“Eek! The Cat” Written by Savage Steve Holland, Bill Kipp, Kati Rocky, Henry Gilroy, Paul Germain, Sandy Fries, Pamela Wick, and Frank Santopadre; Starring Bill Kopp, Tawny Kitaen, Elizabeth Daily, Charles Adler, Gary Owens, Savage Steve Holland, and Dan Castellaneta; Originally aired September 11, 1992; Run time 24 minutes.
Have you ever noticed there are a lot of cartoons about cats? In the last couple months we’ve covered “Heathcliff,” “Fraidy Cat,” and now this. The only one missing is that whiny, tubby bastard you’ve probably heard of. What’s the deal with cartoons about cats? Does it speak to our inexplicable fascination with them.
Egyptians worshipped them and in a way we still do. They populate our homes in record numbers, we keep them around (myself included) even though for all accounts they’re furry dicks. They kill in astounding numbers making them one of the top predators even in this age of domestication, they might carry parasites that slowly make you go crazy, but we can’t get enough. They’re cute as hell so we forgive all of their short comings and turn them into memes, even when and especially they are grumpy, and we make them the stars of an unending array of comic strips, movies, and television shows.
I don’t have the answer to why we love cats so much. There’s one running laps around me right now, tossing a phone rocket through the air and stepping on my keyboard. She is, for all intents and purposes making my life hell but- excuse me while I pause to pet her, she’s a cute little asshole.
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Okay, I’m back. “Eek! The Cat.”
The show stars a purple cat called Eek! He means well, always trying to help and constantly getting himself into trouble as a result. He lives in a cartoon world populated with toxic waste and rogue airplanes which makes for especially dangerous and hilarious situations. The titular character is based on, and named for, the creators own cat. The show went through a series of changes both in style and title beginning with full twenty minute episodes, then later changing to two nine minute segments and featured a companion cartoon titled “The Terrible Thunderlizards” which featured composition from Dee Snider. In the third season the title was changed to “Eek! Stravaganza” but kept the same format and added another show called “Klutter.”
The series, in its many incarnations, lasted five years and featured a number of celebrity cameos including William Shatner, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Tim Curry, Weird Al, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Mr. T, among others.
In 1994 Nintendo even released a video game which is the hallmark of a successful franchise. Watching the show now I can’t quite put my finger on why I enjoyed it as a kid, it isn’t bad, but it’s just another cat show with nothing incredibly fun to offer. My tastes were (only slightly) less discerning then I guess. I’d welcome you to watch it with me today, if for no other reason than to stroll down memory lane.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to put hydrogen peroxide on fresh scratches. Then the cat needs cuddles.