Cattanooga Cats

*Cattanooga Cats*
Cattanooga Cats
	File:Cattanoogacats.jpg
Genre	Animation
Written by	Neal Barbera; Larz Bourne
Directed by	Joseph Barbera; William Hanna
Voices of	William Callaway; Casey Kasem; Jim Begg; Julie Bennett; Bruce Watson; Janet Waldo; Don Messick; Allan Melvin; Daws Butler; Marty Ingels; Dick Curtis
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	17
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 13, 1969 –; September 5, 1971

Cattanooga Cats is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera for ABC. It aired from September 6, 1969 until September 4, 1971.

Segments

The show was a package program similar to the Hanna-Barbera/NBC show The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, except that it contained no live-action segments. During the 1969–1970 season, Cattanooga Cats ran one hour and contained four segments. During the 1970–1971 season, the segments It's the Wolf! and Motormouse and Autocat were spun off into a half-hour show. Around the World in 79 Days remained a part of Cattanoga Cats, which was reduced to a half-hour. Motormouse and Autocat ran concurrently with Cattanooga Cats until both met their demise at the end of the 1970–1971 season.

Cattanooga Cats

Cattanooga Cats depicted the adventures of a fictitious rock band similar to The Archies and The Banana Splits populated by anthropomorphic hillbilly cats:

Lead singer/guitarist Country (voiced by Bill Callaway)
Singer/dancer Kitty Jo (voiced by Julie Bennett)
Bassist Scoots (voiced by Jim Begg).
Drummer Groove (voiced by Casey Kasem)

A fifth member, a mouse keyboardist named "Cheesie", was storyboarded but cut out of the series. The group travelled around in a van, was chased by a female cat groupie named Jessie the "Autograph Hound" (also voiced by Julie Bennett) and Kitty Jo owned a big blue dog named "Teeny Tim". The singing vocals for The Cattanooga Cats were performed by Michael Lloyd and Peggy Clinger. Producer Mike Curb was the musical director for the series and co-wrote all the songs performed by the Cattanooga Cats. Ted Nichols composed the background music. An LP, The Cattanooga Cats (Forward ST-F-1018), featuring some of the songs used in the series was released in 1969.

The Cats also appeared in various "bumpers" between the other cartoons, but were best remembered for their animated musical segments. These cartoons showed a strong psychedelic and op-art influence and the Cattanooga Cats remain a cult favorite to this day.

Episodes

Only nine cartoon story segments featuring the characters were produced:

Witch Wacky
Geroni-hoho
The Big Boo-Boo
Wee Greenie Goofie
Mummy's Day
Zoo's Who
Autograph Hounded
Caribbean Kook
Ghosting a Go-Go

Around the World in 79 Days

Loosely based upon the novel, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, this was an adventure segment involving balloonist "Phinny Fogg" (conceived as the son of the main character Phileas Fogg in the novel and voiced by Bruce Watson) and reporter teenagers Jenny (voiced by Janet Waldo) and Happy (voiced by Don Messick), who set out on a globetrotting adventure to sail around the world in 79 days and beat the original record set by Phinny's father. The trio are in competition for both the record and a US$1,000,000 prize against the sinister Crumden (voiced by Daws Butler), who supposedly was the butler of the original Phineas, aided by Phineas' chauffeur, the idiotic Bumbler (voiced by Allan Melvin), and Crumden's pet monkey, Smirky (voiced by Don Messick). Unlike the other segments, Around the World in 79 Days was a serial with a continuing story, however, as with many shows made during this period, it has no specific ending.

Episodes

The Race is On
Swiss Mis-Adventure
Arabian Daze
Madrid or Busted
Mr. Bom Bom
India or Bust
Snow Slappy
Finney Finney Fun Fun
The Argentiny Meany
The Tree Man
Saucy Aussie
Crumden's Last Stand
Egyptian Jinx
Border Disorder
Troubles in Dutch
The Fiji Weegees
Hawaiian Hangup

It's the Wolf!

It's the Wolf! followed the comic exploits of a wolf named Mildew (voiced by an uncredited yet easily recognizable Paul Lynde), who aspires to catch and eat a sure-footed little lamb named Lambsy (voiced by Daws Butler), but is always thwarted in this plan by the dog Bristle Hound (voiced by Allan Melvin). Bristle would apprehend Mildew (usually after hearing Lambsy's cries of, "It's the wool-uff!"), pound him, and toss him sailing into the air, with Mildew screaming a phrase such as "Spoil Sport!" as he flies into the horizon and lands with a thud. Showing modest responsibility, Lambsy never fails to recognize Mildew. The voices are somewhat familiar: Mildew sounds like the Hooded Claw and Lamby sounds kind of like Elroy Jetson.

Episodes

High Hopes
When My Sheep Comes In
A Sheep in the Deep
Lambsy Divey in Winter Blunder Land
Merry Go Round Up
Super Scientific Sheep Sitting Service
Any Sport in a Storm
Magic Wanderer
Runaway Home
Smart Dummy
Channel Chasers
Mask Me No Questions
Freeway Frenzy
Slumber Jacks
Pow Wow Wolf
Ghost of a Chance
Lambscout Cookout or Mildew
Wolf in a Sheeps Clothing
To Beach His Own
Sheep Scene Stealer
How to Cook a Lamb
Train Tripped

Motormouse and Autocat

Essentially a motor-racing version of Tom and Jerry, this segment involved the antics of a race car-driving cat and a motorcycle-driving mouse. Much of the segment's appeal lay in the bizarre cars that Autocat (voiced by Marty Ingels) devised in his attempts to catch Motormouse (voiced by Dick Curtis), and in the pleasing, and unusual character voices and dialect. For example, Motormouse would often over enunciate words, saying things like "Chi-co-ry", and greeting Autocat with a friendly "Hey there, Au-to-cat" Motormouse resembled Pixie & Dixie in character design.

Episodes

Wheelin' and Dealin'
Party Crasher
Water Sports
What's the Motor with You?
Mini Messenger
Wild Wheelin' Wheels
Soggy To Me
Crash Course
Fueling Around
Buzzin' Cousin
Snow-Go
Hard Days Day
Tally Ha Ha
Hocus Focus
Kitty Kitty Bang Bang
King Size Kaddy
Catch as Cat Can
Catnapping Mouse
Paint That Ain't
I've Been Framed
Match Making Mouse
Electronic Brainstorm
Brute Farce
Bouncing Buddies
Ramblin Wreck from Texas
Two Car Mirage
Alacazap'
Geni and the Meany
Choo Choo Cheetah
The Fastest Mouse in the West
Cat Skill School
The Cool Cat Contest
Lights! Action! Catastrophe!
Follow That Cat

Flim

There were plans for a live-action Cattanooga Cats Movie from Warner Bros.

Cattanooga Cats in other languages

Brazilian Portuguese: Turma da Gatolândia
Italian: I gatti di Cattanooga
Spanish: Los Gatedráticos del Ritmo

Epilogue

Hanna-Barbera had high hopes for Cattanooga Cats to be a hit program, like The Banana Splits, but the show failed to attract a large audience during its original run. Mildew Wolf, the most popular character on the program, resurfaced six years after the cancellation of Cattanooga Cats as co-host, with Snagglepuss, on Laff-a-Lympics, this time voiced by John Stephenson. Lambsy appeared in Yogi's Ark Lark.

Reruns of Cattanooga Cats were not seen until the program began airing as part of the Boomerang programming block on the Cartoon Network, which later became a spin-off network of its own. For several months the UK Boomerang channel ran the musical interludes from the show, all of which ran to exactly 1 minute 45 seconds, as short (and unidentified) fillers before closing down at midnight. When the channel expanded to 24 hours, these interludes were dropped. The complete show has not been seen in the UK in recent years.

DVD Release

There are no plans from Warner Bros. (which owns the Hanna-Barbera rights) to release the series on a "Complete Series" DVD set for the Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection at the present time.

External links