Animated Series
Two animated TV series based on the strip, both simply named Heathcliff, were created. Although Heathcliff did not speak in the comic strip, both animated versions of him were voiced by Mel Blanc. Heathcliff was the last of Blanc's original characters.
The first Heathcliff was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions and debuted in 1980. The first season featured segments with Dingbat and the Creeps (Dingbat is the vampire dog (Frank Welker) accompanied by Spare Rib the skeleton and Nobody the jack-o-lantern who were both voiced by Don Messick), which were created by Ruby-Spears for the show, and the second season featured fellow comic strip character Marmaduke (voiced by Paul Winchell). This version is sometimes seen on Boomerang.
In 1984, the second Heathcliff debuted, which was produced by DiC Entertainment. This series featured segments with The Catillac Cats, which is why this version is sometimes referred to as Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats. In 1986, Heathcliff: The Movie debuted in theaters; it was released on VHS by Paramount Home Video in 1988. In 2005, Shout! Factory released a Volume 1 DVD for the show, featuring the first 24 episodes of the series.
All 3 Heathcliff cartoons together ran from 1980-1988.
Heathcliff's female human pal, Marcy, was drawn in the strip as a normal girl with brown hair, a green skirt and has a bow in her hair. In the animated series, Marcy was still drawn as a normal girl, but with blonde hair and a bow and a blue t-shirt and a pink skirt, and instead of white socks, she had purple. Why exactly these character design changes were made is unknown. DiC had also redesigned other characters.
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