Capitol Critters & Fish Police

The two shows were short-lived Hanna-Barbera primetime cartoons premiered in 1992 to take advantage of the success of "The Simpsons" on FOX.

"Capitol Critters" premiered on ABC and 7 out of the 13 total episodes were aired. Created and co-produced by Steven Bochco, who had hit shows with "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law" on NBC and had signed a multi-year deal to create tv series for ABC. His first two shows there were "Hooperman", a dramedy starring John Ritter as a San Francisco police detective that was a modest hit running for two years and "Doogie Howser M.D.", starring Neil Patrick Harris as a teenaged doctor, that had a following for four seasons. "Capitol Critters" featured cartoon mice, cockroaches, and rats living in the basement of the White House. Young country mouse Max (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) goes to Washington DC after his family is exterminated and lives with his crude cousin Jammet (Charlie Adler) and his aunt Trixie (Jennifer Darling) and their friends, escaped lab rat Muggle (Bobcat Goldthwait), 60s hippie Berkeley (Patti Deutsch), and hip roach Mose (Dorian Harewood). Bochco had promised some stories satirizing politics and bureaucratic government red tape with actual Senate floor speeches in the soundtrack but the stories concentrated on Max and Jammet's life under the White House. ABC cancelled the series after shifting the series time slot a few times. Cartoon Network aired the entire series including the 6 unaired episodes over ten years after its ABC run. Despite that setback, Bochco later created the two season-running divorce attorney drama "Civil Wars", and the long running critically acclaimed "NYPD Blue" police drama.

"Fish Police" aired on CBS and lasted 3 episodes out of the 6 total episodes made. To date, the show was not rerun on Cartoon Network. Loosely based on the independent black and white comic book created by Steve Moncuse, the series followed the "Flintstones" formula with 1930s-style hard-boiled crime mysteries and punny names based on sea life. Police Inspector Gill (John Ritter) investigated various crimes in a big city under the sea...usually tied to crime boss Clams Calamari (Hector Elizondo). Inspector Gill had a girlfriend in waitress Goldie (Megan Muhally) but was also tempted by sultry lounge singer Angelfish (JoBeth Williams) who worked in a nightclub that Calamari owned. The cartoon Insp Gill wore a trenchcoat and fedora hat. The comic book Inspector Gill resembled growling scruffy undercover detective Mick Belker from "Hill Street Blues" who wore a wool cap, vest, and had catfish whiskers. The cartoon Gill's police sidekick Catfish (Robert Guillaume) resembled the comic book Insp. Gill more. Edward Asner, Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters, Charlie Schlatter, Frank Welker, and Georgia Brown were regular voice cast members in the series. The comic book was more darker with Inspector Gill being tempted into betraying his police colleagues and joining the criminal underbelly.

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