Top Cat (character)

This article is about the character. For other uses, see Top Cat.

Top Cat
I may be shrewd and all, but my friends call me a charismatic leader, if that's what you're looking for!
Species	Cat
Gender	Male
Member of	Yogi's Gang Yogi's Treasure Hunters
Affiliation	Benny the Ball Brain Spook Choo Choo Fancy Fancy Officer Dibble Batman Superman
Occupation	Con artist
Goals	Scam people to get food and money Outsmarting Officer Dibble
Marital status	Single
First appearance	TC: "The $1,000,000 Derby" (1961)
Played by	Arnold Stang (1961-90) Daws Butler (1972) Tom Kenny (2000-02) Jason Harris (2011, 2015, 2016) Thomas Lennon (2021)
Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats
Fender Bender 500
Top Cat: The Movie
Top Cat Begins
Wacky Races
Adam Strange/Future Quest Special
Jellystone!

Top Cat, often abbreviated to T.C., is an anthropomorphic cat and the smooth-talking main title character of the Top Cat animated television series. He is a highly mischievous con artist living at Hoagy's Alley in Manhattan. His voice was originated by Arnold Stang, using a Phil Silvers impression as the basis.

He uses his clever wit to devise various schemes for the sake of money, food, or places to stay in. He is often referred to as the most effectual, intellectual, and indisputable leader of his own street gang. Top Cat's foil in the series is Officer Dibble, an NYPD police officer who keeps a watchful eye on his antics.

Character description

Top Cat is a yellow, slender feline with an oval-shaped head, white muzzle, a black nose, and a long tail. His attire consists of a Tyrian purple waistcoat, and a matching pork pie hat with a black band, which his ears poke out of. He also sports a black cane that he carries, although its notable appearance appears to be in the series' title sequence.

Living in small area in Manhattan known as Hoagy's Alley, Top Cat makes a living by being a sly, greedy con artist. Although he acts incredibly lazy, he has own charm by using sarcastic remarks, alliterative wordplay, and a natural wit in dry comedy. Top Cat strives to make a fast buck or to get food, typically using his mind to scam those who bump into him. He does so by taking advantage of the person he targets, usually by complimenting their traits so they would fall under his schemes. Top Cat's targets vary, ranging from gullible patrons, to Officer Dibble, to even his own gang on rare occasions; although he does show a strong respect to the latter (particularly Benny the Ball). In spite of the gang's best efforts, Top Cat's elaborate schemes often backfire in the end.

Top Cat is also the main target of Officer Dibble, a beat patrol cop who bats an eye on him and his gang. The shady gentleman is a thorn on Dibble's no-nonsense authority, which infuriates him just as much as any customer Top Cat has. He lazily ignores cleaning up his own alley, and is frequently seen using Dibble's patrol call box in spite of it only made for the latter's use. Regardless of how many times Dibble tried to arrest him, or evict him from the area, Top Cat has nearly evaded from these actions, opting to instead continue his own way of life.

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
• Fender Bender 500
• The Powerpuff Girls
  • 3.8B "Catastrophe" (no lines)
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
  • 3.10 "Mindless"
  • 4.17 "The Death of Harvey"
• Duck Dodgers
  • 2.16B "K9 Quarry" (taxidermized)
• Wacky Races
  • 1.14 "Off Track" (no lines)
  • 2.22 "Super Wacky" (painting)
• Jellystone!
  • 1.1 "Yogi's Tummy Trouble"
  • 1.2 "Gorilla in Our Midst" (no lines)
  • 1.7 "Must Be Jelly" (no lines)
  • 1.8 "Cats Do Dance"
  • 1.11 "Mr. Flabby Dabby Wabby Jabby" (no lines)
  • 1.12 "Ice Ice Daddy" (no lines)
  • 1.13 "DNA, A-OK!"
  • 1.14 "Face of the Town!" (no lines)
  • 1.17 "Gotta Kiss Them All" (no lines)
  • 1.19 "A Fish Sticky Situation"
  • 1.21 "Spell Book" (no lines)
  • 1.23 "Baby Shenanigans" (no lines)
  • 1.24 "Bleep!" (no lines)
  • 1.25 "Yogi's Mid-Life Crisis" (no lines)
  • 1.26 "Jellystone Moon Platoon" (no lines)
  • 1.27 "The Sea Monster of Jellystone Cove" (no lines)
  • 1.28 "Business" (no lines)
  • 1.30 "Uh Oh! It's a Burglar!" (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)
  • 2.10 "Vote Raspberry" (no lines)
  • 2.12 "Mummy Knows Best" (no lines)
  • 2.13 "Augie-mented Reality" (no lines)
  • 2.16 "Lil' Honk Honks!" (no lines)
  • 2.17 "Epic Rager"
• Teen Titans Go!
  • 8.24 "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary" (no lines)

Movies

• Yogi's Ark Lark
• Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats
• Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon (poster)
• Top Cat: The Movie
• Top Cat Begins
• Scoob! (mentioned)

Specials

• Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration (no lines)
• The 1st 13th Annual Fancy Anvil Awards Show Program Special: Live in Stereo

Shorts

• "Everyone" (no lines)
• 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"
  • Issue #16A: "It's a Wonderful Strife"
  • Issue #16B: "Stray Pets"
  • Issue #16C: "Cops Cat"
• Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
  • Issue 29: "Reigning Cats and Dogs"
• Adam Strange/Future Quest Special
  • Issue #1B: "Out of the Alley"
• Superman/Top Cat Special
  • Issue #1A: "...The Kalien Among Us"

Video games

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

Biography

Debut Series

In Top Cat, not much is known of the title character prior to his life as a con artist, although in the episode "The Unscratchables," Top Cat and Benny mentioned that they first met each other when they were Boy Scouts.

Crossover Era

The Treasure Hunt

In Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Top Cat became a taskmaker and assigner to Yogi's Treasure Hunters team. In a flashback preceeding the series, he was recruited by the President of the United States and left his residence in Hoagy's Alley to pursue a luxourious life, a goal that he persued prior.

Fender Bender 500

He is the driver of the Alley Cat (designated #4), with Choo Choo as a passenger.

Harvey Birdman Represents

In the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Mindless," Top Cat crashes at Harvey's place after being neutered. He was arrested for money laundering just outside of Harvey's house.

Top Cat Sells Out

In the Duck Dodgers episode "K9 Quarry," stuffed trophies of Yogi, Wally Gator, Boo Boo, Hong Kong Phooey, and Top Cat, appear on an alien hunter's ship.

Development

The personality of Top Cat was largely inspired by Sargent "Ernie" Bilko, a character played by Phil Silvers in the 1950s TV sitcom The Phil Silvers Show. While both of these characters may seem different on the surface, the two share a shrewd taste for coming up with crazy schemes, using their wits to fool their superiors and exploit their teams to do the hard work. Apart from their personalities, Top Cat and Bilko also have the same vocal tone.

Michael O'Shea was first slated to be the voice of Top Cat, but dropped out because of other commitments. According to associate producer Alan Dinehart, O'Shea took too long to record his lines and was replaced by Arnold Stang mid-production. In a Weekly Variety story (dated July 19, 1961), Andy Devine, Mickey Rooney, Jerry Lester, Larry Storch, and Max Rosenbloom were also among the actors who auditioned for the role before Stang.

Gallery

Main article: Top Cat (character)/Gallery

Toys and merchandise

Main article: Top Cat (character)/Toys

Behind the scenes

• Top Cat bares some similarities to Hokey Wolf, who also came out the same year in 1961. The two create schemes to get what they want and both have similar voices, despite them being voiced by two different people.
  • Interestingly enough, Daws Butler represented the voice of Top Cat in the TV movie Yogi's Ark Lark — a pilot of the Yogi's Gang TV series — as Arnold Stang wasn't available at the time. Since Daws was using a similar-sounding voice to Hokey, Hokey had no dialogue in the film, and this issue could have also been the reason why Top Cat didn't appear for the series.
• According to Hanna-Barbera's 1982 calendar, he was born on May 29th.
• On the BBC airings of Top Cat and in some British merchandising prior to the 1990s, he was called Boss Cat, due to trademark issues regarding British cat food with the same name as "Top Cat." The issue was rectified once the food brand was discontinued in 1999, although the British VHS releases of the show had still used the original "Top Cat" name prior to this.
• Top Cat's series is popular in Mexico under the name Don Gato y su pandilla (Mr. Cat and his Gang) and he is referred to as Don Gato in this dub. The series' popularity in the country led to two movies in the 2010s, Top Cat: The Movie and Top Cat Begins; both produced by Mexican animation companies and distributed by Warner Bros. Mexico.
• Top Cat's Japanese name is Doraneko Taisho (ドラ猫大将, Boss Cat), but goes by his English name in later dubs except for Jellystone!.

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 The Simpsons episode "The Day The Violence Died", Roger Myers Jr. says that animation "has always plagiarized existing properties" and "without Sargent Bilko from The Phill Silvers Show, we wouldn't have Top Cat."
• In "Episode 18" (series 7) of the UK BBC One quiz show Pointless, the first round of questions that fell into the "Cartoon" category is Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters, with host Alexander Armstrong showing an image of several of them together, which includes Scooby and Scrappy. The contestants have to be able to pick out all the obscure characters that 100 anonymous public people had been able to guess. Contestant Rhian said that she recognized Top Cat, but went with Bamm-Bamm Rubble. 76 of the anonymous public chose Top Cat. Once the round was over Rhian said how Top Cat was one of the characters she loved watching when she was younger.

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Dead Ringers (radio)

• "Episode Two" (series 2): 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.
• "Episode Three" (series 7): BBC News' Michael Burke interviews Officer Dibble after Top Cat has him removed from his beat under the Cartoon Animal Bill of Rights Act, only because Officer Dibble had Top Cat arrested for using his phone, but T.C. had him suspended on suspicious entrapment, and putting a wire on Choo Choo.