The Lost Top Cat Interviews

 

If there are two things I love to learn more about, it's Hanna-Barbera Productions and Lost Media. Luckily for me, those two have crossed paths more than a few times. Why, just recently Rock Odyssey, a 1987 TV movie the animation studio created was found after having been lost since its first (and last) airing. But that's not what I'm talking about today. Instead, I'll be discussing an animated series that only seems to be referred to as The Top Cat Interviews.

The above image comes from a Reddit thread on r/LostMedia, highlighting the interview. According to the creator of the thread, LaxJackson, they were able to find an IMDB page for the animation. All it says is that it was created in 1995. Beyond that, the page is completely devoid of additional info. Another user found a Variety obituary for TV producer Douglas Rask, which tells a little bit more about where this came from. Here is the original text pertaining to the Top Cat Interviews.

"In 1995, (Rask) formed Craftsman Prods. with Malcolm Bird. The company produced "The Top Cat Interviews" for Hanna-Barbera Intl., which made the first use of a technique known as performance animation to juxtapose animated and live actors in real-time."

Also mentioned in this Variety article is that the company's next production was a teen talk show titled It's My Life. This project is featured on Malcolm Bird's IMDB page, but I can find no clips or episodes of this show anywhere online either. Info regarding Craftsman Productions seems to be nonexistent as well. I also find the fact that it was produced by the international branch of Hanna-Barbera to be particularly fascinating. Maybe this was intended to play on an international version of Cartoon Network or something? Top Cat is especially popular in territories like Mexico, so that's not totally out of the realm of possibility. However, it doesn't seem like anyone has any archived recordings of CN during that period featuring these interviews. Perhaps these were made simply to test out the technique of performance animation, and were never intended to be seen publicly? I have no idea, but maybe one of you do! Have any of my readers ever heard of or seen these before? If so, I would love to hear more about them!