We All Remember ALF. But Space Cats?
By Michael Jones | June 18, 2021
If I told you there was a Saturday morning series in 1991 that starred Charles Nelson Reilly as a floating green head named DORC—the Disembodied Omnipotent Ruler of Cats—who helped guide a bunch of alien crime-fighting felines in the pursuit of “truth, justice, and a better quality cat food without the fishy aftertaste,” you’d probably tell me I was having a delusion so grand my brain was on the planet Melmac.
But this isn’t a vision from a far off galaxy. Nope, it’s Space Cats, a quasi-animated/live-action puppet series that had 13 of the quirkiest episodes of any 90s cartoon.
If you weren’t watching Saturday morning cartoons from September-December 1991, you might have missed Space Cats. Created by Paul Fusco, the puppeteer and voice actor behind ALF, the series had the sarcastic and biting elements of Tiny Toons paired with the live action style of The Muppets and an animated vibe reminiscent of Heathcliff.
But the plot was pure bonkers. Are you ready for this journey? Take a deep breath!
Oodles of space alien cats from a planet known as Triglyceride 7 somehow station themselves deep within a base at Earth’s core. The only way to access this base is through a busted up metal garbage can. Inside the base, various live-action puppet cats man a station where their leader—Captain Catgut—awaits video calls from Charles Nelson Reilly’s disembodied head (DORC). The DORC is like a cranky version Charlie from Charlie’s Angels, sassily delivering missions to Captain Catgut (a feline Bosley?) that his team must execute.
Captain Catgut takes each harrowing mission—a water park draining the planet of its water supply; the emptying of the entire U.S. Treasury by a computer hacker; an air freshener company cutting down all of a national park’s trees; to name a few—and brings in a crackerjack team of crime-fighting cats to get justice. Here’s where the show pivots from live-action puppets to animation, as Captain Catgut throws the mission to three cartoon cats: Tom (an expert in weapons “and a fairly good speller”), Scratch (a master of disguise, named after musical fleas that live in his fur), and Sniff (noted for his keen sense of smell but who’s also plagued with terrible allergies). Together this rag-tag group of cats band together to solve crime and restore order to Earth.
That plot of course sounds way more B-movie science fiction than Saturday morning cartoon. But in an era of Ninja Turtles and Battletoads, Space Cats got its moment in the sun. And even though it only pulled in a baker’s dozen of episodes, the series was a treat to watch.
And a big reason is because Space Cats literally fills every minute with some kind of inane reference, political zingers, or addressing the audience directly to keep viewers on their toes.
I remember constantly cracking up at this line given by the narrator during the intro of each episode: “Diligent, alert and hard-working, the Space Cats are always on the job! Except for Tuesdays and certain bank holidays.”
Or in the episode “Send in the Clones,” where a clown named Sprinkles is kidnapped and a robotic clone takes his place to hypnotize children and have them send money from their parents to a criminal underlord, the Cats all break the fourth wall—whether it’s to ask for better camera angles “because they’re acting their tails off,” or whether it’s to shade the narrator for using the expression “more than one way to skin a cat.”
The writers of Space Cats even do us all a favor and put Florida up for sale, during the episode “A Recession is Depressin” where the U.S. runs out of money and the Space Cats have to figure out where it all went.
But the most delicious part of Space Cats is the first five minutes of every episode where Charles Nelson Reilly’s floating head appears as DORC. This is Reilly at his crodgiest best. Like someone took his Match Game persona and melded it with Dorothy Zbornak from The Golden Girls. He hates the Space Cats... in fact he hates all cats, because as a young disembodied head, he was never allowed to have one as a pet. (“My mother wouldn’t let me carry around a cat in my mouth.”)
And Reilly goes all-in on the campiness of the character. Possibly my favorite scene of the series is in episode 3 (“Like Cats to Water”) where Reilly, bowing to being the biggest DORC of all, yells at Captain Catgut:
Captain Catgut: “Reception is unusually clear today. I can see the veins in your head very well.”
DORC (Reilly): “Watch it Captain Catgut. I don’t have to remind you that I am your superior.”
Captain Catgut: “I know, sir. You are in fact the Disembodied Omnipotent Ruler of Cats.”
DORC: “DORC, for short Captain. I am a DORC.”
Captain Catgut: “You can say that again sir.”
DORC: “I think I will. I like the way it sounds. It sort of rolls off my tongue. DORC. I am a DORC!”
Captain Catgut: *bursts out laughing*
Space Cats sadly never made it past its first season. Even though it was on an NBC Saturday morning line-up that included Super Mario World, Yo! Yogi, and Pro Stars (a cartoon with animated versions of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky where they were superheroes), NBC’s Saturday morning bloc was about to be turned upside-down. Out were the cartoons and kids shows and in came teen programming like Saved By The Bell, Hang Time, and California Dreams (to name a few).
Did Zach Morris kill Space Cats? We’ll let the Disembodied Omnipotent Ruler of Saturday Morning Television decide that one.
But one thing we will say is that if you’re looking for a quirky 90s cartoon fix, look no further than Space Cats. Not every episode slays, but they all are packed with enough vitamins and nutrients (jokes and one-liners) to make this a fun trip down Saturday morning nostalgia lane. And the YouTube gods are smiling down on us, because within the last few months a number of long-lost episodes have popped up. Some are linked above, and here’s an extra bonus one (“Diamonds are Fur-Ever”) to get us all through until these hip cats show up on streaming.
An unabashed 80s & 90s pop culture junkie, Michael Jones is a Brooklyn-based writer and co-host of the Pop Trash Podcast.