The Barkleys | Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday! ...Show 72

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The Houndcats | Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday! ...Show 72

Good day, readers. This is your chief.

At large is an average-height, barely-muscular man closely equipped with a ream of paper and vast creativity based on the real or fictional people, places, things and he either likes or dislikes. His name is “The Marauder”, and his game is wild, heavy personality-driven, shamely-written critiques and commentary of any piece of media he feels like.

Your mission: Read this review from of this short-lived Saturday Morning Cartoon centering around a skilled and focused team of bipedal anthropomorphic (two) feline and (three) canine spies traveling across the country and stopping villains from -- with their A1 leadership, cunning maskery, futuristic gadgetry, hoss-style strength, okay timing and judgment and world-class, futuristic technology no one will ever see anywhere else, and stop him for making other poorly-timed and composed pieces. 

That is all. This parody will self-destruct in 5 sentences.

DePatie-Freleng Enterprises-- besides having a name you’d still have trouble pronouncing even after remembering to sound it out, they’d done a fantastic job throughout the 60s of standing out from Hanna-Barbera and carving a path of success with their animated arsenal. Popular toons turned animated classics include <i>The Ant and the Aardvark, The Tijuana Toads, Roland and Rattfink</i> and the iconic and beloved technicolor-advanced big cat known as <i>The Pink Panther</i>. In the 60s, DFE took their theatrical cartoons to television, with them becoming major Saturday Morning hits and further cementing their places in American (and even worldwide) animation history. Also during that decade (specifically 1966), DFE also began commissioning new cartoons made especially for television, with them becoming unsuccessful, forgotten and obscure as night soon after their first runs ended. But after decades of dormancy, they’ve lived on in DVD releases and uploads on YouTube (some if you’re lucky to find them). This next series -- about a group of talking housepets working for a world-renowned and world-unaware spy organization and utilizing their impressive skills (of varying degrees) and chicanery (of high degree) to take on and take down evil villains all throughout 1914 America -- falls squarely in the latter camp.

They are (and it’s) The Houndcats.

Putty Puss, Mussel Mutt,

Ding Dog, Rhubarb,

Sparkplug and Stutz!

Anybody doing the wrong thing,

better watch out! These Cats is rough!

Yeah, anyone here who rumbles out West -

Who can you call? You call the best/

Cause everyone knows its simple as that.

The Best in the West is The... HOUNDCATS!

Plot:

Created (for television) by David H. (and) Friz, (in association with) Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, this series spins the wild, tense, goofy and exciting adventures of five furry members of a secret spy organization travel across 1914 America to conspicuously work inside for, then face off against and finally capture and arrest villains whose sole purposes are stealing/capturing valuable items, materials or artifacts and/or controlling or destroying parts of or entire cities or states for their greed-controlled satisfaction.

This series is an animated and comedic spoof of both Mission: Impossible (the original 60s/70s series, not the Tom Cruise movies) and (most especially) the short-lived Western-adventure show Bearcats!, in which members of a secret spy organization travel across America to find, work for or against evil villains and foil their plans to steal money, priceless artifacts or machines that create precious metals or weapons or create weapons of mass destruction (machines or living) or just take over the world like every other lazy, uninspired and unambitious fiend.

Of course, thanks to being a parody of both Bearcats! and Mission: Impossible, there’s a strong influence of the Western and spy genres -- in both film and television -- to be found in each and every episode.

Characters:

Heroes (I’ll go in theme song order):

Putty-Puss (voiced by Joe Besser): Despite being the shortest of the group, Putty-Puss is the team’s resident master of disguise. As his name implies, Putty can manage to turn his person or voice into that of the villain or someone else (whether another one-shot character or a creation of his own and the team). Outside of his costuming prowess, Putty is the more excitable and effeminate member (in personality and voice) - like he’s an actor on the rise. While his head in the clouds and his disguises sometimes gets him in over it, Putty is the best in the west.

Musselmutt (voiced by Aldo Ray): Guess what he is. Musselmutt is the team’s Sheepdog strongman, able to lift and carry heavy items with ease. Despite his super strength, he’s also got a musselbrain -- meaning he also has a tendency to forget plans (not just his place in them; all steps of them) almost immediately, screw up or overdo his part of the mission and slip up when he speaks. Plus, like a regular Sheepdog, he likes to stick his cute little tongue out when he’s not speaking, and eat his weight (sometimes even more) in food when he’s not sticking his cute little tongue out. But if you desire a strongman to pick up the plans and pieces, and put the heavy drop on the baddies, Muss is the best in the west --  as in he’s moronic.

Speaking of morons…

Ding Dog (voiced by Stu Gillam): He's a Briard and Stutz’s right-hand man -- he’s always by the lead’s side to help him jumpstart the missions and put the plans in action. although (hypothetically speaking) he sometimes has trouble telling his right hand from his left. Most times, his judgment and timing are not razor-sharp, but his clumsiness, hyperactivity and fear of heights is. Sometimes they hinder the mission in minor ways, other times they help the team in minor ways whenever possible. So if you need a loyal second-in-command, Ding is the best in the west.

Rhubarb (voiced by Arte Johnson [and for three episodes in his absence by Daws Butler]): The more reserved and quieter member of the team (definitely helped by his body-covering outfit of a large green trenchcoat and giant sombrero), Rhub is the team’s resident scientist. He creates many inventions to assist the team on their missions -- when they need decoy machines to progress their plans, apparatuses to capture important objects (many of which are concealed in his trenchcoat); and large elaborate traps to imprison villains (one of w/hich was a mechanical version of the process of booking a criminal in a prison). There’s even times where he’ll create an entire city to expertly fool a doll-making villain (literally named Dr. Doll) into thinking he’s the governor as part of his plan of world domination. That’s not to say some either didn’t work (or didn’t work right) at times, but Rhub is certainly your guy for the best in the west. 

Sparkplug (voiced by whatever car-engine-based sound effects the studio edited in): The official transportation of the Houndcats, Sparkplug (based on the Stutz Bearcat from the aforementioned Bearcats! [and a namesake with our story’s leader which we’ll meet in a sec]) is a sentient car that, with the power of Stutz’s whistles, can drive by itself to where the team are, and be transformed into anything related to a certain mission -- like a cattle wagon, a submarine, and a portable jail. When he’s not his normal self, he can be a very truly timid machine -- refusing to do actions that his owners ask of him, but a little coaxing can get him to up his bravery. For a vehicle made only a decade after the trailblazing Model T with features that weren’t even optional in real life until decades after the show, that is supremely impressive. 

Stutz (voiced by Michael Bell in his first major VA role): He’s so cool, he can plan a heist in no time flat after the assignment is given. He’s so cool, nothing can make him freak out or sweat (except a lion in its cage and when he hears “This message will self-destruct”). He’s so cool, only he can be named after a car brand you’ve never heard of and make it sound iconic in under thirteen episodes (so iconic Jonah Hill has a documentary with that name). The leader of the team, Stutz handles the plans, sometimes drives Sparkplug, and directs the rest of the team to execute the missions. While he may have a smart mouth and is sometimes exasperated by the other members’ goof-ups, he’s very caring and proud of his team. So if you need a leader who’s cool, calm and cat-lected under any and all circumstances and the purr-fect feline father to his muttley (and cat) men, Stutz is the best in the west.

The Team As a Whole: Sure, the team members do have their quirks -- Muss is a food-fiend musselmoron; DingDog is a dingbat at his worst; Putty sometimes is put over his head with his disguises; Rhub’s inventions sometimes either don’t work well or work too well; Sparkplug is a lilly-livered, yella-bellied punk; and Stutz can be a low-key hothead and high-key snarker (especially in “Misbehavin’ Raven”) with some plans having hiccups. However, each member also has his strengths individually -- Putty is a master of disguise; Mussel is a super strongman when focused; Ding is a great right hand; Putty is an incredible disguise artist; Rhub’s inventions are beneficial to their missions and were way ahead of their time (even for the year the show debuted); Sparkplug is an awesome car with feature gadgets that’ll make the Batmobile jealous; and Stutz is a supreme leader with brilliant plans that almost never go wrong. There is a reason their organization trusts them to pull off their missions.

Their Chief (voiced by Daws Butler): Never appearing throughout, The Chief usually makes his mark by the sound of his voice. That means he sends messages to the team at the beginning and end of each episode in unique ways related to a given episode. More on that below.

Villains: The Houndcats may not have a Rogues Gallery that's the best, most compelling or complex, but they do have one that’s still menacing and still very entertaining.

- The Raven (also voiced by Michael Bell): a masked thief. In his first appearance, he (along with second-in-command Bronco and his other henchmen) steals valuable art pieces, using his alter ego - insurance adjuster Hawkins -- to learn of their value and swipe when the time is right. He is caught, unmasked and sent to prison, where he escapes in his follow-up appearance to try to steal the blueprints to a government invention from the son of a famed inventor.

- Diamondhead ["The Double Dealin' Diamond Mission" and "The Perilous Possibly Pilfered Plans Mission"]: A straightforward villain with a straightforward plan. He wants diamonds, and the best way he wants them is by kidnapping Professor Thorndyke - a scientist who invented a machine that quickly turns chemicals into a diamond, and forces him to be his knave and homegrown miner.

- RJ Wrathmore ["The Great Gold Train Mission"]: a thief who poses as a traveling circus owner and ringmaster to hijack a train containing gold on track to the San Francisco Mint. His main attraction - and accomplice -- is a giant gorilla named Gigantis (King Kong has nothing on him!) which he trained to do his bidding via the sound of his voice.

- Captain Blight (also voiced by Arte Johnson) ["The Over the Waves Mission" and "The Outta Sight Blight Mission"]: A sea captain spoofing Captain Bligh who (along with his henchman) controls the seas to destroy San Francisco.

- Grogan’s Gang (Grogan also voiced by Arte Johnson) ["There's Snow Biz Like Snow Biz Mission"]: a trio of gangsters who plan to steal and ransom top-secret government documents in the Colorado Rockies. Frank is the Rhubarb`, Harry is the Putty with the girth of Muss and the titular Grogan is the English-accented Stutz.

- Dr. Strangeless (also voiced by Arte Johnson [no wonder Rhubarb has two VAs!]) ["The Strangeless Than Fiction Mission"]: A mad scientist who appoints The Houndcats as hired thugs to help him and his henchman -- steal oil supplies from a Texas pipeline.

- Midnight Jones: a ghost that prevents the important and valuable contents of the trains of the A&S (Arizona and Southwestern) Railways from being sent to its destinations. This ghost turned out to be the illusion created by the real villain - Jason Farnsworth - to make the Railway company worth peanuts so he can sell it to his co-founder and cousin Judd for as much and get away with the expensive items for himself. ["The Ruckus on the Rails Mission"]

- Dr. Doll (voiced by John Stephenson) ["The Who's Who That's Who Mission"]: a puppeteer who uses his creations - mechanical lookalikes of the mayor of Sidewinder, Texas and other local officials - to take over the Lone Star state’s government as governor.

Professor McCabe (voiced by ) ["The French Collection Mission"]: a master jewel thief who finds a way to swipe previously-missing French jewels in New Orleans’ French Quarter.

 Dr. Greenhouse (also voiced by John Stephenson) ["Is There a Doctor in the Greenhouse Mission"] - a mad scientist who creates a formula to make plants grow at horrifying heights and capture pure gold bars from Fort Knox.

- Madame X (voiced by Joan Gerber) ["The Call Me Madam X Mission"] - a super villainess consulted by Diamondhead, Strangeless and McCabe to concoct a plan to steal false plans in an attempt to trick and end the Houndcats for good.

All of these villains are cunning, awesome and entertaining in their own ways. Despite the 

The Chief’s Messages:

One of The Houndcats’ central elements is the messages sent to the titular team from their Chief notifying them of their mission: who their adversary is, what the important item is, whomever is also involved, . As a parody of the messages from Mission: Impossible, these messages aren’t on a piece of paper or a vinyl record or a cassette tape or the like. Instead, these messages take the random and comically-created forms of other items like a gramophone in a talking turtle’s shell, a vinyl record made out like a flapjack, or even a song on a player piano (performed by The Chief himself no less!). Of course, after the message is given, it will self-destruct after five seconds. They freak out and turn tails to complete their assignment. These messages were consistent. They gave the team the intel for their missions, they’re extremely cunning in their packaging and unique in their execution. Oh yeah, they’re incredibly hilarious too -- in all those ways. My favorite is the player piano song message from “The Strangless Than Fiction Mission''; hearing the Chief singing the intel is both hilarious and mesmerizing.

Voice Acting:

So far, I personally think The Houndcats has the most distinct, expressive, distinguishable and incredible group of voices and talents of any Saturday Morning Cartoon up to this point. All of the cast voicing the team manage to sound not only completely different from other shows, but also different from each other (hell, one character even has TWO voice actors that sound completely different from each other). And as mentioned under that character’s bio, Stutz is Michael Bell’s first ever major voice acting role, and for a first-timer, he knocks it out of the park with his high, stuffy, very charming and sometimes very snarky voice. Speaking of voice, one of my favorite elements of the series is Putty Puss stretching out the last word of each of his lines (heck, it’s even lampshaded by Stutz in “The Is There a Doctor in the Greenhouse Mission”).

Not to take away credit, some of the VAs who voice the heroes also voice villains -- like Bell as The Raven, Johnson as Captain Blight, and Butler as Dr. Strangeless and Grogan. Also voice actors who voice just the villains include John Stephenson as Dr. Greenhouse and Joan Gerber as Madame X. And while some sound easily recognizable over others, they still brought intrigue, suspense and -- into them.

Each VA gives such a wonderful performance that could win a major award. And judging from the enthusiasm, charisma\

 and positive energy of the heroes and love-to-hate charm and random goofiness of the villains, it seems everyone had a great time in the booth. Oh to be a fly on the wall during the sessions.

Writing/Production:

While I don't hate them, Western is a film and TV genre I'm just not into; and the only times I watch them willingly is when I take a peek when my grandmother or father are watching them. But even with my rudimentary attention and knowledge of them (heck, the only one I enjoy watching is Django Unchained), I recognized and took in the look and feel of The Houndcats very well from the jump. The characters dialogue and actions, the animation, and the fit the usual settings to perfection.

Animation:

For a series that features both talking, bipedal animals and humans, the designs of both look incredible. The human characters have realistic facial features and don’t look and act all the way cartoony. Plus, no two human characters look alike (even the Farnsworth characters, and the two Professor Thorndyke's - one was Putty Puss in disguise). As for those anthropomorphic  animals themselves look in the middle of realistic and cartoonish. While they look like real… hounds and cats, they still have cartoony proportions; they all have different heights and are human sized. 

The backgrounds strongly embody the architecture and atmosphere of America of 1914.

The movements are pretty mishmash at times. Sometimes almost smooth and fluid, sometimes very choppy as heck (e.g. A scene in one episode where Stutz and Ding are running and their mouths move sharply up and down, clearly not matching their voices), but I feel it does add a bit of rugged charm to the whole thing.

Music:

Say whatever you want about DFE films' show ideas, animation (heck, I already did just earlier) and utilization of a laugh track (I’ll get to that in a moment). But if there’s one thing I’ll give them a wallop of credit for, it’s giving their animated series original incidental music. And another great reason is coming real soon. But to me, this series has the best pieces of original music for a DFE show of them all since The Pink Panther (and yes, that series' music is mostly just the iconic theme by the equally-iconic Henry Mancini). Whether for dramatic, tense, suspenseful, action-filled, goofy, light, fun, humorous and/or cheerful, the incidental compositions feature something for each scene and they’re all well-done, memorable and catchy. And for that, I tip my hat to David Goodwin (music director) and two guys named Eric -- Rogers (score/conductor) and Tomlinson (mixing).

Speaking of well-done, memorable and catchy, let’s discuss the theme song. Set to a strong, buzzy, and Western-style production reminiscent of some of the best compositions of the greatest movies and TV shows of the genre, the tune introduces each member of the gang, lays out a warning to menacing evil-doers committing crime or espionage, and suggests anyone under the thumb of the villainy to contact them. The singers do a fantastic job with the vocals matching the tone, energy and feel of Western theme music (even though most are instrumentals), and getting us excited for the stories to come.

Random Thought: I also loved the way they sang Stutz’s name, and their softer and quieter reprise at the end.

Laugh Track: YES.

While it’s much better used and placed than in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, it still annoys me sometimes. At least they’re recorded like a bunch of people were switched out for another bunch, although you never notice the same tracks until later episodes.

Conclusion:

From the first airing of the first episode, I was drawn in by the actions of The Raven’s gang and then the over-the-top shenanigans of The Houndcats, which I fell in love with almost immediately. I had a high amount of fun each and every episode, so much so that I watched the entire series front to back more than twice, and I believe you will too. Considering the fact that it’s fifty years old now and is in reruns for over five on a barely-easily-found classic-television network, it’s quite telling. I highly recommend it. 

The series is currently airing Saturday mornings on Retro TV (don’t know what that is? Ask Google; not me.) and available to view on YouTube -- however, only a few episodes are available. 

Tune in again real soon when I revisit The House that William & Joseph Drew when we’re gonna meet the family that does like the Romans do. They’re The Roman Holidays. Thank you all for once again checking out the show. See you again real soon. I be Andrew, and that is all.

This message will self-destruct in five seconds.