'Eek! The Cat** (retitled Eek! and the Terrible Thunderlizards and eventually **Eek! Stravaganza') is an animated series, created by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, produced by Fox Kids, Savage Studios and Nelvana, it is outsourced by Wang Film Productions. Broadcast from 1992 to 1997 on Fox's former Saturday morning children's block Fox Kids, it aired in Canada on YTV from 1992 to 1998. Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide.

Premise

''Eek! the Cat'' revolves around the misadventures of a jolly purple cat named Eek, who lives in the fictitious city of McTropolis. His motto is "it never hurts to help", an attitude that generally gets him into trouble, from which much of the physical and visual humor of the show is derived. Initially, most of the humor centered around Eek's various injuries during his attempts to help or save another character; over the course of the series, a far wider variety of humor is utilized and Eek generally has the capacity to unintentionally deal as much, if not more pain to other characters (mainly Sharky the Sharkdog) as he undergoes himself. Other characters include: Eek's human family, with whom he is unable to communicate via spoken language; Sharky the Sharkdog, who despises Eek, something the cat is most of the time oblivious to; and Eek's girlfriend, Annabelle, who he sees as beautiful despite other characters commenting on her weight. The show featured a guitar riff intro, slapstick humor, and pop culture references. Shows vary from standard cartoon fare to film spoofs (such as Apocalypse Now and A Clockwork Orange). During the second season, a special musical episode titled "Quadrapedia" aired; the first Christmas episode was written almost entirely in rhyme. The show featured many cameos by celebrities, some of whom came back for several episodes.

Characters

Main characters

Supporting characters

Villains

Other segments

The Terrible Thunderlizards

The Terrible Thunderlizards segment was introduced in the middle of the second season of ''Eek! The Cat''. Like Eek!, this segment was also created by Holland and Kopp. It ran from November 20, 1993, to July 28, 1997. The show was originally intended to be a spin-off from ''Eek! The Cat, but it aired as a weekly segment on Eek! Stravaganza''. Like Eek!, the segment was produced by Fox and Savage Studios with animation by Nelvana. The segment chronicled the misadventures of a trio of dinosaur mercenaries named Doc Tari (voiced by Savage Steve Holland), Bo Diddly Squat (voiced by Jason Priestley in 1994–1996, Corey Feldman in 1996–1997), and Day Z. Cutter (voiced by Bill Kopp) who were released from incarceration by General Galapagos (voiced by Kurtwood Smith) and charged with the task of eliminating two primitive human beings Bill and Scooter (voiced by Charlie Adler and Curtis Armstrong). Despite their superior size and firepower and the obliviousness of their targets, the mercenaries always fail with comedic results. When they are not after the humans, the Thunderlizards must protect Jurassic City from the Thuggosaurs led by Thuggo (voiced by Brad Garrett).

Klutter!

The Klutter! segment came in the fourth season of ''Eek! Stravaganza'' in 1995. It followed Ryan and Wade Heap (voiced by Cam Clarke and Savage Steve Holland) and their pet Klutter (vocal effects provided by Kirk Thatcher), who they created from a static reaction to pile of junk that their mother Andrea (voiced by Kathy Ireland) wanted them to pick up because the constant allergies of their father John (voiced by David Silverman) made it impossible for them to have a real dog. There are other characters in the show, like Sandee Heap (voiced by Sandy Fox), who was lonely at first, before Klutter came into their lives. They went on mysteries, a la Scooby-Doo, to save animals and solve crimes. Klutter! ended in February 1996 with 8 segments. Unlike Eek! and Thunderlizards, the segment was created by David Silverman and Holland along with being animated by Film Roman.

Episodes

Production

The original idea for the show came from Savage Steve Holland's experience as a cat owner. One of his cats was named Eek. The show premiered on the now-defunct Fox Kids block in 1992 as ''Eek! The Cat''. Thirteen 20 minute episodes were produced for its first season. A recurring character named Mr. Iwanter was a caricature of then-Fox Kids executive Sid Iwanter. For the second season in 1993, the show's format was retooled (except for "It's A Very Merry Eek's Mas", which originally aired as a prime-time special). In each episode were two nine-minute segments. One was ''Eek! the Cat''. The other was The Terrible Thunderlizards. The Thunderlizards segments were intended to air at the start of the season, but it began two months later because of production delays. When they started airing, the series title was changed to ''Eek! And The Terrible Thunderlizards''. Also, the creators originally intended to include two one-minute segments. The first would feature the Squishy Bearz, and the second one were to feature other characters from Eek!, but because the show turned out to be too long, the one-minute segments were scrapped. In January 1994, Fox aired four Thunderlizards segments as two Thunderlizards specials. During the season, Kopp left the show (though he still did the voice of Eek and others) for his own show, The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show for Disney. In the fall of 1995, another segment called Klutter was added, rotating with the Thunderlizards. This segment lasted a year. Kato Kaelin was originally scheduled to be a guest voice in an episode, but Fox network refused. For years, all that was available commercially was a single VHS tape with the episodes "Catsanova" and "HawaiiEek 5–0" on it. It was released in 1995. In July 2001, Eek! and other properties of Saban Entertainment were sold to The Walt Disney Company. As of 2017, no word from Disney has been spoken about releasing the series to DVD in North America. Twelve DVD volumes have been released by Jetix in the Czech Republic under the title "Kocour Raplík", another Jetix DVD for Russian markets under the title "Кот Ик".

Cast

Guest stars

The following are listed under this billing in the credits:

Video game

An ''Eek! The Cat'' video game was released for the Super NES in 1994. Time Extension listed ''Eek! The Cat'' as one of the worst SNES games.