apparently failing him in his old age. Despite telling Granny he went straight to the bank, the footsteps lead them to a drug store. Bower is the name, and he’s not happy to see Willy. Mr. Bower (Cummings) complains (in what sounds like a drunken stupor) that Willy came in and ruffled through all of his magazines getting subscription cards all over his floor. He didn’t buy any of them, but he did buy a sasparilla and a newspaper which Bower notes he placed a yellow envelope inside. Granny thanks him for the info while he continues to just rant wildly. Upon leaving the store, the shopkeep follows them to tell Willy he has his keys which he apparently forgot earlier. During the rant, we are also treated to Hector teaming up with Hubie and Bertie to pulverize Sylvester. When Willy and Granny walk off, the others follow with Sylvester taking up the rear in a clearly concussed state. Bower also lets us know he hates keys for some reason. That’s sort of his thing, he hates everything. He’s also loosely based on the alcoholic drug store clerk from It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Gower, hence why he sounds vaguely intoxicated.

Sylvester stumbles in the street and informs us the search continued “While visions of burly dogs danced in my head.” He slips on an icy sidewalk and finally goes down. Meanwhile, Willy is shown walking directly into a pole and it would appear a missing person sign on the pole contains an image of Cool Cat. It’s been there awhile, which makes sense since no one would actually look for Cool Cat. Granny tells her brother he needs to watch where he’s going. Sylvester chimes in to tell us that Granny’s patience is wearing thin while Willy dusts himself off. Out from his coat floats a piece of paper. It’s a ticket for a movie theater and Granny waves it in his face since he never mentioned anything about seeing a movie before the bank. Willy corrects her to say it wasn’t just a movie he saw, but a whole film festival! The subject of which was apparently Curly of The Three Stooges and Willy does his best Curly impression. Granny seems to be growing tired and demands to know if he went to the bank next or not. He didn’t. Instead, he mailed out his Christmas cards and gets mildly defensive about it when Granny shoots an angry glare his way as if it’s the cards she’s mad about.

The gang then heads to the mailbox that Willy apparently utilized to send out his cards. A mailman is there and is opening the base of the mailbox and out pops the Minah bird from earlier. He does his little walk-hop-shuffle once again and Hector follows. The bird disappears behind a lamp post leaving Hector more confused than ever. Willy and Granny were apparently granted permission to sort through the mail and Willy gets excited for a moment. Did he find his missing yellow envelope? No, he just found the Christmas card intended for Granny. She seems disappointed, but before she can say anything a passing cab stops to say “Hi” to Willy. The driver (sounds like Bennett again) thanks Willy for the tip he gave him this morning. Granny is once again angry with her brother for leaving out more important information and then asks the cabbie if it happened to be an eight-thousand dollar tip? He laughs and says “More like 8 cents,” before sharing with Granny that he drove Willy over to Rossi’s.

We then cut to Rossi’s (I guess a play on Martini’s from the film) after Granny angrily demands they get in the cab. This time, the driver gets a twenty cent tip and sarcastically remarks how these two are going to spoil him. The fare was only $1.80 so twenty cents is honestly not that bad. I wouldn’t know what to tip on such a fare, though I can’t imagine $1.80 would get you very far in 2023. The cabbie then tells Willy he nearly forgot to remind him that he left something in his cab earlier. Willy is hopeful it’s his missing money, but it’s actually his horse. Yes, you read that right, he forgot a horse. And to add a little extra comedy to the whole thing, no one apparently noticed the horse during their most recent ride. The horse just a gives us all a good laugh and apparently no one has any reaction to this gag because we’re heading inside. Now let’s never speak of the horse again.

Rossi’s is an italian restaurant and Willy and Granny are greeted by the manager. He’s a tiny, italian, stereotype voiced by Jim Cummings and he asks Willy if he’s back for another hot chocolate. He’s not, but while the humans chat, Sylvester sets his sights on revenge. Hubie and Bertie see it coming though and they fling some sugar cubes at the cat which get lodged in his eyes. Rossi then remarks that Willy left something there earlier and gestures to it: a full, hot, steaming, bath tub. This guy has some tremendously deep pockets. The bath tub also has a rubber ducky floating in it and Hector pops up to get a closer look. The ducky then pops out of the water to reveal that the Minah bird was in there taking a bath. Hector finds this rather shocking and just sits there looking dumb-struck as the bird hops onto the edge of the tub, walks over Hector’s head, and off the screen to the right.

We now finally find ourselves at the bank where Willy supposedly lost his money. Again, no one is apparently going to address the crazy fact that this guy misplaced both a horse and a bath tub as well. They head into Totter Bank (instead of Potter Bank) while Granny insists that Willy tell her he’s sure that this was his last stop of the day. The two head inside and we’re introduced to old man Totter. He, rather predictably, resembles Potter from the movie. He’s small, bald, and wheelchair bound. Totter (Welker) races over to Willy, running over the foot of his handler in the process, to taunt Willy when he enters and asks if he’s back to try and score a free coaster without opening an account. Granny just declares he’s not a nice man which Totter seems to relish in. Outside, Sylvester goes back to chasing Hubie, Bertie, and Tweety referring to them as his little sugar plums. They duck into an alley and Sylvester races in to find snow depictions of the three. The stupid cat thinks the three are frozen with fear and gobbles them up, only to realize he was wrong. He looks at the camera with a pained expression, then reveals that all of his teeth have shattered. I’m not really sure why eating three snow versions of two mice and a canary would shatter his teeth, but okay. The camera pans up to show Tweety and the two mice enjoying Sylvester’s pain allowing Tweety to remark, “See? This is what happens when you don’t floss every day!”

Back inside the bank, Willy shares with Totter the reason for their visit. If they think this man is truly one of wicked nature, I’m not sure telling him that eight-thousand dollars have been misplaced is really a good move. Totter just reacts angrily at the thought of Willy being in his bank to make a deposit with no money. He tells him it’s against the law and orders the two to leave immediately! Back outside, Sylvester is freezing while his foils look on. They apparently aren’t very interested in Sylvester’s misery and instead turn their attention to what’s behind the window they’re in front of. It’s an office, and Tweety notes a newspaper on the desk. In comes Totter being pushed in his wheelchair by some oversized goon even though we saw in the last scene that his wheelchair is motorized. He comes to the desk and opens the paper to reveal Willy’s missing envelope. He flashes the contents of it – a big wad of cash, then cheerfully places it in a desk drawer. Tweety and the others note that they have to do something about this and Tweety gives the camera a concerned look to serve as the act break. I’m assuming the animals can communicate with themselves, but not the humans. I didn’t watch enough of this show to know if it had rules or not, but those are pretty much the same rules as the classic shorts.

We then cut to a rooftop at night and some individuals are making some serious grunting noises. It’s Tweety, Hubie, and Bertie and they’re holding onto a rope. The other end of which is in a chimney. At the end of that rope is Sylvester, and if you’re wondering where Hector is, he soon appears from between Sylvester’s robes. Robes? Yeah, they’re dressed as Santa Claus and Sylvester wonders aloud how they let the others talk them into this. The expression on Hector’s face would seem to indicate he feels the same way (he doesn’t talk, for some reason). The two get rather close to the fireplace, before the mice and canary predictably lose their grip. They crash to the ground in a heap of smoke, which gets the attention of old man Totter who is seated at his desk. He demands to know who is there, but upon seeing Sylvester’s disguise takes the bait. He asks “Santa” what he brought him and Sylvester looks a bit puzzled before apparently getting an idea. He reaches into his coat and comes out with a fitting gift: a dog collar. Totter is quite pleased with the kinky gift and even remarks that it matches his eyes. While he oggles the item, Hector reaches his hand out from the coat and grabs a stamp on the desk. The newspaper from earlier is still there, and the dog stamps it to indicate it came from the desk of Totter.

Hector then grabs the paper and Sylvester gives out a “Ho ho ho” and a tug on the rope to indicate it’s time to go. On the roof, we see that the diminutive creatures have a plan for getting them back up the chimney: they’ve tied the rope to an anvil. They push it off the side of the building and it gets the job done, painfully so for Sylvester. As for Hector, he’s left behind in the office. He just smiles sheepishly at Totter, grabs his collar, and runs out the door. On the ground, Sylvester is shown with visions of Santa Claus flying circles around his head as he calls out the names of the reindeer, eventually getting them wrong because he’s suffered a pretty severe head injury. Hubie, Bertie, and Tweety come to check on him and when they open an eyelid we get the predictable “Do Not Open Till X-Mas” gag printed inside his eye. Tweety then scolds Sylvester for laying down on the job for they need to get that paper over to Granny and Willy. Hector then comes running by and grabs Sylvester by the tail and keeps on running forcing the little guys to chase after them. For such a big, beastly, dog, Hector sure seems scared of an old man in a wheelchair.

We find ourselves in the park where Willy and Granny are seated on a bench. Willy thinks the money is a lost cause while Granny tries to keep his spirits up telling him the answer isn’t going to just hit him in the face. It then does when Hector smacks him with the paper. Granny is happy to see them while Willy is confused since he’s looking at a story about aliens or something. Granny grabs it and notes a sarsaparilla stain, followed by cab grease, and more indicators that this paper belonged to Willy. They think they’re onto something, but when Willy spots the stamp with Totter’s name he just gets mopey again and assumes it’s not his paper. Granny, thankfully, isn’t so dumb.

We then cut to Totter’s office and Granny is waving the paper in his face and accusing him of knowingly taking her brother’s money. Totter plays dumb at first, but then his desk bounces and shakes and a drawer opens. I bet you can guess who pops out: the Minah bird! He does his little walking routine as he hops onto the desk and marches over to Willy with an envelope in his beak. He hops onto Willy’s shoulder and he takes the envelope, the whole time everyone looks perplexed to see this bird. They then turn their angry gazes on Totter, who again tries to play dumb. Granny accuses him of taking the money to put Willy out of business and Totter cracks. Declaring “So what if I took the money?” He then goes into a rant about starting his own Totter-Ville and he’ll own everything. The cop that Granny and Willy apparently convinced to come along then starts wheeling the old man out as he starts wishing “Merry Christmas!” to everything he sees, George Bailey style, including the fireplace and Sylvester.

With the old man wheeled off to jail, Willy goes to put the money away, only for Granny to wisely snatch it and promise to hold it for him. He then notices they still have time to make Christmas dinner at his nephew’s house, so he deposits the Minah bird under his hat and they make haste. Sylvester notes he’d like a drumstick or two and eyes Tweety who takes on the form of a roasted turkey to better illustrate what the cat is thinking. He takes off and Sylvester gives chase and the pair end up back in the alley. Sylvester dives and grabs ahold of the bird as they slide through the snow and end up in a pile of the white stuff. Sylvester pops his head out, then produces Tweety and goes to drop the bird in his mouth only to be met with a boulder-sized snowball. Somehow, Hubie managed to throw that thing at Sylvester and it looks like he added some bricks too since the dazed cat has one in his mouth. Tweety comes over with a tiny, silver, bell and rings it delivering the famous line “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.” Sylvester sits up and angel versions of himself are circling his head. He remarks, “Look at me, I’m giving out wings!” in a punch-drunk manner before collapsing once again as we close with an iris shot. Before the credits roll there’s an “In memory of Isadore “Friz” Freleng” which I believe appeared at the end of every episode in the show’s first season. Freleng was the originator of the Sylvester and Tweety shorts and passed away shortly before the premiere of the show at the ripe, old, age of 88. A fitting tribute for the animation legend.

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries is a bit of an unremarkable series. The animation is okay for the era, though not as good as Animaniacs or Tiny Toon Adventures. It’s fluid though, it just lacks some of the flourishes of those shows and the gags aren’t especially novel. There’s basically no shading on the characters and it looks especially bad when Totter gets wheeled off to jail as he passes by a lightsource, but nothing on his character model changes. The premise still strikes me as a bit forced, but it works okay and was used as a means of getting in some cameos as we saw here with Hubie and Bertie and the Minah bird. It’s a show that’s not bad enough to be memorable as some abomination brought to television, but it’s also not really good enough to be remembered fondly as a classic from the 90s. And as a Christmas special, it’s kind of the same. I do think it’s an interesting premise and a useful way to work in It’s a Wonderful Life. Other applications are basically hack at this point and this one manages to be unique nearly 30 years later. It just doesn’t do anything special beyond that. There were no laugh-out-loud moments, no truly witty remark from any of the characters, and there’s also no heart to make up for the lack of comedy. It just exists and in this day and age it’s the type of Christmas special one comes to after they’ve exhausted all of their favorites. I suppose the real question is do I prefer this one to the show’s other holiday episode? I guess so? I don’t know. They’re both rather unremarkable, but I suppose the parody nature of this one makes it slightly more enjoyable. They work in plenty of references to the film, including snippets from the soundtrack, so if you really love that movie there’s some added enjoyment here. If not, then it just becomes a pretty haphazard mystery that doesn’t ask much of its audience. I don’t think this was the type of show that tried to be thoughtful with the mystery component. It’s just sort of “there” as a framing device and nothing more.

You could obviously do far worse with your time this year than spend it with Sylvester and Tweety. I would say if you only need one holiday themed short from the duo then you’re better off seeking out Gift Wrapped. If you have more fond memories of this show from the 90s then sure, go for it. I didn’t watch this one as a kid so I don’t have any attachment to it which is definitely something that’s working against it. I just never found the show interesting and often there was something better on. The show can be streamed on Max, whatever is left of it come publication of this piece, and I think it’s a part of Boomerang as well. The first season was also released on DVD way back in 2008 so it’s no longer in print, but can be found secondhand. The prices are fairly reasonable should you want to go that route, but if Warner dumps this from Max then it could see a bump.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 6 – Silly Symphony – “Santa’s Workshop” (1932)

Back in 1929 Walt Disney launched the Silly Symphonies series of cartoon shorts. Unlike the Mickey Mouse shorts that were growing popular at the time, Silly Symphonies did not center on just one character or even a group of characters, but rather were fairly self-contained. Some shorts that became popular, like The Three Little Pigs,…

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Dec. 6 – Christmas in Tattertown

Nickelodeon in the late 1980s was a network on the rise. Cable was expanding to more and more households each and every day and Nick was able to seize the youth market almost from the get-go. Prior to that, broadcast networks dominated children’s programming, but restricted it to certain parts of the broadcast schedule. And…

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Dec. 6 – Christmas Flintstone

The Flintstones have a well-established relationship with Christmas at this point. There have been a few specials, some even prime time, and plenty of home video releases. For that reason it’s a bit interesting that the show actually waited until its fifth season for its first Christmas episode. At that point, the show had been…

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by Joe December 6, 2020May 3, 2023