A Note: I found this information years ago on Cartoon Network's site on America On-line. At points, it contradicts aspects of the cartoon or adds information the show neither provided nor insinuated. Thus, please do not accept everything written here as official information. I have posted this because it's an interesting read with fun theories to kick around. Again, please don't take this as a truly informative guide to the series. For all I know, this info could have come straight from Hanna-Barbera as part of some preliminary outline of the show and its characters, but I don't know.
This is in its original form save some spelling/grammar corrections and formatting.
Welcome to MegaKat City, a sprawling metropolis inhabited solely by kats. To enter MegaKat City is to enter a world of high-tech laser gadgetry, heart-stopping danger, bizarre villains and daring rescues by two ex-fighter pilot kats: the SWAT Kats. The SWAT Kats' mission: to capture vile villains who plague MegaKat City and to restore law and order.
Known only as T-Bone and Razor, these masked daredevil pilots take to the skies in their incredible high-tech TurboKat jet to bring harmony to the criminal-inhabited city. The SWAT Kats keep danger away and always save the day. On each mission they risk everything, against enormous odds, to defeat the villains: whether it's Dark Kat, the overlord of crime; the Pastmaster, an evil time-traveling clock maker from the Dark Ages; or the Metallikats, the Bonnie and Clyde of bionic felines.
By day, T-Bone and Razor, known as Chance and Jake, are auto mechanics at a body shop that sits in front of a large junkyard in a sparsely populated area of the city. The garage is a cover for the underground hangar where the SWAT Kats build their gadgets and challenge themselves and each other with state-of-the-art video games. The SWAT Kats' greatest accomplishment is their adeptness for using scraps from the junkyard to create the most powerful gadgets known to Katkind. One level below the hangar is the secret take-off tunnel for the TurboKat. When trouble beckons, the TurboKat is hydraulically lowered into the chamber, and with the thrusters set at max, the jet zooms through the tunnel with an earth-shaking roar.
The city is run by the power-hungry Commander Feral, who rules the Megakat Enforcers, a team of law officials who are in charge of bringing peace to the city, and who are constantly being overshadowed by the SWAT Kats. Jake and Chance were once Enforcers, but Feral blamed them for a botched plan years ago. He demoted them to working in the scrap yard, where the SWAT Kats were born. Chance and Jake are rebels and outcasts, but they are the best hot shots ever to hit MegaKat City.
As the right-hand woman to the ineffectual Mayor Manx, Calico Briggs, the deputy mayor, is the only person who can communicate with the SWAT Kats. Thorough a special hot line transmitter, she contacts them whenever trouble occurs. The SWAT Kats' goal is to protect MegaKat City against all evil forces while always protecting the innocent. The SWAT Kats flirt with danger and disaster and always manage to snatch victory.
1993: Amortization Episode, Bride of the Pastmaster, Chaos in Crystal, The CI-KAT-A, Destructive Nature, Enter the MadKat, Generic Material, The Ghost Pilot, The Giant Bacteria, Katastrophe, Metal Urgency, The Metallikats, Night of the Dark Kat, The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice, The Wrath of Dark Kat.
1994: Bright and Shiny Future, Caverns of Horror, Cry Turmoil, Dark Side of the SWAT Kats, The Deadly Pyramid, Generic Material, Mutation City, The Origin of Dr. Viper, Razor's Edge, A Best of SWAT Kats Special Report, Unlikely Alloys, Unplugged, Volcano Erupts, When Strikes Mutilor.
Chance (T-Bone): Big-framed and burly and a maniac in the pilot's seat, Chance is a look-before-you-leap daredevil who loves danger and derring-do. The riskier the enterprise, the happier he is. As the pilot of the TurboKat, he gets the plane to do things Orville and Wilbur never imagined possible. This cuts counter to Jake's natural cautious bent.
Chance is the extrovert -- the loud one. He doesn't care about deadlines so, if a customers car isn't ready, then they will just get it tomorrow. Chance always wants more power, more thrust, more fuel in the mixture for the SWAT Kats' futuristic gadgets. He is the kind of kat who will put a jet engine from the salvage yard into a customer's car -- lousy mileage, great pickup.
Chance and Jake are a unit, and it is hard to talk about one without mentioning the other. They're the Radical Squadron. Both friendly and helpful -- especially in their auto mechanic persona. They both like motors and don't mind having grease all over their clothes or faces. Chance and Jake don't care about manners, and can be found spreading peanut butter with a stick or ripping the tops off a six-pack of milk. But, as the SWAT Kats, Chance and Jake have a common goal. In the cockpit, they are of one mind.
Jake (Razor): Jake is the co-pilot, navigator and gadgets expert. Jake is smaller than Chance, more laconic, and nervous around a pretty girl. But, when it comes to a fight, he is as agile as a panther. He is the idea man who designs most of the unique firepower the TurboKat carries. He can transform, jury-rig and adapt gadgets on the spot if the need arises.
Jake is the worrier, and he is more organized and conscientious than Chance. Whenever Chance plays a practical joke on him, he deadpans and gives his signature thumbs-up and big wide grin. But, he always finds a way to get back at Chance.
Even though Jake is tongue-tied around girls, this still-waters-run-deep/shy approach often works in his favor. Somehow, Jake is the one who always gets the peck on the cheek -- much to Chance's chagrin.
Callie Briggs: Calico (Callie) Briggs is the sultry-voiced, strong-willed, right-hand woman to Mayor Manx. She is the troubleshooter who gets sent into dangerous situations so the Mayor can get firsthand information without risking his neck. She also acts as the intermediary with Feral, with whom the Mayor has a sometimes strained relationship. Though she doesn't know the true identity of the SWAT Kats, Callie has a hot line that can summon them when danger threatens. All she knows about the SWAT Kats is that these crazed daredevils have saved MegaKat City more than once. Callie is not a power grabber. She really cares about MegaKat City. If there's a front-line situation, she wants to be at that front line -- and nothing will stop her.
Commander Feral: Commander Feral is a tough by-the-book police veteran. He's a lean, scary, power-hungry, paramilitary type who doesn't like anyone to go around him. And, the SWAT Kats go around, up and over him. Feral can't stand seeing his Force look bad against these villains. He's furious that the SWAT Kats are doing his job -- even though he can't.
After the SWAT Kats have saved the day, he's not even glad the city's been saved. He's mad that they had to be the ones to do it. Yet, angry as he is, Feral always puts his best foot forward with the media, telling them that the situation was capably handled by the MegaKat Police Force... with some minor assistance from the SWAT Kats.
Mayor Manx: Mayor Manx is Callie's boss, and the man responsible for running MegaKat City. A master politician (he's serving his 10th term), Manx is savvy enough to know that even though Feral may publicly condemn the SWAT Kats as crazy vigilantes who have terrorized innocent citizens in their pursuit of criminals, the general public seems to like these guys. Manx has seen the latest opinion polls, and, like a true politician, he waffles on the issue. Regardless of his public posture, the lazy Manx is privately happy these SWAT Kats are around to save his city. Unlike Commissioner Feral, the Mayor does not hate the SWAT Kats. However, he would like to have them under his personal control.
Manx thinks Callie makes a great deputy mayor. She does all the dirty work, sometimes even risking her life while the cowardly Manx stays safe and secure in his massive City Hall complex. She goes off to handle hot spots while Manx plays golf or stuffs his face at honorary dinners. But, he's always around to bask in the glory when MegaKat City is saved from disaster by the SWAT Kats.
Murray and Burke: The two lowlifes look like they were raised on sour milk. The only time they smile (revealing bad teeth) is when they drop a load of scrap on the two kats who are even lower on the scratching post (or so they think) than they are: Chance and Jake. The twosome, who are always wearing T-shirts with rolled-up sleeves and baseball caps, relish every opportunity presented to them to let Chance and Jake know who's in control of the scrap yard.
Dark Kat: This mysterious creature is MegaKat City judge by day. But at night, he becomes the cowled Dark Kat, a Hannibal Lector-type madman who frees prisoners only to do his evil bidding. Dark Kat's warped, but brilliant, mind makes him a deadly adversary for the SWAT Kats. From his cavernous courtroom in the bowels of the city, complete with a statue of twisted scales of justice, Dark Kat schemes to rule MegaKat City. One of his plans is to unite all the criminals and make one grand assault, taking the city and making it his own. However, he has not been able to unite everyone. If he can ever get them all to work together, the power will be his, which is one reason the others don't cooperate. They know that, if Dark Kat takes over, he will rule them all. To divide, in this case, is to remain free.
The Pastmaster: The Pastmaster is a dead clock maker from the Middle Ages who's been brought back to life. His one evil desire is to end modern civilization and send it back to the Dark Ages -- the good old days. With his sinister, magical clocks he brings the monsters of the past to wreak havoc on MegaKat City. The Pastmaster also has the power to bring mythological creatures such as harpies and Cyclops into the present. Although he has the power to send modern-day dwellers back into ancient eras, he is unable to return to his beloved Dark Ages himself. He's trapped and he hates it.
The Metallikats: This bionic Bonnie and Clyde have human criminal brains, but their bodies are robotic. When they are not plotting revenge against the kats who sent them up the river, they are scheming to have machines take over and rule MegaKat City. The Metallikats have all kinds of sinister vehicles to combat the SWAT Kats. They would be even more dangerous if they did not fall prey to their own domestic quarrels, which usually lead to the foiling of their plans.
Dr. Viper: Dr. Viper is a brilliant, but insane, biologist whose wild experiment mutated his body and warped his mind. He now lives in the swamp, filled with dead, stunted, slime-covered trees. Dr. Viper is part snake, and beneath his lab coat is a tail which can slither him through the swamp or wrap around a victim. He even has his own venom which can burn out a pair of SWAT Kat goggles. His bite can turn the hapless victim into something almost as horrible as Dr. Viper himself. With his army of biological mutations, Viper seeks to turn MegaKat City into a giant swamp where he can experiment on its hapless inhabitants.
The TurboKat: This amazing super-jet can take off and land horizontally as well as vertically. Loaded with SWAT Kat gadgetry, it seems there's not a lot that this plane can't do. But, the TurboKat is not a perfect machine. After all, it has been constructed from scrap and can be a little temperamental. Occasionally, at key dramatic moments, the TurboKat may have a minor (or major) malfunction that can put the SWAT Kats at a slight disadvantage during the heat of battle.
Octopus Missile: Fired in clusters, the Octopus Missiles transform, spreading eight mechanical arms to ensnare the criminal.
Cyclotron: A torpedo housed under the jet transforms into a motorcycle that can be ridden on surface streets in pursuit of criminals. The motorcycle is equipped with enough firepower to blast down barriers and leap walls if necessary.
Cement Machine Gun: The cement machine gun fires wet cement bullets which, when they hit a fleeing criminal, explode into sheets of hardened cement and immobilize the villain in a cement overcoat.
Delta Pack: The Delta Pack is a rocket backpack which enables the SWAT Kats to literally fly by the seat of their pants. Bungee-type cords eject from the pack so that they can plummet down onto unsuspecting criminals.
Glovatrix: When the Glovatrix, which fits over the paw like a glove, is fired, it ejects nets which ensnare, rather than blow up, the bad kats.
X-Ray Beams: Part of the TurboKat gadgets pack, the X-Ray beam allows the SWAT Kats to see through walls and spy on unsuspecting kats.
Ejector Seats: When the TurboKat can't go somewhere, one of the SWAT Kats can eject from the plane in his ejector seat. It becomes a flying helicopter seat, complete with its own gadgets arsenal.
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