7.4 /10 1 Votes
8.2/10 First episode date 5 September 1984 | 6.8/10 Genre Comedy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developed by Jean ChalopinAlan SwayzeChuck Lorre Directed by Bruno BianchiMichael Maliani Voices of Mel BlancDonna ChristiePeter Cullen (Season 1)Stanley JonesJeannie EliasDanny Wells Cast |
May the best cat win
Heathcliff (a.k.a. Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats) is a French-American animated television series that debuted on September 5, 1984. It was the second series based on the Heathcliff comic strip and was produced by DIC Entertainment. It ran in syndication until 1988 with a total of 86 episodes. The first show based on the comic strip was Heathcliff and Dingbat, which debuted in 1980. The Catillacs Cats characters were created by Jean Chalopin and Bruno Bianchi. Mel Blanc provided the voice of Heathcliff. Animation was outsourced to many Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean studios including TMS, Studio Korumi, Wang Film, Cuckoo's Nest, Mushi, Araki, and others for the first season before DIC utilized their own, private Japanese studio to avoid paying other companies.
Contents
- May the best cat win
- Heathcliff intro
- Premise
- Characters
- The Catillac Cats Cats Co
- Voices
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Theme song
- Movie
- Broadcast history
- DVD releases
- References

Heathcliff intro
Premise

The first season ran for 65 episodes while the second season ran for 21. Each episode included an additional segment featuring The Catillac Cats. While the series was on the air, the movie Heathcliff: The Movie, was released which was a compilation of segments.
Characters
The Catillac Cats (Cats & Co.)
A gang of cats that played alongside Heathcliff. When Riff-Raff is not around, the Catillac Cats are sometimes helping Heathcliff in some adventures or sometimes tease him. They drive a slick Cadillac which could transform into an RV and a boat. They live in a junkyard.
Voices
Season 1
- The Great Pussini / Kitty Kat Kennels
- Chauncey's Great Escape / Carnival Capers
- Mad Dog Catcher / Circus Beserkus
- Rebel Without a Claws / The Farming Life Ain't For Me
- Heathcliff's Middle Name / Wishful Thinking
- King of the Beasts / Cat Can Do
- Smoke Gets in my Eyes / Much Ado about Bedding
- City Slicker Cat / House of the Future
- Spike's Cousin / For the Birds
- Heathcliff's Pet / Swamp Fever
- Teed Off / Monstro vs. the Wolf Hound
- Say Cheese / Cat's Angels
- Meow Meow Island / Iron Cats
- Family Tree / Who's Got the Chocolate?
- Be Prepared / Cruisin' for a Bruisin'
- Heathcliff Gets Canned / Whackoed Out
- Brain Sprain / Cat Balloon
- May the Best Cat Win (possibly the pilot episode)/ Comedy Cats*
- Revenge of the Kitty / Jungle Vacation
- Hospital Heathcliff / Hector's Takeover
- Going Shopping / Cat in the Fat
- Wild Cat Heathcliff / Kitten Around
- Cat Burglar Heathcliff / Lucky's Unlucky Day
- The Blizzard Bandit / Harem Cat
- Kitten Smitten / Young Cat with a Horn
- The Gang's All Here / The Meowsic Goes Round & Round
- Snow Job / Condo Fever
- Heathcliff Pumps Iron / Mungo's Dilemma
- Heathcliff's Double / Big Foot
- Terrible Tammy / The Games of Love
- Big Top Bungling / Space Cats
- Lard Times / The Merry Pranksters
- Spike's Slave / Scaredy Cats
- Gopher Broke / A Camping We Will Go
- Where There's an Ill, There's a Way / Yes Sewer That's my Baby
- Soap Box Derby / A Better Mousetrap
- Bamboo Island / Superhero Mungo
- Butter Up! / Mungo Gets No Respect
- Sonja's Nephew / Dr. Mousetus
- Cat Food for Thought / Going South
- Phantom of the Garbage / Junkyard Flood
- Trombone Terror / The Other Woman
- Pop on Parole / The Babysitters
- The Siamese Twins / The Mungo Mash
- Copa-ca-Heathcliff / Leroy's in Love
- Used Pets / Search for a Star
- An Officer and an Alley-Cat / Hector Spector
- Service with a Smile / Junk Food
- Boom Boom Pussini / Beach Blanket Mungo
- Sealand Mania / Riff Raff the Gourmet
- The Super M.A.C. Menace / Journey to the Center of the Earth
- A Piece of the Rock / Divide and Clobber
- Flying High / Debutante Ball
- Heathcliff Reforms / Prehysteric Riff Raff
- Heathcliff's Surprise / The Big Break In
- The Catfather / The Big Swipe
- Tally-Ho Heathcliff / Cleo Moves In
- Granpda vs. Grandpa / The Big Game Hunter
- The Great Tuna Caper / Peco's Treasure
- The Baby Buggy Bad Guys / Riff Raff's Mom
- Momma's Back in Town / Trash Dance
- Claws / Hector the Detector
- Raiders of the Lost Cat / Mungo Lays an Egg
- The Home Wrecker / In Search of Catlantis
- Star or Tomeow-meow / Soccer Anyone?
Note: The DVD lists episode, May the Best Cat Win as first, and titles the episode Pilot.
Season 2
- The Whitecliffs of Dover / Life Saver
- Nightmare in Beverly Hills / The Cat in the Iron Mask
- The Shrink / Brushing Up
- Dr. Heathcliff and Mr. Spike / Time Warped
- Spike's New Home / Mungo's Big Romance
- The Cat and the Pauper / Mungo of the Jungle
- In the Beginning / Catlympic Cats
- Rear Cat Window / Cat Days, Ninja Nights
- Something Fishy / Christmas Memories
- Heathcliff's Mom / Hockey Pucks
- Cat Day Afternoon / Hector Protector
- Feline Good / Off-Road Racer
- Spike's Coach / The Trojan Catillac
- Heathcliff Gets Framed / Repo Cat
- Missing in Action / Bag Cat Sings the Blues
- It's a Terrible Life / Leroy Gets Canned
- Hair of the Cat / Tenting Tonight
- The Fortune Teller / Cottontails, Chickens, & Colored Eggs
- Break an Egg / A Letter to Granny
- The New York City Sewer System / High Goon
- North Pole Cat / He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Theme song
The theme was recorded by Noam Kaniel and written by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban.
Movie
Heathcliff: The Movie was released to theaters on January 17, 1986, and subsequently on VHS in 1988 by Paramount Video. It includes seven segments from the original show:
Broadcast history
In the United States, the series was aired in national first-run syndication from September 5, 1984 until 1988, and reruns of the series were then aired on Nickelodeon from 1988 until 1993. It was rerun on Family Channel from 1993-1998 and Fox Family Channel from 1998 until 1999. From September 27, 2010 until September 23, 2011, reruns of the series were aired in the United States on the This Is for Kids block on This TV. In the U.K. the series aired on CBBC during the late 1980s and early 1990s, then it was repeated on Channel 4 until 1996, then in the early 2000s it was aired on Toon Disney U.K. in 2000 also in 2000 the TV Show was aired in Syndication in North American Local Channels, and was usually billed under the title Heathcliff Cats & Co. The series also aired in Japan.
As per an interview with Donna Christie (voice actor for Iggy Nutmeg and Cleo), the series did not continue because of Mel Blanc's failing health.
DVD releases
On February 24, 2004, UAV Entertainment released two best-of collections with each set featuring nine select episodes from the series.
On May 25, 2004, Sterling Entertainment released Heathclif: The Movie on DVD. However this release is now out of print.
In the UK, there have been several volumes of Heathcliff released on DVD by Maximum Entertainment. These DVD's are now out of print.
On September 20, 2005, Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment released Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats in a 4-disc boxset featuring the first 24 episodes of the series. This release has been discontinued and is now out of print as Shout! Factory has lost the rights to the series.
Since 2007, NCircle Entertainment has released seven Heathcliff DVDs.
On February 21, 2012, Mill Creek Entertainment released Heathcliff- Season One, Volume 1 on DVD. This 3-disc set features the first 32 episodes from the Season 1. They also released a 10 episode best-of collection on that same day. Heathcliff- Season 1, Volume 2 was released on October 1, 2013, which contains the remaining 33 episodes from Season 1. As of 2015, these releases have been discontinued and are out of print.
On August 2, 2016, Mill Creek released Heathcliff- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. The 9-disc set contains all 86 episodes of the series, including the final 21 episodes which were previously unreleased.
The episode "Going Shopping / Cat in the Fat" was included as a bonus in the DVD release of the first half of the Beverly Hills Teens series.
In France, two more 4-disc sets were released under the French title of the series, Les Entrechats.