This week we celebrate the animation and the artists who created the 1971 TV adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s book The Cat in the Hat.
The late ’60s and early ’70s could be a “Golden Age of Seuss TV.” In 1966, there was the Christmas classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the success of which led networks on a scramble to adapt the beloved author’s other books as television specials.
Horton Hears a Who debuted in 1970, and the following year came the TV version of one of Dr. Seuss’s most famous and iconic creations, The Cat in the Hat.
The original book
As The Cat in the Hat has been such a large part of our pop culture, in many ways, it’s hard to believe that it was 50 years ago this month that the TV special first debuted. Of course, the show is based on the book penned by Theodore Geisel, a/k/a Dr. Seuss, first published in 1957, the same year as his other successful book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Dr. Seuss’s stories were ripe for TV specials, as their shorter form was able to be expanded to the thirty-minute time frame and the perfectly rhymed text was ideal for the narration of the shows, keeping the “feel” of reading a storybook to children.
The Cat in the Hat is no different. The special, like the book, tells the tale of a brother and sister, Conrad and Sally, who are bored at home on a rainy day: “The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we just sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day…” Their mother then announces that she is going out for a while.
They both sit there bored until something goes “bump,” and through the front door walks the titular character, The Cat in the Hat. The family’s cautious goldfish, Karlos K. Kringlebein, the voice of reason, demands that the Cat leaves. The Cat, of course, does not and proceeds to play games that begin to mess up the house. He then goes on to enlist the help of the children to find his missing keepsake with the oh-so-Seuss name of the “moss-covered, three-handled family gredunza.”
The Cat then brings in the now-infamous troublemakers Thing One and Thing Two, two small, blue-haired creatures who immediately begin playing games, including playing catch with Kinklebein’s fishbowl. After this, The Cat sings a song about how fabulous his hat is and then leaves, with the house now in disarray and Mom about to come home.
Ah, but the Cat returns with a very Seussian vehicle that cleans up the house, just as Mom gets home (spoiler alert!)
The Cat in the Hat featured a teleplay by Dr. Seuss, but some slight differences from the book were included to allow the story to expand to the show’s running time. Additionally, the musical numbers use very Seuss-lyrics and add catchy moments to the special. Most notably, “Cat, Hat,” in which the title character sings about his hat and translates the words “Cat in a Hat” into several different languages in the special’s showstopper
Initially, The Cat in the Hat began production at Chuck Jones’ MGM Studio, and he was to helm this as he did with The Grinch and Horton, but when the MGM Studio closed, the special’s production moved to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (most famous for The Pink Panther cartoons). Jones stayed on as a producer of the special, along with Ted Geisel.
DePatie-Freleng would produce many Seuss TV specials through the years, including 1973’s Dr. Seuss on the Loose and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982). The Studio brings a style that, much like Chuck Jones, can combine their form of animation and fit it perfectly in the Seuss world.
For The Cat’s voice in the special, the Studio chose well with comedian and singer Allan Sherman, most famous for his comic novelty record “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.” Sherman brought a sly, street-smart mentality that was fitting for the character.
Cartoon voice legend Daws Butler (who provided innumerable Hanna-Barbera voices, including Yogi Bear) voiced Karlos, the fish. There was child actress Pamelyn Ferdin as Sally. Ferdin, who appeared on numerous TV shows in the ’60s and ’70s, was also Lucy’s voice in the 1969 feature A Boy Named Charlie Brown. As Thing One, there’s none other than Thurl Ravenscroft, the familiar, deep baritone, who provided Tony the Tiger’s voice and also sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”
The special was a hit, and Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat returned many times after. However, the original special stands as a shining example of “The Golden Age of Seuss TV.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
We had many Dr. Seuss books in our house when I was little. They not only helped me learn to read, but taught me early on that reading could be a source of great pleasure — of “good fun that is funny.” My sister and I loved to hear our grandfather recite them out loud, especially the tongue-twisters of “Fox in Socks”, in his thick German accent. So naturally I loved the “The Cat in the Hat” special, which first aired when I was ten. Seeing it again today, however, I can’t help but feel that this 25-minute adaptation of a book that takes maybe five minutes to read seems a bit padded (though, of course, not nearly to the same extent as the Mike Myers movie). If it had to be padded — and it did — it was a wise decision to do so with songs; no one surpassed Dr. Seuss at versification, and Dean Elliott’s musical score has an appealing early-’70s vibe without sounding at all dated today.
Years ago I read an analysis of “The Cat in the Hat” in Tikkun magazine positing that the story, like Seuss’s work in general, was essentially about empowerment and liberation through the subversion of social norms. The fish, a traditional symbol of Christianity, represents ecclesiastical authority, seeking to isolate the children from outside influences. The cat’s unwarranted intrusion into their lives shows that efforts to protect children from subversive ideas are neither necessary, practicable, or even desirable. There was a lot more to the article that I don’t remember, but I do remember laughing at it very hard.
There was no “gredunza” in the original story, Dr. Seuss having limited its vocabulary to a mere 200-odd words, none of them made-up or having more than two syllables. Likewise, the fish had no name but was provided with one for the special; however, there doesn’t seem to be any consensus as to how to spell it, and at one point the cat even mispronounces it as “Krinklestein”. Still, it’s a mellifluous, alliterative, typically Seussian name like Sylvester McMonkey McBean, Benjamin B. Bicklebaum, or Ziggy and Zizzy Zozzfozzel.
When the fish phones the FBI, it gives the family’s address as 2322 Magnolia Boulevard. That’s an actual address in Burbank. There’s got to be an in-joke behind that somewhere.
The problem with stretching out a paper-thin plot to fit a half-hour time slot is that much padding is needed, and this special feels very padded. Unlike the Grinch special, where the extra bits add to the Christmas ambiance or to the trials and tribulations of Max. The Grinch special “works” in a way that “The Cat in the Hat” does not work as effectively. The humor feels forced and the situation a tad artificial. Of course, this one debuted with I was ten, whereas the earlier special came out when I was six, and much less critical, but even given that difference, there is still a sense of the story’s being told at a greater length than is necessary to do justice to the original book. It might perhaps have worked better to combine this book with its sequel in two fifteen-minute segments, as was similarly done with the special “Dr. Seuss on the Loose,” taking shorter stories and combining them into one special.
However, that said, there is mush to admire and appreciate about this version of “The Cat in the Hat”. The voice work is excellent, and there is a kind of irresistible charm despite the unnecessarily long running time. The “padding” is very cleverly done. I also like the sly humor with the children complaining of nothing to do while the fish looks into their room at all of the toys, games, and books. It provides a nice commentary without a word.
“The Cat in the Hat” is a fun special. I just feel that it should have been compressed into a shorter running time.
Of course, Seuss worked with animation decades earlier, when Warner Bros. adapted “Horton Hatches the Egg” into a seven-minute short for theaters.
True, and he also worked on some of the Pvt. Snafu cartoons at that time. But “Horton” clocks in at just under ten minutes, by far the longest Merrie Melodies cartoon ever made.
My (admittedly fading) memory seems to recall TCITH premiering alongside a new ‘Peanuts’ cartoon, Play it Again, Charlie Brown, yet always reliable Wikipedia states the latter was broadcast 18 days later. Two non-holiday animated specials airing on the same network almost three weeks apart in the same month? (And not even a “sweeps” month, at that) Doesn’t make much sense to me, but who can figure out TV execs, anyway?
CBS DID rerun Play It Again Charlie Brown before the Cat in the Hat special on April 11, 1972.
On it’s original broadcasts, the Cat in the Hat aired before a special called Robert Young And The Family and Play it Again Charlie Brown aired before an Osmond Brothers special.
Ah! Glad I’m not completely losing my marbles. Thanks for the info.
Yeah, CBS usually scheduled their 30 minute cartoon specials into an hour block, so it seemed odd when they deviated from this practice.
Directed by Hawley Pratt 🥇who liked cats 🐾
One of the very earlier DePatie-Freleng Enterprises specials, their secon d, coming a year after the Crosby/Shermans/Paul Winnchell/A.Schreiber Goldilocks special that Greg Ehbarh did a 2014 post on. I was around 10 when CAT came out..enjoy these.Pat…Dr.Suess also worked with UPA on Gerald McBoing Boing, and even in the early thirties did a few cartoons which WB released (or so I’ve read.:))
Steve JC
Oh. and the boy (Sally’s brother) was NOT named Conrad till the (unanimously boo’ed,by myself included) Universal 2003 film with Mike Myers.
While listing earlier Seuss adaptations let’s recall two George Pal Puppetoons: “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street” felt like a pretty close adaptation, despite replacing Seuss’s art with Pal’s usual design. “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” took a few liberties with the story as well, removing the King’s spoiled son and having wildly different hats from the vary beginning.
The Cat in the Hat taught me how to read (along with millions of other kids). I was excited when the cartoon special came out, but didn’t care for how much it deviated from the original book……ESPECIALLY that dratted “moss-covered, three-handled family gredunza”.
Considering that Ted himself helped wrote this special, I’d let that slide. Besides, I thought the whole balancing the ball bit in the book was a little long.
The book was definitely better than “the movie”. I’ve read Ted Geisel’s book and he wasn’t entirely happy with the way The Cat in the Hat special turned out.
The book was definitely better than “the movie”. I borrowed Ted Geisel’s biography from my library and he wasn’t entirely happy with the way The Cat in the Hat special turned out.
Is it still okay to like Dr. Seuss’ work, even though the current sociopolitical mindset has tagged him a racist monster (or Grinch, if you will)? Must we look to divorce the product from the creator, as is being done with Harry Potter (because J.K. Rowling is not on board with transgenderism)? Do the graphics that accompany the translations in the TV special’s “Cat/Hat” song constitute a celebration of multiculturalism or egregious stereotyping? Or is the point simply to be offended either way? It’s hard to know what the rules are these days.
Please stop with these types of posts. They are rather disturbing.
Hans Christian Brando, you’re joking right?