T.H.E. Cat
| T.H.E. Cat | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Action drama |
| Created by | Harry Julian Fink |
| Written by | Ronald Austin James D. Buchanan Harry Julian Fink Robert Hamner Herman Miller Bernard C. Schoenfeld Jack Turley |
| Directed by | Alan Crosland, Jr. Paul Baxley Don McDougall Maurice Vaccarino Boris Sagal |
| Starring | Robert Loggia |
| Composer(s) | Lalo Schifrin |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Boris Sagal |
| Running time | 30 mins. |
| Production company(s) | NBC Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | September 16, 1966 – March 31, 1967 |
T.H.E. Cat is an American action drama that aired during the 1966-1967 television season on NBC, co-sponsored by R.J. Reynolds (Winston) and Lever Brothers. The series was created by Harry Julian Fink, the creator of Dirty Harry .
Robert Loggia starred as the title character, Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat. T. H. E. Cat is a forerunner of television characters such as The Equalizer, who skirt the edges of the law and bring skills from earlier careers on behalf of those needing more help than the police can offer.
[edit] Synopsis
'Out of the night comes a man who saves lives at the risk of his own. Once a circus performer, an aerialist who refused the net. Once a cat burglar, a master among jewel thieves. Now a professional bodyguard. Primitive... savage... in love with danger. The Cat!'
This was the intro of a series that was, for a variety of reasons, truly ahead of its time. It had a hero who was a reformed thief, having spent an unspecified term in prison, and of Gypsy heritage. In the mold of famed private-eye Peter Gunn and the waterfront bar 'Mother's', Cat operated out of the 'Casa Del Gato' (House Of The Cat) in San Francisco, of which he was part owner.
The show was dark and moody, fitting the character, and was one of the first to use martial arts in a realistic way.(The other was The Green Hornet , which premiered on ABC the same year.) This was unknown on TV at that time and rarely seen even in films (an exception was The Manchurian Candidate, the first Hollywood movie to show martial arts in realistic fashion instead of the 'judo chops' usually depicted). The series also featured a number of highly-gifted guest stars and relied heavily on the film noir school to set Series star Robert Loggia, an actor with a long history of film and television credits, went on to star in a number of high-profile hit Hollywood films...including The Tom Hanks hit film Big, the mega-hit sci-fi film Independence Day , An Officer and a Gentleman, Scarface, and Sylvester Stallone's Over The Top. n 1985, Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of crusty private detective Sam Ransom in the thriller Jagged Edge,and had the starring role in another NBC series , Mancuso, FBI, for which he was nominated for an Emmy in 1989.
[edit] Cast
- Robert Loggia......Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat
- R.G. Armstrong.....Captain McAllister
- Robert Carricart.....Pepe Cordoza
Guest stars: Chris Alcaide, Barbara Stuart, Steve Ihnat, Robert Duvall
[edit] External links
- T.H.E. Cat at the Internet Movie Database
- T.H.E. Cat at TV.com
- T.H.E. Cat at epguides.com
