Top Cat - Intro Theme

The intro to Hanna-Barbera's 1961, primetime animated TV series Top Cat, which is out in its entirety on DVD.The adventures of a lovable con-artist with a heart of gold, Top Cat and the gang spent their time in Hoagy's Alley, trying to find ways of making a quick buck and suchlike. With Top Cat are the Spook, the naïve Benny the Ball, Fancy-Fancy, Choo-choo, and none-too-bright Brain. Opposing them, or at least trying to, is police officer Dibble, who objects to Top Cat's use of the police public phone and the general shenanigans of the gang. Lasting just one season of 30 half-hour episodes, Top Cat was heavily influenced by The Phil Silvers Show (a.k.a. Sgt. Bilko). This kind of borrowing was nothing new for the studio, as their previous hit, The Flintstones was also somewhat based on a -- then -- popular show.Because of a copyright conflict* and the non-advertising policy it had at the time, the BBC renamed the show Boss Cat during it original UK run, although the character throughout was still referred to as Top Cat or TC.*Top Cat was the name of a brand of UK canned cat food.The use of this introduction theme clip/subject is claimed under 'Fair Use' on the grounds of:1) the clip/subject is used for - and accompanied with - comments on the show. Comments include such things as the producers of the show (as in the production company/s), the year it first aired and how long the series lasted in 'standard length' episodes. Also noted is the availability of subject on high quality, officially licensed media (e.g. DVD).2a) Inferior quality of video in relation to the quality of the original source. Being at a much lower screen resolution at a high level of compression. In addition to the substantial generation loss caused as a result of the methods used, the process also causes compression artifacts in the form of: loss of image clarity, noise, pixelization, et al.2b) The inferior nature coupled with the incomplete nature of this recording and the diminished potential value therein of this recording in relation to the original work.3) The trivial nature of the potential value of subject's introductory theme (hereon referred to as 'intro'), less the actual show that would otherwise follow. On the basis that it is the show - rather than the show's intro - which is, in essence, the primary draw of any 'realistic' potential audience and therefore the main fiscal worth of the subject (relating to audience/market share and sales of merchandising, i.e. DVD and video).4) Bar the occasional glimpse at an episode's title car, the clip is of the intro and nothing else. The length of the clip is determined by that of subject's intro original length, no more is taken.5) The poster and host both receive no revenue from this clip's existence on this site.

Channel: Film & Animation
Uploaded: March 24, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Author: starlac

Length: 00:46
Rating: 4.97
Views: 15797

Tags: animated  animation  barbera  cartoon  cat  hanna  intro  opening  series  Top  

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