I think many people were admirers or even fans of the work of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. That's probably because many of the programs they produced were continually being shown on various networks and local stations throughout the 1960s and 70s.
For the kids viewing these animated series during that era, the revelation came when they grew up, as they realized that just about everything Hanna-Barbera were responsible for was just a parody of somebody else's stuff. Case in point, :"Top Cat."
I'm not kidding when I say the biggest early television successes of Hanna-Barbera were ideas they swiped. Yogi Bear was taken from the name of Hall of Fame Yankees Catcher Yogi Berra. Huckleberry Hound was taken from Hall of Fame Yankees Shortstop, Phil Rizzuto's habit of calling people "huckleberry." And their most enduring series, "The Flintstones," was just "The Honeymooners" set during the Stone Age.
"Top Cat" was the story of a gang of alley cats (back when New York had alleys) and was loosely based on both "The Bowery Boys," a series of short comedy films (that ran very much like "The Three Stooges" shorts) about teenage street toughs who were out for themselves, and "The Phil Silvers Show," aka "Sergeant Bilko." On "Bilko," Silvers played the ringleader of his privates who were always doing something ridiculous on the sly, poker games, parties, having some kind of contraband (like booze, ladies or both) in the barracks, and always got away with everything because the superior officers never managed to catch them.
That's essentially the plot of "Top Cat," with T. C. in the Bilko role and the rest of his cat gang, his subordinates. Arnold Stang, who voiced the lead character, even did a Phil Silvers style vocal characterization, just in case somebody missed the connection!
Officer Dibble was constantly hounding the cats for whatever fun and games they were planning. And of course Top Cat had culture, class and extremely expensive taste, but never the money to afford it, so he was continually plotting ways for the gang to make it out of the alley and to some penthouse apartment building with a get rich quick scheme that always failed. The positive thing was, they never let it get them down. They just tried again, the next time!
New York played a part because the city has those dividing lines between the haves and the have nots, and it was never made more clear when these poor cats were just trying to eke out their survival and were harassed by The Man every step of the way.
Top Cat and his pals were never "bad," but they always managed to bend the rules a little just to get a meal, to have some relaxation from the rat race of the city or just keep their hopes and dreams alive. Dibble was occasionally sympathetic to the gang, but usually would just threaten them or chase them out of the alley when he saw them congregating and plotting their latest ploy.
Of all the shows on my list of 400 shows set in New York City, so far, this is the first one I could fully envision having a reboot, what with the authoritarian style policing and the poor, but intelligent and friendly collection of protagonists looking to have some success. We'd need to add some women cats to the gang, deal with the various elements like governmental interference in the lives of citizens, the patriarchy, the upper and lower class, even the immigration crisis would be topics worthy of exploring. Top Cat vs. The Fat Cats. Maybe current NYC Mayor "Cat-ams" would be more sympathetic to the group than the flatfoot on patrol?
It would be a really neat metaphor, and would have a lot more meaning for an audience than the shlocky plots lifted from a 1950s military sitcom. Imagine "Top Cat," becoming a vessel for sociological change and the discussion of societal problems? That would land the series a lot higher on this list!
For the kids viewing these animated series during that era, the revelation came when they grew up, as they realized that just about everything Hanna-Barbera were responsible for was just a parody of somebody else's stuff. Case in point, :"Top Cat."
I'm not kidding when I say the biggest early television successes of Hanna-Barbera were ideas they swiped. Yogi Bear was taken from the name of Hall of Fame Yankees Catcher Yogi Berra. Huckleberry Hound was taken from Hall of Fame Yankees Shortstop, Phil Rizzuto's habit of calling people "huckleberry." And their most enduring series, "The Flintstones," was just "The Honeymooners" set during the Stone Age.
"Top Cat" was the story of a gang of alley cats (back when New York had alleys) and was loosely based on both "The Bowery Boys," a series of short comedy films (that ran very much like "The Three Stooges" shorts) about teenage street toughs who were out for themselves, and "The Phil Silvers Show," aka "Sergeant Bilko." On "Bilko," Silvers played the ringleader of his privates who were always doing something ridiculous on the sly, poker games, parties, having some kind of contraband (like booze, ladies or both) in the barracks, and always got away with everything because the superior officers never managed to catch them.
That's essentially the plot of "Top Cat," with T. C. in the Bilko role and the rest of his cat gang, his subordinates. Arnold Stang, who voiced the lead character, even did a Phil Silvers style vocal characterization, just in case somebody missed the connection!
Officer Dibble was constantly hounding the cats for whatever fun and games they were planning. And of course Top Cat had culture, class and extremely expensive taste, but never the money to afford it, so he was continually plotting ways for the gang to make it out of the alley and to some penthouse apartment building with a get rich quick scheme that always failed. The positive thing was, they never let it get them down. They just tried again, the next time!
New York played a part because the city has those dividing lines between the haves and the have nots, and it was never made more clear when these poor cats were just trying to eke out their survival and were harassed by The Man every step of the way.
Top Cat and his pals were never "bad," but they always managed to bend the rules a little just to get a meal, to have some relaxation from the rat race of the city or just keep their hopes and dreams alive. Dibble was occasionally sympathetic to the gang, but usually would just threaten them or chase them out of the alley when he saw them congregating and plotting their latest ploy.
Of all the shows on my list of 400 shows set in New York City, so far, this is the first one I could fully envision having a reboot, what with the authoritarian style policing and the poor, but intelligent and friendly collection of protagonists looking to have some success. We'd need to add some women cats to the gang, deal with the various elements like governmental interference in the lives of citizens, the patriarchy, the upper and lower class, even the immigration crisis would be topics worthy of exploring. Top Cat vs. The Fat Cats. Maybe current NYC Mayor "Cat-ams" would be more sympathetic to the group than the flatfoot on patrol?
It would be a really neat metaphor, and would have a lot more meaning for an audience than the shlocky plots lifted from a 1950s military sitcom. Imagine "Top Cat," becoming a vessel for sociological change and the discussion of societal problems? That would land the series a lot higher on this list!