How Did Top Cat Become Hanna-Barbera’s Prime-Time Wonder?

[@occamsrayzor]

I loved Top Cat as a kid, and still do.

[@bob-sb2zu]

Growing up in England in the 60's Top Cat, refered to as Boss Cat by the BBC because it's name was the same as a proprietary canned cat food ! was always a must see on kids tv ,great stuff .

[@jonathanj.7344]

Yes, I remember that happening at the time. I thought it funny as I'd always known it as Top Cat, then it changed.

[@janesda]

I always wondered why it was labelled "Boss Cat". The decision to rename it never really made sense and just confused us British kids.

[@DougVanDorn]

One last comment -- when I was growing up, I was always hazed by the dumb kids for being smart and having a large vocabulary. I realize now that some of the impetus for me to develop the vocabulary was the Top Cat theme song. After all, it uses the words effectual, intellectual, dignity and indisputable. I seriously believe that my reputation for having a big vocabulary started when I learned what those words meant, and started using them in my day to day life. At age 8 or 9.

[@RayPointerChannel]

Ever since the first Hanna-Barbera show, RUFF N' REDDY, vocabulary was key to the writing. Even at six years old, I was aware of the plays on words and found them funny such as "Munimula" (aluminum spelled backward).

[@georgeawestjr.9087]

I remember the Top Cat cartoon. What I didn’t know was that this cartoon lasted only one season (30 episodes). Hanna-Barbera were the best in animated cartoons. 👌

[@lanceash]

Not really. DePatie-Freleng was superior. Laugh tracks always suck though.

[@mercuryman1250]

I was born in 1982 but when 2001 came i fell in love watching top cat and other hannah barbera animation as a adult. Even tho i loved the jetsons young samson and tom and jerry as a kid

[@neilforbes416]

2:30 Actually, "Officer Dibble" was voiced by *Daws Butler* who did a lot of work on the Stan Freberg radio shows.

[@DougVanDorn]

I'm so glad you understand the context this show had, since of the three prime-time cartoon shows Hanna-Barbera produced, this is the only one that was a very close copy of an existing sitcom, The Phil Silvers Show. Granted that The Flintstones was a general take-off on The Honeymooners, it always felt like, with its emphasis on stone-age puns, less of a direct take-off. And, of course, The Jetsons was literally a copy of The Flintstones, with the stone-age puns being swapped out for space-age puns. But of these three shows, I'd have to say that Top Cat had the best writing, and was the least formulaic, of all these shows. I was between 5 and 9 years old when these shows were shown in prime time, and while I eventually watched them more during after-school and weekend reruns, I can still recall watching them in prime time. In fact, I recall The Jetsons being one of the first prime time TV shows I watched in color, after our family got its first color TV. And all of that happened between 55 and 60 years ago. Wow.

[@deboralee1623]

for years, i thought _The Flintstones_ didn't air in prime time, until i remembered an incident from my childhood. it was the first funeral/death ritual i ever attended, and i thought to myself 1) Grandfather doesn't look the way i was used to him looking (he was minus his glasses), 2) i'm not supposed to cry (that idea was later shot down) and 3) i'm missing _The Flintstones_.

[@Sherwoody]

I also used to watch reruns of the Phil Silvers Show (aka You’ll Never Get Rich). Top Cat was very similar. I wonder if Andrew Lloyd Webber, who produced the musical Cats was a Top Cat fan.

[@Jabberstax]

I used to love watching early morning repeats of Top Cat when i was a kid in the 80s.

[@sharonryan2815]

Loved this show as a kid in the 60s. I particularly loved Choo Choo's voice and wpuld recognise the actor on other movies based on his voice. My favourite part was always the closing sequencecwhen Top Cat would get ready for bed in his trash can.

[@trevorgriffiths5611]

First time I ever saw Pizza 🍕 was in Top Cat .. This was the 60s and I asked my mum what it was.. You don’t get pizza in England it’s only in America.. Bless 😂 She really didn’t know.. And now it’s literally everywhere.. Come on I was only 5 or 6 😊.. Yet Top cat was my favourite.. I always imagined that the opening scenes belonged to an episode that I hadn’t seen.. Remember wishing it would play that episode.. Yes this really brought back the Memories..

[@johntiggleman4686]

I didn't realize either it was just one season. But I have the complete series on DVD! I liked TC and Choo-Choo the most.

[@JustJessee]

I watched Top Cat reruns alllllll the time. It's crazy to look back and realize I was watching just one season over and over again.

[@usmc-veteran73-77]

I'm 68 yrs old and I would watch it now. I was 6 yrs old when it aired.

[@davenelson8187]

Guess we all grew up on mindless media inputs a lot like many generations to follow 😮😂

[@bobberndt9744]

The purrrfect dig into details we never realized that we'd want to know. 🏅 If we're talking about cartoons based on previous works ... I would be happy to suggest 'The Ant & the Aardvark'. Snarky, funny and no one cared if the storylines were almost Carbon Copies of what came before.

[@deboralee1623]

as i misremember, the main characters' voices sounded very much like Sugar Bear and Joey Bishop, respectively.

[@originaldcjensen]

I loved Top Cat as a kid. I even had Top Cat comic books.

[@DaddyOfTheSugarVariety]

I loved when Top Cat was on Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law.

[@MrPGC137]

One of the writers, Kin Platt, not only wrote for comic books, but he also wrote several very good novels (my favourite of which was titled, "The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear," and which was made into a movie in 1973.) Highly recommended.

[@deirdrecaskenette5473]

We watched it in England where it was called, "Boss Cat" as Top cat was a brand of cat food.

[@chrislj2890]

We kids loved all of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw. But The Flintstones were in a class by themselves, and I still remember the night they debuted on tv. I don't think any kid in the country missed it if at all possible.

[@jonathanj.7344]

Johnny Quest was my favourite.

[@chrislj2890]

@@jonathanj.7344 Another good one for sure.

[@urieaaron]

I was born in 1955, loved the Saturday reruns of this show. Always wondered what happened to it. I swear that I have seen a character that looks a lot like Bennie the Ball on another cartoon, and also one that looks like officer Dibble on another show, but not as a police officer. Any clue to what I might be thinking of?

[@SammyRenard]

There's "Jellystone!" that came out a few years ago, that has all sorts of HB characters in the same city living "regular" lives, maybe that's where you saw it? it's a nifty show to me at least

[@usmc-veteran73-77]

I too was born in 1955. We grew up with some great cartoons and good TV shows. Greetings from Charleston, West Virginia, and Semper Fi

[@deboralee1623]

another '55er here.

[@usmc-veteran73-77]

@deboralee1623 We grew up on some get cartoons and TV shows. Happy Thanksgiving, Debora Lee. Semper Fi.

[@joestrike8537]

Is that the show where they paved over Jellystone Park and turned it into the Jellystone Mall? Just asking...@@SammyRenard

[@basementbomber]

I loved Top Cat! They aired re-runs in the late 70's on one of the east coast Superstations.

[@samiam5557]

TOP CAT was my favorite cartoon too in the early 60s! 😺

[@roncaruso931]

Amazing. I could not get the Top Cat theme song out of my head last night.

[@darrensmith6999]

Loved Top Cat as a kid reminded me of my friends and i as kids playing in the alleys an streets of our neighbourhood back in the 70s. Happy Days (:

[@robertroche671]

I have fond memories of watching this show on WPIX (NYC tri state area) on weekday afternoons in the early 1970s. I got a real kick out of Topcat’s bedtime routine during the closing credits.

[@13thwho]

Fun fact: Arnold Stang (Top Cat) and Marvin Kaplan (Choo Choo) appeared together in the 1963 comedy “It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World “. They played the owners of a service station who deal with Phil Silvers, and then an enraged Jonathan Winters.

[@ivane5110]

Another fun video. I loved this show as a little kid; in fact it helped spark my enjoyment of adult (but family friendly) live actioncomedy shows from the 50s that were rerun continually in my neck of the woods. And it was one of ones, like you said, that all abes coukd sit together watch and get enjoyment from, each at their own level. But I don't think I knew about it being briefly prime time; funny how a primetime hit can become a Saturday morning staple. Makes wonder if we'd have gotten as much as we did had it stayed in primetime longer.

[@raykces25]

Since i was a kid i always loved this show. I didnt even knew it had that few episodes. Here in Mexico is very popular because the names they were given here were catchy and the dub is fenomenal. The characters here are called , Don Gato, police officer Matute, and the gang is benito, cucho, panza, demostenes and espanto. Cucho even had a yucatan accent, which made it so mexican here

[@francissreckofabian01]

I think I was too young for the Phil Silvers' show but I was aware of it. I did enjoy Top Cat as a kid.

[@brianlawton8172]

Really great retrospective. makes me glad to own them on dvd to reflect and enjoy all over again.

[@kbobdonahue1966]

Top Cat 🐈 is still a favorite of mine, especially with Griswald, with that menacing laugh after he bites Top Cat. The laugh became more famous with Muttley in 1968 when Wacky Races premiered on CBS.

[@moparnut6286]

Top cat was one of my favorites when I was a kid and still is I'm 61.

[@dangeroreilly2028]

I can just barely remember watching this new, as a little kid. But I remember it was one of the few cartoons my dad liked. But he liked Sgt. Bilko a lot.

[@nosportsteamfollower516]

Always loved Top Cat as a kid.

[@silva7493]

Hilariously, my husband (who was born in Mexico in the 1960s) I just took in a big homeless 5 year old male cat. He can't say "Jiggy," the name he came with very easily, and he's been calling him "Don Gato". On a hunch I Googled "Don Gato", and it turns out that was the name they assigned to Top Cat there, as "Top Cat" doesn't translate well.

[@monicaqueenan9985]

Surprised Top Cat ran for only one season, as did The Jetsons. From a kid's perspective, they were on for years. Top Cat was a favorite of mine, mostly because of Choo-Choo and TC himself. TC had confidence and snark, a combination I had never seen before.

[@jamesmoss3424]

I like Top Cat it's an fantastic cartoon show. 😀👍🐱

[@usmc-veteran73-77]

I was 6 yrs old when it aired in 1961. I loved watching "Top Cat." I never missed an episode.

[@AngelaGoodwin-fh6fw]

I remember watching TC as a preschooler in my pjs near bedtime.

[@roykay4709]

I loved it and didn't know why it wasn't on longer.

[@NuTonesForever]

One of my favorites as a kid, thanks for the work you do great channel!

[@Beliefisthedeathofintellect]

My favourite cartoon as a kid. I blame this cartoon for everything ahaa.

[@gmg9010]

Loved watching this show back in the 2000s on Boomerang.

[@DavidUrban-y3c]

I always liked that beginning theme. Top Cat, Scooby Doo, and Johnny Quest.

[@censusgary]

I remember watching “Top Cat” on Saturdays. I liked it because it had cats as characters, and I had a pet cat.

[@jimmccord487]

One of my favorite cartoons.

[@Patrick-hm4eg]

The cats on this show reminds me of the cats in the cartoon show Housebroken. Specifically the character known as the Gray One and the 30 to 60 cats within the dwelling.

[@westies1962]

Definitely one of my favorite cartoons form my childhood!

[@WytZox1]

* When CATS wa on stage live at a local Chicago theater a local TV channel capitalized on it by daily airing Top Cat reruns! 😃

[@jons.6216]

This and Quick Draw McGraw seemed to have been the least shown in those afternoon Hanna Barbera sets of cartoons rerun.

[@luisreyes1963]

One of my favorite cartoons that once ran on Boomerang which was only available for some reason on Satellite TV.

[@Emily_Charley]

i never knew it was only 1 season. I loved that show, reruns in the 90s as a kid. My first cat was named TC after this show

[@navret1707]

I liked Top Cat. One of the few Hanna-Barbara successes.

[@Gronk79]

This has to be either Karma, or the powers of the Universe making ironic sport of humans. I distinctly remember watching Top Cat, on the Wednesday night Thanksgiving, back in 1961. We all had a short school week, in grade school, and had a 4 day weekend. Because of your post, I am watching Top Cat on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 62 yrs later!

[@sergioandrade8735]

There was another animated sit-com that year, 1961, Calvin and the Colonel based on Amos and Andy substituting funny animals for African-American humans using the voice actors from the radio show

[@mikelee9137]

And Australia!! I was 8 or 9 when it first aired here in Australia, and I loved it, and as I recall so did most of my friends! A great cartoon! And I think the vocabulary comment might apply to me too!

[@deboralee1623]

can't recall the episode, but in it, T.C. addressed his nemesis as "Officer Dribble, er, I mean, Dibble". canned laughter ensued.

[@sidneymcdavid]

The stories were well written. It’s a shame they did not produce more episodes for Saturday mornings I saw it as a little kid when the reruns were put on Saturday mornings

[@COMPFUNK2]

And just when you thought HB completely forgot about Top Cat, in rolled in 1985 and Yogi‘s Treasure Hunt; where he became the Charlie to Yogi and company’s angels.

[@nosportsteamfollower516]

Who played that instrumental starting at 2:21 to 4:21 and what's the name of that son? I heard NRBQ play that in concert and it isn't on one of their albums. Anyone know the answer? Thanks.

[@dockerdave]

Loved this show growing up in the late 70s in Australia. Would love to see you do one on Quick Draw McGraw

[@joestrike8537]

I think "Top Cat" would make a great live action/cgi movie like the chipmunks or Scooby-Doo! Since the lead character in a movie has to have a "character arc," it could follow TC from being a con artist only out for himself to a con artist helping his friends and getting the best of crooks or greedy people. (I think Mexico produced the TC movie I caught on TV several years ago.) PS - to the best of my knowledge there are no alleys in Manhattan (or talking cats)

[@joemurphy2177]

Renamed Boss cat in the UK when it first appeared on the BBC. This was because there was a brand of cat food called Top cat

[@llydrsn]

I remember watching Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats during Christmastime when I was young. Thank you for this, and for letting me relive and very happy time :)

[@ovormotssetgetsiin6359]

I LOVED Top Cat...!

[@LikaLaruku]

There was a year where I thought Top Cat was the best cartoon ever, & another year it was Mr Magoo, & nother year it was Secret Squirrel (the reboot from 2 Stupid Dogs).

[@ZJ-ne9kn]

Great video and tidbits flintstones is my favorite cartoon series but too cat is right there i love almost all hanna barberas output classic..

[@grimTales1]

I read that Phil Silvers was asked to do the voice of Top Cat for the show, but said no. Was that true? One of the actors from the Phil Silvers Show did do the voice for Benny though

[@troyturner173]

Checking out TC on Boomerang lately-love it

[@deboralee1623]

?"ethics of Top Cat and his gang"? oh, "antics of..." had me scared for a moment. (5:00-5:01) well, there was the episode involving the boys taking care of a homeless baby, so yeah, they had ethics.

[@matthays716]

Top cat was massive in Mexico

[@RayPointerChannel]

It was the time slot of 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights that killed TOP CAT in the ratings. It might have done better if placed in an early weekend time slot for family viewing, especially since kids were attracted to cartoons. The success of the FLINTSTONES proved that it had a family audience, which is why it was moved to the 7:30 slot Friday evenings. ABC made a similar blunder by scheduling THE JETSONS at 7:30 Sunday evenings opposite DENNIS THE MENACE on CBS and WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR on NBC. So it was no wonder it was also a ratings failure.

[@masudashizue777]

This was a big hit in Japan, too, and most people my age still remember it. The characters were voiced by some of Japan's most popular comedians of the time.

[@charlesbennett7484]

Top Cat's crew was the only gang I wanted to join growing up.

[@diannshowers9129]

I was always up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons.

[@nhmooytis7058]

One of my favorite cartoons as a kid! 😻😻😻

[@agranero6]

In Brazil it was a big success at Saturday and Sunday mornings.

[@mikesilva3868]

Great cartoon series 😊

[@neilforbes416]

You misspelled the name here(5:05) Bill *Hannah.* You left the 'h' off the end of his surname.

[@nhmooytis7058]

Never realized Arnold Stang was TC!

[@sarahmcmann5253]

OMG I love Top Cat. I love the episodes, and my favorite characters are Top Cat, and his friends

[@bigdaddyl-rob7445]

Top Cat is easily one of the funniest animated series Hanna-Barbera EVER created! I first saw this gem on NBC on Saturday mornings in the late 60's. Just like The Bullwinkle Show/Rocky and his Friends, I didn't get the humor as much as an adult would but I still cracked up. It wouldn't be until I was grown that I got the crazy humor Top Cat had. Sadly ABC only gave this gem one season. I'm 60 years old and to this day enjoy those 30 episodes!

[@pookieizzy7]

Top Cat was anything but a failure, just like with anything else made from HB. The franchise survived into a later show, Yogi's Treasure Hunt back in the early to mid 80s with the Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera's cartoon block, later on a movie was made called Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cat. I feel if anything Top Cat did what it was supposed to do as a show just like the Flintstones and Jetsons did was make an impact to the masses and it did.

[@Checkmate1954]

I remember it was on late, after my bed time. It was more for adults. Thanks Rich

[@bobriemersma]

Failure? We loved this show.

[@KravKernow]

In London "Dibble" is sometimes street slang for the police. Although now it's more often ECILOPS or Eccies. Because of how the word looks in your rear view mirror. I still like Dibble though.

[@ronm6585]

Thanks for sharing.

[@tripeee58]

My all time favorite!

[@diannshowers9129]

I bought the DVD's

[@deboralee1623]

?"perfectly irresistible", or "purrfectly irresistible"? given the subject of this video, it's probably -- make that purrrobably -- the latter. (0:29-0:30)

[@Fradycatcartoons]

I like that cartoon. Interesting how they copied Phil Silvers and even got one of the cast to join.

[@TimSual]

Loved Top Cat

[@g-a-i-l-]

This waa a great cartoon. Like an old Warner Brother's plot.

[@maureencora1]

Do 1964 Hanna-Barbera "Jonny Quest" Their Best Series.

[@jeaninepitchell8989]

❤😊 I love TV so much a the gang

[@frankwafer6919]

😃💖💯🤍👍!