Fat Cat and Friends

Fat Cat and Friends
Genre	Children's television show
Written by	Murray George Channel 10
Presented by	John Oster Jane Reilly Lynn Weston
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	16 (SAS-10) 5 (SAS-7)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	Network Ten (SAS10) (From 1972 to 1987) Seven Network (SAS7 and TVW) (From 1988 to 1991)
Picture format	4.3 PAL
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	1972 – 27 December 1991
Chronology
Preceded by	The Early Birds
Followed by	The Book Place

Fat Cat and Friends is an Australian children's television show starring Fat Cat (full name: Frederick Alphonso Tubsy Cat or Francis Aloysius Tom Cat), a costumed character, who is an orange/ginger anthropomorphic cat who wears red braces, a blue bow tie and a green bowler hat and striped socks. The show is similar in concept to Here's Humphrey featuring Humphrey B. Bear. One of the main hosts was Lynn Weston, who would later host children's show The Book Place. The show was cancelled in 1991, however the Fat Cat character continues to feature on television in Perth as the mascot of the Telethon fundraising organization.

Following the cancellation of The Magic Circle Club, actor/writer Max Bartlett continued to work in television production, moving to Western Australia, where he helped to develop the character of "Fat Cat" and the children's series, The Underground Video Show. The character still says goodnight to Perth children on television at 7.30 each night.

"Fat Cat and Friends" was then produced in the studios of Network 10 Adelaide and it survived the 1987 frequency switch of channels 10 & 7 in Adelaide. It was written, directed and produced by Murray George for 13 years. It was then produced by Channel 10. The show ran on the 0-10 Network (as it was then known) from 1972 until 1987, then on the Seven Network until it was cancelled in 1991 after the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal claimed that the program was not educational enough and was "not clearly defined and might confuse the young". There was also a question of gender—namely, that Fat Cat did not appear to have one. The character being mute was also a clear issue despite the precedent of Humphrey B. Bear.

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