Thursday, July 14, 2011

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Samurai Pizza Cats (1990)

Samurai Pizza Cats debuted in Japan in 1990, producing 54 episodes over the course of one year. The series was imported to the US by Haim Saban, who at the time was best known as a theme music composer (i.e. Inspector Gadget) with writing partner Shuki Levy. Remember, this was a couple of years before Saban became a major player in American television when he acquired the rights to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

As my memory serves, however, the Pizza Cats resurfaced a few years later for a 2nd go-round, right around the time another Saban entry, Eagle Riders, based on Japan's popular Gatchaman franchise (better known here in the US as Battle of the Planets). I may be wrong, of course.

Series writer Michael Airington, doing a mimic of actor Paul Lynde, recorded the theme for the American version of Pizza Cats, uploaded by Airhammer to YouTube:



Now, I never saw the show, so I can't give a fair rating. It amazes me, however, that the series has not been given another chance, even on the Anime Network (which only has an On Demand berth on Time Warner Cable to date).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

some introduction of the
Samurai Pizza Cats Series DVD box set ,Join Speedy Cerviche, Guido Anchovy, and Polly Esther at Pizza Cats, the most popular place in Little Tokyo. But the pizza take out joint is merely a front for their true job. A crime fighting secret ninja trio! Led by Big Al Dente, the Pizza Cats are tasked with keeping the scheming Seymour "The Big" Cheese and his evil Crow Ninjas, Jerry Atric and Bad Bird, from taking over Little Tokyo from the dimwitted Emperor Fred.
Samurai Pizza Cats Series DVD box set are backed up by a Rescue Team, four other cats with their own restaurant who spring into action to help them out whenever they hear the rescue bell. The weapons of the Rescue Team can combine to form super weapons! And they will need them when evil undoubtedly shows up in
Samurai Pizza Cats Series DVD box set. Usually in the form of a gigantic monster-like robot used by the Big Cheese who has his mind set on controlling Little Tokyo!

hobbyfan said...

Uh-huh. Thanks.