Lalo Schifrin: T.H.E. Cat

Following my post on Lalo Schifrin last week, I received an email from JazzWax reader Andre Hunt, reminding me that there was a third San Francisco detective for whom Lalo composed a suspenseful score. In addition to Bullitt and four of the five Dirty Harry films, there was TV's T.H.E. Cat.

As Andre notes...

"Being born in 1950, I was primed for my Friday nights with TV music from Man From Uncle and, following it, T.H.E. Cat. When that theme first came on, with it's stylized visuals, I remember the goose bumps. It was killer.

"So about two years ago I found somebody who had the entire series on low-fi DVD. The first episode had more music than dialogue. And very little dialogue. It was a sea of bongo grooves and bossa nova. They always went back to the club and hung out, and invariably some guest star would be singing with the house band. I couldn't believe it at the time. [Pictured above: Robert Loggia as T.H.E. Cat]

"Sadly, the show and the album were never released on DVD. But you can hear the theme in an episode up at YouTube (the music starts at 3:00 and the theme can be found at 5:37."

Here's that episode of T.H.E. Cat in three parts, complete with Lalo Schifrin's music, courtesy of Andre... 

Part 1...

 

Part 2...

 

Part 3...