Was originally created as a Barney Bear cartoon short, but it was reworked once Tex Avery returned from an absence at MGM, changing the protagonist from Barney Bear to the Southern Wolf.
Back when it was created as a Barney Bear cartoon, Dick Lundy was originally hired to direct, but it was changed when Tex Avery returned to MGM.
When Billy returns from California, he prominently wears travel stamps from Dallas and Texas; this likely is an homage to Tex Avery's home state and town.
Daws Butler, who voiced the farmer, would bring the same lazy drawl to the character Huckleberry Hound.
The Farmer is never named in this series of cartoons, but has been dubbed Jubilo Wolf in pop culture, after the recurring line ("year of Jubilo") in the lyrics (never heard in the cartoon itself) in the minstrel-show-tune which serves as the series theme song.
Tex Avery: [song] The theme song is Kingdom Coming, or Year of Jubilo, a minstrel show tune written in 1862 by Henry Clay Work. The original song sympathetically recounts an heroic American slave revolt against the Southern plantation system, with plenty of humorous slapstick for comic relief. The tune is very catchy and rollicking, so it is not surprising that many humorous American movies, including this cartoon series as well the Christmas movie Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), employ it in their soundtracks. However, one never hears the original song lyrics sung anymore, except as part of an educational lesson or an historically accurate context in a movie. This is because, while the song expresses a commendably benevolent and progressive viewpoint, the writing style sounds quite offensive to modern ears. To wit, the very first line of the song reads "Say, darkey, have you seen de massa, wif de moustache on his face?" and it only goes downhill from there.