Top Cat

Top Cat (also known for a while as Boss Cat in the United Kingdom) was a Hanna-Barbera prime-time animated series which premiered in 1961 and ran for 30 episodes and which remains one of the studio's most enduring creations.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Hanna-Barbera - Animated series - 1961

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Its central character, Top Cat—his friends call him TC—is the leader of a gang of Manhattan alley cats: Fancy Fancy, Spook, Benny, Brain, and Choo Choo. There are distinct resemblances to the popular US situation comedy The Phil Silvers Show (on which the cartoon is said to have been loosely based) in the relationships between the characters. Arnold Stang's voicing of Top Cat strongly resembled Phil Silvers' voice as well.

Related Topics:
Manhattan - US - Situation comedy - The Phil Silvers Show - Arnold Stang - Phil Silvers

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A frequent plotline revolved around the local policeman, Officer Dibble, and his ineffective attempts to evict the gang from the city.

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In the United Kingdom, the show was renamed Boss Cat shortly after it premiered in 1962 (by means of a crudely substituted title card) when it was first aired on BBC television (now called BBC1) because Top Cat was the name of a brand of cat food. Of course, the dialogue and theme tune still referred to the character by his original name. By the 1980s the original title was used in repeats and this continues on Cartoon Network UK.

Related Topics:
1962 - BBC1 - Cat food - 1980s - Cartoon Network

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In 1985 Top Cat appeared on Yogi's Treasure Hunt with all the other Hanna-Barbera characters and then in 1991 he became a teenage cat (but he still lived in a trash can) on NBC's Yo Yogi.

Related Topics:
Yogi's Treasure Hunt - Trash can - Yo Yogi

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But when he returned in 1996 there was a new closing logo with the Hanna-Barbera All-Stars featuring the comedy characters.

Related Topics:
Closing logo - All-Stars - Comedy - Characters

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