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Posted: |
Mar 14, 2007 - 4:29 AM
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By: |
shadowman
(Member)
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According to one website, the prints (or maybe later tapes) of the show were discarded, but low-quality (*mumble*bootlegs*mumble*) survived from a set of Canadian prints/tapes.
Also, from what I've read, the show was the first of the 1966 season to get cancelled, specifically because of violence -- and having seen a few (low-quality) episodes, I'm not surprised. It's DAMN violent for a 1960s show, with shootings and stabbings galore.
It's very film noir-ish, and virtually every episode has Robert Loggia encountering some bad guys who've threatened/attacked/kidnapped/killed a friend of his... and then Loggia would wreak pretty serious violence upon them. (And for a hero/protagonist, he seemed to have no qualms about killing any bad guy who got in his way. I've heard that this was what also got "Wild, Wild West" cancelled -- Congress had hearings about TV violence in the 1960s, and James West's penchant for simply shooting bad guys had some serious consequences in the later seasons.)
But even as a 5 or 6 year old kid, I thought Robert Loggia was cool as hell. He wore black turtlenecks, drove a black 1966 Corvette, carried grappling hooks, scaled tall buildings, used martial arts moves (kicks and throws), and had a knife up his sleeve, which he would often whip out and throw at people -- sometimes to fatal effect.
And finally, two musical points: Al Hirt did a version of the "T.H.E. Cat" theme on his album "The Horn Meets the Hornet." I'm not a fan of this version, though, because the trumpet is WAY too "blatty-wah-wah" for my tastes.
Also (attention Bill Smith), Lalo Schifrin did the Jimmy Smith theme you mentioned above -- it's called "The Cat," but it's not the same as the "T.H.E. Cat" theme.
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/product.aspx?ob=prd&src=list&pid=10255
-- Jon
Maybe all is not lost. Paramount must have saved many of their shows of that period. Star Trek was cancelled after 3
seasons,and who knew at that time,that it would become as popular as it has. Other
Paramount shows like Wild Wild West,Mission:Impossible,and Hawaii 5-0
have made it to DVD. If Paramount kept prints of these shows,maybe they kept them
of most of their other shows,including
T.H.E. Cat?
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Posted: |
Mar 14, 2007 - 4:38 AM
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By: |
shadowman
(Member)
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This was also the reason why the 1960s Hanna Barbera superhero cartoon shows (like Space Ghost, The Herculoids, etc.) were cancelled -- people thought they were too violent for kids.
-- Jon
Too violent!? What's more violent than
Elmer Fudd getting blown up by Bugs Bunny,
or Wily Coyote getting flattened by some
mechanical contraption from the Acme Company every 20 seconds. Nobody ever
cancelled Warner Bros. cartoons for
violent content. Just ridiculous.
Space Ghost,Herculoids,Shazzan; all great!
By today's standards( or maybe substandards),they would be tame. Great
detail on the animation,and of course,really great music. Wish somebody would put out some of the soundtrack music
for Space Ghost,Herculoids,Shazzan,and
Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles. That would be an immediate buy.
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The Al Hirt 'Horn Meets The Hornet' lp was the very first lp I ever bought, and I got it just for the T.H.E. CAT theme. It was my favorite show at the time and I was crushed when it was cancelled.
But I don't think it was the violent content that got it cancelled. As I recall, it was in the same time slot as something much more popular and suffered from poor ratings. MANNIX was actually much more violent its first few seasons, but it was very popular and so was re-tooled with a softer edge. (I believe it was actually MANNIX more than any other show that forced the crackdown on TV violence.)
And I think the Al Hirt version of T.H.E. CAT is wonderful. Of course it features his trumpet more prominently, but the backup arrangement is quite excellent, as it is on all the TV themes on that album. (You have to hear the theme from the cartoon show KING KONG to believe it! Incredibly powerful for the rinky dink theme the original really was.)
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Posted: |
Mar 14, 2007 - 11:41 AM
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By: |
Jon A. Bell
(Member)
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The Al Hirt 'Horn Meets The Hornet' lp was the very first lp I ever bought, and I got it just for the T.H.E. CAT theme. It was my favorite show at the time and I was crushed when it was cancelled.
But I don't think it was the violent content that got it cancelled. As I recall, it was in the same time slot as something much more popular and suffered from poor ratings. MANNIX was actually much more violent its first few seasons, but it was very popular and so was re-tooled with a softer edge. (I believe it was actually MANNIX more than any other show that forced the crackdown on TV violence.)
And I think the Al Hirt version of T.H.E. CAT is wonderful. Of course it features his trumpet more prominently, but the backup arrangement is quite excellent, as it is on all the TV themes on that album. (You have to hear the theme from the cartoon show KING KONG to believe it! Incredibly powerful for the rinky dink theme the original really was.)
Here's the 1966 TV schedule:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966-67_United_States_network_television_schedule
I'm surprised that "Cat" didn't do better, since it followed "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", and was up against the second half of The Milton Berle Show and the middle of the CBS Friday Night Movie.
Regarding the violence, I don't know if that's what really killed it; I've just read speculation online that this was the issue (the show was apparently the first casualty of the 1966 season.) It *is* very dark and sinister for a 1960s TV series.
As for the Al Hirt version of the "Cat" theme, I just wish the trumpet solo weren't so "wah-wah" and "dirty" -- I'd prefer it more "cool" and upbeat, rather than sounding like a porno track. :-)
-- Jon
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I remember this, it ran in England in the late '60s. As I remember, (& I could be wrong here) Mr. Cat was a magician, who would run into a woman with troubles...
I thought he was a former cat burglar/acrobat now working as a professional bodyguard out of the Casa del Gato (house of the cat) bar, but memory fades.
And there are copies of episodes floating around, but the ones I've seen are completely washed out and almost unwatchable.
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Attention! attention!
To all CAT fans,
Please register and vote for this series at TVShowsOnDVD:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newuser.cfm
United, we will have a chance!
Find the current result for that title.
Voting Results
Unreleased Rank: 1024th
Overall Rank: 1591st
Season Set: 266 (96%)
Best of: 49 (18%)
Individual Episodes: 34 (12%)
Total Number of Voters: 276
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They broke the chain...and now Jan Murray is dead!
See how it works?
Maybe all is not lost. Paramount must have saved many of their shows of that period. Star Trek was cancelled after 3
seasons,and who knew at that time,that it would become as popular as it has. Other
Paramount shows like Wild Wild West,Mission:Impossible,and Hawaii 5-0
have made it to DVD. If Paramount kept prints of these shows,maybe they kept them
of most of their other shows,including T.H.E. Cat?
Remember that Star Trek was produced by Desilu, not Paramount. Paramount acquired the show and all its produced episodes when Lucille Ball sold her interest in it to the studio.
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I hope Paramount and CBS follow their lead with the success of HAWAII 5-0 and tackle MANNIX next. That started as a Desilu production as well in 1967, ended up in the Paramount canon. I loved that show.
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I hope Paramount and CBS follow their lead with the success of HAWAII 5-0 and tackle MANNIX next. That started as a Desilu production as well in 1967, ended up in the Paramount canon. I loved that show.
Ditto Joe.
Lew Wickersham
Head of Intertech
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The company for which Joe Mannix worked (in later seasons he was a truly self-employed private eye) was called InterTect, not "Intertech."
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I always thought Gail Fisher's portrayal of Mannix girl Friday, Peggy was top drawer. She added a lot to that series. This was a very popular show, so I'm hoping it shows up. I'd also like to see the 1972 "Here's Lucy" epeisode released entitled, "Lucy meets Mannix", where Mike Conners played his character, in of all things, a sitcom.
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