The Houndcats

The Houndcats is an American Saturday morning cartoon series produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. The series was broadcast by NBC from September 9 to December 2, 1972, with reruns continuing until September 1, 1973. Thirteen episodes were produced.

Plot

Loosely based on the CBS adventure series Mission: Impossible, it was headed by a combined team of (three) dogs and (two) cats, hence the name.

Each episode begins with the Houndcats receiving their orders from their unseen "Chief", whose message is played on an old-fashioned gramophone, player-piano or other device, parodying the tape recorder scene at the start of most episodes of Mission Impossible. However, the words "this message will self-destruct in five seconds", always takes the Houndcats by surprise, causing them to run away from the explosion.

Members

• The "Houndcats" were led by cool and confident cat Stutz.
• Ding Dog was his blue Civil War uniform-wearing right-hand man with bad timing and judgment. He is a Briard.
• Mussel Mutt was the muscle - a large, bulky, and ever-hungry herding dog whose eyes were almost always hidden under his hat. He is and Old English Sheepdog
• Putty Puss was a tiny cat - the disguise expert.
• Dog Rhubarb was the scientist. He wore a long coat and a large sombrero (you usually just saw his nose sticking out from under it) that hid his gadgets. He is a Puli

Voices

• Michael Bell - Stutz, The Raven
• Joe Besser - Putty Puss
• Daws Butler - Rhubarb (three episodes), Dr. Strangeless, Grogan
• Stu Gilliam - Ding Dog
• Arte Johnson - Rhubarb, Captain Blight
• Aldo Ray - Mussel Mutt
• Joan Gerber - Madame X
• Bob Holt -
• John Stephenson - Doctor Doll

DVD/syndication

On October 20, 2015, Film Chest Media Group released The Barkleys and The Houndcats - 2 DVD Classic Animation Set on DVD in Region 1.^[2] This collection features all 13 episodes of the series.

Some episodes of the show were previously released onto videocassette in the 1980s by now-defunct Trans World Entertainment.

References

External links

• The Houndcats at the Internet Movie Database
• The Houndcats at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Houndcats at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016.