March 5th, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
Dr. Seuss has been in the news quite a bit this past week. Before the decisions and discussions around a number of the author’s books, the following article was written several weeks ago. It commemorates the 50th anniversary of the animated TV adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s book The Cat in the Hat.
It’s being run here, not as a statement or to take a side, but simply as it was originally intended: to celebrate the animation and the artists who created the special.
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.”
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