Cattanooga Cats

## Succeeded by

*Motormouse* (1970)

**Cattanooga Cats** is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions which originally aired on ABC from September 6, 1969 to December 27, 1969. During the 1970 season, it was cut down to 30 minutes and cut out *Motormouse and Autocat* and *It's the Wolf*, both of which got put into their own half-hour show, *Motormouse*.

## Format

### Season 1 (1969)

As with much of Hanna-Barbera's other shows from the decade, *Cattanooga Cats* is a package program with 4 main segments included, being a segment featuring the title characters, *Around the World in 79 Days*, *It's the Wolf* and *Motormouse and Autocat*. Aside from *Around the World in 79 Days* which is 12 minutes per segment, the other three are all 6 and a half minutes in total. Put in-between the segments of an episode are 'blackouts' and music videos featuring the Cats, with there being 5 blackouts and 2 music videos per episode.

### Season 2 (1970)

Come the fall of 1970, the original hour long version of the show ceased airing on September 5, 1970 on ABC to make way for two new half-hour shows for the segments on *Cattanooga Cats.* *Motormouse* included the *Motormouse and Autocat* and *It's the Wolf* segments, along with 4 out of the 5 Cats' blackouts from the original format and aired on Saturday mornings. The now cut in half *Cattanooga Cats* only featured the Cats' segments and music videos, along with *Around the World in 79 Days.*

Aside from new intro and credit sequences for both, no new content was featured on either program. Reruns of the half-hour season continued on ABC until September of 1971, when it ceased airing on the network permanently.

## Cast

* **Bill Callaway** - Country
* **Julie Bennett** - Kitty Jo, Chessie
* **Casey Kasem** - Groove
* **Jim Begg** - Scoots
* **Bruce Watson** - Finny Fogg
* **Janet Waldo** - Jenny Trent
* **Don Messick** - Announcer, Hoppy, Smirky
* **Daws Butler** - Crumden, Lambsy
* **Allan Melvin** - Bumbler, Bristlehound
* **Paul Lynde** - Mildew Wolf
* **Dick Curtis** - Motormouse
* **Marty Ingels** - Autocat

Additional voices include:

* **Peggy Clinger**
* **Mike Curb**
* **Peggy Larey**
* **Hal Smith**
* **Michael Lloyd**
* **John Stephenson**
* **Ginny Tyler**
* **Jean Vander Pyl**

## Songs

*Main article: List of songs*

One of the most fondly remembered aspects of the show were the songs shown in every episode, with vocals provided by Michael Lloyd and Peggy Clinger. Songwriting duties were headed by Lloyd and Clinger as well as musical director Mike Curb, Roger Christian, Harley Hatcher, Guy Hemric, Jerry Styner and Val Johns, among a few others.

Not counting the opening/closing theme, 34 songs in total played through the show.

### Release of the soundtrack

To date, the most major release of the Cats' music is the EP released in 1969 by Forward Records in conjunction with the shows release. It includes the main theme as well as 10 of the songs from the show, spanning from songs included from episodes 1 to 8. Also released in 1969 were two promotional single releases, being *Mother May I? / Johnny Johnny Jump-Up* and *Merry-Go-Round / Country Carnival*.

None of the Cats' music would be officially released afterwards until 2017 when a single song was included on Curb Records' *Best of West Coast Rock and Roll* album, being *Come and Play with the Cattanooga Cats,* under the name "*Theme From Cattanooga Cats*." This song has also been put up on Curb's website along with *How Did I Ever Get So Lucky*.

Although the copyright of the songs have been renewed at the U.S. Copyright Office as recently as 2021, it seems Curb or any affiliated parties have no interest in releasing any more of the *Cattanooga Cats* soundtrack.

## Broadcast history

### **US**

* ABC (1969-1971)
* Cartoon Network (1995-2000)
* Boomerang US (2000-2012)

### **Italy**

* GPE Telemond (1981)
* TVA 40
* Telestudio (2011)
* Smile TV (2012)
* ReteMia (2021-present)

### **Brazil**

* TV Bandeirantes (1970)
* TV Tupi
* Boomerang LA

## Release

As of 2023, the only home media releases of any *Cattanooga Cats* content are the Cattanooga Cats and the Motormouse and Autocat Super-8 Film reels released by Walton Home Video in 1971 as well as the It's the Wolf VHS tape released by Worldvision Home Video in 1988. There seem to be no plans to release the series on DVD, Blu-ray or have it be made available for streaming anytime in the near future.

## References

1. ↑  https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=14&ti=1,14&Search%5FArg=V9988D708&Search%5FCode=DOCN&CNT=25&PID=PqqBpw7YOrL9gKc2ZQB6XCNl&SEQ=20230509094505&SID=1. Retrieved May 9, 2023