Sunday, August 17, 2014

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Eek! The Cat (1992)

Eek! The Cat was one of Fox's early Saturday morning stars. The series lasted 5 seasons, undergoing a couple of title and format changes along the way.

Co-creator Bill Kopp voiced Eek and was actively involved with the series for the first three seasons, leaving after season 3 to work for Disney, which eventually acquired the rights to this series. The whole idea was that Eek was a humble, selfless sort who tries to help others in need, but often suffers physical punishment as a result.

Season 2 brought The Terrible Thunderlizards, a trio of dinosaur mercenaries, as a backup feature. Season 4 saw the debut of Klutter, which was animated by Film Roman, while the rest was done at Canada's Nelvana studio. However, Klutter was gone after 1 season. The Thunderlizards were supposed to have been there from the get-go, it seems, but there were production delays that stalled their debut. We'll look at them another time.

I never watched the show, so there's no rating.

Here, though, is an intro:



Eek also welcomed celebrity guests, including crossovers with other Fox series, specifically The X-Files, as David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson appeared as agents Mulder & Scully. Have to see if that episode is available.

4 comments:

Silverstar said...

Eek!'s other co-creator was "Savage" Steve Holland, the man behind the "Whammy" character from the CBS game show "Press Your Luck", and who'd later go on to be executive producer of DiC's "Sabrina: The Animated Series".

"Eek!" specialized in anarchic, chaotic Looney Tunes style humor; the jokes were kind of hit-or-miss, but the good ones worked. "The Terrible Thunderlizards" was OK, if a tad repetitive; the stories rigidly adhered to the same basic formula over and over again. "Klutter" was definitely the weakest segment on the show; it seemed like the creators weren't sure what they wanted it to be.

hobbyfan said...

So Holland was the brains behind those Whammy's, eh? Didn't know that, Silverstar, so thanks for the 411.

IIRC, Holland also did some other live-action work, also for Fox, which I will look up.

Goldstar said...

"Savage" Steve Holland also wrote, directed and did the animation for the 1986 teen comedy "One Crazy Summer", in which the film's star John Cuzak played an aspiring cartoonist.

As for Bill Kopp, I know that in 1988, Mr. Kopp created another Saturday morning cartoon for FOX Kids titled "Mad Jack the Pirate", but it wasn't nearly as successful; it was gone after a single season.

hobbyfan said...

You're in luck. I just posted Mad Jack the Pirate. In between that and Eek, Kopp also worked on another Fox show, Toonsylvania.

I was thinking of a primetime show, also for Fox, that Holland was involved in. I've heard of One Crazy Summer. I wonder if that's worth renting. Anyway, I was thinking Holland might have something to do with Beans Baxter or Parker Lewis Can't Lose.