Tom & Jerry

Name:     Tom & Jerry
First Published :     Date:     1940
Place:     Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.
Formats :     TV Series
Cartoonist:     William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
Characters Story:

Tom and Jerry were an animated cat (Tom) and mouse (Jerry) team who formed the basis of a massively successful series of theatrical short cartoons created, written, and directed by animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (later of Hanna-Barbera fame) and produced by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer from 1940 to 1958.

MGM later had more Tom & Jerry cartoons produced by outside studios in the 1960s (Gene Deitch's Rembrandt Films from 1961 to 1962, and Chuck Jones' Sib Tower 12 Productions from 1963 to 1967).

Tom and Jerry later resurfaced in TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions (1975-1977; 1990-1993) and Filmation Studios (1980 - 1982). The original Hanna and Barbera shorts are notable for having won seven Academy Awards, more than any other character-based cartoon series.

The plots of each short usually centre on Tom's frustrated attempts to catch Jerry, and the mayhem and destruction that ensues.

Reasons given may include normal feline hunger, the simple enjoyment of tormenting him, revenge for being slighted, or a misunderstanding between the previous cohabitators. However, Tom never succeeds in capturing Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's own craftiness and cunning.

The shorts are famous for using some of the most destructive and violent gags ever devised for theatrical animation: Jerry slicing Tom in half, Tom using everything from axes, pistols, rifles, dynamite, and poison to try and murder Jerry, Jerry stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron, and so on. A recurring gag has Jerry causing some sort of an explosive to blow up in his adversary's face, causing Tom to appear in blackface. 

This information is taken from- http://www.comedy-zone.net/cartoons/characters/tom-and-jerry.htm