Top Cat is an American animated television series made by the Hanna-Barbera studios that first ran from September 27, 1961 to April 18, 1962 for a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network.
History
Originally broadcast on Wednesdays (8:30â€"9pm Eastern), Top Cat was co-sponsored by Kellogg's and Bristol-Myers (Bufferin). The central character, Top Cat (called T.C. by close friends, "pro-vi-ding it's with dignity" according to the lyrics of the theme song) is the leader of a gang of Manhattan alley cats living in Hoagy's Alley: Fancy-Fancy, Spook, Benny the Ball, Brain, and Choo Choo.
Top Cat and his gang were inspired by the East Side Kids, characters from a series of popular 1940s 'B' movies, but their more immediate roots lay in The Phil Silvers Show, a late-1950s military comedy whose lead character (Sergeant Bilko, played by Silvers) was a crafty con-man. Maurice Gosfield, who played Private Duane Doberman in The Phil Silvers Show, provided the voice for Benny the Ball in Top Cat, and Benny's rotund appearance was based on Gosfield's. Additionally, Arnold Stang's vocal characterisation of the lead character, the eponymous Top Cat, was based on an impression of Phil Silvers' voice.
Other influences include the movie Guys and Dolls, in which actor Stubby Kaye played a short, stout, streetwise gambler: a virtual Benny the Ball prototype. Lastly, an unlikely contender (as it also came from Hanna Barbera) was the character Hokey Wolf on The Huckleberry Hound Show, whose segment also paralleled The Phil Silvers Show.
The gang constantly attempts to earn a quick buck, usually though illegal scams, and a frequent plot-thread revolved around the local beat cop, Charles "Charlie" Dibble, ineffectively trying to evict them from the alley. Dibble's appearance was modeled on his voice actor, Allen Jenkins. The word dibble had previously meant only an implement for drilling holes in which to plant seeds, but now acquired a second meaning in the vernacular as slang for police officers.
Analysis
Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman says that the series can be seen as social commentary. The cats may represent disenfranchised people confined to living in a poor environment. Top Cat's get-rich-quick schemes are efforts to escape to a better life. The gang faces a human police officer who frustrates their efforts and keeps them trapped in the alley. This enforcement of the social order by police ensures that the cats will not escape their current living conditions.
Characters
Episodes
Voice cast
Main voices:
- Arnold Stang as Top Cat
- Maurice Gosfield as Benny the Ball
- Allen Jenkins as Officer Dibble
- Marvin Kaplan as Choo-Choo
- Leo De Lyon as Brain, Spook
- John Stephenson as Fancy-Fancy
Additional voices:
- Bea Benaderet
- Herschel Bernardi
- Daws Butler
- Paul Frees
- Sally Jones
- Don Messick
- Ge Ge Pearson
- Gigi Perreau
- Jean Vander Pyl
Home media releases
Various episodes of the series were released on VHS in Region 2, as well as Worldvision Home Video in Region 1.
Warner Home Video released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time on December 7, 2004. This release has been discontinued and is out of print.
Warner Archive re-released Top Cat: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. On January 10, 2017, the show was re-released in stores as part of Hanna-Barbera's 60th anniversary.
In the UK, the complete series box set was released in 2007, initially as a HMV exclusive until 2008. Alternatively, five single DVD volumes, each containing 6 episodes, were released. The covers were originally from the US edition but later re-released with a new design. Each volume shows a group picture of Top Cat using Dibble's phone with his gang beside him, but the colour-coding is:
- Volume 1: Primrose (Episodes 1â€"6) â€" Top Cat
- Volume 2: Green (Episodes 7â€"12) â€" Choo-Choo
- Volume 3: Red (Episodes 13â€"18) â€" Fancy Fancy
- Volume 4: Blue (Episodes 19â€"24) â€" Benny
- Volume 5: Orange (Episodes 25â€"30) â€" Spook
The DVDs have since been made available to buy in other retailers across the UK.
Top Cat's cameos
Other characters appearing in Top Cat
Other Hanna-Barbera characters make cameo appearances during the series.
- In the episode "King for a Day", Brain and Spook are reading comic books. Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound comics can be seen in the bottom right corner of the scene.
- In the episode "Rafeefleas", the gang is wandering through a museum at night when they come upon a group of statues labeled "Prehistoric Man". Choo-Choo insists that he's seen the figures before, maybe on T.V., but TC waves this off. The statues are modeled after Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.
- In the episode "A Visit from Mother", "El Kabong" graffiti (Quick Draw McGraw's alter-ego) is seen on the wall in the background.
Top Cat's appearance in other shows
- In one episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Gomer is seen in a restaurant reading a Top Cat comic book.
- Top Cat also made a cameo appearance in one of What a Cartoon! shorts named "Buy One, Get One Free" in a party scene.
- Top Cat made a cameo appearance in a 2012 MetLife commercial entitled, "Everyone".
- Top Cat's theme is featured in The Flintstones episode "Surfin Fred" when Barney and Betty discover that Jimmy Darrock is in fact not a lifeguard.
- Officer Dibble makes a cameo appearance in The Flintstones episode "Time Machine", as a policeman in the future, thus returning the favor done in the episode "The Rafeefleas" mentioned above.
- Top Cat and his gang appeared in Yogi's Ark Lark. While the others don't have dialogue, Top Cat was voiced by Daws Butler while Benny the Ball was voiced by John Stephenson. It was presumed that Arnold Stang wasn't available at the time while Maurice Gosfield was already dead in 1964.
- In 1985, Top Cat appeared on Yogi's Treasure Hunt with Yogi Bear and other Hanna-Barbera toon stars as the treasure hunt assigner. Officer Dibble made an appearance in the end of the show's episode, "Yogi's Beanstalk" voiced by John Stephenson since Allen Jenkins had died in 1974.
- In 1987, Hanna-Barbera produced a feature-length television film based on the show titled Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats (part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 film series), in which the gang helps a young girl claim her inheritance. During that time, John Stephenson reprised Officer Dibble while Benny the Ball was voiced by Avery Schreiber.
- In the Fender Bender 500 segment of Wake, Rattle, and Roll, Top Cat and Choo Choo were one of the racers driving a trash can-modeled monster truck called the Alley Cat.
- In Yo Yogi!, Top Cat was a teenage cat voiced by Arte Johnson. Even here, he still lives in a trash can.
- Top Cat was seen in a Cartoon Network Rap in 1995.
- In the Duck Dodgers episode "K-9 Quarry", Top Cat was amongst the poached characters on the Alien Hunter's ship.
- Top Cat, Benny, Spook and Brain made a cameo appearance at the end of The Powerpuff Girls episode "Catastrophe". They can be seen at the bottom left corner of the screen (although, instead of his hat, Top Cat has a splat of slime on his head).
- Top Cat was seen briefly driving a motorcycle in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Cheese a go-go".
- In the Futurama episode "That Darn Katz!", a picture of Top Cat is seen.
- An excerpt from the show appears in the 1982 film Cat People.
Top Cat's appearances in comic strips
- Top Cat and his gang (except for Brain) appeared in the March 10, 2016 strip of Heathcliff.
In other media
Comic books
The gang's adventures continued off-screen in comic books as Dell (which became Gold Key) published 31 issues from 1961 to 1970. Charlton Comics published 20 more issues from 1970 to 1973. In Mexico, Ediciones Latinoamericanas' "La Colección Primavera" featured Don Gato in 1968.
Top Cat had a backup story in Adam Strange/Future Quest Annual #1 in where he escapes from prison and meets Batman through a cosmic portal. Unlike the cartoon, Top Cat is from a world where cats are the dominant species.
Books
Little Golden Books and Durabooks have both produced hardcover children's books starring Top Cat. In the UK, World Distributors published annuals during the 1960s sourced from the Dell comics strips. BrownWatson later published a 1978 annual entitled The Great Grape Ape and Boss Cat.
View-Master
T.C. and friends appeared on three View-Master reels in 1962. These were titled "Medal for Meddling", "Zoo-Operation", and "No Cat Fishing".
Music
The Original TV Soundtrack was released by Colpix Records in 1962, consisting of slightly edited versions of "The Unscratchables" and "Top Cat Falls in Love". Hanna-Barbera Records released an LP in 1965 titled Robin Hood Starring Top Cat. T.C. and the gang were pictured as Merry Men on the cover. Its songs included "Top Cat", "M-O-N-E-Y", "Dibble", "Robin Hood", and "Buddies". It was re-released in 1977 on Columbia Records' Special Products label. A jazzy arrangement of the Top Cat theme can be heard most weeks over the end credits of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour.
The titles and underscore were released as part of the CD release, "The Best of Hanna-Barbera: Tunes from the Toons" by Music Club in 2002 in Europe.
Advertising
In 2016 Halifax began using Top Cat to advertise their bank in the UK.
Feature films
Films
Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats
This 1988 TV-movie is a remake of the original show's episode "The Missing Heir". The movie was produced by Hanna-Barbera and released on January 9, 1988.
Top Cat: The Movie
A feature film based on the TV series was released on September 16, 2011 in 2D and 3D theaters. The film was produced by Mexico's Ãnima Estudios (who is also responsible for El Chavo Animado) and Argentina's Illusion Studios and was released by the Latin American branch of Warner Bros. (whose parent company, Time Warner owns Turner Entertainment, which acquired Hanna-Barbera in 1990). Entitled Don Gato y su Pandilla (the name used for the Spanish dub of the series), the film was a major box-office success in Mexico and was one of the most successful releases from a Mexican production.
The film later had a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 2, 2013, featuring the voices of Rob Schneider as Lou Strickland and Danny Trejo as Griswald.
Top Cat Begins
A computer animated prequel to the series, Top Cat Begins tells the story of how T.C. met Benny and how the gang came together. The film was made by the same Mexican studio as the 2011 movie, and was released in Mexico in October 2015, and later released in the UK in May 2016.
Box office
Broadcast
Canada
Top Cat was among the first programs aired on CTV. The country's first private television network commenced broadcasts in October 1961.
Ibero-America
In spite of the modest success of the show in the United States, the show was a massive hit in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Argentina, where it is recognized as one of the most famous Hanna Barbera characters ever, being as popular as The Flintstones. In Mexico the show is aired under the name Don Gato y su pandilla (literally Mr. Cat and his gang) and the main characters adopted different accents. Besides Top Cat, all the other characters from the show were very famous, and their popularity is commonly attributed by the excellent dubbing and voice acting: Benny was renamed Benito B. Bodoque y B. and given a more childlike voice than was the case in the original dubbing, Choo Choo was renamed Cucho and spoke with Mexican-yucatan accent, Fancy-Fancy was Panza (belly), Spook renamed as the word's rough translation Espanto, The Brain was called Demóstenes (honouring the Greek statesman Demosthenes, with whom he shares a speech impediment) and Officer Dibble renamed as Oficial Carlos "Carlitos" Matute. This name, "matute" was used in Argentina and Uruguay as a slang reference for policemen. Top Cat is still rerun every few years. The main voice actors were Julio Lucena (voice of Top Cat), Jorge Arvizu (voice of Benny and Choo Choo), VÃctor Alcocer (voice of Dibble), and David Reynoso, among others.
In Brazil, the character is known as Manda-Chuva (Brazilian Portuguese for big shot) and was voiced by actor Lima Duarte. In addition, the city of New York was replaced by BrasÃlia (federal capital) in the Brazilian version.
United Kingdom
It debuted on 16 May 1962, under its original name but after only 4 weeks was renamed The Boss Cat on 13 June 1962. This was shortened on 22 February 1967 to Boss Cat. This rapid name change was made because Top Cat was also the name of a then-popular British brand of cat food, and the cartoon was aired on the BBC which does not carry advertising. The dialogue and theme tune still referred to the character by his original name, but a small cut was made at the climax of the opening credits (resulting in a slight jump in the film) and a title card carrying the revised title inserted before the episode proper. Similarly, the Top Cat name was edited from the final section of the show's closing credits, causing another slight jump (as Top Cat is putting on his eyeshades and readying himself for sleep in his trash can). The BBC run comprised only 26 of the original 30 episodes, with notable omissions including Choo-Choo Goes Ga-Ga, with its repeated scenes of Choo-Choo attempting suicide. This 26-episode selection was repeated on the BBC from 1962 to 1989.
Despite the Boss Cat title card, the continued use of the Top Cat name (and the initials T.C.) throughout the UK-aired soundtrack meant that the character was always popularly referred to as Top Cat by every generation of UK viewers. The Boss Cat title card was last used for a repeat run in 1989; by the time the series was next aired, in 1999, the Top Cat pet food brand had been discontinued in the UK, as had any concerns about mirroring such a brand name even if it did exist, allowing the original US title sequence to be used. This continues to be the case in contemporary showings on satellite station Boomerang and BBC Two.
The characters from the show (all the cats and Officer Dibble) were used in 2016 as part of a UK television advertisement campaign for the Halifax bank.
Hungary
Top Cat (Turpi úrfi) was one of the first American cartoons premiered on Hungarian television channels in 1969. It also broadcast later with The Huckleberry Hound Show, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, The Flintstones and The Jetsons on Magyar TelevÃzió from 1985 to 1990, and tv2 from 1997 to 1999 (together with Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo). From 2012 Boomerang broadcasts it in Hungarian.
India
Top Cat was one of the early favorites on Cartoon Network. It was aired in India in the 1990s. Top Cat was aired again in 2003 until 2004.
Sri Lanka
Top Cat (Sinhala: Pissu Poosa (පà·'ස්සà·" පූසà·) literally Crazy Cat) was one of the most popular cartoon shows in Sri Lanka and it has been repeated several times on the national television channel "Rupavahini". The series is dubbed in sinhala and directed by Titus Thotawatta.
Name in different languages
- Brazilian Portuguese: Manda-Chuva (voice by Lima Duarte)
- Bulgarian: Топ Кет (Top Ket)
- Canadian French: Top chatons
- Czech: KoÄiÄÃ banda
- Danish: Top Kat
- Dutch: Top Kat
- Finnish: Topi-katti
- French: Le Chat
- German: Superkatt
- Hungarian: Turppi Yurfi (Mr.Meanace) in the series and FÅ'macska (Main Cat) in the special.
- Italian: Top Gattini
- Japanese: Doraneko TaishŠ(ドラ猫大将) (lit. 'Stray Cat Boss')
- Macedonian: Тошо Мачорот (Tosho Machorot)
- Norwegian: Top Katt
- Polish: Kocia Ferajna (lit. Catfellas) and earlier translation Kot Tip Top (lit. Tip Top Cat), featuring vastly better translation of the original, reels with that version were lost or recorded over
- Portuguese: similar to Brazilian
- Romanian: Super pisik
- Russian: Ð"лавКот
- Serbian: Mika MaÄor
- Sinhalese: Pissu Poosa(පà·'ස්සà·" පූසà·)
- Spanish: Don Gato y su pandilla (Mr. Cat and his gang)
- Swedish: Top Cat (voice by Per Sandborgh)
Production credits
1961â€"62
- Created, Produced and Directed by: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
- Written By: Kin Platt
- Story Director: Paul Sommer
- Associate Producer: Alan Dinehart
- Musical Director: Hoyt Curtin
- Starring the Voice of: Arnold Stang, With: Allen Jenkins, Maurice Gosfield, Marvin Kaplan, Leo De Lyon, John Stephenson, Paul Frees
- Animation: Kenneth Muse, Jerry Hathcock
- Animation Direction: Charles A. Nichols
- Production Supervision: Howard Hanson
- Layout: Jack Huber
- Titles: Lawrence Goble
- Backgrounds: Montealegre
- Camera: Roy Wade, Norman Stainback, Frank Paiker, Charles Flekal
- Film Editing: Greg Watson, Warner Leighton
- Top Cat Copyright MCMLXI Hanna-Barbera Productions
- A Hanna-Barbera Production
- A Screen Gems Film Presentation
- Television Subsidiary: Columbia Pictures Corporation
2004 DVD Version
- Produced and Directed By: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- Written by Kin Platt, Joanna Lee, Michael Maltese, Barry Blitzer, Tony Benedict, Ray Allen, Larry Markes, Harvey Bullock, Harvey Marshall
- Story Direction: Alex Lovy, Lewis Marshall, Paul Sommer
- Associate Producer: Alan Dinehart
- Musical Direction: Hoyt Curtin
- Starring the Voice of: Arnold Stang With: Maurice Gosfield, Allen Jenkins, Marvin Kaplan, Leo De Lyon, John Stephenson
- Additional Voices: Bea Benaderet, Daws Butler, Herschel Bernardi, Walker Edmiston, Paul Frees, Sally Jones, Don Messick, Ge Ge Pearson, Hal Smith, Jean Vander Pyl, Herb Vigran
- Animation: Ed Aardal, George Goepper, Jerry Hathcock, Harry Holt, Ed Love, Tony Love, Dick Lundy, Kenneth Muse, Don Patterson, Irv Spence, Carlo Vinci, Don Williams
- Animation Direction: Charles A. Nichols
- Production Supervision: Howard Hanson
- Layout: Dick Bickenbach, Jack Huber, Walter Clinton, Dan Noonan
- Titles: Lawrence Goble
- Background: Art Lozzi, Montealegre, Robert Gentle, Neenah Maxwell, Anthony Rizzo, Richard H. Thomas
- Camera: Charles Flekal, Roy Wade, Norman Stainback, Frank Paiker
- Film Editing: Greg Watson, Warner Leighton, Zachary Zeiger, Kenneth Spears, Joseph Ruby, Donald A. Douglas
- A Hanna-Barbera Production
See also
- List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
- List of Hanna-Barbera characters
- Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats
- Yogi's Treasure Hunt
Sources
- Lehman, Christopher P. (2007), "The Cartoons of 1961â€"1962", American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films and Television Programs, 1961â€"1973, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786451425Â
References
External links
- Top Cat Unofficial Site
- Top Cat on IMDb
- Top Cat at TV.com
- Top Cat at Toonopedia
- Toon Tracker's lyrics to the Top Cat theme song
- The Cartoon Scrapbook â€" Profile on Top Cat.