The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty

As a cat lover, I remember Secret LIves of Waldo Kitty vividly.

As others have noted, the show began with Waldo as a real life cat, his feline girlfriend and the bulldog who terrorized them both. Voices were provided over the real animal trio.

When Waldo pondered how he would escape from this latest dilemma, he would daydream himself into anthropomorphic cartoon form.

The set-ups were five very familiar scenes; Tarzan (Catzan), Batman (Catman), Lone Ranger (Lone Kitty), Robin Hood (Robin Cat) and the STar Trek Enterprise Captain.

In each scenario, the bulldog would now have the same three henchmen over and over; three dogs, one tall, one short and I guess the last one was average, don't recall.

In the Catman adventures, the real life cat at the beginning would be joined by a real life bird, attempting to aid friend Waldo in escaping from the bulldog.

When they went cartoon, the bird of course became Sparrow, the equivalent of Batman's Robin.

Lone Kitty was without a doubt the most interesting, as in real life, Waldo the cat would have a sidekick in the form of a real rabbit. IN the cartoon version, the rabbit of course became Tonto (Can't recall the character's name).

Of the five adventures, four would become real cartoons from the same company that made Waldo Kitty.

Star Trek, with the original cast doing the cartoon voices, came out about four years earlier.

Tarzan, Lone Ranger (voiced by William Conrad of Cannon fame) and Batman (voiced by much of the 1960s TV show, including Adam West and Burt Ward) would all come about over the course of time from this animation studio.

On Waldo Kitty, as on all these other cartoon shows, the adventures played out much the same over and over.

In Waldo Kitty, the bulldog villain was always snarling laughing, kidnapping the female, only to be thwarted by the Waldo character. It never strayed from this plot. Over and over again in each adventure.

Plotwise, I recall two moments.

In Robin Cat, the hero was in disguise at the archer show to rescue Maid Marian and he motioned for her to remain quiet to his secret, so he puts his finger to his mouth and goes 'shhhhh'.

"Why do you put your fingers to your lips, sir?" She matter-of-factedly asked, perplexing him.

In Catzan, the cat would be leaving and would utter 'keep noses clean'. I guess because at nine-years-of-age, I had never heard that phrase before and so I had no idea what he meant. It was an odd phrase to even put in a children's cartoon. I have never forgotten that bit, especially from what was supposed to be a jungle-raised character.

Undeniably the saving grace was the theme. Sung by Howard Morris, showing the most majestic cat from the show walking toward the camera on a treebranch, it then gave way to some gravelly voice singing "He's Waldo Kitty" and showed the cartoon figures of Waldo.

I had never heard of Walter Mitty, so I never knew what this show was based upon. Perhaps that was for the better. I did like this show and would like to see it again.