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The History of Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats & the Other Heathcliff Cartoon Also

Secret Galaxy | January 20, 2026



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Right after Inspector Gadget, DIC was looking for its next American hit and settled on a cartoon starring Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats. But this wasn’t the first cartoon about Heathcliff and Heathcliff wasn’t the only popular orange cat out there, with Garfield blowing up the newstands.

SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathcliff_(1984_TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathcliff_(1980_TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathcliff_(comic_strip)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gately
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby-Spears
https://heathcliff.fandom.com/wiki/Heathcliff_%26_the_Catillac_Cats
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats
https://www.newspapers.com/image/137218376/?match=1&clipping_id=new
https://saturdaymorningrewind.podbean.com/e/36-donna-christie-interview-heathcliff-and-the-catillac-cats-dennis-the-menace-popples-real-ghostbusters/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/590816035/?match=1&terms=heathcliff

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Written by Secret Galaxy

Comments

This post currently has 26 comments.

  1. @FWACATA

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    Heathcliff was the delinquent, the cat doing STUFF. Garfeild was jsut fat and lazy. I always dug him more and thhought Garfield was lame. I think if they really messed with it, let maybe some other cartoonist mess with it, aother naimators they could find somehting cool.

  2. @iseeyoup

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    I know this is a history about Heathcliffs TV run and not so much his comic run but I’m still a little disappointed that there was no touching on the way Heathcliff is currently with its weird and absurd humour that won’t make sense to anyone but Heathcliff fans and in my opinion is the main way it sets itself apart from Garfield nowadays

  3. @MrBeardsley

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    Modern Healthcliff has been great under Peter Gallagher (no relation to the actor), it’s become this surreal series of one-panel non sequitur gags featuring Garbage Apes, Man-Eating Giants and a frog named Jimmy.

  4. @hoodmistressreloaded

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    First, let me say that I never knew that Andy Heyward used to work for Hanna-Barbera before he went to DiC (he's synonymous with the latter studio in my eyes).

    Second, I used to watch Heathcliff on local TV (shouts out to KCOP Channel 13 here in Los Angeles) way back in the day before Nickelodeon picked him. Didn't know about his Ruby-Spears show until Cartoon Network started airing it (never liked that one) because the DiC version, even with that catchy theme song, stayed imprinted on my brain since I was only a wee lil' baby back in 1984

  5. @tompatchak8706

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    My friends have a podcast called super 80s podcast friend where they talk about and breakdown musically the theme songs from television shows of the 80s and a few months ago. They did this Heathcliff theme song and it was hilariously horribly bad but good at the same time.

  6. @gezeo750

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    I LOVED watching Heathcliff! The Catillac Cats were cool too, but I always liked Heathcliff more. Plus yeah I knew him from the newspaper comics. Also yeah, I can't unhear Bugs Bunny now. Never noticed it as a kid. Though when I saw this and you said Mel Blanc as soon as I remembered Heathcliff's laugh it all made sense.

  7. @xq8152

    January 20, 2026 at 7:51 am

    My kids come home from school and watch random YouTubers doing the dumbest stuff. I tried to get them into 80's and 90's cartoons but they just prefer the brain rot 67. 🤦🏿‍♂️

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