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Felix the Cat started out as animated entertainment during the Paramount Screen Magazine newsreels. He was first created by Pat Sullivan, Otto Messmer, and John King in 1919, and his image was one of the first ever broadcast on television – in 1928, RCA used a toy statue of Felix to test their experimental 60-line television transmitter. The cute cat was a popular figure until 1929 when talkies were introduced, and Pat Sullivan wasn’t interested in converting his feline creation to a talking cat.

 

But you can’t fight technology, and in 1936 a series of Felix cartoon were produced in Technicolor by Van Buren Studios. Then in 1958, Joe Oriolo, the creator of  Casper the Friendly Ghost , created a new series for Felix. These new shows featured Felix’s bag of tricks, a magical sack that produced anything Felix needed at any time. The useful bag was greedily wanted by the Professor, who would try to steal it with the help of his henchman, Rock Bottom the bulldog. Felix inevitably would outsmart him, as he also did his other arch-enemy, the evil Master Cylinder.

 

Felix’s friend Vavoom was a strange little Eskimo who would start avalanches just by shouting his name. The Professor’s smart nephew, Poindexter, was also Felix’s friend, and lent his name as the nickname of nerdy kids everywhere.

 

The show’s small budget often resulted in slow, rough animation, but that didn’t stop Felix from entertaining millions of children and becoming an animation icon. And he continues to be one. In 1994, he reappeared on CBS in a series of five-second commercial bumpers, followed by an all new series a year later with The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.