T.H.E. Cat's Meow!

In the 1960s, Friday night was the place for “cool” television shows. At one time or another during their broadcast runs, you could find The Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and The Avengers o Friday nights. One of my favorites of those cool Friday series was T.H.E. Cat, a half-hour action series starring Robert Loggia as a retired cat burglar who worked as a bodyguard. It debuted in the fall of 1966 and only lasted a single season. In retrospect, that was probably a good thing for Loggia, who went on to have a long film career in movies like Big and Prizzi’s Honor and earn an Oscar nomination for Jagged Edge.

Still, T.H.E. Cat was an entertaining series that should have lasted longer. If you’re wondering about the title, well, some episodes would open with a scene ending with Loggia’s character stating his full name: Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat (his initials are T.H.E., of course!). That would lead into an animated title sequence where a black cat turns into a shadowy man as Lalo Schifrin’s catchy jazz theme played (Schifrin also composed memorable TV themes for Mission: Impossible, Mannix, and others).

When not providing protective services for a client, Cat hung out at the Casa del Gato (House of the Cat), a nightclub not unlike the one frequented by Craig Stevens in Peter Gunn. Cat’s crony Pepe (Robert Carricart) ran the nightclub; R.G. Armstrong played Cat’s police detective friend/nemesis Captain McAllister.

What I remember best about the show is the Cat himself, who would don an all-black outfit when on assignment. He carried a knife up his sleeve (the “cat’s claw”) and could throw it with deadly accuracy. He also used a grappling hook to scale buildings and tightrope walk from one structure to another when required (Cat had also performed in a circus…before becoming a cat burglar). Just to show that TV is educational, this is the show that taught me what a grappling hook was!

Unlike many less entertaining shows, I’ve never seen T.H.E. Cat pop up on local stations or even nostalgic TV cable channels. Maybe one day, it will be released on DVD. I never thought I’d see The Champions or The Protectors again, but found both in a “Spy TV” boxed set this summer. So, I’m holding out hope for one cool Cat.