Friday, August 26, 2016

Looney TV: Cool Cat (1967)

Cool Cat appeared in just six shorts from 1967-9, as Warner Bros. tried to adapt to the period with a hip, jive talking tiger (Larry Storch, fresh from F-Troop), pursued by big game hunter Colonel Rimfire (Storch).

Unfortunately, it would be 26 years, following the release of "Injun Trouble", the coda to the Cool Cat series, before he'd show up in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries. By then, local actor Joe Alaskey took over the role.

Right now, though, here's the debut of Cool Cat. Dig it.



I can't help but think that if WB took a chance on doing a TV series with Cool Cat in the 70's, chances are they could've gotten Scatman Crothers to essay the part. I just can't get the idea out of my head that in the 70's, ol' CC would've sounded like Hong Kong Phooey.

Rating: B+.

2 comments:

Goldstar said...

I can see why Cool Cat never ascended to the heights of Warner Brothers popularity. Characters whose chief shtick is being cool, hip and "with-it" tend not to age very well, because the slang terms and pop culture references risk becoming dated references quickly. In order for Cool Cat to stay cool, WB would have to keep updating Cool Cat's mannerisms and use of slang terms in order for the the character to stay relevant, which is one reason why I believe that Mario is more versatile than Sonic the Hedgehog in recent years.

A character can be hip and on top of things (case in point, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem), but it's generally not a good idea to base said character's entire persona around being cool. He/she would need to have comic flaws and a personality outside of this.

hobbyfan said...

I think I see what you're talking about, Goldstar. Cool Cat didn't catch on to the fact the elephant was actually a vehicle until much later in the story, so he wasn't entirely brilliant.