Cathy (found animated specials based on comic strip series; 1987-1989)

"Valentine" ad featured in the TV guide magazine (Feb. 4-10, 1989).

Status: Found

Date found: 02 Apr 2012 / 13 Jul 2015

Found by: OhSo80s, and ThingsIFoundInMyBasement

Cathy, Cathy's Last Resort, and Cathy's Valentine are three animated specials that aired in 1987, 1988 and 1989,^[1] based on the comic strip Cathy by Cathy Guisewite.^[2] It was produced by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, known for producing the Peanuts specials.^[3]

They received critical acclaim and the first special won Guisewite an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program,^[4] but they've never been broadcast again since their initial airings or released on VHS and DVD.

Availability

All that existed of Cathy's Valentine until 2015 were two very short clips featured in a recorded commercial break from the day it aired, three screenshots, and a TV Guide advertisement from the week it aired on the blog Vintage Toledo TV that specifically mentioned airings on Ohio CBS affiliates WTOL-TV 11 Toledo, WHIO-TV 7 Dayton and WBNS-TV 10 Columbus as well as on WANE-TV 15 Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The first special was the first to resurface on YouTube (in two different qualities) by OhSo80s and later on, user ThingsIFoundInMyBasement uploaded the two remaining "Cathy" specials---"Cathy's Last Resort" and "Cathy's Valentine"---to YouTube.