Top Cat made its United Kingdom debut on the BBC (later renamed BBC One) on. In Canada, Top Cat premiered on the CTV Television Network on Octoand in Australia, the show premiered on the National Television Network (now known as the Nine Network) on October 5, 1962, and ran on the Nine Network until 1971.
The show aired on Saturdays in 19 on ABC, and was then rerun in various Saturday morning slots on NBC from 1965 to 1969, and occasionally in the 1980s. The show was broadcast in black and white but was created in colour. 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.
Topcat theme 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.
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