He's the Most Tip-Top: Top Cat!

  When I was growing up, my favorite stories to read were the ones centered around animals, whether it be Charlotte’s Web, Ribsy, Dominic or The Cricket In Times Square. Whenever there was a story featuring funny animal cartoons, that also was immediately snatched up.

   One day a 7 year old me wandered into the neighborhood KRESS store. I would frequently browse through the store’s toy section and then hang out at the magazine rack reading the coloring books and other kid books there, usually ones like Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. This time, I spied a new kid’s book at the rack featuring a new character I’d never heard of called Top Cat. I picked it up, and began reading the story “Top Cat: Candidate For Mayor” right there on the tiled floor. It featured Top Cat and his cohorts, a mismash of colorful cats with intriguing names like “Spook” “Choo-Choo” and “Fancy-Fancy”.

  I totally DUG the characters, and ran home to fetch the change I'd saved in the top drawer of my dresser. The book cost about 42¢ in all, probably the best 42¢ I spent for all the times I read and re-read that storybook over the years. In fact, it is one of the few children’s books that I managed to hang onto all these years (most books I loved as a kid were lost or thrown out years ago and had to be re-purchased through ebay and whatnot) and the scans you see above and below are indeed from the original book I bought oh so many years ago.

   So I loved the storybook I had about Top Cat, but that’s about where my mania ended, for the Top Cat show was NOT a show that was airing anywhere on television at the time. I was only vaguely aware that it WAS a show since it was being sold alongside other Hanna-Barbera books like Flintstones and the Jetsons. I would flip through the TV Guide every so often, hoping to see that they’d start airing the show here, but to no avail. When Hanna Barbera released a TV show comprised of classic characters for a series called Laff-A-Lypics, I remember watching in hopes that they’d bring Top Cat and his gang onto the show, but if they did, I never saw them. Eventually I put the book away, and there Top Cat remained, regaled to be no more than a beloved storybook character.

   In the mid-eighties, this wonderful record series released by TeeVee Tunes came out. Dubbed “Television’s Greatest Hits!”, these double record sets featured themes songs of classic TV shows! I bought these mainly because they had fave TV theme songs of mine like “Love American Style” and “The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father”, not to mention the greats like “Mary Tyler Moore” and “My Favorite Martian”…

Anyway, on one of these fine collections, they had a whole side of great Hanna- Barbera cartoons like Flintstones, Scooby Doo Where are You, Huckleberry Hound, and….yes- TOP CAT!

 I’d sit there and listen to the song, and the first thing that hits you is the style and vocals of the song, you can clearly tell this came out during the golden era of Hanna- Barbera because it sounded so much like the theme for The Flintstones. It was also pretty catchy!  A new facet of the show was grooved into what little I knew about the Top Cat Show, and that song became one of the more-played tracks on that side!

  OK, that was that, though. Now we move right up to present day. One day I’m flipping around the TV schedule because I felt like watching some “Good Times” on Nick at Night. Scanning the bars of the program guide, I see this channel called “Boomerang”, and it’s line-up consists of older classic Kids Cartoons. Then right there at 10:00 that night, I see the show “Top Cat” listed! Wow! So I FINALLY get to see the show that’d been a mystery to me practically my whole life!

The show started with the blaring horns of the Top Cat theme song that I’d gotten to know so well over the years, and it was a real treat to actually see Top Cat moving for the first time! I only wished the other cats were in the credits as well. Then the show started, and...well, where to start ?!

  Reading a book and looking at pictures of Top Cat and his “Intellectual Close Friends” is one thing, but MAN, actually HEARING THE VOICES along with the images…these voices really MADE the characters. In fact, I’d wager that until I’d heard the voices, I didn’t understand the characters at all, they provided so much in the way of “completing” the overall character.

  I’d pictured your generic cartoon voices for the show, but these REALLY had the feel of those old sixties TV shows, and I’d later learn that, like the Flintstones was based on the Honeymooners, Top Cat was based on real TV show Sgt. Bilko! It took me a while to get used to hearing the voices, but once I settled in, It was the best thing about the show- these voice actors were the real deal, pros who knew how to use their talents to really bring the characters to life.

 First off of course was Top Cat. With his Phil Silvers styled voice, he immediately became the shyster and con-artist he was supposed to be! Voiced by Arnold Stang, every line of dialog was like poetry to listen to- Top Cat really became the smooth talker he was!

The voices attached to the other cats in the gang really “fleshed out” the personalities as well. Reading my childhood book, they were merely members of Top Cat’s “gang”, but with distinct voices attached to them, they developed into cool individual characters with identifiable traits.

 Spook had sort of a beatnik demeanor, usually peppering his dialog with “That’s like, outta sight, man!”  slang and, along with Fancy Fancy (who seemed to be channeling Cary Grant somehow), were the “normal” cats, usually depicted hanging out or wooing some Gal Cats until T.C. calls them in, and it always made me laugh to think that they were so loyal to Top Cat that they’d drop a romantic interest in a second if he beckoned.

 Choo-Choo is another one whom I just love hearing talk. Choo Choo’s got one of those traditional Hanna Barbera voices, slightly dippy and lispy, but so animate that almost every line he says is hilarious! Choo Choo's voice was provided by Marvin Kaplan, famous as Henry the Telephone Repairman on ALICE.

 One thing that shocked me was that the character of Brain. I guess his name was supposed to be a joke of sorts as he’s the most clueless of the gang, but whoever wrote "Candidate for Mayor" must have took his character at face value, because in that story, he was really written as the “brains” of the outfit! So it was a bit of adjusting for me to see him as such a space case!

 And then there’s Benny, probably my favorite character in the show. Reading the book as a kid, I couldn’t have imagined him with such a Joe E. Ross type of voice, but once I heard Benny as voiced by Maurice Gosfield, I knew that that was the only way he could have sounded! With his raspy voice and Barney Rubble-ish naivete, every scene he’s in is a joy to watch. Someone uploaded a short clip that I think captures Benny  pretty well- The unsure  right hand man who nonetheless totally trusts Top Cat no matter what the situation.

Checking up on the stats of the Top Cat show, I was shocked to discover that Top Cat had only a one season run of 30 episodes! Heck, no WONDER I never got a chance to see this show when I was growing up…in the annals of Hanna Barbera, the series practically made a nosh in the HB canon.

 But I’ll ultimately tell you one thing that I’m positive of: If Top Cat HAD been on the air when I was growing up, there is no doubt in my mind that this would have been my favorite Saturday Morning Cartoon. This show REALLY delivers, lovable characters and terrific storylines, all made during the heyday of Hanna Barbera when they absolutely could do no wrong! This show is as great as I’d imagined it would be my whole life!

I’ve also discovered that TOP CAT had gotten the DVD treatment some time ago, and I'm moseying my way over to Amazon to grab that DVD box set while it’s still available! But until then, I’m gonna keep tuning in every night to Boomerang at 10:00 to enjoy what I’d waited to see for almost 35 years!

Favorite Comics: Iron Man #149-150

"Knightmare!"

Without a doubt my favorite Marvel Comics villain has to be Doctor Doom, ruler of foreign country Latveria and arch-enemy of the Fantastic Four. There just isn’t a more intriguing and complex character than Victor Von Doom, and there have been many, many incredible stories written about or involving him, in the pages of the Fantastic Four  as well as almost all of the other Marvel Comics titles out there, including The Avengers, Daredevil and…Iron Man!

   A friend of mine turned me on to the whole Iron Man thing right as it was in the middle of what would become the famous “Demon In A Bottle” saga, dealing with Tony Stark’s alcoholism, and in our opinion, there has never been a more stellar run on the strip.

  The Iron Man creative “Dream Team” behind this run started very precisely at Iron Man issue #114. This introduced John Romita, Jr. into the fold, and together with inker Bob Layton and the awesome writing of David Michelinie, they created some of my very favorite  comic stories, not just in Iron Man, but in Marvel Comics, period! Although John Romita Jr. officially left the strip after #128, he would continue to appear sporadically in Iron Man for a good many stories after that. One of the tales that he came back for was the spectacular two-parter created to celebrate Iron Man hitting the landmark #150th issue, in a story called KNIGHTMARE!

   *  *  *  *  *  * AS USUAL, SPOILERS ABOUND!!! *  *  *  *  * *  * *

 Our story begins in Iron Man Issue #149. Stark International has just filled a huge and very profitable technological order for a distant foreign country. Unfortunately for them, they find out just a little bit late that the cargo is heading for LATVERIA, and the components have been ordered by none other than DOCTOR DOOM!

   Iron Man is sent to retrieve the order and recompensate Latveria, stating that they cannot sell their goods to someone who might use it for World Threatening purposes.He manages to stop the ship enroute to make its delivery.

 Predictably, Doctor Doom isn't too happy about having to return the goods, and sends mechanical robots to snatch back the cargo that he feels are already his. Knowing the property is just too dangerous to leave in Doom's hands, Tony Stark reluctantly makes a trip over to Latveria, where he must confront Doom and retrieve the cargo once more.

Naturally, Doom is waiting for Iron Man, and no sooner than the two meet, then they are off and fighting!

     Meanwhile, Doctor Doom’s long-suffering assistant Hauptmann lurks in the shadows, eyeing the battle. He has been formulating a plan to get revenge on Doom for killing his brother years ago, and the opportunity to execute his plan seems to be coming to light- As Doom and Iron Man grapple each other, they unwittingly find themselves atop Doom’s time machine.

Before they know it, Hauptmann has thrown the switch and sent them spiralling into the past! As soon as the deed is done, Hauptmann smashes the Time Machine to bits – knowing that without the device, Doom and Iron Man are trapped in the past –FOREVER!  This was the cliffhanger that led to issue #150!

Can you imagine the month that I had to wait to get the next issue?! I was in agony!

  

As the Time Machine hurtles the duelling armored men into the past, they merely perceive it as a huge explosion, and believe they have been expelled into Doom’s courtyard. Only after looking around does Iron Man stop the fight to realize they’ve come a lot farther that that- They are in CAMELOT!

Doctor Doom quickly deduces what has happened. His assistant has sent them into the past. It had been set to come to Camelot for Doom had planned on making the journey to consult with the great sorceress Morgana Le Fey. Thanks to the turn of events, he has arrived- only in a much more permanent state than he’d planned!

  They haven’t been there for very long before they are confronted by Guards who attempt to take them prisoners and are taken to be judged by King Arthur.

Iron Man is quick to make peace with the king and demonstrates some of his armor’s abilities. Doom is not so forthcoming, and states that in his homeland HE is a king, and won’t lower himself to perform “parlour tricks”. They are kept as permanent guests for the time being.

I love this scene- Tony’s in a melancholy mood. He’s such a product of the technology age, of  circuits and machines, he couldn’t be more hopelessly out of place than here in the past.

Doom is able to wring a girl’s mind for information on Morgana Le Fey’s whereabouts. Once the knowledge is obtained, he immediately leaves the castle, locates Morgana’s Castle and offers his services to the Dark Sorceress. (And GEEZ, LOOK AT HER…DAMN, IMHO No One has EVER portrayed her so sultry and beautiful- JUST GORGEOUS!)

Doom explains to the Sorceress  how he has been visiting the great magicians through time using his timecube machine with one purpose: to free his mother from the prisons of hell. Morgana Le Fey listens and strikes a bargain with Doom- she will help him if he will lead her undead soldiers in the final battle with King Arthur. Doom readily agrees.

And so the battle is begun- the good side of King Arthur led by the Golden Avenger, and Morgana Le Fey’s undead army led by the sinister Doctor Doom!

The battle is raging until Tony puts two and two together- Le Fey’s Soldiers are Undead, so the only way to truly stop them is to stop them at the source- Morgana Le Fey herself! While the battle goes on, he leaves and makes his way the the Castle, where he starts another battle- of science versus magic! In the end, Morgana is defeated, and she leaves the land, never to return.

Meanwhile, back at the battlefield, once the undead soldiers become inanimate again, he knows that Le Fey has gone, and his chance of rescuing his tormented mother has once again slipped from his grasp! In a rage, he speeds over to the castle, and smashes in on a startled Iron Man.

He threatens to kill Iron Man, then shocks the Avenger by adding…”Someday” And Why?

The battle over, even Doom must concede that there is no reason for him to exist here anymore. He decides the time is right for his return to his own time. And here’s where the story just blew me away, as Doctor Doom reveals his plan to Iron Man:

  It is just possible that they CAN return to the present, but only with their COMBINED GENIUSES and CANNIBALIZING BOTH OF THEIR ARMORED SUITS and using the intricate circuitry to create a device that might warp time around them and return them to the present day! Yes, they realize the only way they will get back home is to work TOGETHER!

The two minds work together all through the night, and by dawn have come up with an elaborate construction wired into both armored suits for power. They make a truce that if the device should happen to work, they will allow each other to go their own way.

When the final connection is made, the fabric of time rips around them, and the two find themselves back in the present time, the collaborative construct reduce to molten slag around their fried mechanical parts. Doom leaves with a remark: “We WILL Meet Again”, to which a weary Iron Man simply states, ”I’ll Be Waiting.”

Then the two turn around and go their separate ways.

*      *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

At the time I read this story, I had already fallen in love with the character of Doctor Doom, having recently read the Fantastic Four story “The Coming Of Overmind”, where Doom finds himself allied with his arch enemies to overthrow an Alien Attack, and this new dimension to his persona just about sealed the deal for me. I mean, having Doom and Iron Man dismantle themselves together to build a time device was just ingenious!

The intricate artwork only made it more impressive, and a special point MUST be made here, about the incredible inking talent of Bob Layton. In my opinion, there is NO ONE out there who does “metal” like him. Everything he embellishes REALLY looks hard as steel, I remember him illustrating a cover of Captain America, and even then, Cap’s Sheild looked so tough!

After this there was only more to come, tales such WHAT IF DOCTOR DOOM WAS A HERO? and an excellent Red Skull battle in SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM UP, not to mention the incredible John Byrne Fantastic Four issues that were still to come!

And as a bonus side note, years later, when Iron Man hit its landmark 250th Issue,they celebrated by creating a SEQUEL to “Knightmare”, in a tale called “Recurring Knighmare”, this time sending Iron Man and Dr. Doom into the FUTURE!

Childhood Favorites: Dumb Ditties LP!

Back in the seventies, K-Tel Records (ah, the immortal K-Tel records…!) released these compilations of novelty songs from various eras, some oldies and some only a few years old. The first of these was called “Looney Tunes” and the second that came out (I think) a few years later was called “Goofy Greats”. Now, I don’t remember these two LPs being advertised, but somehow, it seemed like all our classmates had them…and BOY, were we jealous!

  These albums had some GREAT songs for kids, catchy and fun songs to sing, songs like the Royal Guardsmen’s SNOOPY VS THE RED BARON, the Rivingtons' PAPA-OOM-MOW-MOW, Jumping Gene Simons’ HAUNTED HOUSE and other zany songs like Ray Stevens’ THE STREAK, Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs' WOOLY BULLY and the awesomely demented TRANSFUSION by Nervous Norvous! We’d go to our friends houses and listen to the songs, wishing with all out might that we might get our very own copies of these great albums, but to no avail!

Pink Shoelaces: Dodie Stevens

 Then one day (around…oh…1977 or so), during our afternoon cartoons, Mighty K-Tel announced their LATEST novelty record collection!! It trumpeted a new bunch of songs to love- we got snippets of songs like “Pink Shoelaces” by Dodie Stevens, “Monster Mash” by Bobby Boris Pickett, “Beans In My Ears” by the Serendipity Singers and “I’m a Nut” by Leroy Pullins, among others! We begged to get this album for Christmas, and our Grandma granted our wishes, bestowing the highly anticipated album upon us!

My Ding-a-ling: Chuck Berry

Beans In My Ears: Serendipity Singers

Well, the album didn’t disappoint, and as we listened to the songs we’d learned from the TV commercial, we started falling in love with almost all the other songs,too! I think I mentioned in an earlier post that back then, me, my sibs and our friends would get together and act out New Mickey Mouse Club skits? Well, the “Dumb Ditties” album became THE new source of entertainment, as we learned the songs and designated “roles” to specific friends, all to put on insane “shows” for my Mother and her friends-our “audience/victims, as it were!

Yes, “Monster Mash” was a gimme, with everyone staggering around like zombies, as well as “Martian Hop” by the Galaxies and that fun “I’m A Nut” song . These were the “free-for-all” songs that basically was us running around being crazy, but then there were the songs like “Alvin’s Harmonica” and “I Tawt I Taw A Puddy-Tat” that required actual concentration! Nobody better forget their line! Ahahahahaaa…I have distinct memories of my little brother acting out the part of Alvin, but not being old enough to memorize the words to "speak", would just open and close his mouth during his lines!

Alvin's Harmonica

One song I really ended up loving was this one by Paul Evans called “Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Back Seat” about this guy driving around with a bunch of chicks who only have eyes for his friend in the back seat with them.

Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat

I remember we’d drag out the kitchen table chairs and set them up so they looked like a car, and we’d crack up acting out the song, but it was one of the first times I noticed what a great pop song sounded like- the “structure” of a tune, the sweet backing vocals, the way that each verse went a little higher, and the last verse back to normal, as the guy gives up, and I remember thinking how great the song was!

Bridget The Midget (The Queen Of The Blues)

But of all the great tunes on the album, by far the one we loved the MOST was Ray Stevens’ absolutely explosive “Bridget The Midget: The Queen Of The Blues”!  This was a little masterpiece of his: An overzealous announcer introduces the energetic Bridget who proceeds to belt out the tunes while a drunken fan continually tries to get onto the stage…this was a song just MADE for us to act out, and all our friends would get into it, and I remember my little sister and me cracking up whenever  it came to the part for our brother to be the drunken fan! I didn’t realize at the time that the voices were probably ALL Ray Stevens, sped up or slowed down, and now I can appreciate it on a whole new level! (and another side-note is that whenever I used to listen to this song, I never imagined Bridget to look like a midget.. In my head I always imagined the only “Bridget” I knew of: Richard Scarry’s character Sergeant Murphy’s little daughter! Ahahaha!)

What a bunch of crazy hams we all were…miniature Shecky Greenes, that was us!

The Ballad of Irving: Fank Gallop

But the point is how much we embraced and adored that album. All the songs were new to us, and I think we learned “Alvin’s Harmonica” before we’d ever heard of “The Chipmunk Song” (that Christmas one),  “My Ding-A Ling” by Chuck Berry before “Johnny Be Goode, and my sibs and friends may be the only people around who consider The Kingsmen’s song “Louie Louie” as the OTHER song sung by the group that sang “The Jolly Green Giant”!!!

The Jolly Green Giant: Kingsmen

And here’s a funny thing: We had no idea just how “old” some of the songs were. For the most part, we thought these songs were made for the album! I remember my mother telling us that “Monster Mash” came out when she was a teenager, and well, THAT was a shock! When I was older, and listened to the Oldies channel, I was surprised how many of these “Dumb Ditties” like “If You Wanna Be Happy” By Jimmy Soul (Fave quote: I seen your wife the other day, and she’s UGLYYYYYYYY- but she sure can cook, baby!) Dodie Stevens’ “Pink Shoelaces”  and Barry Mann’s “Who Put The Bomp (In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp) were real, respected songs being rotated on playlists all the time! I was also pretty surprised to find that almost all of the tunes from Dumb Ditties were “edited”, and was constantly surprised to hear extra verses I never knew playing on the radio!

Mr Bass Man Johnny Cymbal

When I was older, and I’d hear some of those tunes on the radio, it would always remind me of my childhood, and I’d wished our Dumb Ditties LP had survived so I could sit down and maybe listen to it again. But it hadn’t. There was just no WAY..we really loved that album to death! So I kind of always hoped in the back of my head that they’d have the humor to re-release some of those compilations on CD.

If You Wanna Be Happy: Jimmy Soul

I'm A Nut: Leroy Pullins

Occasionally I’d see Novelty CD compilations, some even with the same names like “Goofy Greats, Looney Tunes, etc, but they’re (for the most part) unrelated  packaged novelty songs; fun, but NOT the ones I grew up with. So the next hope was, of course, ebay.! After almost a year of (on and off) perusing the listings, one day I came across a seller offering a “like new” copy of the album, the very album these MP3 rips are from…YES, I HAVE a copy in my possession once more!

Martian Hop: The Galaxies

Ah, the nostalgic times are here again…