Eek! The Cat

"It never hurts to help!"


Kumbaya!

Eek! The Cat is a Canadian animated series, created by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, that ran from September 12, 1992, to August 8, 1997. It was retitled Eek! Stravaganza in 1994.

The series mainly revolves around an optimistic purple housecat named Eek, whose motto is "it never hurts to help". This generally turns out to be untrue, as this attitude generally gets him into trouble, from which much of the humor of the show is derived. Other characters include Eek's human family, with whom he cannot communicate via spoken language; Sharky the Sharkdog, who is mainly irritated by Eek's oblivious enthusiasm for everything and chases him at the drop of a hat; and Eek's girlfriend, Annabelle.

The show later added two different segments: "The Thunder Lizards", which focused on a trio of dinosaurs trying to destroy a pair of oblivious cavemen, Bill and Scooter, while also fighting an evil tribe of skeletal dinosaurs called the Thugasaurs, and "Klutter", which was about a bunch of neighbourhood kids and their living pile of clutter and clothing.

Tropes used in Eek! The Cat include:

John: Who's that?
Paul: Oh, that's me grandfather.
George: That's not yer grandfather. It's a cat with a squid on 'is 'ead!

  • Big Eater: The reason for Annabelle's weight isn't exactly kept secret, though it doesn't come up more than once an episode, on average.
  • Bilingual Bonus: If the French tape she's listening to in episode 103 is anything to go by - the mom's language lesson tapes have her supposedly learning nonsensical expressions in a given language that have no relation to the even more nonsensical English translation the tape provides for what she just mispronounced (e.g. French - "Much my hat" - English - "the rats have eaten the car")
  • Black Bead Eyes: Some human characters, especially JB.
  • Butt Monkey: Eek himself.
    • Sharky in the later episodes
  • Captain Ersatz: The Squishy Bears.
  • Catch Phrase: "It never hurts to help!" and "Kumbaya!"
    • Also, "Oh gosh, it hurts!!" and "Get 'em off! GET 'EM OFF!!"
    • "...Holly, Acorn, Steven Jr, Gunther, and my wife Suuuuusan."
    • From Bill of the "Thunder Lizards": "When will the hurting stop..?"
    • "THUNDER LIZARDS RULE!!"
    • "Why is it always me?! Why is it always me?!"
  • Cats Are Mean: If this site had such a thing as a Most Triumphant Aversion, Eek would be it for this trope. He is extremely kind to everyone, even those who are actively trying to mangle him.
  • Cats Have Nine Lives: In at least one episode Eek is shown to have a tally card for his nine lives.
  • Chick Magnet: For some reason Eek has a plethora of gorgeous babes making it known that they want him, Eek however always makes sure to tell them that he already has a girlfriend. Which is both sweet in his devotion but disturbing for the girls who can't believe he'd prefer someone like Annabelle over them.
  • Character Development: Sharky. In Season 1, he's your standard mean dog. Starting in Season 2, the writers slowly give him more depth until he becomes one of the most sympathetic and interesting characters in the series. He keeps his mean-streak, but he eventually gets to the point where he pretty much won't show it unless provoked.
  • Chick Magnet: Eek, somehow.
  • The Comically Serious: Bill the Caveman in the Terrible Thunder-Lizards shorts.
  • Cowardly Lion: Eek. This trope must be the reason for his name.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: In one episode, Eek takes the audience backstage and reveals that he and Annabelle are both voiced by people of the opposite gender to their character.
  • Dem Bones: The Thugasaurs.
  • Descended Creator: Bill Kopp himself is the voice of Eek, Pierre and Kutter.
    • Also, Steve Savage Holland voiced characters in each segment: Elmo, Doc Tari and Wade Heap.
  • The Devil Is a Loser: Fido in Eek Goes To The Hotspot
  • Elvis Has Left the Planet: One episode involving alien abduction featured a brief shot of Elvis amongst the specimens. Another one speculates that he had a shrink-ray-related accident some years ago.
    • The later involving him having Easy Amnesia, regaining his memory and then getting abducted by aliens.
  • Enemy Mine: Occasionally Eek and Sharky have worked together for one reason or another.
    • One episode of the Thunder Lizards revealed why they were in jail before being tapped as expendable agents to wipe out humanity: during a mission, they were stranded in hostile terrain and ended up working with a Thugasaur to survive and escape. Though they succeeded, General Galapagos spotted them with the Thugasaur and had them arrested, falsely accused of treason, and thrown into prison until the series proper began.
  • Epunymous Title
    • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most of the episode titles are parodies of famous movie titles with the Eek's name somehow worked into them.
      • Oddly, the episode titles sometimes have NOTHING to do with the episode itself. Despite being named after Mystic Pizza, MystEek Pizza has nothing in common with the movie.
  • Exposed Animal Bellybutton
  • Expy: Eek looks ridiculously similar to Garfield, as some would say. The main difference between him and the pasta-loving cat is Eek is far kinder and more idealistic.
  • Fat Cat / Fat Idiot: Eek.
    • Annabelle.
  • Freudian Excuse: Sharky attempts one in "Shark Doggy Dog."
  • Furry Confusion: Eek is a pet cat, and lives with a human family. Anabelle however has her own house and her own pet dog.
  • Furry Ear Dissonance: Eek has ears that are shaped like golf clubs.
  • Furry Fandom: You'd think Rule34 would be more in effect considering the leather-wearing Stripperiffic Heavy Metal twin catgirls and Heather Locklear playing a literal bitch ala Fatal Attraction.
    • Don't forget Annabelle for those into fat furries.
  • Gag Series
  • The Ghost: Annabelle's owner is only heard in her debut episode after she's unloaded from her cat carrier saying "Welcome to your new home, Annabelle". The owner afterwards is rarely, if ever mentioned, leaving some to believe that she's an Intelligent Animal that owns her own home.
  • Golem: Klutter, a living pile of clothes and mess that featured in one segment.
  • Gonk: Eek's human family, as well as some other humans.
  • Grand Finale: The Island of Dr. Meow. Has almost every regular character in it. Eek is implied to have married Annabelle and become President (Annabelle is the First Lady). Subverted due to 1. the episode being about Sharky, not Eek (who barely appears in it at all), and 2. It not being the actual final episode. Seriously though, this would have been the logical place to end it.
    • An earlier episode from the same season, "MystEEK Pizza", had a good number of appearcnes by the various mauve shirts of the series (including Elvis) and was sort of a final curtain call for them.
  • Grumpy Bear: Pierre of the Squishy Bearz.
  • Hartman Hips: Andrea Heap
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Lots just from the regulars.
    • Over in Eek, Charlie Adler voiced B.J. (plus Bill in TTL and many incidental characters), Nancy Cartwright was Wendy Elizabeth, Dan Castellaneta and later John Kassir were Eek's chronically nervous pal Mittens, Tawny Kitaen was the first voice of Annabelle, and Cam Clarke was most of the Squishy Bearz (as well as Ryan Heap in Klutter).
    • In Terrible Thunderlizards, Kurtwood Smith was General Galapagos, both Jason Priestly and later Corey Feldman were Squat, Curtis Armstrong was Scooter, and Brad Garret was Thugo.
    • In Klutter, Sandy Fox was Sandee Heap, while David Silverman and Kathy Ireland were the siblings' parents.
  • Hidden Depths: Sharky after the writers moved him beyond just being the mean dog
  • Hot Scientist: During a Sci Fi parody, Elmo must choose between the plan of an Einstein-looking super-genius, or the plan of the Bambi twins, who had gotten a B+ in physics.
  • Hot Librarian: Andrea Heap, hot library employee.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Technical example: Annabell is made the queen of some bizarre-looking savages on an island out in the middle of nowhere. Problem was that, "In order for the queen to become a goddess, she must be cooked and then eaten by the king."
    • "I like girls."
  • Impossible Hourglass Figure: Alice from "Fatal Eektraction."
  • Instrumental Theme Tune: Eek! The Cat only.
  • International Coproduction: Between Savage Studios in the USA and Nelvana in Canada.
  • Interspecies Romance: Besides the number of human and extraterrestrial women who have thrown themselves at Eek, Sharky is implied to have a crush on Annabelle in one episode.
  • Inventional Wisdom: Why in the nine hells would a rocket built to go to Jupiter have a switch that allows one to set the course for either Jupiter or the Sun?
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sharky really isn't such a bad guy...
  • Jimmy Hart Version: Episode "Show Squirls" features a pretty well-done parody cover of "Le Freak" played by Chic.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Let's just say that, although it's very easy to find the series via google, it's currently...not possible to find it legally.
  • Killer Rabbit: Eek's family finds a cute little bunny on their doorstep and adopt it. Little do they know that it plans to murder them all once Eek's out of the way...
  • Large Ham:
    • Annabelle. Whenever she is extremely happy, she cries out "Let heaven and nature sing!"
    • JB, Bill, and any other character voiced by Charlie Adler
  • Littlest Cancer Patient: Parodied with Elmo's little brother Timmy.
  • Logo Joke: In "The Great Eekscape", Nelvana's polar bear logo makes a cameo on the prison's wall.
  • Lovable Coward: Eek.
  • Luke Nounverber: Leek Bottomsitter.
  • Meganekko: Andrea Heap.
  • Mind Screw: The ending of "Fatal Eektraction."
  • Morality Pet: Annabelle is this to Sharky.
  • The Moving Experience: In the pilot, Eek finds out, to his dismay, that his new girlfriend is moving again. After being sad for a short time, he turns the letter over to read "P.S. I'm moving across the street."
  • Musical Episode: "Quadrapedia"
  • Ms. Fanservice: Various attractive girls have popped up throughout the series.
  • Nice Guy: Eek.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Constantly.
  • No Indoor Voice: JB.
  • No One Gets Left Behind: In a "Thunder Lizards" segment, the titular dinosaurs grudgingly remembered this rule when an obnoxious parody/cameo of Mr. T got dragged away by a carnivorous plant. Then one said, "But we don't have to hurry," and they smiled and moseyed.
    • Subverted in an episode where Eek, Anabel and two ape astronauts escape from aliens and land safely on Earth. Eek's the only one that got stuck on the moon, hoping someone will come for him, saying "People won't leave me all alone in the cold darkness of space. Would they?".
  • Once Per Episode: 1) Eek will proclaim that it never hurts to help. 2) It will then hurt. A lot.
  • Only Sane Man: Pierre is this in the Show Within a Show, The Squishy Bears Rainbow of Enchantment Fun Minute.
  • Papa Wolf: Sharky is normally an Angry Guard Dog in general, but he gets REALLY mad if Annabelle is threatened.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: In one episode, celebrities the Squishy Bearz are framed for robbery by rats wearing these.
  • Parental Bonus: Frequent:
    • The parody of Apocalypse Now.
    • One episode had Eek walking along singing The Talking Heads "Life During Wartime"
    • Another was an abridged parody of The Terminator.
    • Another was a parody of Cape Fear.
    • The Graduate, A Clockwork Orange, and Pulp Fiction each got a parody episode, too.
    • "Way to go, Sharky! You've brightened up the dull city of Mctropolis with the light of a thousand suns!""
    • Eek's namecheck of the Barbi Twins in his speech to Zoltar (see Shout-Out).
    • One episode had Eek underwater, where he befriended a squid who sounded like Rain Man ("Yeah. Home good. Definitely yeah.").
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: Eek really, really, really loves planet Earth in general.
  • Phrase Catcher: Every time Eek shows someone a picture of Annabelle.

A person: 'She's really... fat.'
Eek: 'Really?'

    • Piggy the penguin is also this. "Shut up, Piggy!"
  • Poorly-Disguised Pilot: Subverted to a degree, both The Thunderlizards and Klutter did get to be their own shows briefly before being reincorporated into Eek!stravangaza (and for a few episodes at the end of the fourth season, replaced Eek! entirely in the show)
  • Prison Episode: "The Great Eekscape".
  • Running Gag:

Random character: "Your girlfriend's... fat."
Eek: "Really?"

    • Eek will always accidentally destroy Sharky's doghouse.
  • Shout-Out / Long List: Eek usually receives a character's compliment and then talks by mentioning random names and titles non-stop, i.e. in the episode "Eek vs. the Flying Saucers", when he meets Zoltar at the alien starship, looking pretty sad:

Eek: Why Zoltar, why would you want to destroy such a great planet as Earth? A planet full of wonderful things. I mean we've got rivers and fields and children and Dr. Seuss and Woody Allen and Mr. Rogers and Monet, the Muppets, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Shakespeare, Louis Armstrong, the Barbi Twins and...

Eek: Gee, I sure say "gee" a lot.

EEK!

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