| Top Cat and the gang. Left to right: Benny the Ball (foreground); Officer Dibble (Behind fence); Brain; Fancy-Fancy; Top Cat; Spook (foreground); Choo-Choo | |
| Genre | Comedy |
|---|---|
| Format | Animated series |
| Voices of | Arnold Stang Allen Jenkins Maurice Gosfield Leo DeLyon Marvin Kaplan John Stephenson |
| Opening theme | "The Most Effectual Top Cat" |
| Ending theme | "The Most Effectual Top Cat" |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Originallanguage(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 30 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Running time | Between 24 and 27 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC Cartoon Network Boomerang |
| Picture format | Color (initially telecast in black and white) |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original run | September 27, 1961 – April 18, 1962 |
Top Cat is a Hanna-Barbera prime time animated television series which ran from November 26, 1961 to April 18, 1962 for a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network. Reruns were formerly played on Cartoon Network, but are now shown on its sister network Boomerang.
History[edit]
Originally broadcast on Wednesdays [8:30-9pm Eastern], Top Cat was co-sponsored by Kellogg'sand Bristol-Myers (Bufferin). The central character, Top Cat—called T.C. by close friends, "pro-vid-ing it's with dignity" as the lyrics of the theme song say—is the leader of a gang of Manhattan alley cats: Fancy-Fancy, Spook, Benny the Ball, Brain, and Choo Choo living in Hoagy's Alley.[2]
Top Cat and his gang were inspired by characters from the popular 1940s B movies, "The East Side Kids", but many suggest it derived from a later 1950s military comedy whose lead was a crafty con-man (The Phil Silvers Show). Maurice Gosfield, who played Private Duane Doberman on The Phil Silvers Show, also provided the voice for Benny the Ball in Top Cat (Benny's rotund appearance was based on Gosfield too). Even Arnold Stang's voicing of Top Cat strongly resembled Phil Silvers' voice. Other possible sources cited have been Guys and Dolls where actor Stubby Kaye played a short, stout street-wise gambler and a virtual Benny the Ball prototype. Lastly, an unlikely contender (as it also came from Hanna Barbera) was the character Hokey Wolf, from a segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show, which also had parallels to The Phil Silvers Show.[3][4]
THANKS TO WIKIPEDIA
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