The BEST episodes of Top Cat
Every episode of Top Cat ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Top Cat!
Top Cat, known as T.C. to his alley cat friends, is a mischievous prankster who lives in a trash can in the alley ways of New York City. He and his alley-cat cohorts think of get rich schemes and assorted pranks which are mostly involving and aimed at Officer Dibble, their nemesis and friend. T.C. manages to get out of his tight situations with hilarity and charm and even helps Dibble on occasion who is underscored by his overbearing sergeant.
#1 - The Tycoon
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/27/1961
Billionaire philanthropist T.L. Vanderfeller searches for a destitute person to receive a million-dollar check. He stumbles on Benny, who is selling 25-cent raffle tickets for Top Cat. Mistaking Top Cat and the gang for a needy family, the billionaire gives the check to Benny, who dutifully hands it over to Top Cat. Thinking it is a check for a quarter for a raffle ticket, Top Cat tears it up.
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#2 - The Unscratchables
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/13/1961
The Hopeless Diamond, stolen from Stiftany's jewelry store by Big Gus's gang, is accidentally swallowed by Benny. Benny is subsequently taken to the gang's hideout where Dr. Rigor Morten plans to surgically remove the stone. In order to rescue their friend (and try to cash in on Stiffany's $50,000 reward), Top Cat and his friends visit the hideout posing as ""The Unscratchables."" The gang returns to Stiffany's, where Benny's violent sneeze dislodges the stone. Unfortunately, it sails through the window and onto the street, and is crushed by a steamroller.
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#3 - Dibble Breaks the Record
Season 1 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/28/1962
It looks like illness is going to prevent Officer Dibble from setting the record for uninterrupted service on his beat, the reward for which is a two-week paid vacation. Because he has an interest in the matter (namely, having Dibble out of his fur for two whole weeks), Top Cat does everything he can to keep the policeman on the job.
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#4 - The Late T.C.
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/21/1962
Beaned by a Mickey Mantle home run at the ballpark, Top Cat is rushed to the hospital. He offers the doctor an old clock in payment for treatment, but the doctor declines, claiming ""the old ticker"" cannot be saved. Overhearing this, Officer Dibble assumes it is Top Cat's heart the doctor is referring to, and sets about making Top Cat's ""last days"" as pleasant as possible.
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#5 - Choo-Choo Goes Ga-Ga
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/7/1962
Despondent over not getting a date with Hollywood siren Lola Glamure, Choo-Choo decides to end it all. Top Cat intervenes, managing to reach Lola and persuade her to go out with the wealthy ""Count Chooch."" Lola keeps the date, but the suddenly sobered Choo-Choo realizes that the movie queen is really the former Gerti Hefflemeyer, his old third grade classmate.
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#6 - The Long Hot Winter
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/3/1962
Top Cat and the gang finagle their way into spending a cold winter's night in Dibble's warm apartment, a courtesy they repay by moving the loudly snoring policeman out onto the fire escape. Furious, Dibble evicts the gang. Top Cat then calls Strife magazine and feeds them a story about Dibble's noble-hearted campaign to save unfortunates from a freezing alley. When a reporter shows up at the policeman's doorstep, Dibble is forced to let the gang hack in to save his honor. He agrees to let the cats stay until the first day of spring.
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#7 - Farewell, Mr. Dibble
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/24/1962
Eager-beaver Patrolman Earnest Prowler requests Officer Dibble's beat, believing it to he a hot-bed of crime. His stringent policing results in softhearted Dibble being fired. To get Dibble reinstated, Top Cat fingers Prowler's citation book and the gang litters the neighborhood with tickets, which creates havoc and ultimately results in Prowler's arresting his lieutenant and the mayor. When Prowler is found hiding in a mailbox, he is relieved of duty and sent home to rest.
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#8 - Griswald
Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/11/1962
Police dog Griswald is assigned by Dibble to prevent Top Cat from using the alley precinct phone. After trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the dog, Top Cat contrives to have the police commissioner use the phone. When the over-protective Griswald bites the commissioner, the pooch is relieved of his duties.
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#9 - The Case of the Absent Anteater
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/10/1962
A voracious anteater named Jimmy follows Benny the Ball back to the alley. The gang discovers that a reward has been offered for the animal's safe return to the zoo, hut before they can turn Jimmy in, an overzealous dogcatcher nabs him and takes him to the dog pound. The cats break into the pound to spring Jimmy, hut are thwarted by Dibble. The anteater manages to return to the alley the next day- accompanied by his entire hungry family.
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#10 - T.C. Minds the Baby
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/17/1962
Top Cat and the gang discover a picnic basket that contains a baby and a note imploring the finder to take care of the infant. The group quickly learns to change diapers and pilfers milk bottles to keep the child fed. Investigating the stolen bottles, Dibble finds out about the infant. Later, when the baby's mother asks the policeman for help regarding her missing child, he reluctantly takes the baby away from Top Cat's gang, who tearfully say goodbye.
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#11 - King for a Day
Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/14/1962
After watching the television show ""King For a Day,"" in which people are showered with prizes for telling hard luck stories, Top Cat spins a tale about his family's hard life in an alley and gets invited on the show. With Choo Choo posing as his wife, and Benny, Spook, Fancy, and the Brain playing his children, Top Cat weaves a sad tale on the air, until viewer Dibble rushes to the studio to expose him. Quickly shifting gears, Top Cat then tells the audience that without Dibble, his family would starve, and the policeman is crowned ""King for a Day"".
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#12 - The Golden Fleecing
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/7/1962
After receiving a $2,000 insurance settlement from an old accident, Benny treats Top Cat and the gang to an evening out at the Pink Palm Club, and falls for the club's fetching singer, Honeydew Melon. With both eyes on Benny's bankroll, Honeydew takes him home to meet her folks, who win all the cash in a poker game. The next night, Top Cat wins the money back, starting an armed fracas that ends with the Melon gang's arrest.
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#13 - The Grand Tour
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/31/1962
While Top Cat conducts a phony historical tour of New York, Choo Choo follows his 25-cent treasure map to a condemned building where he finds Captain Kidd's treasure. The treasure is confiscated by the police commissioner as ""city property,"" and Top Cat is fined $2 for operating a guided tour without a license. The cats rush back to the building to look for more treasure, but a powerful sneeze from Benny brings the entire structure crashing down.
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#14 - Naked Town
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/22/1961
Public Enemies #12 and 13, Knuckles and Ape, learn that Hoagy's Alley will be used as a location for filming a television show, and take the opportunity to devise a robbery ruse. Posing as producers, they employ Dibble, Top Cat, and the gang to move such goods as television sets and alarm clocks from a warehouse into their ""production"" van. Realizing they have been conned, Dibble and the cats trap the crooks by setting the alarm clocks to sound at noon, a cacophony that leads the police right to the criminals' hideout.
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#15 - Dibble's Birthday
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/28/1962
Dibble overhears the chief talking about removing ""old wrecks"" from the force and thinks the chief means him. His spirits rise considerably when Top Cat and the gang throw him a surprise birthday party and he learns that the ""old wrecks"" the chief spoke of are really worn-out patrol cars.
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#16 - All That Jazz
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/11/1961
Jazz, the new cat in town, takes over the pool hall, steals Top Cat's girlfriend, sways the gang, and even cleans up the alloy. This sparks an ongoing contest of one-upmanship, so when both Jazz and Top Cat are offered a part in a Hollywood film, they naturally assume it is another trick. The offer turns out to be legit and Benny the Ball is cast in the starring role in The Thing From the Alley. He leaves for Hollywood in a limo, accompanied by Top Cat and the gang in the guise of Benny's manager, valet, vocal coach, tailor, and chauffeur.
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#17 - Dibble Sings Again
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/4/1962
To raise the money he owes Big Gus, Top Cat convinces shower-singer Dibble that, under his management, he could become a singing star. He secures the policeman a spot on a television show, but once at the studio Dibble mistakes the filming of ""The Unattachables"" for a real crime and realizes that police work, not singing, is his true calling. Losing his manager's fee from Dibble, Top Cat tries the same scam on Gorilla, the collection agent sent by Big Gus.
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#18 - Choo-Choo's Romance
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/6/1961
When Choo-Choo develops a crush on Goldie, the poetry-loving cat next door, Top Cat coaches him in speaking eloquent passages of unrequited love, and at one point even substitutes for him. As a result Top Cat is showered with attention from Goldie, forcing her jealous boyfriend Pierre to challenge him to a duel. Loading the dueling pistols with blanks, Top Cat survives, though he can't resist playing a grand death scene. Choo-Choo ultimately decides that a superficial crush is no match for a deep friendship.
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#19 - Hawaii, Here We Come
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/1961
When Benny the Ball wins a cruise to Hawaii through a boxtop contest, he and his pals board the SS Aloha Hooey, with five of the cats sneaking on as stowaways. Officer Dibble accidentally becomes a fellow passenger by chasing a counterfeiter on board. The gang finds a suitcase filled with (counterfeit) cash and they begin to live like kings, until Dibble catches them and tosses them into the brig. Top Cat devises a clever plan to capture the real counterfeiter, leaving Dibble and the cats free to enjoy the rest of their Hawaiian vacation.
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#20 - The $1,000,000 Derby
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/18/1961
Top Cat discovers that the horse Benny bought for a concession stand to photograph children on a pony runs wild when it hears a whistle (in fact, it ran up a million dollars1 worth of damage inside Macy's!). Attempting to capitalize on the horse's talents, Top Cat poses as Arabian oil king Aly Khat and enters the nag in a million dollar derby, spurring it on by running a screaming ambulance alongside the track. The horse almost wins, but at the last minute vainly stops to smile and pose for the photo finish camera.
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#21 - A Visit from Mother
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/1961
Dutiful son Bennv writes his mother frequently. Unfortunately, his letters describe his life as the mayor of New York City! When Mrs. Ball pays a visit, Top Cat and the gang create the illusion that Benny is indeed mayor. They ""borrow"" Officer Dibble's police car and stage a key-to-the-city ceremony, a boat christening, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, even a ticker-tape parade. When Dibble finally catches up with them, he doesn't have the heart to shatter Mrs. Ball's illusions, and ends up driving them all to the airport to see the ""mayor's"" mother off.
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#22 - Space Monkey
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/14/1962
Hearing stories about the luxurious living conditions of Marvo the Chimp, who is awaiting a flight into space, the cats apply for positions at Cape Canaveral. The tales of luxury prove to be exaggerated, however, and after realizing how homesick Marvo really is, Top Cat sidetracks the rocket, sending it not into outer space, but to Marvo's home in Africa.
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#23 - The Violin Player
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/1961
Mr. Gutenberg, the musical director of Carnegie Hall, mistakes a recording of violin virtuoso Laszlo Laszlo for the playing of Benny the Ball, who has just taken up the instrument. He approaches Benny with an offer to perform and Top Cat negotiates a deal for $50,000 for a Saturday night performance at the Hall-an offer that is withdrawn when Carnegie's Board of Directors really hear Benny play. When Gutenberg offers a $10,000 reward to find the true violinist, the gang discovers that it's their neighborhood street cleaner, Laszlo Laszlo.
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#24 - Dibble's Double
Season 1 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/18/1962
Disguised as Officer Dibble, the notorious thief Al the Actor steals a fortune in paintings from an art gallery. Meanwhile, Top Cat hooks a buyer for his own modern paintings, an elderly dowager who offers him $20,000 for his latest original. When all of Top Cats' paintings are stolen, the cat helps Dibble capture the thief, only to learn that his rich dowager patron had also been Al the Actor. This was the final episode of the series.
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#25 - The Maharajah of Pookajee
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/4/1961
Hearing that the rich and benevolent Maharajah (who hands out rubies for random acts of kindness) is staying at a nearby hotel, Top Cat and the gang disguise themselves and sneak past Officer Dibble's guard in an attempt to meet the royal. Mistaking Top Cat for the Maharajah, the hotel staff puts him up in a grand suite, where he maintains the pretense by dispensing glass heads as ""rubies."" But when the real Maharajah arrives, Top Cat and the gang high-tail it out. Upon finally meeting the Maharajah, Top Cat assumes he is another impostor and tosses away the bag of rubies that the ruler gives him.
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