{"product_id":"0014764236223","title":"Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection: Top Cat - The Complete Series [4 Discs]","description":"\"The most urban and urbane of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's prime-time network cartoon shows, Top Cat ran for one season in 1961-1962 but has since enjoyed four decades of reruns on various network and cable outlets; back around 1990 or so, the Cartoon Network even had a contest that allowed viewers to get their own cats onto the show (winning felines were \"\"morphed\"\" into scenes with the cartoon cats of the series). The series has shown up on a four-platter, five-sided DVD set from Warner Home Video and is loaded with special features. Even more than The Flintstones, Top Cat had a special appeal to adults and an even more direct appeal to viewers from New York City or the surrounding area, or who had some theatrical background; its inspiration derived in part from the show Top Banana and the series Sgt. Bilko, both starring Phil Silvers (Arnold Stang's voicing of Top Cat is a near-mimick of Silvers).   Viewed today, the animated series is even cleverer with a few twists on common vernacular and popular culture that were pretty daring for television in the early '60s. It also looks great, due in large part to the producers' over-compensation for the limitations of broadcast television in the early '60s -- the color scheme, as is pointed out in one of the three-episode-long commentary tracks, was designed for maximum impact on black-and-white screens and looks like thick pastels; and the thick lines were intended to show up well on the low-resolution broadcasts of the period. It all makes serious impact today, viewed in full-screen (1.33:1) digital video, and the audio is a match, crisp and bright, including Hoyt Curtin's very Gershwin-like music. The 30 episodes are shown intact, and one of them -- \"\"The Missing Heir\"\" -- is presented twice, once \"\"straight\"\" and once in tandem with the storyboard drafts for the originally conceived show (tentatively called \"\"J.B. and Company\"\"), to compare concept and realization. There's also a gallery of original artwork from the series and ephemera such as original Kelloggs commercials from the show with the series' characters, end credits with the sponsor plug, and a Karaoke-style sing-along presentation of the theme song; but far and away the best of the bonus features are the commentary tracks and the on-camera interviews with the voice artists who worked on the show -- the latter includes Marvin Kaplan, Arnold Stang, and Leo De Lyon along with one of the writers. Seated on a set made up like the alleyway where much of the cartoon show took place, they all show genuine affection for the series and their work on it, even four decades later, and reveal some fascinating details about how those sessions ran (they were apparently like a party most of the time and as much fun as work). Each platter and side opens in a straightforward manner to the Warner corporate logo and a menu with a second layer for bonus features where available. Each episode gets a single chapter, and there is a \"\"play all\"\" function as well as show-by-show access. There are also optional French and Spanish subtitles available.\"","brand":"WARNER HOME VIDEO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47092169638128,"sku":"0014764236223","price":44.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/0014764236223_p0.jpg?v=1763765887","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/0014764236223","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}