Eek! The Cat - Production

Production

The original idea for the show came from Savage Steve Holland's experience as a cat owner. One of his cats was named Eek. In an early design, Eek was colored pink instead of purple. The series was originally titled "The Six and a Half Lives of Eek the Cat."

The show premiered on the now-defunct Fox Kids block in 1992 as Eek! The Cat. Thirteen 20 minute episodes were produced for its first season. A recurring character named Mr. Iwanter was a caricature of then-Fox Kids executive Sid Iwanter.

For the second season in 1993, the show's format was retooled (except It's A Very Merry Eek's Mas, which originally aired as a prime-time special). In each episode were two nine minute segments. One was Eek! the Cat. The other was often The Terrible Thunderlizards. The Thunderlizards segments were intended to air at the start of the season, but it began two months later because of production delays. When they started airing, the series title was changed to Eek! And The Terrible Thunderlizards. Also, the creators originally intended to include two one minute segments. The first would feature the Squishy Bearz, and the second one were to feature other characters from Eek!. However, because the show turned out to be too long, the one minute segments were scrapped. In January 1994, Fox aired four Thunderlizards segments as two Thunderlizards specials.

During the season, Kopp left the show (though he still did the voice of Eek and others) for his own show, The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show for Disney, which would later own Eek! as well.

For the third season in 1994, the name was changed once again to Eek! Stravaganza, keeping the same format that was used in the second season.

In the fall of 1995, another segment called Klutter was added, rotating with the Thunderlizards. This segment lasted a year. Kato Kaelin was originally scheduled to be a guest voice in an episode, but the Fox network refused.

Fox canceled Eek! Stravaganza in November 1996, though they eventually aired the final episodes in the summer of 1997.

Most episodes of Eek! Stravaganza were then re-run from August 1998 to April 1999 on Fox Family.

For years, all that was available commercially was a single VHS tape with the episodes Catsanova and HawaiiEek 5-0 on it. It was released in 1995. On July 23, 2001, Eek! and other properties of Saban Entertainment were sold to The Walt Disney Company. As of 2011, no word from Disney has been spoken about releasing the series to DVD.

Several episodes of the series used to be available to watch on the ABC Family website and was also seen on the Jetix and Jetix Play channels in some parts of Europe.