What if Walter Lantz Productions didn't close down in 1972

Yeah. This is an AU idea where Walter Lantz Productions (who created Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy) didn't close its doors and continued releasing cartoons before 1972.

History
Once Lantz reopened his cartoon studio, and re-signed his contract with Universal, the studio continued making cartoons with its biggest Woodpecker star and other important characters. This manages the studio to live long during the Golden age of animation until the Dark Era, thanks to the sucess of The Woody Woodpecker Show.

1972 comes with a true feeling the studio would be cancelled, as many others like the Warners, MGM and Paramount studios ceased with the theatrical shorts in the late 60's and only his and the De-Patie Freleng studio was still making cartoons to theaters. Lantz, unlike many others, have theatrical shorts first in mind, and TV after that, so carring on with shorts production shall be no problem.

1973 started weakly for the studio, as there was no Chilly Willy cartoons that year, so only 6 shorts were produced between January and May of that year.

The studio only resumed cartoons 3 months later, after the success of the 1973 film American Graffiti, which they milked the payroll of the money the film gathered. This helped the studio to carry on with the cartoons production for surprising 17 years.

Intros
Some major differences from cartoons of this era, are the Universal logo at the start, which now have the MCA byline, like the movie version. The openings of the shorts were once again modified, starting with Cold N' Warm.

The usual The End logo used since 1959, and with that blue background since 1963 or so, was retired by 1974. From 1975, a new ending logo was used for the cartoons, featuring customed backgrounds that varies with the cartoon.

The The End font was now variable from short to short, with the Walter Lantz credit logo, knows for some as the spiraling Walter Lantz signature, as features a small line on the bottom right of the screen drawing the signature of Walter Lantz. It lasted until 1977, when it was replaced by the newest Walter Lantz logo, the WLP letters, who appear with a big, fat blocky font.

Cast and Crew
The studio crew was pratically the same until the cartoon Race Ace. Starting with Car Washers, only music composer Walter Greene, voice actors Grace Stafford, Dallas Mckennon, Paul Frees and Daws Butler stayed. Animators veterans of the studio Les Kline, LaVerne Harding and new Ted Bonnicksen joined the studio until the Larry Lizard the Wizard cartoon Never Question a Wizard, when they leave the studio from their former works. Starting with the Woody Woodpecker cartoon Weaker Week, former animator of the studio Volus Jones returns to animate the last three cartoons of 1978 and the batch of 1979, alongside with Al Coe.

Paul J. Smith directed himself all the shorts until 1979, when he retired due to his poor health. Because of this, no shorts were made during the 1980's, when production resumed on 1990's, on the 60th birthday of the Woody Woodpecker appearance. New daily shorts featuring him with Chilly were made until his 70th anniversary in 2000. (At that time, The New Woody Woodpecker Show was broadcasted its second season on Fox Kids)

In the 1990's shorts, Woody's voice was now the same one of his appearance on the 1991 Oscar Awards. His design was now closer to his 40's one. Shorts from 1997 and 2000 has him now voiced by Billy West, who also went to voice him in the new TV series.

The studio went on 3 hiatus though this new era. The first one went on the 1980's, because of the death of Paul J. Smith. The second went from 1994 to 1995, as a decision of Lantz's son, when his father died. The third and final one went from 1998 to 1999, as The New Woody Woodpecker Show was in post-production.

1973

 * Hock-ey Roll - January 1: Charlie discovers that Bessie is once again taking lessons, but this time is for hockey. So, he decides to teach his familly hockey lessons in his own way, but that won't be a easy thing for a guy like him...
 * The Brazil Nut - January 15: Woody Woodpecker goes to south to avoid winter, but he literaly ended up in the south. In Brazil, more specifically. Worst comes when two contrabandits are trying to capture him.
 * Valentine's Value - February 14 : On Valentine's Day, our hero had recieved more love cards than ever! But he found no real interest of his secret lovers until a gorgueous woodpecker (Winnie) enters the history. But he meets problems with a rival woodpecker who is also trying to win her heart.
 * Crouching Woody, Hidden Buzz - March 5: In China, Woody-san is having karate lessons. He is then given the task to protect the Golden Dragon Statue (worth 100.000 Yuan) from any crook while his master's out. Buzz Buzzard-san then duels with the woodpecker for the statue.
 * Charlie the Farmer - April 2: Charlie and his familly goes to spend a day on Bucky's (Charlie's counsin) farm. Charlie tries his luck by milking the cows and getting eggs from chickens, while it up to Junior to extract some honey on the beehives. Bessie's no less lucky: she now has to deal with lines and lines of sheep waiting to be shaved!
 * Invisible Possible - May 4: Professor Grossenfibber creates a invisible liquid who looks like water. The professor uses it on trees, so when Woody does his job, he found no trees in the park. He then drinks the liquid (thinking it was really water) and uses it to trick the professor.
 * Race Ace - May 22: Junior tells his father about the local racing championship and this year he wanna participate, so Charlie tries to come with the best car for his son so he could win that race.
 * Car Washers - August 17: Woody and Wally Walrus have to wash the car of a important businssesman.
 * The Flying Dollar - September 10: Woody goes in a big adventure to retrieve a dollar he lost in the wind. Problem ensues when Buzz Buzzard eyes that dollar.
 * Quite Kite - October 15: Charlie comes up with the idea of creating a kite for his own fun. Wind doesn't cooperate with him... Until sometime later.
 * Cold N' Warm - November 12: Woody have problems with the winter and cold. Wally Warlus also suffers from this, so he chopps down all the trees he can to keep him warm. This includes Woody's tree, and Woody of course won't take this kindly.
 * A Beary Christmas - December 23: On Christmas Day, it's up to Charlie to prepare this year's decoration...

1974

 * The Lone Woodpecker - January 7: Woody and his horsepal Sugarfoot goes once again to Old West. But this time, Woody face with a old big-nosed enemy...
 * Flower Power - February 8: Charlie only wants to enjoy the sun, but Bessie forces him to get rid of the weed who's ruining her flowers.
 * Injuried Trouble - March 15: Woody slips in a banana, but the medics thinks he's severely injured. To make things worse, the nurse no other than Ms. Meany.
 * Wally's Mean-Keet - April 12: Woody discovers his favorite market, Luigi's Market is now renamed Wally's Market. And the new onwer isn't that friendly about buying things free than pay later...
 * Charlie's Mother-in-Law Strikes Again - May 10: Exaclty what it says the title: The nagging mother of Bessie returns. And Charlie is now ready for her and executes his long-waited plan...
 * Martian Nuts - June 3: Some martians land on Earth pretending to dominate it... But they didn't expect to have problems with our hero...
 * A Fishy B-B-Q - July 8: Chilly just catched a whole good amount of fish... But he then see Colonel Potshot and Smedley having prepared a B-B-Q party and waiting for the inviters. Chilly then tries many methods to steal the grill and preparing with it a fishy fried B-B-Q.
 * Flying for Good - August 12: Chilly and Maxie overhears that Gooney Bird is pretending to fly away to south. So they try helping their friend with many flying devices and gadgets...
 * Future Culture - September 9: After Charlie hears of Bessie Guess you gonna do things yourself for the next 50 years or so, he just imagine that: His familly living in the advanced future of 2024! But his routine of doing it myself and bad luck hasn't aged very well...
 * Squawk Hawk - October 14: Chilly sees a eagle trained for Smedley to catch every meat he trows. Chilly then tries to act as eagle to get free meat.

1975

 * 8-Foot Crook - January 20: Chilly finds out that his food is begin stoled. He discovers and is surprised that the thief is a famous octopus criminal, known for having stoled almost every freezer in region.
 * That's All, Folks? - February 10: Fed up with her husband antics, Bessie and Charlie have a argument and almost break up their marriage, until Junior comes to save the day. (Note: Final The Beary Family short)
 * New Noisy Neighbor - March 17: Woody finds out that someone is moving close to his wood treehouse. And that someone would be a noisy neighbor for him.
 * Zany Zoo Quest - April 21: Potshot captures Chilly and Maxie and drags them to Florida Zoo. It's up to Looney Gooney Bird rescuing his friends in the least looniest way possible!
 * Pointy Painters - May 12: Woody and Wally are now given the task to paint the house of their boss Lalter Wantz... And begin carefoul to not letting a paint ink drop on his personal items...
 * Jaws Drop - June 20 (Accompaning the film Jaws in its release): Woody was relaxing a cruiser, until it sinks, and he and another passangers has to divide a small live-saving boat, with their lives in risk of a giant-man eating shark just waiting for the next unfortunate victim to fall...
 * Chilly Churros: - June 23: Chilly and Maxie once again went up in a different place outside of the Artic, this time on Mexico. They found a amount good portion of delicious churros and other mexican food to eat. But then, they have problems with Smedley who was guarding those food...
 * Chess Check - July 14: Besides pecking on trees, Woody also found something to do on his life: playing chess. He's considerest the best in the area... until a beetle called Chester stoles his record...
 * Rather... Realistic - August 25: Woody and the waitress from 1971 film Woody's Magic Touch went to Walter Lantz Studio for acting in their next film. They manages to get lost and went to the wrong studio, suspiciously similar to the Lantz studio. In there, however, works different people whose movement are more realistic to theirs, and what's more shocking: they have five fingers on each hand!
 * Russian Folk - October 13: Maxie's counsin from Russia went for a visit. He now needs help from Chilly to clean up his messed house until his special visit comes.
 * Woody's Birth Day - November 24: On Woody's 35th anniversary, his friends are preparing a big surprise for him...

1976

 * Sleeping Woody - January 19: Woody ends up sleepwalking, and its up to Wally Walrus save his frenemy from any death-threatening trouble, otherwise he would lose his job on the Walter Lantz Studio.
 * Through the Glass - February 16 (Note: First Knothead and Splinter short since Red Riding Hoodlum): Knothead and Splinter were reading the book Alice Through the Looking Glass when their uncle Woody tells them to open the box with a mirror glass. They found out that he mirror has a passage to another land and enter it. The mirror ended up broked by a mistake of Woody, so theonly way to exit the mysterious land is now doing the same steps as Alice on the story.
 * No Fish in Town - March 22: The fishes on the ocean are strangely dissapearing one per one. Chilly Willy finds out that his favorite food is captured by giant fishing ships. What would be a impossible mission for a penguin, would be a big sucessful one for a determined Chilly.
 * Mail Fail - April 19: Woody tries to deliver a letter with loveful things to his grandma, but his pencil fails and the word grandma now looks like Grenda. The mailman mistakes it, so it's send to a skinny old woodpecker of that same name, who thinks all that writing was for her. So Woody founds another abhorrent admiral, perhaps worse than Gorgueous Gal...
 * Chilly's Cold Date - May 31: Chilly is suffering from loneless with no partner, so his friend Maxie and Looney Gooney tries to found many girls in the Artic for him (even non-penguin ones). Then, without their help, Chilly found his ideal partner, Chilly Lilly. Maxie and Gooney also found theirs: Patty and Looney Marey.
 * Little Big League - June 14: Knothead and Splinter trains their Woodpeckers team for the coming Little League to get a winning score, after many loses to the Magpies team.
 * The Three Muskepeckers - July 5: Woody, his newphew Knothead and his niece Splinter go on a big quest to rescure the princess Winnie, who was kidnapped by Wally Walrus, Buzz Buzzard and Ms. Meany.

1977

 * Larry Lizard the Wizard - February 21: In this new series, we aknowledges about the life of the most known and sucessful wizard in Realty Realms: Larry the Lizard. He introduces himself to the audience and shows all the magic he could do and his calduron whose he solely used to prepare his favorite soup of fresh cockroach.
 * Basic Magic - March 28: Larry the Lizard has trouble to control his magic hat, which unleases various mystic creature, and transform local objects into bugs, to his Larry delight, but causes big problem in the city, to his dismay.
 * Chilling Out - May 16: When Chilly's igloo is destroyed by a strong and big avalanche, Chilly is homeless until he found homeplace in Colonel Potshot's personal hotel. Smedley now have problems with find a place for the penguin to hid from his onwer.
 * Lord of the Flyers - June 20: In their school, Knothead, Splinter and their classmates went on a cruisader, but ended up lost in a island. So, they have to survive until a (possible) rescue come.
 * Unpenetrable Bubble - July 18: Two kids, a boy and a girl, were inoccently blowing some bubbles. Professor Grossenfiber then comes telling that he invented a bubble that can't be pop-ed up. He leaves the pot on a local chair, within the same pot those kid were playing with bubbles. When the boy mistakes Grossenfiber's bubble pot for theirs, they blow a bubble that becomes to big, that engulfs Woody who was passing by that park. Now they realise their error and tries to free him off of that bubble.
 * Lizard vs. Lizard - August 22: Larry the Lizard found out that a new wizard comes to Realty Realms. Another lizard named Charlie is stealing all the girls Larry have hit once, and once he found he could be a better wizard than him, he tries everything to expulse him.
 * Good 'ol Days - September 26: In this sorta form of clip-show, Woody finds his diary in a big chest on his attic, with all his experiences and adventures he have during all these 37 years. Clips from Knock Knock, The Screwdriver, The Dizzy Acrobat, The Barber of Seville, The Dippy Diplomat, Bathing Buddies, Woody the Giant Killer and Banquet Busters shows up once Woody beguns reading.
 * Days of Glory - September 27: Woody continues reading his diary, with clips of Wet Blanket Policy, Termites from Mars, Real Gone Woody, Dopey Dick the Pink Whale, Southern Fried Hospitality, Voo-Doo Boo Boo, Monster of Ceremonies, Flim-Flam Fountain and Bye, Bye Blackboard shows up. Woody guards his diary back on the chest then he goes to sleep, thinking of the future adventures he could have on the next years.
 * Dude in Distress - October 10: In this first one-shot cartoon of Walter Lantz since 1961, a desconstruction of the basic Damsel in Distress model plays on, with the prince held captive on the castle of a tyrane witch. His love has to rescue him, and avoiding the many traps in that castle.

1978

 * Caribbean Chilly - January 16: Chilly, Maxie and Gooney are trying to found a way to spend a vacation on the Caribbean islands.
 * That Zorro Cat - February 20: Another one-shot cartoon about a cat that is known for his Z signature on the chest, that stands for Zorro.
 * Frozen Lizard - March 13: Larry accidentally changes the climatic to winter in Realty Realms. Everyone enjoys it, until Larry's hat makes the snowman come to life and become evil in the process.
 * The Disco Dancers - April 24: One-shot cartoon about a disco party held on the local gym, and a couple of teens named John and Alice are doing the best to participate on it and be reconized as the best disco dancers of the town.
 * Lizard of Lohate - May 15: Larry's hat makes another bad magic: it makes loving couples hate each other, while people that are disliked are chased by many unaffected. Now he has to fix that lohate problem.
 * Less Surprised Penguin - June 12: Colonel Potshot think it would be easy to capture a penguin and stuff him to his personal collection... But he choose no other then Chilly Willy, who outsmart every tricks the hunter does...
 * Never Question a Lizard - July 3: People stars asking Larry to do many magics and skils that he says to known of. Until his hat doesn't support the pression of the many questions and dies. Larry says it can be only revived by the pure water of the founain of the Newerland Mountain. So a group of 5 people go o a quest with Larry to revive his hat.
 * Weaker Week - August 21: Woody's weeks have beem so adventure-less that he decides to asks his boss Walter Lantz where the creativity of the writers have gone.
 * Chile Chilly - September 18: Chilly and Maxie decides to sleep-out outside of their houses, close on the sea. But while sleeping, they did'nt notice the ice they were standing broke separating of the land, leaving them to coast of Chile. Once they wake up, they meet a sympathic condor named Condorito, who helps them to get back to South Pole.
 * A Lizard Did It - October 23: People accuses Larry to make a giant dragon appears out of nowhere and it's destroying the city, but the actural culpirit was a unresponsible guard who let the metal cage open for the dragon catch a warmy air. (Note: Series Finale)
 * Weiner Winner - November 12: After some conversation with his boss, Woody finally got a plot for a new cartoon: He becomes a hot dog vender, and has a rivality with Buzz Buzzard, who was in the business for two years earlier.

1979

 * Maxie's Origins - January 22: Maxie tells to Chilly his history, from when he was separate from his parents and almost begin captive from a younger Colonel Potshot, to a day after the day he meets with Chilly for the first time.
 * New Actors? - February 19: Woody overhears that another woodpecker will work in the Lantz studio. He's feared of begin substitued and lose his job and fame. And his chicks...
 * Potshot's Last Shot - March 12: Colonel Potshot tries his last plan to capture Chilly and Maxie and send them to the zoo: Befriends with them. Once he got all confidence of the two, he would give them sleeping pills on their sleep, and leaves them all the way to the zoo. He does'nt count up with the scheme of Gooney Bird, who loose his looniness to rescue his friends.
 * Fake Arcade - April 16: Buzz Buzzard cons Woody again, this time with many arcade toys in his shop. The same mouse who helped Buzz before, is on Woody's side and the duo would give the buzzard the real treatment he need.
 * Alley Ants - May 14: Some ants invades Woody's picnic and eats all of his food. Woody has to battle them before they eat all the food from his house.
 * Star Warrior - June 25: After watching Star Wars on the local movie theather, Woody had a dream where he was a commander of a spaceship, and he has to battle with different aliens. Ond day, he is tasked to save princess Winneia, from the evil Buzz Vader.
 * Easter Trickster - July 16: One-shot cartoon featuring Oswald Rabbit. On Easter Day, at Easter Island, all the delicious chocolate eggs and gifts are nowhere to be found. To save the Easter Day and looks for the trickster who did that, they call the most experient rabbit of the land. His name? Oswald.
 * Corny Crows - August 20: One-shot cartoon about a farmer who gets a revenge for the flock of crows who always keep eating his fresh plantation of corn.
 * enituoR desreveR - September 17: Every day, Woody has the same routines, and at the end of the day, it seems that those are played in reverse. Woody needs to find a way of why is this happening.
 * Couple of Skies - October 8: In the last one-shot cartoon by Walter Lantz, a depressed working man and his wife decides to quit off their stress by spending a day on Canada. Here, they first tries to enjoy the vacation by skiing, but the man does'nt show a high skill... The woman's no less lucky, either...
 * [Untitled Woody Short]- November 19: Plot, script, characters, scenario, actors, and the main star in perfect conditons for act. What could be wrong?... Oh wait, the writers have forgotten to put the cartoon's title card!

1990

 * 50 Years in 5 Minutes - November 26: A 5-minute special about the first appearance of the zaniest woodpecker that everybody loves. With special comments of intelectuals like Buzz, the Buzzard, Wally, the Walrus and Woody's woodiest family talking about how was their lives with him. With a special number by Chilly, the Willy.
 * Zany Christmas - December 24: Christmas special about Santa Claus evil doppleganger, who kidnapps his brother and gives coal to all the kids, even to those were good this year. It's up to the wackiest woodpecker rescue to good ol' man and defeat the bad youn' guy!

1991

 * Wacky Racer - January 28: After losing a bet with Buzz for the toughest beverage drinker, Woody comes with a new bet for the vulture: The one who would race around the world in one day!
 * Honey, I Shrunk the Woodpeckers! - February 18: A new invention by Professor Grossenfibber is the shrunker ray. Knothead and Splinter, who mistake it for a laser gun toy, begin to play with it, only for them to be shrunk. Now their uncle, needs to save them.
 * Slimy Chilly - March 25: Chilly found some slimy thing growning from a mysterious rock drop on his house. However, that slime somewhat turns his friends into zombies. He now needs to find a way to revert that situation without turning into one himself.
 * The Way of Woody - April 15: Woody's ways of getting to work was the same. Until he found a shortcut to work. But he eventually get lost with it.

1992

 * Can't Opener - January 13: A giant box falls off of from a ship, and lands on Chilly's door. He's amazed of the content, since he didn't have a decent breakfast for weeks. After tons of times trying to open the box, he found only a single can, to his dismay. But that was a All-Packed Food in a Can, to his joy. But he can't figure out how to open it, to his dismay.
 * To Beak or not To - February 17: After many years of pecking woods and people's heads, Woody beak melts out, and he needs to find a new one. But there's a problem: the woodpecker's beak is nowhere to be found in the city.
 * A Fishy Delivery - March 23: Smedley is given the task to give the pizza of anchovies at adress 321, but Chilly always manages to eat a few anchovies before Smedley cooks the pizza.
 * Penguin in Black - May 11: Chilly has to avoid any traps, laser beams and security guards... All to get the Secret Rare Chocolate Fish... Of Gold.
 * A Wet Wash - June 8: When Woody needs to wash his car for a great date, a nasty pigeon keeps dificulting his work.

1993

 * When the Cat's Away - March 22: When a exausted Woody goes back after days and days of pecking trees, all he wants is peace an quiet. Until some natural animal singers, such as crickets, frogs, and jazz-loving people disturbs his sleep. But the worst is yet to come: A alley cat who meows like a Michael Catson.
 * Ding-Dong, says the Gong - April 19: Woody founds a new objective on his live: playing gongs whenever he wants relax himself. That isn't good news to other relaxing folks, like Wally Walrus, who tries many ways to separate the gong from the woodpecker.
 * Sandwich Scape - May 3: Tired of only eating fish, Chilly decides to eat something else. He founds Smedley having a picnic with his boss. Thus incluing many sandwiches with jelly and peanut butter. Chilly then tries to sneak in, and get some from himself.
 * The Nut Cracker - June 7: Woody has a vast collection of nuts. He could easily open them with his beak. But a hardy one is hard for him. He now needs find a way to open that closed nut.
 * Fire in the Hole - July 12: Chilly invades a sawing company in search of some wood to warn himself. He has to deal with the company workers, doing many ways to sneak in without begin noticed.

1996

 * Woody 3-D Pecker - June 24: Woody accidentally ends up lost in a weird third-dimension world, and has to get back to his world without interfering with the 3D world.
 * Fishy Pie - June 25: Smedley has just prepare a pie made of... fish. He says only himself enjoy eating it... Proved wrong, as Chilly was wondered and want a piece of that delicious different pie.
 * Gopher for It - June 26: Woody has a problem with his daises: they keep dissappearing each day. He though someone was stealing them, but the crook was a few feet down. Literally.
 * Chilly con Corny - June 27: Chilly smells the fresh of fried corn of Colonel BullFight, and wants some.
 * Australian A-maze-ment - June 28: Woody was enjoying the natural landscapes of Australia... Until some boxing-lover stealing kangaroo pick up his camera and tries to found the use of his. Woody has now to recover it before that kangaroo could destroy it.

1997

 * Party Pooper Penguin - February 17: Today his Smedley's daughter anniversary... And Chilly wasn't invited. As he want a slice of that giant cake as much the daughter want...
 * Monarchy of Monarchs - March 24: Woody has a wonderful time watching the annual migration of the monarch butterflies. As such, he wants to fly with them, until he founds the terryfing result...
 * The Penguin who Loved Me - April 21: Chilly meets again with his love Chilly Lily, and she's wiling to marry him, but after hearing from his friends about the true meaning of marrying, he's afraid of the possible future of the two.
 * Gum Trouble - May 19: Woody buys some Pop-O-Matic bubble gums, but when he pops the bubble it causes the pieces of the gum to splatter all over his house. He now needs to clean it, once he founds that the gum solidfies after left splatted.

2000

 * Splish, Splash, Now do the Math - May 15: Woody has everything in perfect order to take a refreshing bath. Except... the shampoo. And it's not any shampoo. It's a woodpecker shampoo.
 * Sunny Sunday Sundae - June 19: All Woody wants is to eat his special sundae on the special sunday... outside on the day. But it's sunny this time. So he needs to protect his sundae from the sun.
 * Sushi Whoosie - July 3: Chilly wants some fish, so he goes to ocean to catch some. But the strong corrent of the ocean pushes him all the way to Japan. Here, he found many japanese food, incluing fresh fish sushi. Chilly then tries to eat the sweeties, but has problems with the workers and Smedley-san, the guard dog.
 * Hero Trouble - August 21: Woody decides to play his alter-ego Super Woody, again, this time with his elasting power gathered from a laser gun he get from someone... Hs first super rescue is to save a woman who is about to fall from a high building. It would be easy, if he didn't had a competitor... Who is Super Buzz Buzzard, who also got his super speed abilites back from someone's laser gun...
 * The Gooney who Came Back - November 13: Looney Gooney, whose Chilly didn't have seen for years returned after his migration in Hawaii. Chilly then proceeds to show his friend what happened during the days he was out. But another un-wanted hunter enemy also came back... (Note: Final Chilly Willy short)
 * A Important Date - November 20: In this special 70 anniversary of debut, Woody forgot about a important event that would happen today. He must renember it before the sun leaves... or else... (Note: Final Woody Woodpecker short, as such the ultimato Last Lantz cartoon)