Late 60s and early 70s children’s program was about being as trippy as you could get, and let’s face it, there isn’t much out there that’s trippier than anthropomorphic animals singing and dancing.  It’s certainly been done before; take Bambi for instance.  With the tremendous success Hanna-Barbera saw with somewhat psychedelic The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (created by Sit and Marty Krofft, who would soon after go on to create H.R. Pufnstuf), the time seemed right for some hillbilly cats to start strumming away.  Enter the Cattanooga Cats.

Debuting at the start of the school year in 1969, The Cattanooga Cats were a feline rock band, much along the lines of The Archies, just with a little extra twang and fur between the members.  Members of the band included the lead singer-guitarist, Country, singer-dancer Kitty Jo, bassist-cellist Scoots, and Groove, the drummer.  The original plan for the show included a mouse named Cheesy on the keys, but alas he got scratched out before the show started production.  The group served as the centerpiece around which the various segments would revolve.

One of the most loved and well remembered segments featured on the show was Around the World in 79 Days.  Very loosely based upon the Jules Verne novel of a very similar name, three teenagers, Phileas Fogg Jr., Jenny, and Happy traveled around the world in the hopes of winning £1,000,000 by beating his the original record of 80 days, set by Phineas’ father.  To make things more exciting, they were competing with the sinister Crumden, who stood in their way along with monkey, Smirky, and his sidekick, the aptly named Bumbler. 

It’s the Wolf!, which featured Mildew the wolf, who wants nothing more than to eat Lambsy, uh… the lamb.  As we followed his comic misadventures, we would get to see him get busted by Bristle Hound.  Another segment, Motor Mouse and Auto Cat, pitted Auto Cat against Motor Mouse in various car races.  A la Tom and Jerry, the mouse always beat the cat, and soon the segment became popular enough to warrant its own show; and when Motor Mouse and Auto Cat left, so did It’s the Wolf! 

Now down by two of its most popular cartoons, it wasn’t looking so swell for The Cattanooga Cats.  The show ran until 1971, which incidentally was how long Motor Mouse and Auto Cat ran for.  Perhaps there’s something to be said for the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.  Today’s TV-viewing audiences can catch The Cattanooga Cats on channels specializing in classic cartoons and the like; though their time in the sun was brief, the limelight, it seems, can run on in re-runs forever.