Characters: Topsy

Topsy is a small gray/brown cat who has appeared in a few Tom and Jerry cartoons. He is either a friend of Tom's or befriends Jerry. He first appeared in Baby Puss and his latest appearance is in Scat Cats. He is brown/gray and sometimes more yellowish.

Characters: Lightning

Lightning is a Tom and Jerry character - a brownish-red cat - who first appered in the 1948 short, Old Rockin' Chair Tom, as Tom's rival. Lightning is named as such because in his first short, he practically moved at the speed of lightning. In later cartoons, Lightning often appeared as one of the alley cat bullies whose leader is Butch, and which also includes Topsy, but the alley cat bullies became buddies of Tom instead of rivals, as shown in Sleepy-Time Tom. He is the redone version of Meathead.

Characters: Toodles Galore

Toodles Galore is a Tom and Jerry character, who first appeared in the 1946 short, Springtime for Thomas. Toodles is an attractive female, white cat, and is supposedly Tom's usual love interest. Although Tom is a reputed playboy, and had other love interests before and after Toodles, Toodles is the only love interest whom appeared more than thrice, and is probably the most favored. During the classic era, Tom had to compete twice against Butch and even once against Spike/Killer for Toodles' affection, and he lost them all. Toodles is one of the most anthropomorphic animals in the the series, with the only cat features being her tail and ears.

Toodles is apparently open to any form of romantic relationships, even with non-cats, as shown in the end of Casanova Cat where Jerry got to make out with Toodles as they left Tom and Butch behind, and Solid Serenade, where she is clearly interested in a relationship with Spike the bulldog, who tries to woo her by playing with Tom's tail on a double bass.

It is said that Lana Turner's character Bunny Smith, from the film Week-End at the Waldorf, was the inspiration for Toodles' character and personality.

Characters: Quacker

Quacker is a fictional cartoon character from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. He was voiced by Red Coffey, from Quacker's first appearance in 1950 (in Little Quacker) up until 1957, though the voice has often been (erroneously) credited to Clarence Nash (who was better known as the voice of Donald Duck). He usually loses his mother and needs Jerry to thwart Tom's plans to eat him.

Quacker appears in Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers as Duckling. He is believed to be a predecessor to the later Hanna-Barbera character Yakky Doodle. He certainly appered in Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Characters: Tuffy [Nibbles]

Tuffy (originally Nibbles) is a fictional character from the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. He is the little grey, diaper-wearing orphan mouse whose cartoon debut came in the 1946 short The Milky Waif. Tuffy was later featured in the 1949 award-winning short The Little Orphan. Tuffy wears a diaper on most of his appearances since he is portrayed as a baby mouse.

Tuffy's first actual appearance came in the 1942 comic book Our Gang Comics 1, where despite his diaper, he was presented as a peer of Jerry rather than a younger individual. In the comics, the grey mouse's name was given as Tuffy Mouse from the start.

When the smaller Nibbles design was introduced to animation in 1946, the comics' Tuffy was retconned to match, almost immediately shrinking in size and age, although Tuffy's name was retained. In the comics, Tuffy remained a peer of Jerry with no relatives. But in 1953, the animation writers decided to change his on-screen relationship to Jerry. He became Jerry's nephew in Life with Tom. Back then, it can be assumed he was Jerry's younger sibling until Life with Tom.

Now it was the cartoons' turn to retcon, changing the screen name Nibbles to Tuffy in the 1957 cartoon Feedin' The Kiddie.

Tom and Jerry comic books have been out of print in the United States since 1991. Not surprisingly, as time passes, fewer staffers working on modern Tom and Jerry products remember the comics and the continuity they introduced. For this reason, Tuffy's name has sometimes changed back to Nibbles in new product: notably the Tom and Jerry movie, Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring, and the new TV series, Tom and Jerry Tales. The reference books Hanna-Barbera Cartoons by Michael Mallory and The Hanna-Barbera Treasury by Jerry Beck refer to the character only as Nibbles, without mentioning his alternate name at all.

Tuffy was more often a speaking character than Jerry and had a souther irish accent. In the "Mouseketeer" subseries, he spoke mostly in French, resorting to English whenever a slapstick humor depended on it. The only exception to this was Robin Hoodwinked where he talked purely in Saxon English and had a different, rougher voice. Tuffy looked somewhat more mature in Hoodwinked as well, despite the fact that he still wore his diaper. The Mouseketeer shorts almost always featured sequences in which Tuffy got drunk. In his last appearance in Robin Hoodwinked, he is also shown to be drunk as the cartoon comes to a close.

In the Tom and Jerry Tales episode "Cat Nebula", Nibbles appeared as Jerry's sidekick and had a younger voice. Strangely, he spoke in a more feminine French accent in the non-Mouseketeer Tales episodes "Cat Show Catastrophe" and "Cat of Prey". In another Tales episode "Babysitting Blues", Tuffy was actually portrayed as a real baby who could not speak, though it is unknown if this was really Tuffy or another nephew of Jerry's.

Characters: Butch

Butch is a Tom and Jerry character - a black and white alley cat - who first appeared in the 1943 short, Baby Puss alongside a brown, mangy cat (named Meathead) who is first appeared in the 1943 short Sufferin' Cats! and a little but older-like gray kitten. Butch was the leader of the alley cat bullies that usually helps Tom catch Jerry, but during his first appearance in Baby Puss he tormented Tom because his young female owner treated him literally like a baby, especially dressing Tom up in a diaper, a bonnet, and pink mittens for all of his paws. Tom was quite a mock show for Butch and his gang, as well as Jerry.

Butch later appeared in the short Springtime for Thomas, first released in 1946. At the time, he was known simply as "Dream Boy" (after Jerry's fake letter from Toodles), and he acted as Tom's rival for Toodles' affection.

In later cartoons, Butch was not only Tom's love rival, but also a sporting opponent, as in Tennis Chumps, or another cat competing with Tom to stay in the house, as in A Mouse in the House. However, Butch also appeared in some cartoons as one of Tom's pals or chums as in Saturday Evening Puss, Smarty Cat, and Sleepy-Time Tom, where Butch is leader of Tom's buddies.

Characters: Tyke

Tyke is the character from Tom & Jerry who first appeared in Love that Pup. He is the son of Spike.

Characters: Spike

Spike (occasionally referred to as Butch or Killer) is a fictional character from the Tom and Jerry series, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. He is a stern but extremely dumb British bulldog who is particularly disapproving of cats, but a softie when it comes to mice. In the shorts Jerry would often try to get Tom in trouble with Spike making him a shoo-in for a beating from the bulldog. Spike has a few weaknesses that Tom tries to capitalize upon: his possessiveness about his bone and his ticklishness. He made his first appearance in the 1942 Tom and Jerry cartoon Dog Trouble, and his first speaking role was in 1944's The Bodyguard, where he was voiced by Billy Bletcher up until 1949, from which point he was voiced by Daws Butler.

In his very first appearance, Dog Trouble, Spike was presented as the primary villain, chasing and attacking both Tom and Jerry on sight, even trying to eat Jerry, which forced the two to work together to defeat him. In later shorts Spike only went after Tom and either didn't notice Jerry or would help him against Tom. Spike, however, is not without a softer and sympathetic side: in the episode Pet Peeve, after believing that Tom is willing to leave the house in Spike's favour, Spike feels sorry for him to the point that he offers to leave instead, which he does until realising that Tom was only using reverse psychology to trick him into leaving. From the 1942 cartoon Dog Trouble to 1949 cartoon Heavenly Puss he was voiced by Billy Bletcher and kept unnamed with two exceptions: in Solid Serenade he was named "Killer", in The Truce Hurts he signed "Butch" on a peace treaty.

In 1949's Love That Pup, Spike was given a puppy son, Tyke, who became another popular supporting character in the Tom and Jerry cartoons. His voice was taken over by Daws Butler, who styled Spike's voice after Jimmy Durante taking after his 1940s radio series with Garry Moore. He is named Spike from then on and will not be changed again. A short-lived Spike and Tyke cartoon series was produced by MGM in 1957; only two entries were completed. Within a year, the MGM cartoon studio had shut down, and Hanna and Barbera took Spike and Tyke and retooled them to create one the first television successes for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy. Spike and Tyke would not appear in new Tom and Jerry cartoons, until 1980s The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, and 1990s Tom & Jerry Kids (In which Tom and Jerry themselves were made younger, but Spike and Tyke remained the same age, and appeared both with Tom and Jerry, and in new episodes of their own). He had also made a cameo in the 1967 MGM Animation/Visual Arts production Matinee Mouse, which reused footage from Love that Pup and The Truce Hurts, and added some new animation in the final punchline. Spike would continue to appear in Tom and Jerry full length features released in the early 2000s and finally, Tom and Jerry Tales.

Spike also appeared (sans Tyke) in the Filmation's The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.

This Spike is not to be confused with another character of the same name who appeared in Tex Avery and Michael Lah's Droopy cartoons, and four solo shorts, for MGM. However, the two characters were essentially combined into one in the Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, where the Tom & Jerry version of Spike would also appear in the new Droopy cartoons, filling the role of the other Spike as an antagonist of Droopy. They were not separated as distinct characters again, until the feature Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring.

Characters: "Mammy Two Shoes"

Mammy Two Shoes is a recurring character in MGM's Tom and Jerry cartoons. She is a heavy-set middle-aged black woman who often has to deal with the mayhem generated by the lead characters.

As a partially-seen character, she was famous for never showing her head (although it is briefly visible in Saturday Evening Puss, Mouse Cleaning and Part Time Pal). Mammy's appearances have often been edited out, dubbed, or re-animated as a slim white woman in later television showings, since her character is a mammy archetype now often regarded as racist. It was later revealed that her character was greatly inspired by Oscar-winning black actress and singer Hattie McDaniel, best known for playing "Mammy" in MGM and David O. Selznick's 1939 film Gone with the Wind.

A character very similar to Mammy Two Shoes had earlier been portrayed in the 1935 Disney Silly Symphonies short Three Orphan Kittens.

Mammy first appeared in Puss Gets the Boot, the first Tom and Jerry cartoon (except Tom was called "Jasper"). The character went on to make many appearances through 1952's Push-Button Kitty. From 1954's Pet Peeve, the owner of the house became a young, white, middle-class couple, and starting with 1955's The Flying Sorceress, the audience was able to see the heads of the owner(s).

Mammy was originally voiced by well-known black character actress Lillian Randolph. In the 1960s, the MGM animation studio, by then under the supervision of Chuck Jones, created censored versions of the Tom & Jerry cartoons featuring Mammy for television. These versions used rotoscoping techniques to replace Mammy on-screen with a thin white woman, and the voice on the soundtracks was replaced by an Irish-accented voice performed by white actress June Foray.

The original versions of the cartoons were reinstated when Turner Broadcasting acquired ownership of the Tom & Jerry property. In 1992, the cartoons featuring Mammy were edited to replace Lillian Randolph's voice with that of Thea Vidale, whose dialogue was redone to remove the Mammy character's use of potentially offensive dialect. These versions of the cartoons are aired to this day on Turner's Cartoon Network-related cable channels, and have turned up on DVD as well. However, some European TV showings of these cartoons retain Randolph's original voice.

Characters: Jerry

Gerald "Jerry" Mouse is a fictional character and half of the academy-award winning Tom and Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a brown anthropomorphic mouse who first appeared in the 1940 animated short Puss Gets the Boot. Jerry was originally known as "the Mouse" during his debut in that short, however, beginning from his next appearance in The Midnight Snack and onwards, he is known as "Jerry" but was originally meant to be named Jinx. Jerry has, since his first appearance, walked on two legs.

Characters: Tom

Thomas "Tom" Cat is a fictional character and half of the academy-award winning Tom & Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a blue/grey anthropomorphic cat who first appeared in the 1940 animated short Puss Gets the Boot. Tom was originally known as "Jasper" during his debut in that short, however, beginning from his next appearance in The Midnight Snack and onwards, he is known as "Tom". Unlike popular belief, "Jasper" is not his last name. His full name "Tom Cat" is a pun of "tomcat", which is the phrase which refers to male cats. He is very rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons (such as Tom & Jerry Tales' League of Cats) and "Tom and Jerry: The Movie" He is continuously after Jerry Mouse, for whom he sets traps, many of which backfire and cause damage to him rather than Jerry. Tom rarely sets out to eat Jerry, only to hurt or compete with him. However, Tom actually gets along with Jerry at times. Tom has changed remarkably over the years, especially after the first episodes. For example, in his debut, he was quadrupedal and had normal cat intelligence. However, over the years, he has become almost completely bipedal and has human intelligence. Dog Trouble was the episode that Tom stopped being quadrupedal. It's also shown that he has a very superhuman stretch-like body, showm by the fact that he is a slapstick cartoon, make him near-equal to The Mask in terms of stretch propriets (atoulgh the fact he aparentely has no longer this elastic body in recent cartoons.).