Saturday Morning Cartoon

Just as The Flintstones was a take off on The Honeymooners, Top Cat was clearly inspired by You'll Never Get Rich (AKA The Phil Silvers Show). T.C. himself was exactly the kind of operator as Ernie Bilko (Silvers) in the earlier program. You'll also notice that memebrs of T.C.'s coterie of chums matches up pretty well with Bilko's platoon (including a Doberman-esqe Benny the Ball, voiced by Maurice Gosfield, who starred as Doberman in the original show). When I was a kid, I never made the connection-- but it makes the cartoon that much more enjoyable to me today. Here's a classic episode in three parts: