"Claws in the Lease" is a 1963 Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

 cartoon directed by Robert McKimson

Robert McKimson

Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...

.

Plot

Sylvester

Sylvester (Looney Tunes)

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...

 lives with his son in a city dump. Sylvester Jr.

Sylvester Jr.

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Jr., or simply Sylvester Junior, is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He is the son of Sylvester The Cat. Strangely enough, his mother is never seen nor mentioned in any of the Warner Bros. shorts...

 then decides to find a home for themselves. He finds one, but the lady who lives there only wants to adopt Sylvester Jr. and separates him from his father. When the lady puts milk in a bowl for Sylvester Jr., Sylvester starts drinking it but gets bopped on the head with a broom by the lady. Then he gets angry and starts knocking on the door and screaming to give his son back, but gets bopped with the broom again.

For Sylvester's next attempt, he takes Junior's can of "Pussy Kins Cat Food" and hides in the television. When the lady turns on the TV, Sylvester is shown eating the food then ad-libbing a jingle for it, but the lady gets wise and throws him out of the house.

Junior lets Sylvester back in the house, but when he hears the lady coming (singing "Home On The Range") Sylvester hides in the shower, but that is exactly where the lady goes. She absent-mindedly uses the cat to scrub her back, but he escapes and hides in her bathrobe which the lady puts on right after leaving the shower. With Sylvester unknowingly still in the bathrobe, the lady starts inserting rollers in her hair, but a few end up in Sylvester's head. When the cat pops up from behind the lady, she screams and he makes a break for it.

Sylvester finally brings out the heavy artillery by placing cheese in strategic spots throughout the house, then filling the house with hordes of mice. Upon the lady's screams, Sylvester comes in wearing a super hero's cape and suit and announces: "This is a job for Superpuss!" He enters the house but is immediately thrown out by the mice who also eject Sylvester Jr. and the lady. The cartoon ends with Sylvester Jr., Sylvester, and the lady living at the dump.

Censorship

• This cartoon was shown with parts cut on ABC
  American Broadcasting Company
  The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
  
  , but there were two edited versions shown--one in 1988 and another that was used from 1994-2000:
  • The 1988 version cuts the part where Sylvester Jr. runs to get Sylvester from the dump after Sylvester Jr. finds a home and Sylvester tries to drink from the bowl of milk before getting beaten with a broom repeatedly by the woman who takes Sylvester Jr. in the house, followed by the scene where Sylvester ends up getting beaten with the broom again. The edited version in 1988 showed Sylvester Jr. being taken in by the lady, and showed Sylvester banging on the door, but cut to the scene with Sylvester Jr. and the lady eating snacks and watching TV to remove the part where the lady beats the father on the head again when she opens the door.
  • The 1994-2000 version left in the part where Sylvester Jr. gets his father from the dump after finding a home and Sylvester drinking the milk before getting beaten, but the beatings were shortened from six hits to one and the part where Sylvester tries to retrieve his son, only to get beaten again was cut completely. Also edited in the 1994 version was the part after Sylvester sings the "Pussykins Cat Food" jingle where he gets thrown out the window and hits a tree and the part after the mice throw Sylvester, Sylvester Jr., and the housewife out where the housewife barks, "And it's all your fault, you stupid feline!" and slams her fist on the top of Sylvester's head.