Heathcliff, Heathcliff No-One Should Terrorise the Neighbourhood!
The 1980's was full of fantastic cartoon cats all of whom were orange for some reason: Henry's Cat, Garfield and of course Heathcliff! Heathcliff started life as a comic strip created by George Gatley in 1973. Teh comic became syndicated and was so popular that it ran in over 1,000 newspapers. In the comic strip Heathcliff was a silent cat, however by the 1980's he had become so popular that he had to speak out! Heathcliff was originally created as an animated cartoon (and through this given a voice) in 1980 by Ruby-Spears which ran for two seasons. Season One teamed Heathcliff up with the characters Dingbat and the Creeps (a vampire dog and soe odd companions). The second season paired Heathcliff up with Marmaduke, a dog he had shared some newspaper space with.
However, I don't think that either of these made it over to the UK, as the cartoon I remember is the cartoon created later in 1984 by DiC Entertainment, which ran for 86 episodes and in the UK was known as Heathcliff and Cats & Co. (elsewhere this was known as Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats). This showed Heatchliff for the first 11 minutes, and then a Cats & Co episode for the next eleven, then finally wrapped it all with a 'special message' from Heathcliff e.g. don't drop litter, look after your pets, be nice to people etc.
Heathcliff
In both he 1980 cartoon and the 1984 cartoons Heathcliff was voiced by Mel Blanc (who also voiced Bugs Bunny). Heathcliff is a street-smart cat, who spends most of his time trying to get hold of fish to eat, his trademark move when in trouble is to turn a dustbin over onto people's heads! Heatchliff is a real street cat he loves to fight anyone and everyone dogs, cats, humans and will lie, cheat and steal to get himself some food, but beneath it all he's a good guy.
Sonia
Heathcliff's love is Sonia, a fluffy white persian cat, who wears a pink collar. Heatchliff is always trying to win Sonia over, although geenrally she isn't usually too impressed with Heathcliff's antics as she is a far classier type of cat.
Knuckles
Knuckles (in the red and black) and his henchman weren't really Heathcliff's enemies, more like a group of cats that he constantly annoyed and bullied. More often than not they were after him, becasue he had tried to trick them in some way.
Spike
Spike was probably the closest thing to a nemesis that Heathcliff had, although Spike was no-where near as clever as Heathcliff, he was all brawn and no brains. Spike was owned by a neighbourhood bully called Muggsy (a small boy witha red cap). Heathcliff was quite able to handle both of them however when needed.
The Catillac Cats
The Catillac cats was the cartoon that played alongside Heathcliff. they were left to right Wordsworth (rode roller-skates, spoke in rhyme and always wore a personal stereo), Mungo (big, clumsy and not the sharpest tool in the box), Hector ( second in command and wanted to be king!) and Riff-Raff the boss.
Cleo
Cleo was Riff-Raff's love interest and most episodes focused around him trying to woo her. The Catillac cat (so named as they drove a very cool Cadillac which could transform into an aeroplane and a boat) lived in a JunkYard guarded by Leroy the dog (and so unlike Heathcliff had no owners). Riff-Raff never appeared in any Heathcliff episodes even though both cartoons were set in WesterFinster. The three other Catillac Cats would often traverse both cartoons.
Bush
Cleo lived in a musical instrument shop, and the shop and Cleo to some extent were guarded by a loyal Sheepdog call Bush. Unfortunately due to his bushy hair-do most of the time when Riff-Raff would break in to take Cleo out, Bush would end up running into various musical instruments trying to stop him.
Heathcliff
There are several versions of the Heathcligg title song,but eventually it ended up as 'Heathcliff, Heathcliff no-one should.......' etc. presumably as it was felt that previous attempts such as 'Cats and Company, terrorise the neighbourhood.....' was too confusing as it didn't identify with Heathcliff enough?
Grandpa and Iggy
Heathcliff's owner was a little boy called Iggy Nutmeg, who lived with Grandpa and Grandma, who don't really feature strongly in the cartoon. Iggy sometimes features as he may take Heathcliff to strange places and new locations for adventures. Iggy's parents are never mentioned, so I presume they are dead.
Marcy
Marcy was a small girl that lived in the same neighbourhood as Iggy's family. Marcy always saw th ebest in Heathcliff ans thought he was a little angel!
Heathcliff: Facts
Originally Aired: 1984-1987
Episodes: 86 epsidoes over 2 seasons
Length: approx 22mins
Created By: George Gately [Heathcliff], Jean Chalopin, Bruno Bianchi [The Catillac Cats]
Presented By: DiC Entertainement, ICC TV Productions
Heathcliff, Heathcliff, no one should terrorise their neighborhood.
But Heathcliff just won't be undone playing pranks on everyone.
There's a race to be on top.The competition doesn't stop.
Mixing with the ladies fair, being charming, debonair.
The gang will reign supreme and no one can deny-y-y-y.
They’ll make some history and always have an alibi-iiiii.
So join in the jubilee, the cats are great, they’ll all agree.
Find in each calamity, the cats superiority.
Woahhh woooah, woooah,
Ho ho hoooo ho hooo ho ho hoooo ho ho.
Heathcliff, Heathcliff, no one should, terrorise their neighborhood.
But Heathcliff just won't be undone........
You should realize he can win it with you!
Heathcliff: Episode Guide
There were 86 episodes over the two seasons that the 1984 version of Heathcliff ran for. Unfortunately this is far too many to cover here, but here are some great sites that can give you all the info you need!
The epsidoes always used to air in the format of one Heathcliff episode and one Cats & Co. episode (sometime referred to as Catillac Cats), to make up a 22 minute show.
