Fraidy Cat (TV series)

Plot

The show stars Fraidy "Nine" Cat (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer), an unlucky and miserable cat who, like all cats, has nine lives but has used up eight of them and is on his ninth and last life where he wants to make it last. The main joke of the series is that as if Fraidy's life wasn't miserable enough, every time Fraidy inadvertently says out loud any single-digit number (from one to eight), or any word or any part of a word that rhymes with or sounds the same as the number's name in any language, a ghost from one of his former lives will appear and mistakenly tend to make things even worse for the hopeless cat.

The ghosts are:

1. Elephunt Cave "One" Cat (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - A prehistoric Saber-Toothed Tiger with a caveman motif. He owns a huge pet Apatosaurus named "Ant".
2. Kitty "Two" Wizard (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) - A befuddled magician whose wand was often on the wrong setting.
3. Captain "Three" Kitt (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - A pirate who is the self-proclaimed "buccaneer's buccaneer".
4. Sir Walter "Four" Cat (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - A foppish Elizabethan nobleman who is also an expert swordsman.
5. Billy "Five" the Kit (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - A western cowboy. He is a small guy with a very loud voice.
6. Jasper "Six" Catdaver (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - An undertaker who actually prefers to expedite Fraidy's passing to the "Other Side" though not out of spite.
7. Captain Eddie "Seven" Cattenbakker (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - A pilot who is a very erratic flier.
8. Hep "Eight" Cat (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - A zoot-suited jive-talking street cat.
9. Cloud Nine (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) - As accidentally saying a number from one to eight gets Fraidy a ghost, as if to fill the void towards his last life, saying "nine" calls forth an ominous, malevolent storm cloud (shaped like the number nine) which immediately gives chase after Fraidy, attempting to blast him with bolts of lightning until Fraidy manages to either outrun the cloud or its (supposedly) limited time it can stay expires.

Each short begins with all eight ghosts appearing around Fraidy who says to the audience about his life: "Every kitty has nine lives. But eight of mine went fast. Now there's only one life left, and I want to make it last!" Cloud Nine appears and he starts running. Then he morphs into the yellow-lined cat's name which its letters said it at the end of the intro.

Whenever terrified by some dangerous situation, Fraidy often exclaims: "This kitten's splitting!"

Production

One of the few original series (outside of an adaptation) to be produced by Filmation; Fraidy was later syndicated as part of the Groovie Goolies and Friends series.

DVD release

Some Fraidy Cat episodes were released by BCI on a compilation DVD called Frightfully Funny: Volume Two, which also included episodes of Groovie Goolies and Filmation's Ghostbusters.

In 2008, some episodes were released as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's compilation, 200 Classic Cartoons: Collector's Edition and on their Giant 600 Cartoon Collection compilation. The episodes A Small Star Is Born, Fraidy Gone Fishing, Fraidy Come Home, Double Trouble, Unlucky Fraidy, It's A Dog's Life, Lollipop Burglar and Culture Schlock are missing. Some of the titles on this DVD are Cupid the Cat, Feline Fortune,Love is a Many Feathered Thing, Meaner than a Junkyard Cat, The Not-So-Nice Mice and Over the Wall Having a Ball.

On October 11, 2011, Allegro/Pop Flix released some the episodes on the compilation 100 Family Cartoons volume 3. The episodes A Small Star Is Born, Fraidy Gone Fishing, Fraidy Come Home, Double Trouble, Unlucky Fraidy, It's A Dog's Life and Culture Schlock are missing. Some of the episodes on this DVD are Meaner Than A Junkyard Cat, Cupid the Cat, Over the Wall Having a Ball, Feline Fortune, The Not So Nice Mice, Love is a Many Feathered Thing, and Lollipop Burglar.