MovieChat Forums > Top Cat (1961) Discussion > Spin-Off Of 'The Phil Silvers Show'?

Spin-Off Of 'The Phil Silvers Show'?

posted 18 years ago by DownLoHo86
14 replies | jump to latest

People always say that T.C. was a spin-off of 'The Phil Silvers Show' (i.e. Sgt. Bilko).

Now, I know spin-offs in the sense of a show featuring characters (either major or minor) that were in a previous show - 'Joanie Loves Chachi', or 'Mork and Mindy', or even 'Joey', for instance.

But clearly T.C. and his gang were never characters in 'Phil Silvers' - now the only thing I can think is that T.C. is the 'Bilko' character, with Dibble representing Col. Hall and the gang replacing Bilko's platoon...

Aside from that, the voice of Benny the Ball was played by the guy who was Pvt. Duane Doberman in 'Bilko'...

Is this what they mean by 'T.C.' being a spin-off of 'Bilko'?

[–] amorrice80 18 years ago

Top Cat was basically a cat version of Bilko. But it would be wrong to simply label it as a copy. That would be lazy and short-handed. Top Cat was interesting enough in it's own right. Interestingly, both shows seem to be far more popular in the UK than they were in USA. I wonder why that is?

[–] RPD 18 years ago

According to one book on The Simpsons Homer's workmates Lenny & Carl are based on 2 of Top Cat's gang, I'm not sure which to though because I've not seen an episode of Top Cat for years & years. This takes the Sgt Bilko - Top Cat homage a step further on.

[–] amorrice80 18 years ago

I've heard of Lenny. Doesn't seem remotely like anyone out of Top Cat (except possibly Spook?) Isn't Carl the big scary raspy-voiced guy who was only in one episode? Got me lost there.

[–] phil_coach 18 years ago

Lenny and Carl: Lenny is a long-nosed character with a stoop. If Lenny takes after any of the Top Cat characters, then it's probably Choo Choo; both speak with a broad New York accent. Carl is a slow talking New Yorker-ish sounding Afro-American; the closest voice I can hear to a Top Cat character is Brain, but maybe not! Top Cat is currently running on BBC2 in the UK at 11.50am weekdays, straight after Thunderbirds' re-runs.

[–] amorrice80 18 years ago

Funny that Afro-American reference, I always thought Leo De Lyon was black just listening to the show, until I saw a picture of him and he's white.

[–] mwmtampa 17 years ago

Definitely patterned after Bilko, much the same way The Flintstones is based from the Honeymooners. That was a good concept Hanna-Barbara used for these two shows.

[–] bd18packer 17 years ago

"Top Cat" has very real comparisons to "You'll Never Get Rich(Sgt. Bilko)", as "The Flintstones" compares to "The Honeymooners". I've heard this before, between the two sets of shows, and the comparisons have merit. Good ideas are always copied; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[–] Cali-lily 17 years ago

I don't know guys, I always heard that Top Cat was a take off "The Dead End Kids"....You know...The Bowery Boys...Leo Gorsey and Co.

Thetans-R-Us

[–] raysond 17 years ago

Yes,TOP CAT was a animated version of the 1955-59 CBS' prime time sitcom "The Phil Silvers Show" with a cast of crafty conning animals that wheel and deal and suckered out their human counterparts. Oh yeah,they did this with another
H-B oriented show as well---who remembers Hokey Wolf???

Yes,TOP CAT was Hanna-Barbera's second successful animated sitcom that lasted one season after the huge success of The Flintstones. Amazingly enough,the series survived in prime time producing 30 episodes,and yeah,it lasted a full season. The series originally ran on ABC-TV from 9/27/61 until 9/26/62.

Originally filmed in color,but the network telecast all the episodes in black and white. It didn't make the jump to color until after the network moved it from prime time to Saturday Mornings where it ran from 10/6/62 till 3/30/63. Then the episodes were repeated again on Saturday Mornings for NBC from 4/3/65 until 5/10/69. And were repeated again on NBC during the summer of 1970. After 1970,the show went into hiatus for the next three decades until 1996 when Cartoon Network resurrected the episodes.

When the series premiered in 1961,the formula about a gang of crafty cons was used again four years later in 1965 for the series Hogan's Heroes. Hanna-Barbera reused the formula from TOP CAT for another sitcom ten years after that in 1971 for the series "Help! It's The Hair Bear Bunch!",about another gang of crafty conning animals-this time around a group of bears trying to escape from a city zoo.

[–] ians15 15 years ago

Bilko and Topcat do share a resemblence the scams and gambling but who knows

[–] vinidici 10 years ago

I don't know guys, I always heard that Top Cat was a take off "The Dead End Kids"....You know...The Bowery Boys...Leo Gorsey and Co.

Hmmm. I do see the commonalities among The Bowery Boys, Sgt. Bilko and Top Cat. But I think TC is more derivitive of Bilko.

On the other hand, Bilko might owe something to The Bowery Boys.

Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!

[–] Oddark123 9 years ago

I'd say the Bowery Boys also lent a bit to the sister-studio output Fangface.

But seriously from any historical perspective, you can do this to just about any form of entertainment. As whether on accident, for imitation, to follow trends, to play with or parody most things owe things to what came before them. And the more your horizons grow, the more examples you will find.

Communities left for being out of touch: Gamefaqs, Home Theater Forum
Also left a group on Flickr

[–] askilaun 9 years ago

As well as borrowing the basic theme and central characters from The Phil Silvers Show, Top Cat also had a number of individual episodes that shared similar storylines with episodes of Bilko. The most obvious example is The Missing Heir (Top Cat) which follows the basic theme of Doberman: Missing Heir (Bilko). Benny The Ball and Doberman are each mistaken for the long lost inheritor of a wealthy estate while Top Cat and Bilko, respectively, seek to benefit from the error.

[–] askilaun 9 years ago

By the way, Hanna-Barbera's later cartoon, (Help!... It's) The Hair Bear Bunch features a dim-witted character called Botch whose mannerisms are very similar to Bilko's Sergeant Ritzik, even down to Ritzik's verbal tic, 'Ooh! Ooh!' preparatory to a further statement. Botch and Ritzik were both played by Joe E Ross just as Benny the Ball and Duane Doberman were both played by Maurice Gosfield.