Obscure Cartoon Spotlight Episode 1: Eek! The Cat

E

ericfromsouthpark

New member
Hey guys, neoking2002_neo here with yet another fun series of threads. This time, let's talk about lost cartoons. I was reading a YouTube rules thread whipped up by Dee, saying that no clips/episodes of copyrighted cartoons are allowed. Instead, I'll link you to the Wikipedia article and/or another informative source of information around the net.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all episodes of Obscure Cartoon Spotlight will be specifically here at the General rabroad Forums, some will appear in their designated forums depending on catergory and where the toon originally aired. Like for instance, an obscure Nicktoon will still be talked about at the Nicktoons Forum, a lost Disney cartoon will indeed go to the Disney/Pixar Forum, and so on. Gotta follow the natural order of things at rabroad.

This week, let's talk about a cartoon that's esoteric to today's kids, but not the most of us rabroad fans here; the Spotlight this week goes to Eek the Cat!

Eek the Cat was a comedic cartoon series that first aired on Fox Saturday Mornings back in 1992, and continued until 1997. Repeats aired on Fox Family (ABC Family since Disney bought out the channel) from 1998 up to April 2000. Proud Creators: Bill Kopp and Savage Steve Holland

Oh sure none of the new kids may know Eek and his many unique friends including Annabelle (Eek's chubby girlfriend), Sharky the Sharkdog (Annabelle's guard shark/dog hybrid), and Elmo the Elk (an inept yet highly loyal friend to Eek). Eek the Cat (merged with the Terrible Thunderlizards in 1994, and transformed into EekStravaganza in 1995) was one of the more popular cartoon series on Fox Kids back in the day (along with Bobby's World, The Tick, and Life with Louie). Sadly today, Eek was completely forgotten when Disney adopted Fox Family's whole clove of Fox Kids shows (including this one), back in 2001 or 2002. Eek the Cat was also joined with a laundry alien called Klutter back in the cartoon's 1995 season. Even today, those who grew up watching Eek the Cat/EekStravaganza, will remain a very captive audience for when it comes back on TV, or gets unleashed on DVD/Blu-Ray (heck, mabye not at the now, but it'll happen one day).

Fun Facts and Such:
1. Eek's creators, Bill Kopp and Savage Steve Holland, both voice Eek the Cat and The Amazing Elmo respectively, and I don't mean Elmo from Sesame Street, that's a completely different Elmo.

2. Bill Kopp was responsible for two other series, Schnookums and Meat for Disney back in 1993, and Mad Jack the Pirate for Fox Kids in 1998. Both series are also very obscure toons, if not more than how Eek is obscure to today's kids.

3. Bill Kopp has kindly produced an obscure Looney Tunes short, Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas, back in 2004.

4. Bill Kopp has also done production work on two mid-2000s Tom & Jerry movies. Those movies were Tom & Jerry: Blast Off to Mars and Tom & Jerry: The Fast and the Furry (both air time to time on Cartoon Network).

5. Savage Steve Holland is also the proud director of the upcoming live action Fairly OddParents film, "Grow Up, Timmy Turner", coming to Nick in 2011.

6. Eek the Cat was on VHS before, sadly however, there is only VHS of Eek the Cat. You got to have luck if you want to find it online or an old video store.

7. Side Note: I thought I saw an orange/pink Eek the Cat spoof/lookalike in that dog pound episode of Rocko's Modern Life, I may be wrong.

Read Eek the Cat's Wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eek!_The_Cat
Check out Don Markstein's article on Eek the Cat here: http://www.toonopedia.com/eek.htm

I hope this has been another fun nostalgia trip, see you next week, when I'll cover another obscure cartoon.

Don't forget to vote on how you guys liked this awesome tidbit of obscureness. ;)

To be continued... :cool:

:chowder: P.S.: Eek the Cat and Chowder are not long lost cousins, but they look like they do if Eek dressed up like Chowder. :chowder:

Don't forget to share this article with your friends!
 
Frankly, that statement could be said about any number of our favorite childhood shows, thanks in part to these shows not airing on American TV in a number of years.

That said, yeah, this was a pretty good show back in the day. I haven't seen it in ages, but it is a show I'd like to see make it to DVD.
 
That is very true indeed, SNES Chalmers. No littie kid will ever understand us nostalgic cartoon fans.
The only funny toons these new kids are watching these days include SpongeBob, Adventure Time, MAD, Fish Hooks, Regular Show, among other recent and popular cartoons today.
 
I watched the show a little when it was on but don't remember anything about it. But I remember when it was first on I misheard the title on commercials as "Eat the Cat", and even when I heard the cat's name was "Eek" I thought it said his name was "Eat". I can't remember when I first learned that it was really "Eek the Cat" and not "Eat the Cat".
 
I loved this show when it aired on Fox. It was like an early test version of what we'd get later with many of CN's cartoon cartoons. This was the show that gave us parodies of not only Pulp Fiction, but controversial songs like 'Cop Killer' (Sharky's version was Mailman Biter).

It's too bad that this show's been forgotten. Like many of Fox's early 90's shows (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Bobby's World, the Tick), this show needs to be brought back in some form.
 
Even though I am an animation fan, I never really heard of this show until I checked out Jeff Lenbury's Cartoon Encyclopedia from the library in 2002. I since looked it up on line and thought that the characters seemed kind of familar, but its nothing I really watched.
 
You can still find Eek in the form of fansites, too. ;)

Eek the Cat may not of scored an afterlife of reruns, like such shows as Rocko's Modern Life and Dexter's Laboratory, that's okay though.



Eat the Cat? Oh goodness!
I clearly know how long a time ago this was!



This show's cartoon titles did poke fun at a great number of movies and franchise names, try such episode titles like Catsanova, Cape Fur, and Eek Space Nine for example.

The Tick aired on Toon Disney/Jetix (Disney XD) as recently as 2005 up to 2008 or 2009. That one needs to be on DVD, too.

When you brought up Bobby's World, I had the oddest feeling that series was rerunning on the very rare Kabillion channel owned by Taffy Entertainment, which so very few people have. :(



That's okay if you had neutral feelings about things, Dr. Pepper, some of us do. Eek may be too obscure for some people's tastes.
 
Well, Eek! The Cat was SpongeBob (a smarter, non-annoying version of SpongeBob) before SpongeBob existed. Along with The Terrible Thunderlizards' own Bill and Scooter (Squidward and SpongeBob).


In its first season, Eek! The Cat was thought to be a Garfield clone, as it was dissed before it even premiered on September 12, 1992 (it's 18 years old now, like Batman: TAS). It was unique for its first and only season by itself (before it jumped the shark by becoming a variety show, in which the ratings fell almost quickly with putting it on the weekday lineup).

I remember someone at Fox saying something in a interview eons ago that Bill and Savage wanted a Squishy Bearz 1 minute segment to come during the second season (it was renewed during the first season), but it was incorporated in Season 2's Rocketship to Jupiter. Then a 11 minute segment came forth, called The Terrible Thunderlizards (they were originally supposed to run with Eek at the beginning of the 2nd season, but production problems brought the show on November 20, 1993 as specials). A week or two later, they were finally aligned with the Eek! segments into Eek! and The Terrible Thunderlizards, confusing some viewers. Then at Season 3, they changed the format again into Eek! Stravaganza, then into Season 4 we had a lame segment, called Klutter in 1995 (unlike Eek or Thunderlizards, this was a Film Roman (The Simpsons, Bobby's World, King of The Hill) production rather than Nelvana).

Then after the Klutter segments were canned in 1996, the show itself was canceled 2 episodes before hitting the "magic 65" episodes in November 1996, then eventually airing the final episodes from July to August 1997.
 
I remember really enjoying Eek! The Cat when it aired on FOX Family and actually getting angry when it was replaced with another cartoon (don't remember it's name or anything else except that I hated it). I even tuned in periodically just to check if they'd put Eek back on it's former timeslot.
 
Hmm... I never looked at Eek the Cat that way before. SpongeBob and Eek are both very optimistic characters for sure, and I thought Rocko's Modern Life was a smarter version of SpongeBob before the sponge hit television. Great move comparing Eek the Cat to SpongeBob. Heck, at least Eek and Rocko do take a share in high amounts of slapstick humour, like most comedy toons in the early 90s. ;)



Since April 2000, Eek the Cat was dumped off Fox Family and never resurfaced again. :( With the show being dumped for so long, I thought I'd be a good reason to start the Obscure Cartoon Spotlight with Eek the Cat as my first entry, it currently grabbed more attention than Obscure Game Spotlight entry on Toonstruck at the time being.
 
Though, if you put Eek and Scooter together, you'd have SpongeBob. If you put Sharky and Bill together, you'd have Squidward. If you put Elmo and Squat together, you'd have Patrick. If you added Annabelle and Hank and Jib, you'd have Sandy Cheeks.

And now, here's pictures from all seasons (including Klutter):

hqdefault.jpg
Annabelle, from the 1st season. She actually had personality the first season, then in later years is regulated to small appearances.


hqdefault.jpg
Eek, in Season 1's "Eek VS The Flying Saucers".
screen_shot_2009-12-18_at_6.15.54_pm.png
Eek, in Season 2's "A Sharkwork Orange".






Zoltar



Eek, in the first season episode "HallowEek".
Eek and Elmo, in the third season episode "Paw Sores".




eek_03.jpg
The Terrible Thunders, ranging from Doc Tari, Day Z. Kutter and Bo Diddly Squatt.




Commander Bezerk (William Shatner) in the Season 4 episode "Eek-Space 9". David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson (Mulder and Scully on The X-Files) appear also.
Sharky in Season 4's "The GraduEek".


eek_04.jpg
wade.jpg
vanna.jpg
ryan.jpg
sandee.jpg
dadmom.jpg
kopp.jpg
. The cast of Klutter.

ectop02.jpg
Sharky on the drums in the final produced episode "The Sound of MusEek".



weirdal01.jpg
Weird Al Yankovic guest starring in the final season episode "The FugEektive".





ectop01.jpg
Eek and Mittens paroding ZZ Top in the final produced episode "The Sound of MusEek".
 
I don't know what other cartoons are being planned for "Obscure Cartoon Spotlight", but I'd like to request "Life with Louie" in the near future.
 
Request Accepted. :)
Some other obscure toons to be covered...
Quackula, a Daffy-esque vampire duck (Halloween Special) (To be in the Retro Cartoons forum).
Life With Louie, requested by speedy fast.
Phantom 2040, a futuristic spin on the daily newspaper action-comic (To be in the Comics forum).
Tama & Friends, a cutesy anime that is long missed (To be in the Anime forum).
Fooly Cooly/FLCL, a short lived anime that's very messed up (To be in the Anime forum).
Ellen's Acres, a cutesy yet imaginative obscure cartoon that didn't last very long (To be in the Cartoon Network forum).
Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns, an obscure PBS toon based on the PBS Radio Show, Car Talk.
Bonkers, an obscure action-cop comedy toon from Disney (To be in the Disney/Pixar forum).
Aaahh! Real Monsters!, the best scary Klasky-Csupo Nicktoon around (To be in the Nicktoons forum).
Sheep in the Big City, an obscure comedy toon with a sheep fed up with barn-living (To be in the Cartoon Network forum).
The Plucky Duck Show, requeted by Tobias (To be in the Warner Bros. Club forum).
 
I loved this cartoon so much when it was on. It was great that Eek was so optimistic and yet oblivious to the mayhem he caused. "It never hurts to help!" Yes it does, Eek. It always does.

I also like his fat girlfriend, and the projects the Shark Dog was always building. I had been a fan of Savage Steve Holland ever since seeing his wild animated segments in movies like One Crazy Summer, and there's something subversive about his style that there should be more of in cartoons.

I didn't care for the Thunderlizards that much, though. It was too much of your standard cliche, the dumb guy does everything right and the "smart" guy gets hurt cartoon. I've never liked that dynamic.
 
I absolutely like it when you guys pitch in to these type of threads, giving some awesome information that'll make these threads even more interesting to readers. Thanks! ;)
 
Thunder Lizards wasn't a bad segment, or at least, not as bad as Klutter was. Just thinking about that segment makes me want to out my rage on whoever was responsible for that abomination. Thankfully the Klutter segment didn't get too many episodes.

I remember that they tried to actually spin off Thunder Lizards as it's own show at one point, but it didn't last long and eventually rejoined Eek's show. Fox Kids didn't have much luck with spinoffs. Anyone remember the extremely shortlived Plucky Duck show?
 
Back
Top