Whenever I have the conversation of what is my favorite cartoon character, I always say "Top Cat", which then perks up the other's in the conversation, who always say, "Oh yeah, Top Cat, he's cool."
Top Cat always deserved more episodes than it got. I almost would want it to have a modernized revival, but a part of me worries it just wouldn't be done right.
I loved Top Cat, in 1961 and now. It was one of the shows that convinced me to become an animator. Over the years, I have collected a few great cel set ups from the show and told Joe Barbera how much I liked it. I was one of the first people to get a hold of copies of the underscoring tracks from the original reel to reel master back in the early 1990s. I agree with a lot of your assessments in this video. Nice work!
That's awesome!! I think it's really cool that you have some set-ups and got even talk to Joe about it. I was far too young to ever get that chance but I'm still glad that the guys knew that people appreciated the show. You wouldn't happen to still have copies of those masters would you? If you've got higher-quality recordings than what's currently available, I'd love to hear them and preserve them!
As a kid growing up in the 60's , I LOVED TOP CAT AND ALL OF THE CHARACTERS ! It's a shame that it only lasted from 1960 to 1961 . I bought the complete series on DVD in my library collection !
😻Top cat is my favorite cartoons series ever, I was a huge fan of the character Choo Choo. Very cut & likable character. It was great that Hannah-Barbera air this show, sometimes on Boomerang. Hopefully it will be added reruns on Adult Swim Checkered Past one day.
Cade - You did it again. Another great HB tribute. I agree with all that you said about Top Cat. I would add, it seems that most of the episodes were directed by many of the best directors at HB, many of which were done by Carlo Vinci, Don Patterson, etc. Combined with Hoyts genius underscores made for one of the best HB shows ever.
So glad you enjoyed the video, Gary! I'm glad that no matter the circumstances, HB was confident enough to give the show some excellent directors and writing. It definitely feels like they had every intention of making another hit - it's a shame that it flopped the way that it did initially. I agree, it is one of the best HB shows, and I'm so glad more people are talking about it!
Top Cat, The Flintstones, Quick Draw McGraw, Charlie Brown, Jonny Quest, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Bugs Bunny Show, etc. It was great being a kid in the 1960s.
@billr, I know. I was born in 1950, and I LOVED Saturday mornings. We watched Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, all the cartoons....those were the days.
This cartoon show was waaay to ahead of its time for the early 60’s, it was cancelled because parents complained that it may be a bad influence on their kids, maybe if it was produced and aired in the late 60’s it may have been a different story on having a longer run of a show.
This was one of my Dad’s favorite cartoons when he was a kid in the 60’s alongside Rocky and Bullwinkle and the animated Beatles show. Our favorite cat in the TC gang is Choo-Choo 🩷🤍
Man this channel is so good, you need more subscribers. Really well made docs about cartoons, I watched the Hoyt video yesterday while I animated and it gave me some good inspiration
Everything that Hanna-Barbera did had a heart put into it they did Stick with you because the characters were not just jokes as Joe said they have their own human feelings
great video cade! i’ve been really into top cat and hanna barbera in general thanks to jellystone. hell i even thought about eventually making a video on all the 3 movies and maybe a whole retrospective going through every episode if i had the time, i have the whole series on dvd and should really give it a rewatch sometime. hope to see more hanna barbera stuff from you!
Glad you liked the video!! I'm a bit curious about the movies, I oughtta give them a watch sometime soon. And I think that Top Cat is definitely worth a rewatch! And if you liked this video and have the time to spare, feel free to check out my hour-long documentary on the music of Hanna-Barbera's TV Cartoons! You can find it on my channel. (Luckily at this point in my career, I don't have many videos on the channel to have to sift through, haha!)
Well shucks, thanks for the kind words!! I've wanted to talk about Top Cat for a while now, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the video on it. He's probably my favorite cartoon cat, too!
Nice work. I can tell that you really love your subject matter! And thanks for the soundtrack link. The same uploader has some other cool stuff up at the archive, too.
I loved this cartoon as a little kid. It was on just when I came home from kindergarten. (DOB 07-19-71) It aired on an independent station from Pittsburgh, and I have never seen it aired since. I still remember the theme and background music. It was far more clever than I think people realize. Great video! Thanks!
Thanks for commenting! I love hearing everyone's stories with this show, and I'm glad you got to experience it back in the day! I'm also glad to hear that it suck with you through the years. I definitely think it was clever, always hiding in plain sight.
A show ahead of its time. It needed the continued build up and love of Bilko/Phil Silvers show brings into the full characterisation of the guys here , add in a crossover to Tom and Jerry for a Cat theme - the Jazz passed me over with "Cat" at the time - which was a hangover from the late 1950s and a underground scene in NYC. The final thing when watching in the 1970s was a parallel to "Kojak" where the NY backdrop was echoed.
Luckily, the show has been reran on MeTV Toons, but they are the same prints that are on the DVDs. Warner Archive is making a complete Blu-Ray set with new 4K masters from the original camera negatives. This makes me very happy.
happy to see a good video about this cartoon, shot my favorite from the studio, which was never there one of my favorites. Top Cat from my father's time, a classic without a doubt
Cade, my Dad's cousin, Gloria Wood (Woody Woodpecker song with Kay Keyser) was the woman of 1,000 voices. Through the 50's and 60's, she made a nice living singing commercial and radio jingles. Growing up, watching television in our home often included: "Is that Gloria?". She IS that voice singing the Dobie Gillis theme. Early on, she was very adept at singing tracks with herself. Her voice is so familiar to me, given her connection to me family-wise. I cannot confirm, but ALWAYS thought, hers was one of the voices in the opening and close themes to Top Cat. I would be VERY grateful to know if you had any info surrounding this. Jay Deane, Athol, Massachusetts.
I'd love to help, but I don't know if the singers behind the Top Cat theme have ever been identified! If they have, I don't know off the top of my head if she was involved. Still, I think it's cool that she was your dad's cousin! I love her rendition of the Woody Woodpecker song.
@@CartoonCade I wanted you to hear one of her jazz projects. I was thinking if the Top Cat music composer was acquainted with her, there might have been a connection. My friend Aaron Mintz wrote an article about her for Discoveries magazine in the early 90's. Her 4 octave range IS amazing. ruclips.net/video/9yhquXfZWzg/видео.htmlsi=wxeOlT5nqtSef1Un
I've often thought Gloria Wood is the most talented singer of the big band era that no one has heard of. She had just three major hits to her name -- Woody Woodpecker, Slow Boat to China, and Managua, Nicaragua. (Plus a couple novelties.) Scant few have heard of her, but the voice blows me away. Sometimes I'll hear a voice like hers in commercial jingles from the '50s and '60s, and I'll wonder, is that her? I have wondered, for instance, if I hear her voice in the chorus that appeared on The Stan Freberg Show on CBS radio in 1957. Sure sounds like her!
@@eriksmith6873 as I said, my friend Aaron Mintz wrote a great in-depth article about her for Discoveries magazine. I've got a clean copy of it. I'll have to see if Staples can scan it for me into a PDF format. The magazine measurement is around 12 by 17.
Wonderful video and tribute to one of Hanna Barbera's great series, although you unfortunately missed the Phil Silvers connection. As mentioned in a previous comment, Top Cat was an obvious "cartoonification" of a popular live action sitcom of its day. Like the Flintstones was a cartoon version of the Honeymooners, so was Top Cat based on the popular "The Phil Silvers show," AKA Sergeant Bilko, a fast talking army Sergeant/con man who had a group of privates as his "gang." The fabulous Arnold Stang, the voice of TC, made his voice sound a bit like Silvers' Bilko, the voice and design of TC's nemesis, Officer Dibble mimicked Colonel Hall on Bilko played hilariously by Paul Ford, and even the small innocent character Benny was based on Bilko favorite character, Doberman, played by Maurice Gosfield. Many of the episode plots were even simplified versions of Bilko plots. The stripped down limited animation design and layout that Hanna Barbera pioneered for TV made TC one of the all time great HB series.
I appreciate the kind words, but I did in fact mention Sgt. Bilko/Phil Silvers in the video, and I do believe I made mention to how Top Cat was influenced by it.
@@CartoonCadeI stand humbly corrected- apologies! I somehow missed the section where you thoroughly described the sitcom and Bilko connection. WELL DONE! You mentioned that you watched an episode of Bilko for reference - if you haven't already, I highly suggest doing a deeper dive into that series. A true TV CLASSIC. One of those lighting in a bottle cases where Silvers and his show was a phenomenal groundbreaker - something that he was never again able to achieve. Thanks again for a great channel - keep up the good work!
@@josephsherman2809 Thank you! It's alright man, there was a lot of info in the video to be fair! Pending a small hiatus I'm on, I plan to come out of the gate swinging in the future! I might have to watch more Sgt. Bilko in the meantime...
your presentation was perfect, I appreciate every aspect. Your passion for Top Cat is palpable and real and projects authentic, which is so rare on youtube. I have the dvd set I bought yeeeears ago. I was born in 68 but watched reruns in the 70s. then lived life and then bought the dvd in 04 and still love it at 55. I hope you get more subscribers. I just did. peace out!
Well thank you for the kind words! I really do have a fondness for this show, and the videos I make like these are about things I truly am passionate about. I do strive for authenticity in presentation and style. Thanks again!
"Boss Cat" (as it was known in the UK) was appointment viewing for me in the 60s. Still my favourite from the H-B stable, closely followed by Snagglepuss.
I managed to catch the show in reruns and honestly it's one of the best shows that they've done wish it got more love Also please keep up this documentary series I love in-depth looks like this at shows like this
Top Cat was definitely the character who sparked my enjoyment of lovable schemers which lead to me enjoying characters like Ed, Edd n Eddy, Bender and Nick Wilde
@@Nick-ty9us I have! And I know who he is, but it's been years since I've seen any material from the show and I never delved deep into the production side of that show.
I loved the show as a kid, i remember an episode where the cats sing "i dream of Genie with the light brown hair" and always wanted to hear a full version of it lol
I always loved this show. My dad told me that he used to watch it all the time in Mexico. It’s very much a comfort show for him. Also, I’ve been obsessed with this show as well :DD
Glad to hear it! This show's music just sticks with me so much!! If i were still in school or running my own high school band, I'd love to transcribe and arrange pieces from the entire Hanna-Barbera library! Not just the occasional theme song, haha.
I must admit, the Hanna -Barbera dogs get the bulk of my love. From Huckleberry Hound to Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. That said, I love TC and his crew! Especially Spook, because I'm a jazz buff. The writing on Top Cat was excellent! In my opinion, it is one of Hanna -Barbera's best written shows. I love the banter between Top Cat and Officer Dibble, especially!
I agree, Top Cat had top notch writing! I've never really thought about just how many animal characters they had in their shows, so I almost wonder if Hanna and Barbera thought that cartoon animals would be more timeless for as much as they utilized them!
Just a quick “note” about Spook: he generally (and rather unfairly!) was somewhat cheated in the series as far as dialog and character development..but has an unusual back story in the more recent animated prequel film “Top Cat Begins”. As far as the original series, I noticed watching the episodes again he is actually given more lines and 3 key points of business in the action in the episode “Dibble Breaks the Record”. Another curio: Spook generally had olive-colored fur but at times it was more of a light brown, and in the book and comic book treatments it was a bright green! I managed to meet Leo De Lyon at a memorabilia event and he was truly a genuinely nice fellow. As a versatile performer, his voice work included some of the monkeys in the King Louis segment of “The Jungle Book” for Disney. He was also a great vocalist and did the singing as well for “The Happy Sounds of Paree” in “The Man Called Flintstone” feature, and even though Louis Prima sang “Pensate Amore” in that film I believe it was Leo’s singing voice for that track on the vinyl soundtrack album.
@@anthonysimpsonanygoround8749 Interesting stuff! I didn't know some of that, although I did notice the change in fur color throughout the show's run and his lack of dialogue in most episodes. He's probably the least fleshed-out of all the characters. Even Fancy Fancy appears to get more lines!
@@CartoonCade You’re right about Fancy Fancy being given a larger role than the dialog-cheated Spook…even the girlfriend of Fancy Fancy would get more of a speaking part than Spook at times it seems-or I should say girlfriends-Lol ! But in all fairness to Leo De Lyon he at least wasn’t cheated in his spoken work on the show, doubling also as Brain plus the various goons and other characters that would appear in many episodes!
The "Boss Cat" name change in the UK came about because there actually was a cat food named "Top Cat" in the UK at that time and "Top Cat" aired on the BBC TV channel which does not allow advertising, In the 1950s it blacklisted the Andrews Sisters' song "Rum and Coca-Cola" for the same reason.
I had a feeling it had something to do with that cat food brand! Although, I wonder if the BBC realized that "Top Cat" the series had no affiliation with "Top Cat" the cat food? In hindsight, though, I suppose it didn't matter.
The Kinks too fell foul of that BBC ban on mentioning Coca-Cola. They had to re-record the opening lines of "Lola" so that they referred to cherry-cola. Actually, you weren't allowed to include anything in the nature of an advert in shows on the rival commercial channel either - they were strictly confined to the ad breaks.
The cartoon was beloved here. It first appeared in the 80s, as "Kot Tip-Top" ("Tip-Top the Cat"), and later, in the 90s, after the revolutions of 1989, it returned in a new (and inferior) version, under a new title - "Kocia ferajna", i.e. "Catfellas". I remember first going online in 1997, eventually looking for "Top Cat" resources on the Internet, and being surprised to discover that it seemed to be barely known or largely forgotten in USA. When the US DVD set with the series came out, I ordered it from across the ocean immediately... and I wonder if most of that set's buyers came, in fact, from outside USA - particularly since T. C. does seem to be extremely popular in Mexico. My little six-year-old self considered "Top Cat" to be something of a cartoon companion to "West Side Story". There was a C64 game based on the "Beverly Hills Cats", by the way; there was also an abandoned prototype of another game for the '64, developed by Codemasters. This one was supposed to be based on the series itself, and its surviving descriptions suggest that it might partially resemble "Alley Cat".
really great video! it's so nice to see that more people are getting to know and loving it Top Cat, i have fallen in love with these characters since i started watching Jellystone, i actually watched as a kid, but i never really was crazy about, but now it became an obcession watching this video was really good, and you are right! the original show had so many great things that it's weird that it was flop on the US, i'm from Brazil and the characters are so very well known here, i have seen so many grafiti of the characters in my city, i have found 12 already, and they pretty close of each other, there is even a restaurant with the Top Cat theme 😂 this video is a masterpiece, thank you so much for this incredible video and thank you so much for sharing the entire soundtrack, i'm going to listen to it very very much hehe!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It's so nice to see more Top Cat fans find this video and I love hearing from fans from all over, so it's great to hear from someone in Brazil!
I wish in a lot of ways that CN would still air some of the legacy H-B shows, although I hear that Boomerang has picked up some of the slack in doing that lately.
What's usually considered to be the first comic strip in U.S. history was called "the Yellow Kid," and it took place in a part of New York called Hogan's Alley. Hoagie's Alley looks strikingly similar. It was about, more or less, a gang of lower class kids, getting into mischief.
Thanks for making this video! I just got finished with watching the series last month, and I really enjoyed it! I even bought a Top Cat Wacky Wobbler Bobblehead from Ebay.😁 Sad that it didn’t last for more than one season. I agree that it’s one of my top favorite Hanna Barbera classics!
Another great video Cade Definitely gonna pick up the dvd set if I spot it I remember boomerang always aired TC reruns before school so me and my sister would watch it while waiting for the schoolbus I should give it another look!
Thanks Jimmy! I can't recommend this show enough. Its charm is unmatched and I think it was leagues ahead of the other H-B shows of the time. Definitely worth a look!
@@CartoonCade Never used in the shorts. Drawn & signed by Chuck Jones; colored by staff; mine is 124 of 500 made. It's the only one to have all the characters in one picture. Sadly, I just missed getting Mel Blanc to sign it also at a speech in San Diego where his son appeared instead and said his father fell ill. Mel passed shortly after he missed the event. I've always regretted not thinking of doing that sooner. My bad. My love of animation has only increased with time. Thank you again for your splendid work.
I watched TC when it originally aired, which would put me at 11 years old then. I loved it then and still do. I have the complete series on DVD. So fun to watch. Most "reviews" of older cartoons are not as in-depth as yours. Nice to know about the Underscore and such. Hoyt Curtain was a great composer. As you said, his music for Jonny Quest is quite good. Thank you for the wonderful 'review' of this short-lived classic.
Thank you so much! I'm very glad you like my review style. I've noticed that many people like to provide just the basics, but I've always loved knowing more information about things that I enjoy, and I thought if I presented it in an informational and entertaining way, that other people would latch onto it.
That's awesome to hear! I was too young to appreciate analog TV broadcasts before they went off the air in '09. I was old enough to understand it, I just never appreciated it.
I loved watching HB when I was younger (late 2000's) because my parents could also watch along and get the same joy. TC was very popular in the UK, but I can not tell you why.
Gosh I grew up on Top Cat, Cosby, Jetsons, GoGo Gophers, Rocky and Bullwinkle, my favorite Jonny Quest, I loved Jonny Quest, he was my hero, Hadjy made brown people as sidekick, magic, faithful friend of another faith, made being a hindu as normal as the catholic down the street, Dr. Quest, an amazing intellect that doesn't suffer from battle fatique(ptsd nowadays) ie what happens when your best friend died in your arms to twice like my Dad, Bruce Bannon who protects you from the evil things trying to get you. Bandit your faithful critter we had luckily as our own and got to have! Action, adventure, science, interpersonal relations, heros, with the us/US as good, honorable intentions wishing well for others, bad was bad and good wasn't always right, you always knew that the main characters would survive but the peril was real and the conclusion and outcome was in doubt. I could go on about how much Jonny Quest brightened my week and gave me courage and encouragement to face the week with a sense of optimism and hope! Plus so many other great cartoons. You know Mickey mouse, Tom and Jerry, Mr. Magoo ECT!
I haven’t watched this show since I was a young boy in the UK in the early 1979s, but listening to the music you provided a link to bought it all rushing back. By the way in the UK at that time, the show was called Boss Cat. And the reason for the name change was that it was shown on the BBC who at the time had strict regulations against advertising and “Top Cat” was the name of a leading brand of cat food. So for years I knew it as Boss Cat, not Top Cat.
That's true! At some point in the video I brought that up, as a clip recently surfaced of the Boss Cat open and end titles. Prior to that, people knew of it, but it's one thing to hear about something, and another thing entirely to see it. Interesting name change... I wonder if things like that still happen today with programs in the UK?
I never left this cartoon back in the 1960s. Marvin Kaplan did the voice for Benny. Love this cartoon! When I was a kid, I had a very cool orange tabby cat that I named, "Top Cat." Thanks, CartoonCade! 😸
No, Marvin Kaplan was the voice of Choo Choo. Benny’s voice was done by Maurice Gosfield, who played Doberman on “The Phil Silvers Show”, the inspiration for “Top Cat”.
Honestly I love many things about this show, especially the writing. While it’s not perfect and has its flaws like any other works, every time I come back to watch the show, the funnier and more charming it is. It’s my favorite HB cartoon.
That 2011 short you can't identify may be an anniversary short dedicated to Joseph Barbara, hence why Top Cat references a "Mr. B" and from what I've found, 1961 was the year Top Cat premiered, so it was probably meant to be a 50 Year Top Cat Anniversary in the UK, as they cared about the character outside of Latin America.
As a kid, when they would play Hanna Barbara reruns on Teletoon Retro, a lot of them were really boring to watch. None of em ever stuck. But for SOME reason, Top Cat never was that for me. It BARELY aired episodes over there, but when they did, I always tuned in. It was so charming as a show.
I agree. I think the closest we've seen to anything like that would be the use of the TC gang in Jellystone!, but I don't mind that really. it just kinda exists and that's fine. It doesn't aim to replace the original show by any means.
As a musician, I've always loved and admired that Hoyt Curtin theme song. If you slow it down a little and play it like dinner music, it's a great soft-jazz song
On October 15, 1951, the premiere of I Love Lucy, the very first person viewers get to see in the Ricardo apartment is John Stephenson, for the show's sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes. I believe that Lucy was a Chesterfield smoker.
I just watched the episodes the new METVToons has aired and it's now one of my favorites. I love the chill relaxed vibe all the characters have, they just banter so naturally back and fourth. Also, unlike other HB shows, where the character feel a little too mean to be likable, top cat just being a scam artist and kinda sketchy guy makes him much more lovable. Good show.
I watched Top Cat occasionally as a kid, as it was shown in reruns. I checked out "The Phil Slivers Show" a few years ago, and I dare say, it surpasses the comedy of Top Cat, and I highly recommend it. Phil Silvers is so likable, and the stories are quite similar to Top Cat as Sargent Bilko is always coming up with some scheme to get ahead that always seem to backfire on him. If the people who made the Top Cat movies were more familiar with the Phil Silvers Show, I think they could have made better movies.
This cartoon was my introduction to Arnold Stang before I knew all about his background as a radio actor and cartoon voice I didn’t even know he was the voice of honey nut Cheerios bee
Always thought Top Cat was such a fun show. Only saw one episode (The King for a Day one) but I still appreciated how jazzy the music was and how oddly unique it was, especially considering the other "funny animal" cartoons Hanna Barbera did. Even before I watched thst episode, the theme song alone carried the series to me. Unrelated, but what's the name of the music you used for the intro? I feel like I recognize it from somewhere and I'm just curious.
Glad that Top Cat could have that kind of impact even with one episode! The music I use for the CartoonCade intro is a piece of Hanna-Barbera music composed for The Flintstones. It doesn't really have a name other than the slate it was given in its recording session, but I've uploaded it by itself to the Internet Archive! archive.org/details/hc8-5-take-3 You can also find many more of my uploads there, including several pieces of music composed for several Hanna-Barbera shows!
If Top Cat and the Jetsons had been made for Saturday mornings they would have been hits But they were made for Prime Time and failed so they went to Saturdays and were on for years
I agree! At the time, they had no idea that those shows would be popular on Saturday Mornings... honestly, they're lucky they managed to get a second life. Some shows aren't so lucky.
@CartoonCade I've been a Top Cat fan since I was a kid. Congratulations on your purchase. I've been waiting for a New Era Top Cat hat. They've done all kinds of cartoon characters, but not TC yet.
I've seen Mike Rossi's collection a number of times, and it is amazing. Besides the cel from the Top Cat opening titles, he has the pencil drawing of TC on the fender on the limousine, also from the opening. In addition to animation art, he 23:06 has a stunning variety of games, toys, and other merchandise exploiting the Hanna-Babera characters and properties. His collection isn't limited to H-B, but that studio is best represented.
That's awesome! He only sent me a handful of what he has. When I asked him about collecting, he mentioned that he's been doing it since the 90s, when it was far cheaper and more obscure of a hobby. I could only imagine being so lucky to shop animation memorabilia back then!
@CartoonCade, when I was in college in 1980, it looked like the animation industry was dead or dying in America. Nobody envisioned the renaissance that would take place at the end of the decade. Nearly no one collected animation art. The games, toys, lunch boxes, etc, were considered kitsch. Only Gallery Lainsberg dealt in production cells. Gallery Lainsberg toured college campuses. Genuine production cells from Disney features were only around $100. But I didn't have a hundred dollars. On Sundays when the dorm's food service was closed, I either ate for free at the Hare Krishna's house (a vegan meal just for chanting and listening to their spiel) or ate shredded wheat. I could barely afford used text books. The cheapest production cells were from the effort to reshoot the black and white Looney Tunes in color for television in Japan in the 1960s. A great image of Porky Pig or Daffy Duck (the latter in a shade of reddish purplish brown rather than black) from a colorized Clampet classic would go for $15 to $35, depending on the size and quality of the image. Even that was out of my range. The salespeople wouldn't even bother to unpack and display pencil drawings. Disney animation pencils from the 1930s classic shorts were under $25. Warner and MGM pencils were around $7 to $10, depending on whether they had a famous character. Some stuff was only $5. I still couldn't buy any. I collected the free catalogs. By 1984 prices had already doubled or tripled. Other galleries were getting into the business.
@CartoonCade , when cartoons were in black and white, the cartoon studios would wash off the ink and paint to reuse the cells. The pigments in color paint discolored the cells, so they couldn't be reused. So the animators would take the cells that had already been photographed, and would throw them on the hallway floor, and go sliding on them like a slip and slide because there was very little friction between the acetate sheets. If the labor to erase the pencil drawings had been cheaper than paper, the studios would have employed people to erase. Back in the silent era, most cartoon studios used a slash system rather than cells. The actual pencil drawings would be inked on the original paper, not traced. Parts of the paper that didn't move would be cut with a razor and laid over the next drawing of a moving figure. So every drawing was destroyed during the photography process. On the high-contrast film used during that time, most of the edges of the cut paper didn't show on the screen, and even if it did, it flashed by in an eighteenth of a second. In the early 1960s when Tex Avery was working for the Cascade studio making animated TV commercials (Tex created the famous Raid bugs), Cascade got the Kool-Aid account, and Tex got the opportunity to direct Bugs Bunny again for the first time since he left Schlesinger's in 1941. He'd give away the used cels to the kids in the neighborhood outside the studio when he went home at nights. Animation generates such an enormous number of drawings and paintings that nobody imagined that any of the components had value in themselves; only the final prints of the completed movies had commercial worth. When Gallery Lainsberg approached retired animators for saved images in the late 1970s, the animators thought they were insane for imagining that anyone would buy them. One of the few pieces of animation art that I was able to buy once I was making a living instead of studying was a beautiful image of Brer Rabbit from Song of the South. It was affordable (this was already in the 1990s when authentic Disney production cells were well over a thousand dollars) because the entire scene's cells had been cut up and used to decorate a child's bedroom in the home of a studio employee back in the 40s. My particular cell fragment survived with little paint chipping, and somehow ended up in a gallery in Cleveland during the boom in animation galleries in the 90s. The same gallery had the complete set of pencil animation of Tom from Tom & Jerry playing the ukulele in The Zoot Cat. The animator who had saved it for fifty years sold it to the gallery for less than the retail price of three of the pages. We are talking about dozens and dozens of individual drawings.
@@kevinwachs5905 Dude, that's incredible! Sadly, I am aware of how the original cels of the black and white era were abused and misused, and often washed and recycled. I think it's such a shame how so many original cels are forever lost to time, ignorance, or downright foolishness. Even greed plays a role, like you mentioned. For as much entertainment as these cartoon brought these studios, the bigwigs sure didn't seem to care - that's why we get things like Warner Bros. selling off their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts in the mid-50s to a studio that ended up slicing them to high heaven with their own logos. Even the mishandling by Warner themselves beforehand sucks - splicing in the blue ribbon titles over the originals... it pains me! Of course, with all the discourse surrounding the mishandling of studio animation today, it seems like the bigwigs never learned their lessons. Maybe they never will.
Top Cat or Boss cat as we knew it in U.K. is fondly remembered by several generations. We also revered The Phil Silvers show aka Sargent Bioko which was the inspiration for Top Cat.
Whenever I have the conversation of what is my favorite cartoon character, I always say "Top Cat", which then perks up the other's in the conversation, who always say, "Oh yeah, Top Cat, he's cool."
That's nice to hear!
Top Cat is underrated IMO. Loved characters, loved backgrounds, loved theme music and underscores. The "Space Monkey" is my favourite TC episode.
I agree, it's severely underrated!
NO. He Is ABSOLUTELY Not Fucking Underrated. Why Would You Comment That? Why?
@@Oblivion-br6ygCalm down lmao
Remember Marvin the Martian from bugs bunny?!! He made me lol so much funny charecter!
This show deserves more attention, I find it one of the best shows Hanna Barbera has ever made
I agree!
Top Cat may be a cat, but he is top dawg in Hanna-Barbera's many wonderful cartoons.
I agree, Matthew! Quite the clever line, but a true one regardless!
This show was actually my childhood favourite haha so this video is right up my alley ❤
I loved Top Cat as a child, teenager and adult. Only 30 episodes ? It always seems so fresh I though there must be far more.
I know! Those 30 episodes can fly by, but they're full of so much that it does feel like more.
Top Cat theme is my phone ringtone. One of the best cartoons ever!
That's awesome! Admittedly, my ringtone is the Tom and Jerry theme!
Top Cat always deserved more episodes than it got. I almost would want it to have a modernized revival, but a part of me worries it just wouldn't be done right.
It *wouldn't* be... best to leave perfect memories alone.
Unfortunately C.H. Greenblatt kinda did that already, but thankfully it was short lived.
I'm from Britain and Top Cat was one of my favourite cartoons as a kid
Glad to hear it! I'm so happy this show got some respect somewhere in the world after all!
I loved Top Cat, in 1961 and now. It was one of the shows that convinced me to become an animator. Over the years, I have collected a few great cel set ups from the show and told Joe Barbera how much I liked it. I was one of the first people to get a hold of copies of the underscoring tracks from the original reel to reel master back in the early 1990s. I agree with a lot of your assessments in this video. Nice work!
That's awesome!! I think it's really cool that you have some set-ups and got even talk to Joe about it. I was far too young to ever get that chance but I'm still glad that the guys knew that people appreciated the show.
You wouldn't happen to still have copies of those masters would you? If you've got higher-quality recordings than what's currently available, I'd love to hear them and preserve them!
Great Video!!!! I watch the whole season of Top Cat a couple of times a year, just Great innocent television!
Thank you! I agree, it's great innocent television.
One of the best Hanna Barbara shows
I agree!
As a kid growing up in the 60's , I LOVED TOP CAT AND ALL OF THE CHARACTERS ! It's a shame that it only lasted
from 1960 to 1961 . I bought the complete series on DVD in my library collection !
Glad you loved the show!
😻Top cat is my favorite cartoons series ever, I was a huge fan of the character Choo Choo. Very cut & likable character. It was great that Hannah-Barbera air this show, sometimes on Boomerang. Hopefully it will be added reruns on Adult Swim Checkered Past one day.
I admire your optimism! I'd love to see it on something like Checkered Past, too!
I love Choo Choo 💗
Cade - You did it again. Another great HB tribute. I agree with all that you said about Top Cat. I would add, it seems that most of the episodes were directed by many of the best directors at HB, many of which were done by Carlo Vinci, Don Patterson, etc. Combined with Hoyts genius underscores made for one of the best HB shows ever.
So glad you enjoyed the video, Gary! I'm glad that no matter the circumstances, HB was confident enough to give the show some excellent directors and writing. It definitely feels like they had every intention of making another hit - it's a shame that it flopped the way that it did initially. I agree, it is one of the best HB shows, and I'm so glad more people are talking about it!
Top Cat, The Flintstones, Quick Draw McGraw, Charlie Brown, Jonny Quest, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Bugs Bunny Show, etc. It was great being a kid in the 1960s.
I'll bet it was!
@billr, I know. I was born in 1950, and I LOVED Saturday mornings. We watched Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, all the cartoons....those were the days.
Good stuff! Always happy to see ya show up in my feed
Thank you very much! Glad I can make that kind of impression.
Top Cat has THE BEST intro song of ALL cartoons past and present. 🎵🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎵
Glad you think so!
🎶Top Cat!
The most effectual Top Cat!
This was a wonderful presentation ! Thank you !
Thank you!
Very well liked in the UK too
So I've heard!
@@CartoonCade indeed. Silly America can't appreciate it.
@@Taydar That's one way to put it, haha!
I watched Top Cat as a kid, and I loved the characters. A very interesting video, thanks for all the insights.
Well, thank you! Glad you enjoyed the show and my video both!
This cartoon show was waaay to ahead of its time for the early 60’s, it was cancelled because parents complained that it may be a bad influence on their kids, maybe if it was produced and aired in the late 60’s it may have been a different story on having a longer run of a show.
Well done Cade! Thanks for the acknowledgment! Congrats also on acquiring that great TC cel!
Thank you Mike! And thanks for the inspiration to even make the video in the first place!
This was one of my Dad’s favorite cartoons when he was a kid in the 60’s alongside Rocky and Bullwinkle and the animated Beatles show.
Our favorite cat in the TC gang is Choo-Choo 🩷🤍
That's awesome! I'm also a huge Rocky and Bullwinkle fan, and I've never really seen much of the Beatles cartoon.
Man this channel is so good, you need more subscribers. Really well made docs about cartoons, I watched the Hoyt video yesterday while I animated and it gave me some good inspiration
Thank you so much man! It always warms my heart to hear that. The fact that I can inspire anyone means a whole heck of a lot. Keep on keepin' on!
Everything that Hanna-Barbera did had a heart put into it they did Stick with you because the characters were not just jokes as Joe said they have their own human feelings
great video cade! i’ve been really into top cat and hanna barbera in general thanks to jellystone. hell i even thought about eventually making a video on all the 3 movies and maybe a whole retrospective going through every episode if i had the time, i have the whole series on dvd and should really give it a rewatch sometime. hope to see more hanna barbera stuff from you!
Glad you liked the video!! I'm a bit curious about the movies, I oughtta give them a watch sometime soon. And I think that Top Cat is definitely worth a rewatch!
And if you liked this video and have the time to spare, feel free to check out my hour-long documentary on the music of Hanna-Barbera's TV Cartoons! You can find it on my channel. (Luckily at this point in my career, I don't have many videos on the channel to have to sift through, haha!)
great stuff! love Top Cat!!!
Thank you so much!
Your videos are high quality! God you are so underrated, thank you for talking about my favourite cartoon cat :)
Well shucks, thanks for the kind words!! I've wanted to talk about Top Cat for a while now, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the video on it. He's probably my favorite cartoon cat, too!
@@CartoonCadehe’s an awesome character
Nice work. I can tell that you really love your subject matter!
And thanks for the soundtrack link. The same uploader has some other cool stuff up at the archive, too.
Thank you so much - I really do love the show! As for the soundtrack link, no problem! As it happens, I am that uploader over at the Internet Archive!
@@CartoonCade small world! Cool.
Benny's face after Top Cat curses..😂😂😂😂
I loved this cartoon as a little kid. It was on just when I came home from kindergarten. (DOB 07-19-71) It aired on an independent station from Pittsburgh, and I have never seen it aired since. I still remember the theme and background music. It was far more clever than I think people realize. Great video! Thanks!
Thanks for commenting! I love hearing everyone's stories with this show, and I'm glad you got to experience it back in the day! I'm also glad to hear that it suck with you through the years. I definitely think it was clever, always hiding in plain sight.
I grew up watching this in reruns and I love it so much! Great video thanks!
Thank you so much!
One of the best Hanna Barbera shows
@@calebbusing6171 No doubt!
A show ahead of its time. It needed the continued build up and love of Bilko/Phil Silvers show brings into the full characterisation of the guys here , add in a crossover to Tom and Jerry for a Cat theme - the Jazz passed me over with "Cat" at the time - which was a hangover from the late 1950s and a underground scene in NYC. The final thing when watching in the 1970s was a parallel to "Kojak" where the NY backdrop was echoed.
I agree, it really was ahead of its time, and the borrowed cultural elements you described helped make it what it was.
"The Long Hot Winter" (S1.E15) is my favorite.
Luckily, the show has been reran on MeTV Toons, but they are the same prints that are on the DVDs. Warner Archive is making a complete Blu-Ray set with new 4K masters from the original camera negatives. This makes me very happy.
I saw that!! I'm so excited that the Blu-Ray project has come to fruition. I was definitely thinking that it would never see the light of day.
Thank you thank you thank you❤
Thank you for the memories! I loved the show now I think of it again!
No problem! Glad you liked it!
happy to see a good video about this cartoon, shot my favorite from the studio, which was never there one of my favorites.
Top Cat from my father's time, a classic without a doubt
Thank you so much!
Cade, my Dad's cousin, Gloria Wood (Woody Woodpecker song with Kay Keyser) was the woman of 1,000 voices. Through the 50's and 60's, she made a nice living singing commercial and radio jingles. Growing up, watching television in our home often included: "Is that Gloria?". She IS that voice singing the Dobie Gillis theme. Early on, she was very adept at singing tracks with herself. Her voice is so familiar to me, given her connection to me family-wise. I cannot confirm, but ALWAYS thought, hers was one of the voices in the opening and close themes to Top Cat. I would be VERY grateful to know if you had any info surrounding this. Jay Deane, Athol, Massachusetts.
I'd love to help, but I don't know if the singers behind the Top Cat theme have ever been identified! If they have, I don't know off the top of my head if she was involved. Still, I think it's cool that she was your dad's cousin! I love her rendition of the Woody Woodpecker song.
@@CartoonCade I wanted you to hear one of her jazz projects. I was thinking if the Top Cat music composer was acquainted with her, there might have been a connection. My friend Aaron Mintz wrote an article about her for Discoveries magazine in the early 90's. Her 4 octave range IS amazing.
ruclips.net/video/9yhquXfZWzg/видео.htmlsi=wxeOlT5nqtSef1Un
I've often thought Gloria Wood is the most talented singer of the big band era that no one has heard of. She had just three major hits to her name -- Woody Woodpecker, Slow Boat to China, and Managua, Nicaragua. (Plus a couple novelties.) Scant few have heard of her, but the voice blows me away. Sometimes I'll hear a voice like hers in commercial jingles from the '50s and '60s, and I'll wonder, is that her? I have wondered, for instance, if I hear her voice in the chorus that appeared on The Stan Freberg Show on CBS radio in 1957. Sure sounds like her!
@@eriksmith6873 There are many unsung heroes of the film and television world, and I wish all their stories could be told and preserved.
@@eriksmith6873 as I said, my friend Aaron Mintz wrote a great in-depth article about her for Discoveries magazine. I've got a clean copy of it. I'll have to see if Staples can scan it for me into a PDF format. The magazine measurement is around 12 by 17.
Wonderful video and tribute to one of Hanna Barbera's great series, although you unfortunately missed the Phil Silvers connection. As mentioned in a previous comment, Top Cat was an obvious "cartoonification" of a popular live action sitcom of its day. Like the Flintstones was a cartoon version of the Honeymooners, so was Top Cat based on the popular "The Phil Silvers show," AKA Sergeant Bilko, a fast talking army Sergeant/con man who had a group of privates as his "gang." The fabulous Arnold Stang, the voice of TC, made his voice sound a bit like Silvers' Bilko, the voice and design of TC's nemesis, Officer Dibble mimicked Colonel Hall on Bilko played hilariously by Paul Ford, and even the small innocent character Benny was based on Bilko favorite character, Doberman, played by Maurice Gosfield. Many of the episode plots were even simplified versions of Bilko plots. The stripped down limited animation design and layout that Hanna Barbera pioneered for TV made TC one of the all time great HB series.
I appreciate the kind words, but I did in fact mention Sgt. Bilko/Phil Silvers in the video, and I do believe I made mention to how Top Cat was influenced by it.
@@CartoonCadeI stand humbly corrected- apologies! I somehow missed the section where you thoroughly described the sitcom and Bilko connection. WELL DONE! You mentioned that you watched an episode of Bilko for reference - if you haven't already, I highly suggest doing a deeper dive into that series. A true TV CLASSIC. One of those lighting in a bottle cases where Silvers and his show was a phenomenal groundbreaker - something that he was never again able to achieve. Thanks again for a great channel - keep up the good work!
@@josephsherman2809 Thank you! It's alright man, there was a lot of info in the video to be fair! Pending a small hiatus I'm on, I plan to come out of the gate swinging in the future! I might have to watch more Sgt. Bilko in the meantime...
your presentation was perfect, I appreciate every aspect. Your passion for Top Cat is palpable and real and projects authentic, which is so rare on youtube. I have the dvd set I bought yeeeears ago. I was born in 68 but watched reruns in the 70s. then lived life and then bought the dvd in 04 and still love it at 55. I hope you get more subscribers. I just did. peace out!
Well thank you for the kind words! I really do have a fondness for this show, and the videos I make like these are about things I truly am passionate about. I do strive for authenticity in presentation and style. Thanks again!
"Boss Cat" (as it was known in the UK) was appointment viewing for me in the 60s. Still my favourite from the H-B stable, closely followed by Snagglepuss.
Glad to hear it! Glad the series has always gotten some love.
Massive thumbs up for a fantastic video! Terrific research, production and presentation! Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thank you kindly!
I managed to catch the show in reruns and honestly it's one of the best shows that they've done wish it got more love Also please keep up this documentary series I love in-depth looks like this at shows like this
Well thank you! I do think it's one of the best they did.
We loved topcat out here in New Zealand in the 70s it's undisputable still know that awesome theme tune🐈
That's awesome to hear! I had no clue it was big over there!
Top Cat is my favorite as well. Great video!
Thank you so much!
One of the best Hanna Barbara shows, used to watch Top Cat as a kid
I agree! Although, I was never lucky enough to catch it as a kid.
Top Cat was definitely the character who sparked my enjoyment of lovable schemers which lead to me enjoying characters like Ed, Edd n Eddy, Bender and Nick Wilde
So glad to hear it! Schemers in cartoons are a fascinating case, but most of them are universally loved.
Also, on the Phil Silvers show was Allan Melvin who went on to be the voice of Magilla, gorilla and appeared as Sam, the Butcher on the Brady Bunch
That's awesome! I didn't know that.
@@CartoonCade have you heard of Magilla gorilla
@@Nick-ty9us I have! And I know who he is, but it's been years since I've seen any material from the show and I never delved deep into the production side of that show.
He also voiced Drooper from The Banana Splits.
I loved the show as a kid, i remember an episode where the cats sing "i dream of Genie with the light brown hair" and always wanted to hear a full version of it lol
I remember that episode too! I was surprised to hear that song come up. It's a bit of an older song, even at the time!
I always loved this show. My dad told me that he used to watch it all the time in Mexico. It’s very much a comfort show for him. Also, I’ve been obsessed with this show as well :DD
That's awesome! I'm so glad it's reached so many people... and here I was, thinking it was forgotten!
Te recomiendo que lo veas en español. Seguro te sorprende.
@@franciscodguez706 Quizás lo haga.
@@CartoonCade ruclips.net/video/MbnEpf8GUMc/видео.html
Always loved this show and its jazzy groove... and the catchiest theme song EVER! (And I AM a music theory nerd!)
Glad to hear it! This show's music just sticks with me so much!! If i were still in school or running my own high school band, I'd love to transcribe and arrange pieces from the entire Hanna-Barbera library! Not just the occasional theme song, haha.
I must admit, the Hanna -Barbera dogs get the bulk of my love. From Huckleberry Hound to Dynomutt, Dog Wonder.
That said, I love TC and his crew! Especially Spook, because I'm a jazz buff. The writing on Top Cat was excellent! In my opinion, it is one of Hanna -Barbera's best written shows. I love the banter between Top Cat and Officer Dibble, especially!
I agree, Top Cat had top notch writing! I've never really thought about just how many animal characters they had in their shows, so I almost wonder if Hanna and Barbera thought that cartoon animals would be more timeless for as much as they utilized them!
This show was very dear to Joe Barbera, because he was from New York City.
Just a quick “note” about Spook: he generally (and rather unfairly!) was somewhat cheated in the series as far as dialog and character development..but has an unusual back story in the more recent animated prequel film “Top Cat Begins”. As far as the original series, I noticed watching the episodes again he is actually given more lines and 3 key points of business in the action in the episode “Dibble Breaks the Record”. Another curio: Spook generally had olive-colored fur but at times it was more of a light brown, and in the book and comic book treatments it was a bright green! I managed to meet Leo De Lyon at a memorabilia event and he was truly a genuinely nice fellow. As a versatile performer, his voice work included some of the monkeys in the King Louis segment of “The Jungle Book” for Disney. He was also a great vocalist and did the singing as well for “The Happy Sounds of Paree” in “The Man Called Flintstone” feature, and even though Louis Prima sang “Pensate Amore” in that film I believe it was Leo’s singing voice for that track on the vinyl soundtrack album.
@@anthonysimpsonanygoround8749 Interesting stuff! I didn't know some of that, although I did notice the change in fur color throughout the show's run and his lack of dialogue in most episodes. He's probably the least fleshed-out of all the characters. Even Fancy Fancy appears to get more lines!
@@CartoonCade You’re right about Fancy Fancy being given a larger role than the dialog-cheated Spook…even the girlfriend of Fancy Fancy would get more of a speaking part than Spook at times it seems-or I should say girlfriends-Lol ! But in all fairness to Leo De Lyon he at least wasn’t cheated in his spoken work on the show, doubling also as Brain plus the various goons and other characters that would appear in many episodes!
The "Boss Cat" name change in the UK came about because there actually was a cat food named "Top Cat" in the UK at that time and "Top Cat" aired on the BBC TV channel which does not allow advertising, In the 1950s it blacklisted the Andrews Sisters' song "Rum and Coca-Cola" for the same reason.
I had a feeling it had something to do with that cat food brand! Although, I wonder if the BBC realized that "Top Cat" the series had no affiliation with "Top Cat" the cat food? In hindsight, though, I suppose it didn't matter.
The Kinks too fell foul of that BBC ban on mentioning Coca-Cola. They had to re-record the opening lines of "Lola" so that they referred to cherry-cola.
Actually, you weren't allowed to include anything in the nature of an advert in shows on the rival commercial channel either - they were strictly confined to the ad breaks.
Underrated show
I definitely agree!
The cartoon was beloved here. It first appeared in the 80s, as "Kot Tip-Top" ("Tip-Top the Cat"), and later, in the 90s, after the revolutions of 1989, it returned in a new (and inferior) version, under a new title - "Kocia ferajna", i.e. "Catfellas". I remember first going online in 1997, eventually looking for "Top Cat" resources on the Internet, and being surprised to discover that it seemed to be barely known or largely forgotten in USA. When the US DVD set with the series came out, I ordered it from across the ocean immediately... and I wonder if most of that set's buyers came, in fact, from outside USA - particularly since T. C. does seem to be extremely popular in Mexico.
My little six-year-old self considered "Top Cat" to be something of a cartoon companion to "West Side Story".
There was a C64 game based on the "Beverly Hills Cats", by the way; there was also an abandoned prototype of another game for the '64, developed by Codemasters. This one was supposed to be based on the series itself, and its surviving descriptions suggest that it might partially resemble "Alley Cat".
That's incredible! I love hearing from people all over the world who grew up with and loved this show. Where are you commenting from?
really great video! it's so nice to see that more people are getting to know and loving it Top Cat, i have fallen in love with these characters since i started watching Jellystone, i actually watched as a kid, but i never really was crazy about, but now it became an obcession
watching this video was really good, and you are right! the original show had so many great things that it's weird that it was flop on the US, i'm from Brazil and the characters are so very well known here, i have seen so many grafiti of the characters in my city, i have found 12 already, and they pretty close of each other, there is even a restaurant with the Top Cat theme 😂
this video is a masterpiece, thank you so much for this incredible video
and thank you so much for sharing the entire soundtrack, i'm going to listen to it very very much hehe!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It's so nice to see more Top Cat fans find this video and I love hearing from fans from all over, so it's great to hear from someone in Brazil!
Loved watching it on CN when it was in it's early days.
I wish in a lot of ways that CN would still air some of the legacy H-B shows, although I hear that Boomerang has picked up some of the slack in doing that lately.
I watched this cartoon in the netherlands and i loved it.
Glad to hear it! Was it dubbed over or did they air the English version?
@@CartoonCade It was in dutch.
@@patmath1000 Thanks for clearing that up! Glad you loved the show.
I'm truly back in my childhood watching Top Cat. (I used to tell people it was my nickname).
That's awesome to hear! It would be kinda cool to be called Top Cat, or even T.C. (providing it's with dignity, of course!)
What's usually considered to be the first comic strip in U.S. history was called "the Yellow Kid," and it took place in a part of New York called Hogan's Alley. Hoagie's Alley looks strikingly similar. It was about, more or less, a gang of lower class kids, getting into mischief.
Well well, looks like even the name of their alley had some real-life inspiration, too!
This show was so good, one of my favorite as a kid
The music was absolutely legendary
From Europe
Glad to see this video has made it overseas! Glad you loved this show as a kid, and the music, too!
Thanks for making this video! I just got finished with watching the series last month, and I really enjoyed it! I even bought a Top Cat Wacky Wobbler Bobblehead from Ebay.😁
Sad that it didn’t last for more than one season. I agree that it’s one of my top favorite Hanna Barbera classics!
I grew up in the 2000s and I loved this series. The characters and vibe is amazing.
I'm glad you loved the characters and vibe! I think it feels very homey, very cozy!
I recently found out about Top Cat after watching Quick Draw McGraw, and I really liked both! As a fellow Cartoon hound I gotta sub right away
Well I appreciate it! Thank you!
Another great video Cade
Definitely gonna pick up the dvd set if I spot it
I remember boomerang always aired TC reruns before school so me and my sister would watch it while waiting for the schoolbus
I should give it another look!
Thanks Jimmy! I can't recommend this show enough. Its charm is unmatched and I think it was leagues ahead of the other H-B shows of the time. Definitely worth a look!
Great job on reviewing Top Cat! Thank you.
I've got one cel, a group portrait of Duck Dodgers In The 24 1/2 Century. TC would really be cool!
That's awesome! Is your cel a publicity cel? Or was it actually used in a Duck Dodgers short?
@@CartoonCade Never used in the shorts. Drawn & signed by Chuck Jones; colored by staff; mine is 124 of 500 made. It's the only one to have all the characters in one picture. Sadly, I just missed getting Mel Blanc to sign it also at a speech in San Diego where his son appeared instead and said his father fell ill. Mel passed shortly after he missed the event. I've always regretted not thinking of doing that sooner. My bad. My love of animation has only increased with time. Thank you again for your splendid work.
@@CartoonCade PS: Porky is lying down in a silver space suit holding a "B-B-Big Deal" sign in one hand!
@@THE-HammerMan You're too kind! That's awesome!! A Chuck Jones signed, limited-edition publicity cel is still incredible... ta have!
Top Cat. Some of my best childhood memories!
Glad you liked it as a kid!
I watched TC when it originally aired, which would put me at 11 years old then. I loved it then and still do. I have the complete series on DVD. So fun to watch. Most "reviews" of older cartoons are not as in-depth as yours. Nice to know about the Underscore and such. Hoyt Curtain was a great composer. As you said, his music for Jonny Quest is quite good. Thank you for the wonderful 'review' of this short-lived classic.
Thank you so much! I'm very glad you like my review style. I've noticed that many people like to provide just the basics, but I've always loved knowing more information about things that I enjoy, and I thought if I presented it in an informational and entertaining way, that other people would latch onto it.
@@CartoonCade I also downloaded all 200+ underscore/cues. A nice bonus. Thanks for the link.
Top cat was my grandpa's favorite show when he was a kid.
That's so cool!! I don't often hear from people who know someone with Top Cat as their favorite show, at any point!
I had a TV in my room when I was a kid but no cable. I was able to pick up Top Cat with rabbit ears on TV 55. Looked fwd to this show.
That's awesome to hear! I was too young to appreciate analog TV broadcasts before they went off the air in '09. I was old enough to understand it, I just never appreciated it.
My fave cartoon as a kid. Plus The Flintstones and Johnny Quest. 😊
Heck yeah! Glad to hear it!
I loved watching HB when I was younger (late 2000's) because my parents could also watch along and get the same joy. TC was very popular in the UK, but I can not tell you why.
Perhaps the people in the UK have a knack for good writing?
Gosh I grew up on Top Cat, Cosby, Jetsons, GoGo Gophers, Rocky and Bullwinkle, my favorite Jonny Quest, I loved Jonny Quest, he was my hero, Hadjy made brown people as sidekick, magic, faithful friend of another faith, made being a hindu as normal as the catholic down the street, Dr. Quest, an amazing intellect that doesn't suffer from battle fatique(ptsd nowadays) ie what happens when your best friend died in your arms to twice like my Dad, Bruce Bannon who protects you from the evil things trying to get you. Bandit your faithful critter we had luckily as our own and got to have! Action, adventure, science, interpersonal relations, heros, with the us/US as good, honorable intentions wishing well for others, bad was bad and good wasn't always right, you always knew that the main characters would survive but the peril was real and the conclusion and outcome was in doubt. I could go on about how much Jonny Quest brightened my week and gave me courage and encouragement to face the week with a sense of optimism and hope! Plus so many other great cartoons. You know Mickey mouse, Tom and Jerry, Mr. Magoo ECT!
I haven’t watched this show since I was a young boy in the UK in the early 1979s, but listening to the music you provided a link to bought it all rushing back. By the way in the UK at that time, the show was called Boss Cat. And the reason for the name change was that it was shown on the BBC who at the time had strict regulations against advertising and “Top Cat” was the name of a leading brand of cat food. So for years I knew it as Boss Cat, not Top Cat.
That's true! At some point in the video I brought that up, as a clip recently surfaced of the Boss Cat open and end titles. Prior to that, people knew of it, but it's one thing to hear about something, and another thing entirely to see it. Interesting name change... I wonder if things like that still happen today with programs in the UK?
@@CartoonCade no, things have changed drastically since then
@@applin121 Interesting... so we'll likely never have another "Boss Cat" moment again.
@@CartoonCade I very much doubt it.
This is such a great review for my second favorite cartoon ever
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
@@CartoonCade You’re welcome!
I never left this cartoon back in the 1960s. Marvin Kaplan did the voice for Benny. Love this cartoon! When I was a kid, I had a very cool orange tabby cat that I named, "Top Cat." Thanks, CartoonCade! 😸
Cool stuff to hear! Glad you liked it!
@@CartoonCade I'm still stuck in the 1960s. 😸
No, Marvin Kaplan was the voice of Choo Choo. Benny’s voice was done by Maurice Gosfield, who played Doberman on “The Phil Silvers Show”, the inspiration for “Top Cat”.
Honestly I love many things about this show, especially the writing. While it’s not perfect and has its flaws like any other works, every time I come back to watch the show, the funnier and more charming it is. It’s my favorite HB cartoon.
I'm glad to hear it! On rewatching it, the writing seems to be one of the stronger suits of the series.
That 2011 short you can't identify may be an anniversary short dedicated to Joseph Barbara, hence why Top Cat references a "Mr. B" and from what I've found, 1961 was the year Top Cat premiered, so it was probably meant to be a 50 Year Top Cat Anniversary in the UK, as they cared about the character outside of Latin America.
Thanks for the lead! I'll check that out and see if I can dig up anything.
top cat my favorite as a kid.
Glad to hear that this show was a favorite!
As a kid, when they would play Hanna Barbara reruns on Teletoon Retro, a lot of them were really boring to watch. None of em ever stuck.
But for SOME reason, Top Cat never was that for me. It BARELY aired episodes over there, but when they did, I always tuned in. It was so charming as a show.
I'm glad to hear it! I had no idea it ever aired on a Teletoon network!
topcat is my favorite show till this day🎉
Glad you enjoy it enough for it to be a favorite!
One of my favorites cartoon, "The Maharaja Pokoji" !
What’s the variation of the TC theme used during the credits of this video?
Nvm I found it
I know you said you found it, but the upload I sourced it from is this one: ruclips.net/video/7pS0FGFsjqA/видео.html
@@CartoonCade oh ok cool! The one I found I louder record scratches
@@garfeldi_gaming Yeah, I came across that one early on - luckily, someone uploaded that cleaner version.
knowing the state of warner right now i'm kinda glad they're not gonna bring it back any time soon
let it remain a masterpiece
I agree. I think the closest we've seen to anything like that would be the use of the TC gang in Jellystone!, but I don't mind that really. it just kinda exists and that's fine. It doesn't aim to replace the original show by any means.
As a musician, I've always loved and admired that Hoyt Curtin theme song. If you slow it down a little and play it like dinner music, it's a great soft-jazz song
It really is a good song!
On October 15, 1951, the premiere of I Love Lucy, the very first person viewers get to see in the Ricardo apartment is John Stephenson, for the show's sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes. I believe that Lucy was a Chesterfield smoker.
I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing!
Very cool congratulations....top cat îs one of our favorite characthers...and we will soon make a sculpture of him
Good luck! I hope it turns out great!
@@CartoonCade thank you very much...we hope so...Congratulations for your work and keep up the good work...top cat is trully a classic , a treasure
I just watched the episodes the new METVToons has aired and it's now one of my favorites. I love the chill relaxed vibe all the characters have, they just banter so naturally back and fourth. Also, unlike other HB shows, where the character feel a little too mean to be likable, top cat just being a scam artist and kinda sketchy guy makes him much more lovable. Good show.
Glad you've given it a shot and are enjoying seeing it on MeTV Toons! I've had to catch a few episodes myself!
I got to say I really like how the gendered swapped versions and Chooch and Brain in Jellystone park on max.
It's a unique take for sure!
I watched Top Cat occasionally as a kid, as it was shown in reruns. I checked out "The Phil Slivers Show" a few years ago, and I dare say, it surpasses the comedy of Top Cat, and I highly recommend it. Phil Silvers is so likable, and the stories are quite similar to Top Cat as Sargent Bilko is always coming up with some scheme to get ahead that always seem to backfire on him. If the people who made the Top Cat movies were more familiar with the Phil Silvers Show, I think they could have made better movies.
I definitely plan to watch more Sgt. Bilko/Phil Silvers in the future!
Arnold Stang was a brilliant choice for TopCat he gave him so much personality
I agree! He's often imitated but never recreated. His voice was extremely unique.
@@CartoonCade he did have a very unique voice rest in peace, Arnold Stang you comedy god
This cartoon was my introduction to Arnold Stang before I knew all about his background as a radio actor and cartoon voice I didn’t even know he was the voice of honey nut Cheerios bee
@@Nick-ty9us I didn't know he voiced the Honey Nut Cheerios bee! It sure sounds leagues different listening to the current iteration of the character.
@@CartoonCade it does it seriously sounds different than Arnold Stang’s voice
Always thought Top Cat was such a fun show. Only saw one episode (The King for a Day one) but I still appreciated how jazzy the music was and how oddly unique it was, especially considering the other "funny animal" cartoons Hanna Barbera did. Even before I watched thst episode, the theme song alone carried the series to me.
Unrelated, but what's the name of the music you used for the intro? I feel like I recognize it from somewhere and I'm just curious.
Glad that Top Cat could have that kind of impact even with one episode! The music I use for the CartoonCade intro is a piece of Hanna-Barbera music composed for The Flintstones. It doesn't really have a name other than the slate it was given in its recording session, but I've uploaded it by itself to the Internet Archive! archive.org/details/hc8-5-take-3
You can also find many more of my uploads there, including several pieces of music composed for several Hanna-Barbera shows!
I grow up watching top cat on boomerang I have found memories of it
I'm glad to hear it!
If Top Cat and the Jetsons had been made for Saturday mornings they would have been hits But they were made for Prime Time and failed so they went to Saturdays and were on for years
I agree! At the time, they had no idea that those shows would be popular on Saturday Mornings... honestly, they're lucky they managed to get a second life. Some shows aren't so lucky.
@CartoonCade I've been a Top Cat fan since I was a kid. Congratulations on your purchase. I've been waiting for a New Era Top Cat hat. They've done all kinds of cartoon characters, but not TC yet.
I've seen Mike Rossi's collection a number of times, and it is amazing. Besides the cel from the Top Cat opening titles, he has the pencil drawing of TC on the fender on the limousine, also from the opening.
In addition to animation art, he 23:06 has a stunning variety of games, toys, and other merchandise exploiting the Hanna-Babera characters and properties.
His collection isn't limited to H-B, but that studio is best represented.
That's awesome! He only sent me a handful of what he has. When I asked him about collecting, he mentioned that he's been doing it since the 90s, when it was far cheaper and more obscure of a hobby. I could only imagine being so lucky to shop animation memorabilia back then!
@CartoonCade, when I was in college in 1980, it looked like the animation industry was dead or dying in America. Nobody envisioned the renaissance that would take place at the end of the decade.
Nearly no one collected animation art. The games, toys, lunch boxes, etc, were considered kitsch. Only Gallery Lainsberg dealt in production cells. Gallery Lainsberg toured college campuses.
Genuine production cells from Disney features were only around $100. But I didn't have a hundred dollars. On Sundays when the dorm's food service was closed, I either ate for free at the Hare Krishna's house (a vegan meal just for chanting and listening to their spiel) or ate shredded wheat. I could barely afford used text books.
The cheapest production cells were from the effort to reshoot the black and white Looney Tunes in color for television in Japan in the 1960s. A great image of Porky Pig or Daffy Duck (the latter in a shade of reddish purplish brown rather than black) from a colorized Clampet classic would go for $15 to $35, depending on the size and quality of the image. Even that was out of my range.
The salespeople wouldn't even bother to unpack and display pencil drawings. Disney animation pencils from the 1930s classic shorts were under $25. Warner and MGM pencils were around $7 to $10, depending on whether they had a famous character. Some stuff was only $5. I still couldn't buy any. I collected the free catalogs.
By 1984 prices had already doubled or tripled. Other galleries were getting into the business.
@@kevinwachs5905 I guess people really didn't know what they had then... I'd be elated to find almost ANY cel of a famous character for $100!
@CartoonCade , when cartoons were in black and white, the cartoon studios would wash off the ink and paint to reuse the cells. The pigments in color paint discolored the cells, so they couldn't be reused. So the animators would take the cells that had already been photographed, and would throw them on the hallway floor, and go sliding on them like a slip and slide because there was very little friction between the acetate sheets.
If the labor to erase the pencil drawings had been cheaper than paper, the studios would have employed people to erase.
Back in the silent era, most cartoon studios used a slash system rather than cells. The actual pencil drawings would be inked on the original paper, not traced. Parts of the paper that didn't move would be cut with a razor and laid over the next drawing of a moving figure. So every drawing was destroyed during the photography process. On the high-contrast film used during that time, most of the edges of the cut paper didn't show on the screen, and even if it did, it flashed by in an eighteenth of a second.
In the early 1960s when Tex Avery was working for the Cascade studio making animated TV commercials (Tex created the famous Raid bugs), Cascade got the Kool-Aid account, and Tex got the opportunity to direct Bugs Bunny again for the first time since he left Schlesinger's in 1941. He'd give away the used cels to the kids in the neighborhood outside the studio when he went home at nights.
Animation generates such an enormous number of drawings and paintings that nobody imagined that any of the components had value in themselves; only the final prints of the completed movies had commercial worth. When Gallery Lainsberg approached retired animators for saved images in the late 1970s, the animators thought they were insane for imagining that anyone would buy them.
One of the few pieces of animation art that I was able to buy once I was making a living instead of studying was a beautiful image of Brer Rabbit from Song of the South. It was affordable (this was already in the 1990s when authentic Disney production cells were well over a thousand dollars) because the entire scene's cells had been cut up and used to decorate a child's bedroom in the home of a studio employee back in the 40s. My particular cell fragment survived with little paint chipping, and somehow ended up in a gallery in Cleveland during the boom in animation galleries in the 90s. The same gallery had the complete set of pencil animation of Tom from Tom & Jerry playing the ukulele in The Zoot Cat. The animator who had saved it for fifty years sold it to the gallery for less than the retail price of three of the pages. We are talking about dozens and dozens of individual drawings.
@@kevinwachs5905 Dude, that's incredible! Sadly, I am aware of how the original cels of the black and white era were abused and misused, and often washed and recycled. I think it's such a shame how so many original cels are forever lost to time, ignorance, or downright foolishness. Even greed plays a role, like you mentioned.
For as much entertainment as these cartoon brought these studios, the bigwigs sure didn't seem to care - that's why we get things like Warner Bros. selling off their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts in the mid-50s to a studio that ended up slicing them to high heaven with their own logos. Even the mishandling by Warner themselves beforehand sucks - splicing in the blue ribbon titles over the originals... it pains me!
Of course, with all the discourse surrounding the mishandling of studio animation today, it seems like the bigwigs never learned their lessons. Maybe they never will.
What's the music site at 02:10?
That's the default Music app on my Apple desktop I use at work.
Top Cat or Boss cat as we knew it in U.K. is fondly remembered by several generations. We also revered The Phil Silvers show aka Sargent Bioko which was the inspiration for Top Cat.
Glad to hear that was the case! I didn't know that they brought the Phil Silvers Show to the UK, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.