Waldo Kitty

About the short-lived live action/animated series "The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty"........................

For one,it was loosely based on the original story by James Thurber and also loosely based on the film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" which starred singer-comedian-dancer and actor Danny Kaye which was released in 1947 and produced by Samuel Goldwyn Films for RKO Pictures. The story and the movie itself,based on the novel by James Thurber was about a day-dreaming henpecked husband. The movie version was very successful on all counts making it one of the biggest box office attractions of 1947. To allow for romance,the screenplay has made the timid Walter Mitty a bachelor(played by Danny Kaye),though dominated by his mother(Fay Bainter)and his pushy fiancée(Ann Rutherford). Mitty's imaginary adventures basically punctuate the film,which culminates in his taking part in a real-life adventure. Among the characters hilariously impersonated by Kaye are a fast-drawing cowboy,a Mississippi riverboat gambler,a brilliant surgeon,a dashing RAF pilot and lastly an "Anatole of Paris" French fashion designer. In Mitty's dreams,the same glamorous blonde heroine always appears which was played by Virginia Mayo. Here in the original 1947 film the dream girl finally enters his life asking the confused character to help her escape from an evil character who's been following her. That movie also starred Boris Karloff and some fascinating girls.

"The Secret Life of Waldo Kitty",which also based on James Thurber's novel and also this was a mixture of both live action and animation produced by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott for Filmation Productions which ran mostly on Saturday mornings on NBC-TV from September 6,1975 until September 4,1976. Only 13 episodes were produced of this series all in color. Basically same story and same premise but this one consist of animal characters-both real and animated. Just like the story the meek Waldo Kitty found himself intimidated by Tyrone,the neighborhood bullying bulldog and was perplexed by his girlfriend Felicia,a female tabby. In other words,Waldo and his feline girlfriend were both terrorized by the neighborhood bully(the bulldog,Tyrone). When Waldo would pondered how he would escape from this latest dilemma,he would daydream himself into anthropmorphic cartoon form. Voices for the characters were provided by Howard Morris(aka Ernest T. Bass of The Andy Griffith Show and was also one of the Hanna-Barbera stock voice players most notably for the voice of Atom Ant and also for Filmation as well notably for the voice of Jughead Jones on The Archies)and Allan Melvin(another of the Hanna-Barbera and also Filmation stock players too,who was also the voice of H-B's Magilla Gorilla)and also by Filmation voice stock player Jane Webb.

The fantasies Waldo displayed had of controlling the other animals in various superhero incarnations,which was all parodies of human ones from areas of TV and comic books. The set-ups were six very familiar scenes featuring the characters of Waldo,Felicia,and Tyrone...One,there was Tarzan(Catzan),with Felicia as his female companion Jane. The others were Batman(Catman),The Lone Ranger(The Lone Kitty),Robin Hood (Robin Cat),Dick Tracy(Cat Tracy),and Star Trek(Captain James T. Cat of the Starship Kittyprise). Now in each of the scenario,the bulldog would have the same hencemen over and over and each time would capture Felicia and it would be up to Waldo to save her from a certain fate. In the Catman adventures,the real-life cat would be joined by a partner,a bird which when it went into cartoon form would become Sparrow(the equivalent of Batman's Robin),attempting to aid sidekick Waldo into escaping from the evil clutches of the bulldog. The most interesting one of the series,The Lone Kitty,Waldo would have a sidekick in the form of real rabbit,and in this case the rabbit in cartoon form became Tonto. The same with the Robin Hood. This was a show that did very well,even though it ran for one season since it's biggest fantasy had to have been NBC running this for a year and thinking it could outrate the Number One show on Saturday Mornings-which was "The Bugs Bunny Show" on CBS not to even mention another tough competitor "The New Adventures of Scooby Doo" which was on ABC. After its run on NBC in 1976(which was cancelled and its replacement for the start of the 1976-1977 season was a short-lived animated series based on the adventures of heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali and countless repeated episodes of The Pink Panther Show),the series continued onward in national syndication as part of Filmation's "Groovie Ghoulies and Friends" under the title "The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty",which ran for six years in syndication in repeated episodes from the first one ending in 1980. And it hasn't been seen since.