Claim: William Hanna was employed by at least one company.

Tom and Jerry is an American animated series of short films created in 1940 , by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera . It centers on a rivalry between its two title characters , Tom and Jerry , and many recurring characters , based around slapstick comedy .   In its original run , Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 to 1958 . During this time , they won seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film , tying for first place with Walt Disney 's Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category . After the MGM cartoon studio closed in 1958 , MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films from 1961 to 1962 . Tom and Jerry then became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time , overtaking Looney Tunes . Chuck Jones then produced another 34 shorts with Sib-Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967 . Three more shorts were produced , The Mansion Cat in 2001 , The Karate Guard in 2005 , and `` A Fundraising Adventure '' in 2014 , making a total of 164 shorts . Various shorts have been released for home media since the 1990s .   A number of spin-offs have been made , including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show -LRB- 1975 -RRB- , The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show -LRB- 1980 -- 82 -RRB- , Tom and Jerry Kids -LRB- 1990 -- 93 -RRB- , Tom and Jerry Tales -LRB- 2006 -- 08 -RRB- , and The Tom and Jerry Show -LRB- 2014 -- present -RRB- . The first feature-length film based on the series , Tom and Jerry : The Movie , was released in 1992 , and 12 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002 .   Numerous Tom and Jerry shorts have been subject to controversy , mainly over racial stereotypes that involves the portrayal of the recurring black character Mammy Two Shoes and characters appearing in blackface . Other controversial themes include cannibalism and the glamorization of smoking .