“Heathcliff” Created by George Gately, Jean Chalopin, and Bruno Bianchi; Developed by Jean Chalopin, Alan Swayze, and Chuck Lorre; Directed by Bruno Bianchi and Michael Maliani; Starring Mel Blanc, Conna Christie, Peter Cullen, Stanley Jones, Jeannie Elias, and Danny Wells. Run time 22 minutes; Originally aired September 5, 1984.
The character of Heathcliff was created by George Gately as a newspaper comic strip debuting in 1973. He predates that other orange comic strip cat you may have heard of by five years. The strip featured Heathcliff getting into mischief in the town of Westfinster, annoying humans, and pursuing lady cats.
Two cartoon series were created based on the popular strip both named simply “Heathcliff” though the second, more popular series, was sometimes referred to as “Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats” a reference to segments in the show featuring those titular characters.
Though Heathcliff never spoke in the original strip he was quite vocal in the cartoons and was voiced by the beloved Mel Blanc in both series. The second series was produced by DiC Entertainment and their particular style is evident in both animation and sound. The characters of “Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats” would fit seamlessly in other DiC series like “Inspector Gadget.”
Though the series has been off the air for almost three decades, the strip is still produced, now written and drawn by Gately’s nephew Peter Gallagher and appears in over a thousand newspapers. A movie was produced titled simply “Heathcliff: The Movie” which was a compilation of segments from the animated series.
While the world created by Gately may not tackle any important social issues and is dated by the sentiments and styles of the time, it provides wholesome fun that still feels good all these years later. It has stood the test of time and it doesn’t look like it will be leaving the papers or our hearts and minds any time soon.