In the 1940s Oswald began to lose popularity. Lantz and his staff worked on several ideas for possible new cartoon characters (among them Meany, Miny, and Moe and Baby-Face Mouse). Eventually one of these characters clicked; his name was Andy Panda, who aired in Technicolor. However successful Andy was, it was not until the character's fifth cartoon, "Knock Knock" that a real breakthrough character was introduced. This was none other than Woody Woodpecker, who become Lantz's most successful creation. For most of the studios life at the time, Lantz and Alex Lovy directed most of the cartoons until 1942, when Shamus Culhane (a former Disney animator who recently had a brief stint at Fleischer Studios and Warner Bros.) took Lantz' and Lovy's role of director. As a result, the cartoons had a more denser and surreal direction, similarly more in line to the MGM Cartoons. Due to negotiation issues between Lantz and Universal Studios (renamed as Universal-International), Lantz withdrawals from his parent company and contracted to distribute shorts under United Artists between 1947 and 1949. The shorts in this period were noticeable for having better animation from the shorts released under Universal. This was due to being influenced by director and Disney Veteran Dick Lundy, as well as the arrival of more professional animations, such as Ed Love, Fred Moore and Ken O'Brien. This was also the era where Andy Panda was discontinued due to his waning popularity. In total, 12 shorts were released under United Artists.