Created by artist George Gately, Heathcliff made his comic strip debut in 1973. A rather scruffy and street-savvy kitty, he would eventually make his way to the Saturday morning lineup in 1980 on the animated series Heathcliff and Dingbat. A year later, the show was re-christened Heathcliff and Marmaduke, with the frisky feline now sharing screen-time with a gargantuan Great Dane. For this incarnation, Heathcliff had some of his rough edges toned down and audiences weren’t enamored with the kinder, gentler kitty. Luckily, when a new series was introduced in 1984, not only did Heathcliff have his original disposition restored, but a whole new group of feline friends as well in Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats.

In the first segment of each show, Heathcliff was still up to his old rebellious antics, still living with the Nutmeg family and still battling such adversaries as the dogcatchers and Spike the bulldog.

The second segment belonged to a collection of kitties that lived in the local junkyard, called the Cattilac Cats. The gang was led by the crafty and conniving Riff Raff, and included the wimpy Hector, intellectual Wordsworth, villainous Leroy, dimwitted Mungo and narcissistic Cleo. Riff Raff concocted the far-fetched get-rich (or get-food) schemes and the others followed along.

While Heathcliff shared some similarities with another famous cartoon strip kitty named Garfield, the two differed in the fact that the former never spoke in his comics. In the animated series, however, he was given a voice by perhaps the most iconic master of voices that ever lived – Mel Blanc. Heathcliff holds the distinction of being the last original character that Mel created before his passing in 1981.

Seven Heathcliff segments from this series were strung together in 1986 to form Heathcliff: The Movie. It has since been released on DVD. In 2005, the first 24 episodes of this show, which ran for three years, were also released on DVD.