Top Cat


Top Cat is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast in prime-time on the ABC network. It aired in a weekly evening timeslot from September 27, 1961, to April 18, 1962, for a single season of 30 episodes. The show was a ratings failure in prime time, but found a receptive audience in a Saturday morning timeslot. The show aired on Saturdays in 1962 and 1963 on ABC, and was then rerun in various Saturday morning slots on NBC from 1965 to 1969.

Premise

The central character, Top Cat 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, humorous tough characters from a series of 1940s B movies, but their more immediate roots lay in The Phil Silvers Show, a successful military comedy whose lead character 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 characterization of the lead character, the eponymous Top Cat, was based on an impression of Phil Silvers' voice. Senior non-commissioned officers or leaders of squads were unofficially called “top” as in top or First sergeant.
The gang constantly attempts to earn a quick buck, usually through illegal scams, and a frequent plot-thread revolved around the local beat cop, Charles "Charlie" Dibble, ineffectively trying to evict them from the alley and keep them from using the policebox phone.

Characters

Episodes


Voice cast

Main voices:
Additional voices:
Episodes of the series were released on VHS in Europe, as well as Worldvision Home Video in the United States.
Warner Home Video released Top Cat: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on December 7, 2004, as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection. This set was re-released by Warner Archive on January 10, 2017, albeit as a manufacture-on-demand release. On June 6 of that year, Top Cat was re-released in stores again as part of the Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection, this time as part of Hanna-Barbera's 60th anniversary; hovever, all bonus features were removed.
DVD NameEp #Release DateAdditional Information
Top Cat – The Complete Series30
January 10, 2017
  • Commentary on various episodes
  • Back to Hoagy's Alley: The Making of Top Cat
  • Interviews: Cool Cats in Interview Alley
  • Top Cat sing-along
  • Production Sketches: Top Cat Collection
  • Storyboards: Storyboard Showcase
  • TV Spot: Top Cat Kellogg's commercials
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:
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.

Comic books

The gang's adventures continued off-screen in comic books as Dell 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.
In 2012, there was a crossover between Top Cat and Chilean comic book character Condorito.
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. As a follow-up, Top Cat also appears in one issue of a crossover series between DC and Hanna-Barbera, titled Superman/Top Cat Special.

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, written and recorded by Hoyt Curtin, 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.

Television specials

The series has spawned to two theatrical films produced by Mexican animation studio, Ánima Estudios. Both films have grossed a combined total of $19.3 million.
TitleYearBox-office Box-office
Top Cat: The Movie2011$14.7 millon$112.25 million
Top Cat Begins2015$4.6 millon$54.1 million
Combined Total$19.3 million$166.35 million

Broadcast

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. There the show is aired under the name :es:Don Gato|Don Gato y su pandilla 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, Spook renamed as the word's rough translation Espanto, The Brain was called Demóstenes 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, Jorge Arvizu, Víctor Alcocer, and David Reynoso, among others.
In Brazil, the character is known as Manda-Chuva and was voiced by actor Lima Duarte. In addition, the city of New York was replaced by Brasília 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 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. 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 show being renamed Boss Cat, the character's name was unchanged as Top Cat or the initials "TC". 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, 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 were used in 2016 as part of a UK television advertisement campaign for the Halifax bank.

Hungary

Top Cat 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 Televízió from 1985 to 1990, and tv2 from 1997 to 1999. Boomerang began broadcasting it in Hungarian in 2012.

Japan

Top Cat first aired on TV Asahi back in 1963 under the title translating to Stray Cat Boss. It was then rebroadcast many times over the years. In 1990, A new dub was produced for VHS sold by Columbia Records and released under its original name in Katakana. This new dub was also carried over to airing on Cartoon Network Japan since its launch in 1997.

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 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 Thotawatte.

Name in different languages