Space Cats is a 1991–92 animated television series (with some live-action puppetry sequences) created by Paul Fusco, that aired on Saturday mornings on NBC.
Charles Nelson Reilly made brief but memorable appearances in each episode as D.O.R.C.
The Space Cats station themselves on Earth in an underground base with a garbage can as its only access.
The animated segment is then shown where Captain Catgut sends the team of Tom, Scratch and Sniff out to work.
This was spoofed, when one Space Cat says the moral is for kids to stop watching TV and go read a book, the other two angrily remark that if that is taken seriously it would result in their own cancellation.