• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

It took 64 years for TV to return to cartoon cats with human characteristics living in an urban alley.

The catalyst for this revival is comedy top cat Ricky Gervais, whose new animated series about feral felines premieres on Netflix on August 7.

The show, titled “Alley Cats,” is reminiscent of that early ’60s animated series “Top Cat,” about another group of cat characters residing in an alley.

Like “Top Cat,” “Alley Cats” features a pack of cats, each with distinct personalities. In “Top Cat,” there were six who were all male. In “Alley Cats,” the pack has seven members, including three female felines.

Also on both shows, one cat is top dog. In “Alley Cats,” it is a fat cat named Gus, voiced by Gervais. In “Top Cat,” it was the charismatic title character, voiced by the late Arnold Stang.

Top Cat -- known to his pals as “T.C.” -- was the leader of a cat pack whose five other members were Benny the Ball (Maurice Gosfield), Choo-Choo (Marvin Kaplan), Brain (Leo De Lyon), Spook (also Leo De Lyon, a pseudonym for Irving Levin) and Fancy-Fancy (John Stephenson).

In “Alley Cats,” Gus is joined by Ponce (Tom Basden), Fang (Andrew Brooke), Puke (David Earl), Lara (Kerry Godliman), Kitten (Jo Hartley) and Olive (Diane Morgan).

Netflix describes “Alley Cats” as “an adult animated sitcom [that] follows the trials and tribulations of a group of feral British cats from all walks of society who seek companionship while ruminating on everyday life.”

ABC described “Top Cat” in a press release in March 1961. " 'Top Cat' deals with a band of fun-loving, adventure-seeking felines who live in a big city,” the release said.

“They have hilarious human characteristics, and each has a distinctive personality of his own. Their leader is Top Cat, familiarly known as T.C., a brash, aggressive opportunist,” it said.

Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, “Top Cat” ran for only one season, September 1961 to April 1962, airing in prime time on Wednesday nights (sponsored by Bristol-Myers and Kellogg). The season consisted of 30 half-hour episodes.

The first season of “Alley Cats” consists of six episodes, all under 20 minutes. Production reportedly began in 2023.

The format of “Top Cat” was said to have been modeled on “The Phil Silvers Show,” a 1950s ensemble service comedy in which Silvers starred as Sgt. Ernest G. Bilko.

According to a Google Gemini search, “Alley Cats” does not seem to be based any other show. Instead, it reportedly stems from Gervais’ interest in cats.