Hanna-Barbera created 30 half hour episodes of Top Cat. Top Cat aired on wedensday nights in Prime Time from 8:30 - 9:00 PM. The gang constantly hatch get-rich-quick schemes, and a frequent plot thread revolved around the local cop, Charles "Charlie" Dibble (voiced by Allen Jenkins), ineffectually trying to evict them from the alley and stop them using the policebox phone. During the original network run, the sponsor objected to the Silvers impersonation - insisting that he was buying Arnold Stang, not Phil Silvers - so in later episodes Stang modified the Top Cat voice, to a closer tone of his own voice. Additionally, Arnold Stang's vocal characterization was originally based on an impression of Phil Silvers's voice.
Maurice Gosfield, who played Private Duane Doberman in The Phil Silvers Show, provided the voice for Benny the Ball in Top Cat, and Benny's podgy appearance was based on Gosfield's.
#Cartoon topcat series#
Top Cat and his gang were inspired by the East Side Kids, mischievous, street-wise characters from a series of 1940s B movies, but their more immediate roots lay in The Phil Silvers Show (1955–59), a successful military comedy whose lead character (Sergeant Bilko, played by Silvers) was a crafty con man. The lead character, Top Cat (T.C.) (voiced by Arnold Stang) is the leader of a gang of Manhattan alley cats living in Hoagy's Alley: Fancy-Fancy, Spook, Benny the Ball, Brain, and Choo-Choo. This was only the second cartoon series to premiere on prime time network television in the United States. Hanna-Barbera sold the cartoon to ABC based on a drawing of the main character. Top Cat was a parody of The Phil Silvers Show with Arnold Stang imitating Sgt Bilko's voice for the titular character.
It aired in a weekly evening time slot from September 27, 1961, to April 18, 1962, for a single season of 30 episodes. Top Cat is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast in prime time on the ABC network. Left to right: Benny the Ball (foreground) Brain Officer Dibble (Behind fence) Fancy-Fancy Top Cat Spook (foreground) Choo-ChooĬolor (initially telecast in black and white) In the U.S., a box set containing all 30 episodes was released on December 7, 2004.Top Cat and the gang. Dibble's appearance was modeled after Allen Jenkins, who did his voice. The only reason that he wanted to be rid of them was that Top Cat and his gang were constantly attempting to earn a quick dollar-usually through an illegal scam. Lastly, a likely contender (as it also came from Hanna Barbera) was the character 'Hokey Wolf, from a segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show, which also had parallels to The Phil Silvers Show.Ī frequent plot-line revolved around the local beat policeman, Charles "Charlie" Dibble, NYPD and his ineffective attempts to evict the gang from the alley. Other possible sources cited have been "Guys and Dolls" where actor Stubby Kaye played a short, stout street-wise gambler and a vertual Benny the Ball prototype. Even Arnold Stang's voicing of Top Cat strongly resembled Phil Silvers' voice. Maurice Gosfield, who played Private Duane Doberman on The Phil Silvers Show, also provided the voice for Benny the Ball in Top Cat (Benny's rotund appearance was based on Gosfield too). Many suggest it derived from a later 1950s military comedy, You'll Never Get Rich (later called The Phil Silvers Show), whose lead was a crafty con-man. Top Cat and his gang were inspired by characters from the popular 1940s B movies, "The East-End Kids". by his friends, is the leader of a gang of Manhattan alley cats living in Hoagy's Alley: Fancy Pants, Spook, Benny the Ball, Brain, and Choo Choo. The central character, Top Cat-called T.C. Originally broadcast on Wednesdays, Top Cat was co-sponsored by Kellogg's and Bristol-Myers (Bufferin). In 2000, Top Cat began airing on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang, where it remained until 2014. Starting in 1992, reruns of the series aired on Cartoon Network until 2004.
Status Ended Top Cat is a Hanna-Barbera Prime time animated television series which ran from Septemto Apfor a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network.