One of the best cartoons ever written. Love these anti-hero characters that were really not so bad inside their little hearts. Fine cast doing the voices and were all fine movie actors in actual movies back in the day. Hanna-Barbera were the masters of cartoons during my youth! This is must see show!

He's the chief, yes, he's the king, that's true too, but above everything he's the most tip-top Top Cat. It's a crying shame that Hanna-Barbera's understated comedy about a gang of alley-dwelling cats against the backdrop of 1960s Manhattan lasted only a meager thirty episodes. Nevertheless, in its short run "Top Cat" managed to cement its status as an animated classic and left its fans longing for more of TC's shenanigans.It's slightly difficult to pinpoint what exactly the show is about. You could say it's about TC and his boys' attempts at hustling the naive city folk but that would be giving the story too rigid of a structure. I'd say the best way to put it is, they're up to no good. TC's batch of ne'er-do-wells consists of Benny the Ball, Brain, Choo-Choo, Fancy-Fancy, and Spook. Keeping a close watch on them is Officer Charles Dibble: A well-meaning law enforcer who only wants these anthropomorphic cats to stop engaging in monkey business. But that's too much to ask apparently.Every character has a role to play but as the title would suggest, it's Top Cat running the show. Brought to life by Arnold Stang's outstandingly good voice acting, he's the smooth-talking, charismatic, well-spoken leader everyone looks up to for a reason. Class and TC always go hand in hand with each other. Watch the closing credits for a memorable demonstration on how to make a trash can feel like the presidential suite of a high-end hotel! The interplay between Dibble and our protagonist constitutes the highlight of each episode. Everything works because the writers rely more on sophisticated dialogue-driven humor typical of wise guys than slapstick comedy. The humor is refreshingly unique in that the appeal runs the gamut from kids to grown-ups. There's something to enjoy for everyone.The hand-drawn animation work of HB studios looks gorgeous. Squeaky-clean alleyways, high-rise buildings, shiny sidewalks endowed with hydrants, busy intersections, radiant traffic lights, and so on together pervade an evocative atmosphere unique to the hustle and bustle of big cities. The visuals paint a romanticized portrait of urban living in the early '60s. Every frame is well drawn and oozes quality as though Hoagy's Alley were a character in itself.Watching Top Cat today fills me with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. I mean it as a compliment when I say that there's a time-capsule quality to the experience.

Well what more can be said about Top Cat, which hasn't been said before? Well for starters, it is based on the hit Phil Silvers US sitcom of yesteryear, Sgt Bilko and secondly it debuted on US TV 20 years before my birth year. Top Cat is an all-time classic, brimming in quality animation and great gags. It was not your ordinary cartoon either, hell, like The Flintstones, this show was reminiscent of a sitcom, a TV comedy with a laughter track.Top Cat was what you could say a so-called smooth operator, a schemer a chancer; and with Yogi Bear titled: 'smarter than the average bear', you could say that Top Cat was smarter than the average cat. Anyhow, Top Cat and his gang live in a New York alleyway in some run down dumpster, whose antics attract the attention of cop, Officer Dibble. Dibble himself has a long standing love/hate relationship with the guys. The gang was made up of Choo Choo, Spook,Fancy Fancy,Brain and my favourite, Benny the Ball.Unlike say Disney and Warner Bros.,many of Hanna Barbera's cartoons were and are aimed at adult audiences, thus the humour and feel good factor wasn't lost here; the charisma and charm displayed by TC himself is still a joy to behold as this show is replayed years on end. Nowadays newer, as well as younger and older generations of cartoon fans are getting the chance to see and watch this type of cartoon via DVDs and the internet, which is sadly lacking in TV schedules in today's era.The story lines are amusing, light-hearted and entertaining, the wit and charm is still there even after 40+ years, the music score is one of the most memorable around and the characters, ranging from Top Cat to Benny are lovable and are up there with the very best in the cartoon world.Cartoon classics such as this puts many of todays so called excuse of 'cartoons' to utter shame. As the last end of the theme goes: 'He's most tip top, Top Cat!', he most definitely is

Based on "The Phil Silvers show",this cartoon translates army capers into the adventures of a bunch of cats in a rundown New York alley.They are led by Top Cat,a conniver who could even teach Bilko a thing or two!Their nemesis and sometime victim is policeman Charlie Dibble.Each of the cats has his own very distinct character.I especially like Spook with his beatnik "hep cat" language. The show is full of humor,wit and charm.The voice actors are superb-including Bilko regular Maurice Gosfield("Benny").Fortunately Hanna-Barbera haven't revived the show;the result would undoubtedly be of much lower standard than the 30 original gems from 1961-2