Philip A. Scheib

A favorite plot at the studio: a character running around the house being terrorized mostly by his own imagination. A sure-fire setup for freak-out animation by Jim Tyer, Carlo Vinci, Conrad "Connie" Rasinski (the director, after whose dog "Pago" was named) and Paul Sommer.

A Terrytoons cartoon released 22 July 1951.

Papa Bear is off for a relaxing day of fishing at the lake, but he is followed by his little cubs, who proceed to make his day miserable. They catch more fish than he does and use unconventional ways to do it, and they are also responsible for him getting dunked in the water several times.

The Terry Bears tries to enter a photo contest.

Papa Bear wants to spend his paycheck on something foolish, but the Cubs think he should purchase some interest-paying defense bonds. Disregarding their advice, he buys a mechanical robot to do all the housework. But robots have a high-maintenance cost, and this one has an attitude as it multiplies itself when Papa Bear tries to destroy it.

A moral story of being good to the little creatures with the Terry Bears.

After watching a television commercial, Papa Bear decides to take up gardening but has more than his share of problems. The little bears give him a bag of 'speedy-grow' in stead of weed-killer, and the weeds thrive and take over his garden. Worms are feasting on his tomato crop, and the anti-worm spray he uses engulfs him rather than the vines. Papa Bear, worn-out, in pain and bandaged, is in his easy-chair when the same commercial, that earlier had inspired him, comes on again, and the angry bear rips open the television set and throttles the announcer.

The Terry Bears find a dog and want to enter him in a dog show. Only thing they have to do is give the dog a bath....

Papa Bear gets extremely tired of his oversized dog Pago causing problems- so much that he is ready to execute him. Of course, he becomes soft-hearted and lets the dog go, only to be treated to another more frustrating experiences as a result of the antics of Pago and his three cubs.

Papa Bear, his cubs and the Hound Dog go duck hunting and, as usual, the experts (Papa and the dog) have nothing but misadventures, while the amateur hunters bag all the ducks. When Papa returns home, empty-handed, angry and frustrated, he throws the ammunition into the fireplace, followed by a barrage of bullets firing upward through the chimney and bringing down a flock of ducks that were flying overhead.

Releasing a new cartoon to theaters every two weeks, producer Paul Terry had the idea to create an animated movie serial parodying 1890s melodrama. This was the proposed first installment with four more “chapters” to be released over the next two months. The concept didn’t catch on, but the characters and tropes did—zaftig Fanny Zilch, the damsel in distress, pursued by mustachioed villain Oil Can Harry in his opera hat and the dashing (albeit effeminate) hero Strongheart. The cliffhanger situations and operetta format became a Terry studio staple over the next 20 years, including the return of Oil Can Harry himself, tropes later adopted by Terry’s 1940s-50s “Mighty Mouse” cartoons.

Behind the scenes look at Terrytoons.