The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty

The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty
Directed by Hal Sutherland
Creative director(s) Don Christensen
Presented by Filmation
Voices of Howard Morris
Allan Melvin
Jane Webb
Theme music composer Jackie Mills
Joyce Taylor
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13
Production
Producer(s) Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Running time 30 min.
Release
Original network NBC
Original release September 6, 1975 – November 29, 1975

The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty is a children's television show alternating animation and live footage segments. It took the concept of James Thurber's popular short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and parodied it with anthropomorphised dogs and cats. The show did not last long; it ran into trouble with the estate of James Thurber as it was not authorized by them. It did reappear on the Groovie Goolies show under the title The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty

Plot

Waldo Kitty, an orange and white bicolor cat, and his girlfriend Felicia, a white Persian, were cats who were constantly bullied by the bulldog, Tyrone. Each episode featured wraparound live-action segments of two cats and a bulldog playing the parts, with voiceovers. Waldo or Felicia (or both) would inevitably be bullied by Tyrone, inducing Waldo to begin wishing he was a famous character, and the scene would shift to a cartoon version of whichever character he wished to be, with Felicia appearing as the appropriate love-interest, and Tyrone appearing as the villain. In the animated stories, Tyrone was consistently flanked by three henchmen dogs: a large, fat Sheepdog, a tall, thin Irish Setter-like hound, and a diminutive Cocker Spaniel, whose voice was a caricature of Peter Lorre. Although they were constantly by Tyrone's side in the animated story, they never made any appearances in the live-action story. On the other hand, a small sparrow, a mutual friend of both Waldo and Felicia's, would often appear in the animated sequences, usually as Waldo's sidekick (Such as in the Cat Man stories, in which he was Cat Man's sidekick "Sparrow" - a parody of Robin).

At the conclusion of the animated segment, the show would return to the live-action, in which Waldo, now inspired with renewed courage and confidence thanks to the animated story, would then stand up to the bullying Tyrone. Not his physical equal in any way, Waldo would use his wiles to goad Tyrone into chasing him, leading Tyrone into a trap that would result in Tyrone getting in serious trouble with his owners (either a hot-tempered man or woman, whose faces were never seen), and Tyrone would suffer the consequences, (i.e., spanked, locked inside the house, tethered to a tree, etc.). Now safe from Tyrone, Waldo and Felecia could relax without worry and have a laugh or two at Tyrone's predicament.

Pop culture references

These characters consisted of a variety of characters which spoofed various characters from pop-culture. Cat-Man and Sparrow were an obvious lampooning of Batman and Robin, as was Catzan of the Apes, spoofing Tarzan. Also spoofed was Robin Hood, where the feline was that hero of English yore, Robin Cat. Also parodied were The Lone Ranger ("The Lone Kitty") and Star Trek ("Cat Trek", with Captain Herc of the starship "Second-Prize"). (As it happens, Filmation had done or would eventually do straight adaptations of all of these properties except Robin Hood.) A running gag of this series was the arch-villain's (Tyrone's) response to Waldo's character: "Seize him!", to which his henchman would reply, "We sees him, we sees him. What of it?"

Episodes

Thirteen animated 30-minute installments were produced for the series, which aired on NBC Saturday morning between September 6, 1975 and September 4, 1976. According to Animation by Filmation authors Michael Swanigan and Darryl McNeil, Filmation did not secure the rights to use the title or characters from Thurber's estate, which sued, and forced a title change to The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty for syndication as part of The Groovie Goolies and Friends package. In this version, the title was not only changed, but the live-action wraparounds were removed as well.

No. Title Original air date
1"Cat Man"September 6, 1975 (1975-09-06)
2"Catzan of the Apes"September 13, 1975 (1975-09-13)
3"The Lone Kitty"September 20, 1975 (1975-09-20)
4"Robin Cat"September 27, 1975 (1975-09-27)
5"Cat Trek"October 4, 1975 (1975-10-04)
6"Cat Man Meets the Poochquin"October 11, 1975 (1975-10-11)
7"Catzan or Not Catzan"October 18, 1975 (1975-10-18)
8"The Lone Kitty Rides Again"October 25, 1975 (1975-10-25)
9"Sheriff of Sherwood"November 1, 1975 (1975-11-01)
10"Cat Man Meets the Puzzler"November 8, 1975 (1975-11-08)
11"Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?"November 15, 1975 (1975-11-15)
12"Ping or Pongo"November 22, 1975 (1975-11-22)
13"Chaw the Bullet"November 29, 1975 (1975-11-29)

Voices

DVD

BCI Eclipse had a pair of releases planned for this cartoon, pairing it with a similar Filmation series, Fraidy Cat. However, chances of its release is unknown, as the company had since ceased operations.

Credits

External links

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