The Cat in the Hat (TV special) After MGM stopped animation production and closed down its animation department for good in 1970, production was moved to DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (marking the company's first Dr. Seuss television special), which was run by Jones' fellow Warner Bros. Cartoons alumnus Friz Freleng and WB's last original production executive David DePatie. Although Chuck Jones and his staff were retained by DePatie–Freleng in the production of the special, Jones left the studio and did not work on any other Seuss projects after "The Cat in the Hat". Other staff members that have worked with Jones such as Dean Elliott and Maurice Noble eventually
The Cat in the Hat read, and Spaulding provided Geisel with a similar list. Geisel later told biographers Judith and Neil Morgan that Spaulding had supplied him with a list of 348 words that every six-year-old should know and insisted that the book's vocabulary be limited to 225 words. However, according to Philip Nel, Geisel gave varying numbers in interviews from 1964 to 1969. He variously claimed that he could use between 200 and 250 words from a list of between 300 and 400; the finished book contains 236 different words. Geisel gave varying accounts of how he conceived of "The Cat in the Hat".