YMMV / Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats

• Awesome Ego: Riff-Raff, albeit justified by the fact that he's acknowledged as one of the toughest cats in Westfinster, savvy enough to be the leader of his own street gang, and has a babe like Cleo as his girlfriend. With all of that going for him, who wouldn't be a little full of themselves?
• Can't Un-Hear It: What did you expect from Mel Blanc voicing Heathcliff?
• Common Knowledge: Many people who grew with the series would swear the Catillac Cats were a sort of rival gang to Heathcliff, despite the two actually belonging to different stories inside the show and only very sporadically interacting with each other (the segment's respective main characters, Heathcliff and Riff-Raff, actually never appeared together outside of the ending credits and some promotional art). Part of the fault goes to the fact that, although the Cats are as memorable as Heathcliff himself, the show's title implied it was exclusively about his adventures or at least about all of them together, thus implying they were logically part of his story. Fault also goes to the aforementioned shared closing credits, where Heathcliff appeared antagonizing Riff-Raff by stealing his hat.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Catillac Cats. Even though Heathcliff always got top billing^note only his segments were acknowledged in promos and commercial bumpers (at least on Nickelodeon and Fox Family), many fans felt that Riff-Raff and his gang were better developed and had much more interesting adventures than Heathcliff.
• Friendly Fandoms: There's no friction between fans of Garfield and Heathcliff, primarily because they're both very different cats save species and color.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Given that the show was partially made in France, the French got the entire show on DVD years before America because of this trope. Also, there were some toy figurines of The Catillac Cats produced in France. Even a toy Cadillac car that could be changed into a hovercraft, and trailer, just like in the show. If you're lucky enough you can find these up for auction on eBay.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Iggy's redesign bears a strong resemblance to Mac from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
  • Dixie (the athletic cat whom Mungo falls for in "The Games of Love") looks very similar to Minerva Mink, who wouldn't exist for another nine years.
  • The Catillac Cats episode "Time Warped" almost feels like a parody of Back to the Future Part III, what with the cats sent back in time to The Wild West, the Cadillac filling in as the De Lorean, and having to use a train to get back to the present time. However the episode was made at least three years before BTTF III hit theaters.
  • The Catillac Cats episode "High Goon" features a bar called "The Scratching Post". Years later, the CW series, "iZombie" features a bar with that same name.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many fans of this show only watch it for the segments featuring the Catillac Cats.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • From "Kitten Around", this image◊ of a super-pissed off Cleo when she threatens Roxanne.
  • In "Monstro vs. the Wolfhound", Monstro has a really scary close-up.
• Popular with Furries: Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats all have their fans, but Cleo is the one that is most popular with furries.
• Retroactive Recognition: Hector was Danny Mann's first major voice role.
• Sequel Displacement: It's also more well-remembered than the Ruby-Spears series.
• Tear Jerker: In "Heathcliff's Pet", Heathcliff decides that he wants a pet. Near the end of the chapter, he befriends a lobster and helps him escape from the restaurant he was held in. Heathcliff asks him if he wants to be his pet, but the lobster answers that it would be hard, being animals from different environments, which leaves Heathcliff quite down while walking and muttering that he'll probably never have a pet. Thankfully, when he returns home, he decides that being a pet himself isn't that bad.
  • "Kitten Smitten" presents a lost kitten who befriends Heathcliff, who couldn't leave him behind and alone, due to his cute crying face. In the end, after finally finding his mom, the kitten jumps to Heathcliff's arms in a very affectionate hug.
  • There was one episode where Heathcliff, while running away from Mr.Schultz the Fish Store owner, finds out that it almost got him run over by a car. He starts crying, looking too regretful of what could have happened because of him.
  • Almost every time the Catillac Cats make Mungo cry, especially during "Mungo Gets No Respect", where he even decides to quit the gang.
  • Again with Mungo, in the series finale, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", when Mingo, his younger brother arrives to be taken under his care. But he's shown to have a problematic behavior. Later, he befriends a rival gang of the Catillac Cats, so Mungo tells him that he's free to go where he feels or stay with him, but Mingo leaves for the other gang, which leaves Mungo alone and crying for the night. Next day, the CC receive a challenge from the other gang and Mungo and Mingo are about to fight, but Mingo stops, while in tears says that he cannot fight his own brother. The enemy gang leaves and Mingo returns with Mungo.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Even if the Catillac Cats, as repeated above, were more popular than Heathcliff, that the latter and Riff-Raff never interacted fully in the series is thought to be a pity by some. The Slobs Versus Snobs contrast of their respective characterizations in the series was so evident that it seemed intuitive for them to mix together and feature funny moments.
• Unconvincingly Unpopular Character: You'd think a guy like Riff-Raff would have it made, given he's acknowledged as one of the toughest cats in Westfinster, has good looks, street savvy enough that he's the leader of his own gang, and has a hottie like Cleo as his girlfriend. Yet, despite all that he has going for him, he's still a down-and-out alley cat who lives in a junkyard and his plans fail half the time because his gang is dimwitted.

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