Pepé Le Pew voice for the character closely resembles the one he used for "Professor Le Blanc", the harried violin instructor on "The Jack Benny Program". Pepé Le Pew's cartoons were dubbed in French; in the French version ("Pépé le putois"), Pepé speaks with a heavy Italian accent. His voice is a parody of Yves Montand. Chuck Jones first introduced the character (originally named Stinky) in the 1945 short "Odor-able Kitty" (see "Variations"), in which he was revealed to be a married American skunk named Henry who had been faking his French accent. For the remaining cartoons Jones directed, Pepé retained his accent,
What a Cartoon! custom in live action film and television, the company did not pay each creator for the storyboard submitted and pitched. For the first time in the studio's history, individual creators could retain their rights, and earn royalties on their creations. While most in the industry scoffed at the idea, encouragement, according to Seibert, came from the cartoonists who flocked to Hanna-Barbera with original ideas. The format for "What a Cartoon!" was ambitious, as no one had ever attempted anything similar in the television animation era. The shorts produced would be a product of the original cartoonists' vision, with no executive