T.H.E. Cat
| T.H.E. Cat | |
|---|---|
Robert Loggia in T.H.E. Cat
|
|
| Genre |
Action drama Crime drama |
| Created by | Harry Julian Fink |
| Written by | Ronald Austin James D. Buchanan Harry Julian Fink Robert Hamner Herman Miller Bernard C. Schoenfeld Jack Turley |
| Directed by | Alan Crosland, Jr. Paul Baxley Don McDougall Maurice Vaccarino Boris Sagal |
| Starring |
Robert Loggia R.G. Armstrong Robert Carricart |
| Composer(s) | Lalo Schifrin |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Boris Sagal |
| Running time | 30 mins. |
| Production company(s) | NBC Productions |
| Distributor | NBC Universal Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 16, 1966 – March 31, 1967 |
T.H.E. Cat is an American action drama that aired during the 1966–1967 television season on NBC.
The series was co-sponsored by R.J. Reynolds (Winston) and Lever Brothers and was created by Harry Julian Fink, the creator of Dirty Harry.
Robert Loggia starred as the title character, Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat. T.H.E. Cat is a forerunner of television characters such as The Equalizer, who skirt the edges of the law and bring skills from earlier careers on behalf of those needing more help than the police can offer.
The series preceded the 1968–1970 ABC television series It Takes a Thief, which was also about a cat burglar who used his skills for good.
"Out of the night comes a man who saves lives at the risk of his own. Once a circus performer, an aerialist who refused the net. Once a cat burglar, a master among jewel thieves. Now a professional bodyguard. Primitive... savage... in love with danger. The Cat!"
This was the intro of a series that was, for a variety of reasons, truly ahead of its time. It had a hero who was a reformed thief, having spent an unspecified term in prison, and of Gypsy heritage. In the mold of famed private-eye Peter Gunn and the waterfront bar Mother's, Cat operated out of the Casa Del Gato (House Of The Cat) in San Francisco, of which he was part owner.
The show was dark and moody, fitting the character, and was one of the first to use martial arts in a realistic way. (The others were The Green Hornet, which premiered on ABC the same year, and the earlier 1960 syndicated series, The Case of the Dangerous Robin starring Rick Jason.) This was unknown on TV at that time and rarely seen even in films (an exception was The Manchurian Candidate, the first Hollywood movie to show martial arts in realistic fashion instead of the "judo chops" usually depicted). The series also featured a number of highly gifted guest stars and relied heavily on the film noir school to set the tone of the series.
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Wikipedia