Benny the Ball

Benny the Ball
Species	Cat
Gender	Male
Member of	Yogi's Gang
Affiliation	Top Cat Brain Spook Choo Choo Fancy Fancy Officer Dibble
Goals	Follow Top Cat's orders
Mother	Mrs. Ball
First appearance	TC: "The $1,000,000 Derby" (1961)
Played by	Maurice Gosfield (1961-62) John Stephenson (1972) Avery Schreiber (1988) Maurice LaMarche (2000-07) Chris Edgerly (2013, 2015) C.H. Greenblatt (2021-present)
Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats
File:TCTM Benny.png Top Cat: The Movie
Top Cat Begins
Wacky Races
Jellystone!

Benny the Ball is an anthropomorphic cat and a main character in the Top Cat animated television series. He is known for being Top Cat's best friend and right-hand man, and is the youngest member of his gang. His voice was originated by Maurice Gosfield.

Character description

Benny is a short, indigo-colored cat with a peach-colored coat covering his face. He wears a white sports jacket that fastens with only a single button at his neck. His eyes appear to be black dots, unlike the other cats who have white sclerae with black pupils.

Benny is a friendly and loyal companion who remains very close to Top Cat for the most part. However, he is prone to being simple-minded and sometimes shown to be a victim to his own child-like innocence. Although he is not the smartest member of T.C.'s gang, he is shown to be mature and brave at times, being able to help them out whenever he could. Benny is also capable of asking the most logical questions to T.C.'s schemes, and at times, he is shown to have a dry wit when it comes to providing comic relief.

Appearances

TV series

• Top Cat
  • 1.1 "The $1,000,000 Derby"
  • 1.2 "The Missing Heir"
  • 1.3 "Hawaii, Here We Come"
  • 1.4 "Top Cat Falls in Love"
  • 1.5 "The Violin Player"
  • 1.6 "The Unscratchables"
  • 1.7 "All That Jazz"
  • 1.8 "Choo Choo's Romance"
  • 1.9 "A Visit from Mother"
  • 1.10 "Rafeefleas"
  • 1.11 "Sergeant Top Cat"
  • 1.12 "Naked Town"
  • 1.13 "The Maharajah of Pookajee"
  • 1.14 "The Long Hot Winter"
  • 1.15 "The Tycoon"
  • 1.16 "The Grand Tour"
  • 1.17 "Space Monkey"
  • 1.18 "T.C. Minds the Baby"
  • 1.19 "The Golden Fleecing"
  • 1.20 "The Case of the Missing Anteater"
  • 1.21 "Farewell, Mr. Dibble"
  • 1.22 "The Late T.C."
  • 1.23 "Choo Choo Goes Ga Ga"
  • 1.24 "King for a Day"
  • 1.25 "Dibble Breaks the Record"
  • 1.26 "The Con Men"
  • 1.27 "Dibble's Birthday"
  • 1.28 "Dibble Sings Again"
  • 1.29 "Griswald"
  • 1.30 "Dibble's Double"
• Yogi's Treasure Hunt
• The Powerpuff Girls
  • 3.8B "Catastrophe" (no lines)
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
• Wacky Races
  • 1.14 "Off Track" (no lines)
• Jellystone!
  • 1.1 "Yogi's Tummy Trouble" (no lines)
  • 1.2 "Gorilla in Our Midst" (no lines)
  • 1.7 "Must Be Jelly" (no lines)
  • 1.8 "Cats Do Dance"
  • 1.9 "VIP Baby You Know Me" (no lines)
  • 1.13 "DNA, A-OK!"
  • 1.14 "Face of the Town!" (no lines)
  • 1.17 "Gotta Kiss Them All" (no lines)
  • 1.18 "Jelly Wrestle Rumble!" (no lines)
  • 1.19 "A Fish Sticky Situation"
  • 1.20 "A Town Video: Welcome to Jellystone" (no lines)
  • 1.21 "Spell Book" (no lines)
  • 1.22 "Lady Danjjer: Is It Wrong to Long for Kabong?" (no lines)
  • 1.23 "Baby Shenanigans" (no lines)
  • 1.24 "Bleep!" (no lines)
  • 1.25 "Yogi's Mid-Life Crisis"
  • 1.26 "Jellystone Moon Platoon" (no lines)
  • 1.27 "The Sea Monster of Jellystone Cove"
  • 1.28 "Business" (no lines)
  • 1.29 "Pants!"
  • 1.30 "Uh Oh! It's a Burglar!" (no lines)
  • 1.31 "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Rat Race" (no lines)
  • 1.32 "The Brave Little Daddy" (no lines)
  • 1.34 "Boo Boo and Benny: Little Buddy Trouble"
  • 1.35 "The Box Thief" (no lines)
  • 1.36 "Jailcation"
  • 1.38 "Augie's Baby" (no lines)
  • 1.39 "Heroes and Capes" (no lines)
  • 1.40 "Sweet Dreams"
  • 2.1 "Meet the Jetsons" (no lines)
  • 2.2 "Disco Fever" (no lines)
  • 2.3 "Cindy vs. Noodle Arms"
  • 2.4 "Hot Guys, Cold Turkey" (no lines)
  • 2.5 "Lotions 11"
  • 2.8 "Girl, You My Friend!" (no lines)
  • 2.12 "Mummy Knows Best" (no lines)
  • 2.13 "Augie-mented Reality" (no lines)
  • 2.16 "Lil' Honk Honks!" (no lines)

Movies

• Yogi's Ark Lark
• Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats
• Top Cat: The Movie
• Top Cat Begins

Specials

• The 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Awards Show Program Special: Live in Stereo (no lines)

Shorts

• Halifax's "Top Cat" commercial

Comics

• Top Cat (Dell Comics)
• Top Cat (Gold Key Comics)
• Top Cat (Charlton Comics)
• Cartoon Network Presents
  • Issue #1B: "Alley Oops!"
  • Issue #3A: "The Twiddle Method"
• Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
  • Issue #29: "Reigning Cats and Dogs"
• Adam Strange/Future Quest Special
  • Issue #1B: "Out of the Alley" (no lines)
• Superman/Top Cat Special
  • Issue #1A: "...The Kalien Among Us" (mentioned)

Video games

• Top Cat Starring in Beverly Hills Cats
• Hanna-Barbera's Turbo Toons

Development

Benny the Ball's personality and appearance were modeled after Maurice Gosfield and his portrayal as Private Duane Doberman on The Phil Silvers Show.

Gallery

Main article: Benny the Ball/Gallery

Toys and merchandise

Main article: Benny the Ball/Toys

Behind the scenes

• In the Spanish dub for Top Cat, Benny was given a child's voice, making him seem more like a naive child than a small adult. His name was also changed to Benito to reflect this, which in Spanish, adding "ito" or "ita" to a word makes it sound small and adorable (for example, "Gato" is a cat but "Gatito" is a kitten).

In popular culture

• The scene from "Naked Town," in which Top Cat, his gang, and Dibble are sitting on the curb outside the Ajax warehouse is being watched by Mike in the 1984 film Sixteen Candles.
• Chief Judge Ricky watches "The Violin Player," his favorite he has seen a dozen times, in the fourth issue of the Red Razors comic series, although only Top Cat is seen. He refers to it by saying, "It's that episode where Benny gets mistaken for a famous violin player."
• In "Episode Two" (series 2) of the Dead Ringers radio sketch program, Nick Russ presents Cartoon Crimewatch that reports on Top Cat victimizing the passerby that walked through Hoagy's Alley. Top Cat was using the stupid Brain (mistakenly called "Brains") to swindle money for a fake charity for stupid cats. He gets an old lady's watch, which he gives to Benny to fence, but he takes it literally. Officer Dibble comes onto the scene, but is distracted by a phone call from the sergeant who wants him back at the station, which disappoints Dibble because he would rather stay on TV, breaking the fourth wall.

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