Heathcliff

"Heathcliff" was my fave animated series growing up. In a time (mid 80s) when we were bombarded by violent, mindless action cartoons like "Transformers," "Gobots," and "Thundercats," it was nice to have a pleasant, laid back show like "Heathcliff." The show mostly consisted of the tubby tabby's daily mischief with the owner of the fish market, the milk man, new neighborhood rivals, and the felines and canines he already knew. Other characters were big, dumb dog Spike, Heathy's babe, Sonja, and his family of Iggy, Grandma and Grandpa. After Heathcliff's story we were treated to the adventures of the Cats and Co. led by Riff Raff. It may sound odd, but I actually preferred their tales more than 'Cliffs. They seemed more inventive and fun. Riff Raff's gang consisted of spindly, wannabe tough guy, Hector, constantly rhyming Wordsworth, and brainless, pudgy, Mungo. Those three were also sometimes featured in Heathcliffs stories as well, but for whatever reason Riff Raff and Heathcliff never appeared in the same story. Guess it was to give each their own seperate time on screen. Hey, cartoon characters can have egos too I guess. But all in all, strong writing (especially for a cartoon) and harmless adventures made this a nice half hour after school.

Heathcliff was Mel Blanc's final original character and starring role before he continued to reprise Barney Rubble and Mr. Spacely for Hanna Babera and the Looney Tunes for Warner Brothers. It was my favorite series in the late 80's to early 90's. Today it's out on DVD which is good so many others can enjoy Heathcliff and his friends as many times as you want. This was last scene on Bommerang. Even though it was the Ruby/Spears effort their version wasn't bad. But, DIC's effort was and still is far better. therefore if you had to choose only one, the DIC series is your best bet. But the Ruby/Spears series I can also recommend just to see Heathcliff only. Overall, this is an classic series. With one of the highest vote I could give, it's get an 9 out of 10.

first off, riff-raff had the much hotter girlfriend. with that said, let me go on my tirade about this show. i am convinced that this show contained subliminal messages. i, too, used to watch this show almost every day. however, i cannot recall ever thinking it was good. i'd watch it from start to finish, without turning the channel, & the whole time i'd be thinking, 'wow, this show really sucks.' it is my theory that this show was used as an experiment on the under 13 demographic by a syndicate of advertisers simply known as 'the angry mob'.

i grew up watching nickelodeon. and everyday i would watch heathcliff. what an awesome show! heathcliff was the coolest. he would get all the ladies, could beat up any cat, and always did the right things in the right situation. i guess you can call him the arthur fonzarelli of alley cats. and riff raff, haha, riff raff was great!!! i wish the show was still on the air. if you love cartoons, this one is great!!!

I quite agree with the comment that lost were the days of magical cartoons. I grew up with G1 transformers and GI Joe - no 3D special effects and lame narratives.

I was delightfully surprised to see there were people in other parts of the world who shared my curiosity on the non-co-existence of HeathCliff and Riff Raff. This is a childhood mystery that I have grown up with up to today. When I was 7 and I started watching the first few airings on HeathCliff and the Catillac Cats, my mind did not distinguish HeathCliff and Riff Raff - you see they were both sort of orange and led the 3 other cats. So I took it they were one in the same essence. But with more airings and on careful inspection, I saw they were entirely different characters. Now, it is common place for writers to bring different comic personalities in the same setting,this habit was not so for earlier generation cartoons. Perhaps a sort of code of discipline in cartoon writing. I do not think their non-co-existence was for aesthetic reasons as per personality lines, but for legal reasons; they were engineered and voiced by two different people who reaped their individual credits. I must say however, in the aftertheme, you could see Riff Raff taking off his hat from HeathCliff's head with a stick, and I was deeply and passionately drawn to that brief scene - it triggered a sort of philosophic hypothesis that although they had a troublemaking essence in common, but when fused in the same time and setting, one respectfully recedes personality to the other to avoid a sort of time-paradox...and this extends beyond mere cartoon drama, because their co-existence was and would have been, in fact, illegal and a breech of contract with respect to the production laws governing that cartoon, and for credit reasons. So formal airing of HeathCliff could never permit co-existence of those characters.

The HeathCliff theme song is very nostalgic to me.