''Heathcliff'' ( ''Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats'', known as ''Les Entrechats'' in French) is a children's animated series that debuted on September 3, 1984. Produced by

DIC Audiovisuel DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...

, it was the second animated series based on the '' Heathcliff'' comic strip (after

Ruby-Spears Ruby-Spears Productions (also known as Ruby-Spears Enterprises) was a Burbank, California–based American entertainment production company that specialized in animation with another branch in Rome, Italy. This company was founded in 1977 by vete ...

' '' Heathcliff'' from 1980). 65 half-hour episodes aired in first-run syndication in the fall of 1984, followed by a second season of 21 episodes in 1985 ran in syndication until it ended in 1988. The Catillac Cats characters (identified in the end credits as ''Cats and Co.'') were created by

Jean Chalopin Jean Chalopin (born 31 May 1950) is a French bank executive. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he produced a range of successful animated series, first as the founder and president of the production company DIC, then at his newly created compa ...

and Bruno Bianchi.

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, who provided the voice of Heathcliff in the Ruby-Spears series, reprised his role as the titular cat.

Premise

Each episode featured two segments, one being about Heathcliff and his friends, while the other featured

The Catillac Cats The Catillac Cats is the name of a group of characters that starred in the secondary segment (officially billed ''Cats & Co.'' on the end credits) of the 1984 animated series of '' Heathcliff''. Most episodes revolve around Riff-Raff's get-rich-qui ...

. The year after the series ended, the film '' Heathcliff: The Movie'' was released, which consisted of a compilation of segments.

Cast

as Heathcliff * Donna Christie as Cleo, Iggy * Jeannie Elias as Marcy, Willie * Stanley Jones as Riff-Raff, Wordsworth, Milkman *

Marilyn Lightstone Marilyn Lightstone (born 28 June 1940) is a Canadian stage, film and television actress and writer. Biography Early life and education Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marilyn Lightstone graduated from Baron Byng High School in 1957. She went on to ...

as Sonja, Mrs. Nutmeg * Danny Mann as Hector, Mr. Schultz *

Derek McGrath Derek McGrath (born June 4, 1951) is a Canadian actor and writer. Life and career McGrath was born in Timmins, Ontario. His career began as Linus in ''You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown''. He is known for his roles in '' Cheers'' as Andy Schroed ...

as Spike, Muggsy, Knuckles, Lefty *

Danny Wells Jack Westelman (April 7, 1941 – November 28, 2013), known as Danny Wells, was a Canadian actor. He was best known for his role as Charlie, the bartender on ''The Jeffersons'', as well as his role as Luigi in the live-action/animated series ''T ...

as Bush, Raul * Ted Zeigler as Leroy, Mungo, Mr. Nutmeg

Crew

* Head writer: Alan Swayze * Writers:

Ann Elder Ann Elder (born Anna Velders; September 21, 1942) is an American actress, producer and screenwriter. Early life and education Ann Elder was born Anna Velders in Cleveland, Ohio. Career Elder won Emmy Awards for comedy writing, including o ...

Doug Booth Douglas Booth (born 1 August 1957) is an Australian academic and former Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He is dean of the School of Physical Education at the University of Otago. Foo ...

Cynthia Chenault Cynthia Chenault (born January 5, 1937) is an American television actress and producer/writer active from the mid-1950s to the present. She used the screen name Cindy Robbins in her acting credits. Early years Robbins was born in Hammond, Loui ...

, Dan Dalton, Eliot Daro, Mike Dirham, Wilma Fraser, Evelyn Gabai, Mel Gilden,

Chuck Lorre Charles Michael Lorre (; born Charles Michael Levine; October 18, 1952) is an American film & television director, writer, producer, composer and actor. Called the "King of Sitcoms", he has created/co-created and produced sitcoms including ''G ...

, George Hampton,

Jack Hanrahan Jack Hanrahan (January 16, 1933 – April 28, 2008) was an American comedy writer. Biography Born January 16, 1933, in Cleveland, Ohio, he began writing cartoons for the '' Cleveland Press''. After that, he moved on to Hollywood, California a ...

, Pamela Hickey, Walt Kubiak, Drew Laurence, Jim Makichuk, Dennys McCoy, Mike Moore, Charles Mulholland,

Laura Numeroff Laura Joffe Numeroff (born July 14, 1953) is an American author and illustrator of children's books who is best known as the author of ''If You Give a Mouse a Cookie''. Early life Numeroff was born in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York, and is ...

, Mike O’Mahony, Leslie Page, Larry Parr, Bob Rosenfarb, David Schwartz, Mike Silvani, Bob Wilson * Voice directors: Marsha Goodman, Victor Villegas (season 2)

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1984)

Season 2 (1985)

NOTE: These episodes are listed in production order. This season was aired out of order.

Theme song

The theme was composed and written by

Shuki Levy Shuki Levy ( he, שוקי לוי; born June 3, 1947) is an Israeli-American music composer and television producer. Levy's best known work is soundtrack compositions for children's television programs of the 1980s, such as '' The Real Ghostbuster ...

and

Haim Saban Haim Saban (; he, חיים סבן; born October 15, 1944) is an Israeli-American media proprietor, investor, and producer of records, film, and television. A businessman with interests in financial services, entertainment, and media, and an e ...

and sung by

Noam Kaniel Noam Kaniel, also known as Noam, ( he, נועם קניאל; born August 18, 1962) is an Israeli musician, singer and composer, who has sold over 8 million records, and is known for composing or performing the theme songs of many animated series ...

Broadcast history

In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the series was aired in national first-run syndication from September 3, 1984, with Season 2 having new episodes in 1985 in syndication airing until 1988, and then reruns of the series were aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

from 1988 until 1993. The series then reran on Family Channel from 1993–1998 and

Fox Family Channel The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

for only a year from 1998 until 1999. From September 27, 2010 until September 23, 2011, reruns of the series were aired in the United States on the This Is for Kids block on

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...

. Outside of Canada and the United States, the series was broadcast internationally on

KidsCo KidsCo was an international children's television channel founded and owned by a joint-venture between Corus Entertainment, DIC Entertainment, and Universal Networks International, Sparrowhawk Media Group in April 2007. By the end of 2007, Spar ...

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...

, and

Jetix Jetix (stylized as JETIX) was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action/adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated from the S ...

. In the United Kingdom, the series first aired on the

Children's BBC BBC Children's and Education is the BBC division responsible for media content for children in the UK. Since the launch of specially dedicated television channels in 2002, the services have been marketed under two brands. CBBC (short for Chil ...

block on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

and was usually billed under the title ''Heathcliff Cats & Co.'' from 1988 until 1991. The "Cats & Co." name lasted until its last run on the BBC in 1991. The show then went over to

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and aired the show in the morning hours from 1990 until 1995. In 2000, the show went over to

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...

and began running the show shortly after its launch in the UK. However, during the same year back in the states, the show was aired in syndication on North American local stations in 2000 for a very short period of time, and went under its former BBC title ''Heathcliff Cats & Co.'' The series also aired in Japan. Back in the states, the series was aired on weekdays on Starz Encore Family (as of 2016). The show was also formerly broadcast in Colombia through the digital channel Tacho Pistacho until the channel's shutdown in 2019, and on

Light TV Light TV may refer to: *Light TV, a former name of the American television network TheGrio *Light TV, a subchannel of Philippine TV station DZOZ-DTV **Light TV, a related network of ZOE Broadcasting Network ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc. (ZOE ...

in the United States from October 6, 2018 until September 30, 2019. According to an interview with Donna Christie, the voice for Iggy Nutmeg and Cleo, the series did not continue because of Mel Blanc's failing health.

Home media

In the 1980s, the series was released on VHS from RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video and Golden Book Video, with releases from the latter being released through the DIC Video label. In February 2004,

Sterling Entertainment United American Video (or in short: UAV) Corporation, and more commonly known as UAV Home Video or UAV Entertainment was an American entertainment company founded in 1984 as a small local company originally located in Charlotte, North Carolina. ...

released two VHS/DVD releases titled ''Terror of the Neighborhood'' and ''Fish Tales'', each featuring six Heathcliff segments and a Catillac Cats segment. The DVD versions featured two additional Catillac Cats segments. On May 25, Sterling released ''Heathcliff: The Movie'' on DVD. In 2004, General Mills offered free DVDs in select cereals with assorted cartoons, some of which had Heathcliff episodes on them. In the UK, Maximum Entertainment released two volumes of the series in 2004. The first DVD/VHS contained 5 episodes, while the other DVD contained 3. A third one, released in 2008, contained 5 more episodes. In September 2005,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

and

Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

released ''Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats'' in a 4-disc boxset featuring the first 24 episodes of the series in its original, complete and uncut television broadcast form. Shout! Factory has lost the rights to the series. Throughout 2007–2009, NCircle Entertainment released eight Heathcliff DVDs. In February 2012, Mill Creek Entertainment released ''Heathcliff- Season One, Volume 1'' on DVD. This 3-disc set features the first 32 episodes from the Season 1 which includes a bonus episode of ''

The Get Along Gang ''The Get Along Gang'' is a group of characters created in 1983 by Tony Byrd, Tom Jacobs, Ralph Shaffer, Linda Edwards, Muriel Fahrion, and Mark Spangler for American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, "Those Characters from Cleveland" ( ...

'' (originally ''

The Busy World of Richard Scarry ''The Busy World of Richard Scarry'' is an animated children's television series, produced by CINAR Animation and France Animation in association with Paramount Television, which aired from 1994 to 1997, first on Showtime (TV network), Showtime ...

'' was meant to be the bonus episode). They also released a 10 episode best-of collection on that same day. ''Heathcliff- Season 1, Volume 2'' was released on October 1, 2013, which contains the remaining 33 episodes from Season 1. In August 2016, Mill Creek released ''Heathcliff – The Complete Series'' on DVD in Region 1. The 9-disc set contains all 86 episodes of the series, including the final 21 episodes which were previously unreleased. The episode "Going Shopping / Cat in the Fat" was included as a bonus in the DVD release of the first half of the ''

Beverly Hills Teens ''Beverly Hills Teens'' is an American animation, animated children's television program produced by DIC Entertainment, DIC Animation City. Distributed by Access Syndication and originally airing in first-run syndication in the United States from ...

'' series. In France, two more 4-disc sets were released under the French title of the series, ''Les Entrechats''.

Streaming

''Heathcliff'', along with other

DHX Media WildBrain Ltd. (formerly known as DHX Media, Ltd.) is a Canadian media, animation studio, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest library of children ...

programming, was added to

Paramount+ Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

streaming service.

Movie

'' Heathcliff: The Movie'' was released to theaters on January 17, 1986, and subsequently on VHS in 1988 by Paramount Video. It includes seven segments from the original show: * Cat Food for Thought * Heathcliff's Double * The Siamese Twins * An Officer and an Alley Cat * The Catfather * Boom Boom Pussini * Pop on Parole

References

External links

Heathcliff
at DHX Media Website * * {{Heathcliff 1984 American television series debuts 1988 American television series endings 1980s American daily animated television series 1984 Canadian television series debuts 1988 Canadian television series endings 1980s Canadian animated television series 1984 French television series debuts 1988 French television series endings 1980s French animated television series American children's animated comedy television series Canadian children's animated comedy television series French children's animated comedy television series Fox Kids Jetix original programming Television series by DIC Entertainment First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Nickelodeon original programming Toon Disney original programming BBC children's television shows France Télévisions children's television series France Télévisions television comedy Heathcliff (comics) Television shows based on comic strips Animated television series about cats Television series created by Jean Chalopin Television shows adapted into comics