Growing up, I occasionally read the Heathcliff comic strip, but I also considered him a second rate Garfield. So while I had a stuffed Garfield on my bed and Garfield pencils in my pencil box, Heathcliff was largely ignored. Whatever I may have thought, Heathcliff first debuted in 1973 (five years before Garfield) and is distributed to over 1,000 newspapers. Blessed with his own unique style, Heathcliff has two television shows to his credit.
The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show from the minds of Hanna-Barbera aired in 1980. Heathcliff (voiced by Mel Blanc) is a fast-talking alley cat who is constantly getting into mischief, running from the authorities and battling his arch-rival, a bulldog named Spike. Heathcliff does have a girlfriend named Sonja who keeps him occupied and tries to keep him out of trouble. Nonetheless, Heathcliff tends to be the instigator of conflicts, so one could argue that he has a bit of a mean streak; most of the time though, he’s just out to have a good time and eat some yummy food if he can find it.
As for the Dingbat aspect of the show, he is a vampire dog. His pals are a shape-shifting fat skeleton named Sparerib and a jack-o-lantern by the name o’ Nobody. These characters were created special for the show; they never appeared in the comic strip. Oddly enough, Dingbat and his pals didn’t hang around to join Heathcliff when the show was renewed for a second season.
I actually remember the show from when it first aired. Oh, how un-politically correct it was! Asian characters confuse their L’s and their R’s and heavy women are referred to as “fat.” The cartoons themselves offer nothing particularly revelatory; we get the same silly cartoon gimmicks we’ve all seen countless times. No matter though, they all end up being funny.
Along with Mel Blanc, The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show offers some of the best voice actors from animation’s golden era: Frank Welker, June Foray, Henry Corden, Don Messick, and Janet Waldo all contribute their talents. Given that impressive list, The Heathcliff And Dingbat Show just might be a must-have for any avid cartoon collector.
