Okay, let's forget about the Iraq War. Let's get to a more vital, pressing matter: The folks at Warner Home Video are putting the finishing touches on a DVD collection of all the original episodes of the 1961 Hanna-Barbera series, Top Cat. This will be a dandy set complete with a "Making of…" documentary with recent interviews of voice actors Arnold Stang, Marvin Kaplan and Leo De Lyon, among other goodies, and a squad of video experts is almost finished with a restoration of all 30 Top Cat cartoons…but there is one problem. The original end credits are missing. Many years ago, back when the shows first went into syndication, someone had to go in and chop the sponsor plugs out of the opening and closing credits.
In so doing, they threw away the original end titles (which varied each week to reflect the folks who'd worked on that particular show) and spliced in the end credits from one episode. That is, they took the end credit sequence from one episode and put that on every episode. This means that the actual writers, animators and voice actors have not been properly identified all these years. The great voice actor, Paul Frees, appeared as a guest performer in one or two episodes but you'll see his name on every rerun of every Top Cat and you won't see the names of the actual guest stars.
So far, rummaging through the film vaults, the folks at WB have been unable to locate copies of the original end credits. They may turn up someday but time is running out before the Top Cat DVD Collection has to "go to press." This brings us to our Important Public Appeal. There are collectors out there with original 16mm and even 35mm prints of the show. Are you one and if so, are you willing to loan these materials so that the original end credits can be restored for the DVD release? If so, please get in touch with me and I'll pass you on to the appropriate (and appropriately grateful) archivists.
You will want this DVD collection anyway. But it'll be even better if we can somehow locate those missing credits.