SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron | |
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File:Swatkats.jpg | |
Created by | Christian Tremblay Yvon Tremblay |
Starring | See Main Cast |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 23 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Buzz Potamkin |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | Cartoon Network |
Release | September 11, 1993 – December 24, 1994 |
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron was a Hanna-Barbera American animated television series created by Christian Tremblay and Yvon Tremblay. The show ran in syndication from 1993 to 1995, when it was canceled. There were a total of twenty-three finished episodes. There were also four unfinished episodes.
The show was based in the fictional metropolis of Megakat City, which is populated entirely by anthropomorphic felines, known as "kats".
Background
Chance "T-Bone" Furlong and Jake "Razor" Clawson were members of Megakat City's SWAT team, known as the Enforcers. While in pursuit of Dark Kat, the arch-villain of the series, the two rebelled against Enforcer Commander Feral's orders to fall back and leave Dark Kat to him. The direct disobedience to that order resulted in Dark Kat's escape and Chance and Jake's jet crashing into Enforcer headquarters. Because of the accident, they were discharged from the force by Commander Feral and were required to work at a salvage yard, also owned by Feral, to pay for their damages made to the Enforcers HQ. Using discarded military parts and weapons from the salvage yard, they built a three-engine jet fighter called the Turbokat (resembling several different aircraft, most notably an F-14), along with a handful of other vehicles (including a motorcycle built into the jet and a militarised Jeep) and patrol Megakat City as the SWAT Kats, defending it against any kind of menace that is too dangerous for the Enforcers to handle themselves. T-Bone and Razor kept their identities secret from everyone, even from the deputy Mayor Callie Briggs (who was, ironically, a character more important than the mayor himself, who was portrayed as a naïve man). Their methods did not endear them to Commander Feral, and the series often had the three clash, much as in A-Team episodes.
SWAT Kats briefly returned to Cartoon Network on February 13, 2006, airing on Cartoon Network at 2:30 PM Eastern, with several of the season 1 episodes being shown in no particular order.[citation needed] This only lasted for one week, then Swat Kats was replaced by Ozzy & Drix in the 2:30 time slot on February 21, 2006. SWAT Kats is not currently listed on Cartoon Network's official schedule, but can now be seen on Cartoon Network's Sister Channel Boomerang at 11:30 PM EST. The show has not yet been released on DVD, although select episodes of the show were released on VHS in NTSC format. Since the early days of eBay, VHS copies of the entire series (recorded from television) have sold for considerable amounts.
Main cast
- T-Bone (Chance Furlong) / Murray...Charlie Adler
- Razor (Jake Clawson)...Barry Gordon
- Callie Briggs...Tress MacNeille
- Commander Ulysses Feral...Gary Owens
- Lt. Felina Feral...Lori Alan
- Mayor Manx / Enforcer Sgt. (II)...Jim Cummings
- Ann Gora...Candi Milo
Other cast / guest stars:
- Dark Kat...Brock Peters
- Dr. Viper / Volcanus / Al...Frank Welker
- Mac Mange...Neil Ross
- Molly Mange...April Winchell
- The Pastmaster...Keene Curtis
- Jonny K. / Burke / The Red Lynx...Mark Hamill
- Professor Hackle...George Hearn
- Enforcer Sgt. (I) / Tiger Conklin...Ed Gilbert
- Hard Drive...Rob Paulsen
- Dr. Abby Sinian...Linda Gary
- Dr. Lieter Greenbox (I)...Robert Patrick
- Dr. Lieter Greenbox (II) / Chopshop...Nick Chinlund
- Dr. N. Zyme...Paul Eiding
- Mr. Young...Robert Ito
- Mutilor...Michael Dorn
- Madkat...Roddy McDowall
- Rex Shard...John Vernon
- Turmoil...Kath Soucie
- Lt. Commander Steele...Hal Rayle
- Dr. Harley Street...Robert Ridgely
SWAT Kats Vehicles
Through the entire series, the SWAT Kats use many types of vehicles in order to stop every kind of menaces that appear in MegaKat City. The following ones are the most commonly used by the vigilante duo:
- Turbokat (First appearance: The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice)
- SWAT Hovercraft AKA Hoverkat (First appearance: Unlikely Alloys)
- SWAT JetSkies (First appearance: Mutation City)
- SWAT Thunder Truck (First appearance: When Strikes Mutilor)
- SWAT Cyclotron (First appearance: The Giant Bacteria)
- SWAT Hybrid (First appearance: Katastrophe)
- SWAT SandKat (First appearance: Chaos in Crystal)
- Turbomole (First appearance: Caverns of Horror)
- Katmobile (First appearance: Bride of the Pastmaster)
SWAT Kats Weapons
Missiles:
- Octopus Missiles
- Drop Top Missiles
- Matchhead Missiles
- Mega Buzz-Saw Missiles
- Bubble Missiles
- Groundhog Missiles
- Spider Missiles
- Mole Missiles
- Turbo Blades
- Slicer Missiles
- Plain Old Missiles
- Buzz-Saw Missiles
- Cyclotron Missiles
- Wire-Clipping Missiles
- Banshee Missiles
- Spider Chain Missiles
- Scrambler Missiles
- Pincer Missiles
Gadgets:
- Glovatrixs
- Grappling Hooks
- Mini Missiles
- Cement Launcher
- Ejektor Seat
- Mini Tar Torpedoes
- X-Ray Beam
- Dimensional Radar
- Microwave Blasters
- Octopuss Bazooka
SWAT Kats Enemies
- Dr. Viper (First appearance: The Giant Bacteria)
- Madkat (First appearance: Enter the Madkat)
- Dark Kat (First appearance: The Wrath of Dark Kat)
- Mac Mange and Molly Mange (The Metallikats) (First appearance: The Metallikats)
- The Pastmaster (First appearance: The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice)
- Dr. Harley Street and the giant Ci-Kat-A (First appearance: The Ci-Kat-A)
- Rex Shard (First appearance: Chaos in Crystal)
- Hard Drive (First appearance: Night of the Dark Kat)
- Turmoil (First appearance: Cry Turmoil)
- Red Lynx (First appearance: The Ghost Pilot)
- Dark Swat Kats (First appearance: The Dark Side of the Swat Kats)
- Mutilor (First appearance: When Strikes Mutilor)
- Zed (First appearance: Unlikely Alloys)
Episodes
Season one
- The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice
- The Giant Bacteria
- The Wrath of Dark Kat
- Destructive Nature
- The Metallikats
- Bride of the Pastmaster
- Night of the Dark Kat
- Chaos in Crystal
- The Ghost Pilot
- Metal Urgency
- The Ci-Kat-A
- Enter the Madkat
- Katastrophe
Season two
- Mutation City
- A Bright and Shiny Future
- When Strikes Mutilor
- Razor's Edge
- Cry Turmoil / Swat Kats Unplugged
- The Deadly Pyramid
- Caverns of Horror
- Volcanus Erupts! / The Origin of Dr. Viper
- The Dark Side of the Swat Kats
- Unlikely Alloys
Extra
- (Kat's Eye News) A Special Report (Clip show)
Unfinished episodes
- The Curse of Kataluna (also known as Succubus)
- Turmoil II: The Revenge
- Doctors of Doom
- Cold War (unused premise)
- Blackout (unused premise)
- The Madkat's Revenge (unused premise)
- The Vampire She-Kat (unused premise)
- Robotic Madness (unused premise)
- Past Blast (unused premise)
MegaKat City Locations
- MegaKat City Hall (First appearance: The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice)
- MegaKat Biochemical Labs (First appearance: The Giant Bacteria)
- MegaKat Nuclear Plant (First appearance: The Wrath of Dark Kat)
- MegaKat Tower (First appearance: Destructive Nature)
- MegaKat City Marina (First appearance: The Ghost Pilot)
- Enforcers HQ (First appearance: The Wrath of Dark Kat)
- MegaKat State Beach (First appearance: When Strikes Mutilor)
- MegaKat City Museum of History (First appearance: The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice)
- Salvage Yard (First appearance: The Giant Bacteria)
- MegaKat Dam (First appearence: Chaos in Crystal)
- Puma-Dyne Research Center (First appearance: Metal Urgency)
- MegaKat Maximum Security Prison (First appearance: Chaos in Crystal)
- MegaKat Oil Refinary (First appearance: The Giant Bacteria)
- MegaKat Boneyard (First appearance: The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice)
- Alkatraz Prison Island (First appearance: The Metallikats)
- MegaKat Multiplex Cinema (First appearence: The Ci-Kat-A)
- M.A.S.A. Space Center (First appearance: Destructive Nature)
- Megakat Broadcasting Company Building (First appearance: Enter the Madkat)
- Anakata Island (First appearance: Volcanus Erupts!)
- MegaKat University (First appearance: Unlikely Alloys)
- MegaKat City Airport (First appearance: The Ci-Kat-A)
- MegaKat City Golf Court (First appearance: Destructive Nature)
- MegaKat Tuna Factory (First appearence: The Metallikats
- MegaKat City Defense Center (First appearance: Night of the Dark Kat)
- MegaKat City Mint (First appearance: Unlikely Alloys)
- MegaKat City Subway (First appearence: The Giant Bacteria)
- MegaKat City Memorial Hospital (First appearence: Razor's Edge)
- GemKat Labs (First appearence: Chaos in Crystal)
- MegaKat City Swamp (First appearence: The Giant Bacteria)
- MegaKat Springs (First appearence: Chaos in Crystal)
- MegaKat Power Sub Station (First appearence: Razor's Edge)
SWAT Kats in other languages
- Русский: Коты быстрого реагирования (мультфильм)
- Spanish: SWAT Kats - The Radical Squadron
- Portuguese: SWAT Kats - O Esquadrão Radical
- Српски / Srpski: СВОТ мачке
- Svenska: Swat Kats
Trivia
- The Turbokat's top velocity is Mach 8, but we only see it going into Mach 5, when they try to destroy Rex Shard with a Sonic Boom(seen in Chaos in Crystal).
- The subway station where Razor destroys one of Dr. Viper's giant bacterias is named "Katalina Station", which is also the only known subway station on MegaKat city.
- Since the characters of the series are known as "kats", we can assume that they evolved from Sabertooth Cats, just like humans evolved from apes.
- The Turbokat is destroyed three times during the series, in the episodes Enter the Madkat, Katastrophe and Unlikely Alloys.
- Although we know that Jake and Chance have to work on the Salvage Yard until they pay for the damages that they accidently inflicted on the Enforcers HQ, we never know the exact amount of money that they owe.
- The movie Hard Shell is quite popular, because in the Megakat Multiplex Cinema, there are five rooms that are exhibiting it, and in the end of The Ci-Kat-A episode, they announce the sequel Hard Shell 2: the Revenge on the TV.
- The Metallikat Express's top velocity is 300 mph.
See also
- List of villains in SWAT Kats
- Minor characters in SWAT Kats
- Enforcers (SWAT Kats)
- Anthropomorphic Superheroes