#106 Hmmmm…

In the early-to-mid 1980s a lot of action/adventure animated children’s series are airing. Thundarr the Barbarian, Dungeons and Dragons, He-man and the Masters of the Universe and, of course, Transformers are racking up high ratings and making a lot of money for toy companies, studios, producers, writers, directors and voiceover artists.

Viewers, especially boys, love the action/adventure series, despite parents’, educators’ and child psychologists’ sometimes raised eyebrows. Producers try to assuage critics’ concerns by saying heavy action/adventure series are targeted at an older demographic. But that doesn’t stop younger viewers from watching them.

DIC Entertainment will have a few action/adventure series, such as Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. But for the most part, our series are softer, like The Littles, Care Bears, Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats.

Action/adventure aside, Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats has another different element – one most critics don’t pick up on. This is one of the first children’s animated series to feature a true romance angle. Heathcliff has Sonja, and Riff Raff has Cleo, although tomcat Riff Raff frequently pursues other female felines in the neighborhood.

Romance and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships is something new for children’s series. As I read more and more story springboards, treatments and scripts being submitted and as I continue to view earlier episodes, I come to understand that the romance element is an integral part of Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats. I like that.

I recall Frenchman Jean Chalopin has his fingerprints all over the series, and we all know French isn’t called a “Romance” language for nothing. Ah, the French…

#105 A realization

Over the next week, story springboards pour in from writers other than Jack Hanrahan and Eleanor Burian-Mohr; writers I hadn’t worked with yet. Durnie King, Jeff Rose, Roger Scott and Mike Moore rounded out my cadre of writers.

As I read each springboard and made notes about the ones I liked, I gave them the respect and time they deserved. I remember when I was a freelance writer chirping to get script assignments. It’s highly competitive and highly stressful. As a freelancer you put your best efforts into it, then sit and wait, totally on edge until you hopefully get the greenlight to move to writing a treatment based on your approved story springboard.

A lot of the story springboards were approved, and writers gleefully moved to writing treatments. Part of the reason for the high approval rate was that most of the writers had

written for Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats during the series’ previous sixty-five episode run. So they were able to submit what Lori and I were looking for.

To be honest, I didn’t know what the process was after I submitted springboards to Lori. For this twenty-one episode run of the series she was serving as ‘Creative Supervisor’. I was sure Lori was in the trenches, on the front line. I doubt Jean Chalopin, Bruno Bianchi or the other top execs had time to read the story springboards that came from Lori. I figured she sat with Jean for a couple hours and gave him one or two sentence pitches for each springboard and he would approve the ones he liked.

Things clicked and clacked along and we had a dozen or so full scripts being written when it occurred to me that this was a different kind of series…at least for me. And the difference was compelling, engaging and ironic, all at the same time.

#104 Sandpaper & Lace

Not to be outdone by Ray Dryden, a few hours later, Jack Hanrahan and Eleanor Burian-Mohr drop in to deliver Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats' story springboards. Specifically, they deliver twenty-six story springboards which Jack extracts, with exaggerated aplomb, from his weathered and battle-scarred briefcase.

He deposits the stack on my desk with, “Every one a gem!”

I offer, “Why don’t I greenlight you to go to treatment on all of them right now?”

The portly writer suggests, “It’d save a lot of time.”

I put the springboards in my in-box and look to Eleanor standing alongside him, a benign, a long-suffering smile on her lips. As she moves an unruly strand of brunette hair from in front of her eyes, I ask, “Is he always like this?”

Eleanor’s lips purse into a red bow as she softly replies, “Always.”

Jack asks his well-worn, “So when do we hear back from you?”

I turn to Jack with, “You’ll hear from me when you hear from me.”

I’m pretty sure I hear a low growl of protest coming from him.

They’re sandpaper and lace, the textbook definition of yin and yang, interconnected opposing forces. They have a certain talent. But there’s more to it than that. Eleanor knows precisely when to let him run like a marlin on a deep sea fishing line, and, to his credit, Jack knows exactly when to zip it and let her work her charm.

So here I am sitting in my home office thirty-seven years after they dropped in to deliver Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats story springboards, writing about Jack Hanrahan and Eleanor Burian-Mohr…and smiling. Some things never get old.