As we have seen, the 1960’s was the decade of the secret agent, due to the debut and popularity of the James Bond films. Television naturally tried to cash in on this genre, and thus we saw series such as Honey West and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. But there were other TV series of this type that are not so well known, and one of these was T.H.E. Cat. From the IMDb:
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In his role as Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, Robert Loggia was undoubtedly the coolest hero of the television 60’s. A retired second-story man, Cat undertook missions in which he used his acrobatic skills to their best advantage. NBC advertised the program as a “high tension adventure series you can really sink your claws into” and it was just that.
Probably drawing on his earlier portrayal of the cat-like Elfego Baca, an acrobatic western Disney character, the athletic Loggia apparently did a lot of his own stunts in the series. He was everything an adolescent boy of the time could aspire to: he wore a cool black outfit while on the prowl; he drove a cool black ‘Vette; he carried a dagger-like knife referred to in one episode as “The Cat’s Claw,” which he could throw with unerring accuracy; he was, of course, irresistable to women; and he hung out between missions at the Casa del Gato (House of the Cat), a cafe owned by his gypsy friend Pepe, played to the suave hilt by Robert Carricart.
T.H.E. CAT was created for television by Harry Julian Fink, who a few years later was the creator of the DIRTY HARRY character and wrote the story for the 1st film that became a legendary series starring CLINT EASTWOOD. It’s just too bad that T.H.E. CAT has become a forgotten gem due to it’s one season run that never went into syndication.
Yes, I loved this show, and yes, the WTM curse struck once again, as it lasted just the one season. Fortunately, YouTube seems to offer numerous episodes and I have embedded a couple below. I agree with the IMDb reviewer above; T.H.E. Cat WAS cool, and it is a shame that there was just the one season of coolness.
Source: neatorama