Top Cat was the second in Hanna Barbera's trio of prime-time cartoon series in the early 60's, along with The Flintstones and The Jetsons. I guess it was the odd one out, being set in the present time and featuring mainly anthropomorphic characters. Personally I preferred it to Jetsons, but perhaps not quite as highly as Flinstones, though truth be told, they were much of a muchness.

Top Cat had likeable characters, even if, at this early stage, Hanna Barbera's character recycling was becoming obvious (Officer Dibbley was pretty obviously this show's version of Yogi Bear's Ranger Smith). The other characters though were reasonably distinct, even if the plots were predictable. The urban setting and TC's con-man persona gave it a little bit of grit, which the other two shows perhaps lacked.

Top Cat was the leader of a gang of kind of beatnik alley cats, who come to think of it, may have been resurrected a little by Disney in 'The Aristocats'. Personality-wise he was a little like Charlie from 'All Dogs go to Heaven'. His sidekicks had various quirks but were generally one-trick ponies. The show had a short run and didn't enjoy the enduring popularity of its two stablemates.

Top Cat was produced at the start of the 60's, when Hanna Barbera were about as good as they were ever going to get. After this a lot of their 60's characters rather blurred into one another, which became particularly obvious in the 80's when they started featuring them in the same shows.

A pretty decent show. I liked it as a kid. It's on DVD now, for anyone wishing to relive this particular part of their childhood. I can't see anyone else being very interested.

A decent series. One of HB's better ones, but nothing great.