The character of Fat Cat made his first appearances on Perth's TVW7 and its sister station SAS10 Adelaide - appearing on local children's programs such as The Earlybirds in the early 1970s.

Fat Cat was given his own show by Adelaide's SAS10 which produced the pilot for Fat Cat And Friends in November 1976, and the new series screened nationally through the 0-10 Network (later Network Ten) from early 1977. The series was hosted by John Oster and Jane Reilly. Fat Cat (played by Ralf Hadzic), Rock Wallaby and Charlie the Wombat would entertain the kiddies along with musical partner Patsy Biscoe (a skilled guitar player).

On 27 December 1987, Adelaide's ADS7 and SAS10 did a historic swap of frequencies - hence SAS10 became SAS7 and changed affiliation to the Seven Network. Fat Cat And Friends changed camps from SAS to ADS10 to stay with the Ten Network, but only for an interim period of about six months. In June 1988, Fat Cat And Friends returned to the SAS studios and thereafter nationally switched to the Seven Network.

But in early 1992, the show was axed by order of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal ruling the character of Fat Cat was "not clearly defined and might confuse the young" and hence the program did not qualify for the P (pre-school) classification for which commercial networks are required to screen a minimum level of programming. Seven replaced Fat Cat And Friends with The Book Place, also from the studios of SAS7.

Fat Cat still makes appearances on TVW7's telethons. Jane Reilly is now weather presenter at ADS10 Adelaide, and Patsy Biscoe is now a councillor of The Barossa Council (local government area) in South Australia.

Not so long ago, Ralf Hadzic tried to convince the various networks to replay the moment where Fat Cat was seen tucking into bed as it would signal "bedtime" for kids across the country.