T.H.E. Cat
T.H.E. Cat is an American action drama that aired on NBC during the 1966–1967 television season.
T.H.E. Cat | |
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Robert Loggia in T.H.E. Cat | |
Genre | Action drama Crime drama |
Created by | Harry Julian Fink |
Written by | Ronald Austin James D. Buchanan Harry Julian Fink Robert Hamner Herman Miller Bernard C. Schoenfeld Jack Turley |
Directed by | Alan Crosland, Jr. Paul Baxley Don McDougall Maurice Vaccarino Boris Sagal Jacques Tourneur |
Starring | Robert Loggia R.G. Armstrong Robert Carricart |
Composers | Lalo Schifrin Gerald Fried Ruby Raksin |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 26 |
Production | |
Producer | Boris Sagal |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company | NBC Productions |
Distributor | NBC Films (1968-1969) CBS Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Original release | September 16, 1966 – March 31, 1967 |
The series was co-sponsored by R.J. Reynolds (Winston) and Lever Brothers and was created by Harry Julian Fink.
Robert Loggia starred as the title character, Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat.[1] The series preceded the 1968–1970 ABC television series It Takes a Thief, which was also about a cat burglar who used his skills for good.
Synopsis
Out of the night comes a man who saves lives at the risk of his own. Once a circus performer, an aerialist who refused the net. Once a cat burglar, a master among jewel thieves. Now a professional bodyguard. Primitive... savage... in love with danger. The Cat![2]
The series had a hero who was a reformed thief, having spent an unspecified term in prison,[3] and of Gypsy heritage. In the mold of famed private eye Peter Gunn and the waterfront bar Mother's, Cat operated out of the Casa Del Gato (House of the Cat) in San Francisco, of which he was part owner. Thomas (The Cat) was a master of the martial arts, who used his skills numerous times to stop antagonists in his pursuit of justice for the downtrodden, and for his various clients. He always worked on the side of the law...occasionally using his skills for the local police. His police contact was Police Capt. McAllister, a man with only one hand. R.G. Armstrong played McAllister in 12 episodes of the series.[4]
T.H.E. Cat was one of two characters of TV series in the 1966 season who employed martial arts skills in the cause of justice. The other was Bruce Lee's character of Kato on the ABC-TV series The Green Hornet. These two characters were among the first on network television to employ martial arts skills as weapons against crime.[5] Cat was also a master gymnast and acrobatic artist, who used his acquired skills as a circus performer to get into places that the police could not reach.[6]
Casting
Series star Robert Loggia had previously played a character known as "the Cat" in the 1958–60 Walt Disney television miniseries The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, in which Loggia played Baca, an Old West Mexican-American lawman whose nickname was "the Cat", a fact viewers were reminded of each week in the series' theme song.[7] The series ran for 10 episodes and was recut into a feature movie.
After T.H.E. Cat, Loggia, an actor with a long history of film and television credits, went on to star in a number of high-profile hit Hollywood films, including An Officer and a Gentleman, Scarface, Sylvester Stallone's Over the Top, the Tom Hanks hit film Big, and the science fiction action film Independence Day. In 1985, Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of crusty private detective Sam Ransom in the thriller Jagged Edge and had the starring role in another NBC series, Mancuso, FBI, for which he was nominated for an Emmy in 1989.
Reception
Though T.H.E. Cat was popular among children and teens, the series fared poorly in the ratings overall, a situation that prompted its cancellation after a single season.[8]
Episodes
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "To Kill a Priest" | Boris Sagal | Harry Julian Fink | September 16, 1966 |
2 | "The Sandman" | Boris Sagal | James D. Buchanan & Ronald Austin | September 23, 1966 |
3 | "Payment Overdue" | Boris Sagal | Robert Hamner | September 30, 1966 |
4 | "The Brotherhood" | Maurice Vaccarino | Harry Julian Fink | October 7, 1966 |
5 | "Little Arnie from Long Ago" | Don McDougall | James D. Buchanan & Ronald Austin | October 14, 1966 |
6 | "None to Weep, None to Mourn" | Harvey Hart | Herman Miller | October 21, 1966 |
7 | "Moment of Truth" | John Rich | John O'Dea & Arthur Rowe | October 28, 1966 |
8 | "Marked for Death" | Alan Crosland, Jr. | George F. Slavin & Stanley Adams | November 4, 1966 |
9 | "Crossing at Destino Bay" | Boris Sagal | Robert E. Thompson | November 18, 1966 |
10 | "To Bell T.H.E. Cat" | Sutton Roley | Bernard C. Schoenfeld | November 25, 1966 |
11 | "Curtains for Miss Winslow" | Herschel Daugherty | Bernard C. Schoenfeld | December 2, 1966 |
12 | "King of Limpets" | Boris Sagal | Herman Miller | December 9, 1966 |
13 | "The System" | Don McDougall | Robert Hamner | December 16, 1966 |
14 | "The Canary Who Lost His Voice" | Joseph Pevney | Shimon Wincelberg | December 23, 1966 |
15 | "The Ring of Anasis" | Jacques Tourneur | Herman Miller | December 30, 1966 |
16 | "Queen of Diamonds, Knave of Hearts" | Boris Sagal | Jack Turley | January 6, 1967 |
17 | "A Hot Place to Die" | Paul Baxley | Jack Turley | January 13, 1967 |
18 | "A Slight Family Trait" | Boris Sagal | Jack Turley | January 20, 1967 |
19 | "If Once You Fail" | Maurice Vaccarino | Harry Julian Fink | January 27, 1967 |
20 | "Design for Death" | Alan Crosland, Jr. | Jack Turley | February 3, 1967 |
21 | "Matter Over Mind" | Boris Sagal | James D. Buchanan & Ronald Austin | February 10, 1967 |
22 | "The Blood-Red Night" | Bert Freed | Bernard C. Schoenfeld | February 17, 1967 |
23 | "The Ninety Percent Blues" | Harry Harris | Robert Hamner | February 24, 1967 |
24 | "The Long Chase" | Paul Baxley | Robert Hamner | March 10, 1967 |
25 | "Twenty-One and Out" | Paul Stanley | Preston Wood | March 24, 1967 |
26 | "Lisa" | Jud Taylor | James D. Buchanan & Ronald Austin | March 31, 1967 |
Cast
- Robert Loggia as Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat
- R. G. Armstrong as Captain McAllister
- Robert Carricart as Pepe Cordoza
Guest stars: Chris Alcaide, Barbara Stuart, Steve Ihnat, Robert Duvall, Laura Devon, Yvonne Romain, Sorrell Booke, Diana Muldaur, Linda Cristal
Custom car
Several times he drove a Chevrolet Corvette. It was a mid-'60s convertible Stingray. It was customized with a bar that extended up and over the back of the driver. It was not, however, a roll bar—there were two flaps on the top portion. When the headlights were rolled to the "on" position, there were accents by each light that mimicked a cat's eye shape. Its body was painted black.
See also
- The A-Team television series about a team of former military personnel who help those in need.
- It Takes a Thief television series about an ex-cat burglar released from prison to steal for the fictional government agency SIA (Secret Intelligence Agency.
References
- Brooks, Brooks and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946 - Present, page 606, Ballentine Books, 1979
- "A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: T.H.E. CAT (1966–67)". mysteryfile.com.
- Gowran, Clay (October 31, 1966). "Plan More Kisses for Bone Busting Cat". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060030/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWgHqRraCW0
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-hXsMbUqEs
- "Elfago Baca". Legends: Outlaws & Lawmen. Boulder, Colorado, USA: Active Interest Media, Inc. June 2013. Special edition of American Cowboy magazine. Page 28: "Walt Disney, the only producer of 1950s TV Westerns to focus on minority issues, powerfully told the full story of Baca's career in a ten-episode mini-series for ABC between 1958–1960, starring Robert Loggia. The title The Nine Lives of Elfago Baca, played off the hero's nickname 'El Gato', 'the cat'."
- https://www.nndb.com/people/318/000023249/