Format When
The Pink Panther Show first aired in 1969, it consisted of one cartoon featuring
The Inspector, sandwiched by two
Pink Panther entries. Due to the number of shorts produced, two episodes feature a
Pink Panther cartoon sandwiched by two Inspector entries. The 30-minute show was then connected via
bumper sequences featuring both the panther and Inspector together, with announcer
Marvin Miller acting as an off-camera narrator talking to the panther. Bumper sequences consisted of newly animated segments as well as recycled footage from existing cartoons
We Give Pink Stamps,
Reel Pink,
Pink Outs and
Super Pink, fitted with new incidental music and voice-over work from Miller. Pink Panther shorts that were produced after 1969 (starting with
A Fly in the Pink) were made for both broadcast and theatrical release, typically appearing on television first, and released to theaters by United Artists. A number of new series were created, including
The Ant and the Aardvark,
Tijuana Toads (redubbed as “Texas Toads”),
Hoot Kloot,
Misterjaw,
Roland and Rattfink,
The Dogfather and two
Tijuana Toads spinoffs:
The Blue Racer and
Crazylegs Crane.
The New Pink Panther Show and later shows featured newly animated bumper segments involving the Panther, the Ant and the Aardvark, Misterjaw, and the Texas Toads. By this time, due to the violent nature of some of the cartoons, they were re-edited for television by omitting the cartoon violent scenes from their broadcasts, in order to make them more family friendly. In 1976, the half-hour series was revamped into a 90-minute format, as
The Pink Panther Laugh-and-a-Half Hour-and-a-Half Show; this version included a live-action segment, where comedian
Lenny Schultz would read letters and jokes from viewers. This version performed poorly and eventually reverted to the original 30-minute version in 1977 as
Think Pink Panther. After nine years on NBC, the Pink Panther moved to ABC in 1978 and was retitled
The All New Pink Panther Show, where it lasted one season before leaving the network realm entirely. The tenth season featured 16 episodes with 32 new Pink Panther cartoons, and 16 featuring Crazylegs Crane: no bumpers were produced for
The All New Pink Panther Show, but 10 second "Stay tuned..." bumpers explaining an upcoming entry were produced for the first several episodes. The 32
All New Pink Panther Show entries were eventually released to theaters by United Artists.
Theme music Henry Mancini composed "
The Pink Panther Theme" for the
live action films, which would be used extensively in the cartoon series as well. Doug Goodwin composed the show's opening title music while William Lava and Walter Greene composed music scores heard throughout the cartoons, many of which were variations on Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme".
Laugh track By the time of the show's 1969 debut, fitting cartoon and children's shows with a
laugh track was standard practice. In keeping with this standard, NBC added a laugh track to all seasons of
The Pink Panther Show, marking the first time in history that theatrical films were fitted with a laugh track for television broadcast (Season 2 utilized an inferior laugh track, utilizing isolated laugh clips from Season 1). This was an anomaly, as other theatrical cartoon series that were airing successfully on television (i.e.
Tom and Jerry,
Woody Woodpecker,
Looney Tunes,
Popeye) did not receive this addition. The soundtracks were restored to their original theatrical form in 1982 when the DFE theatrical package went into
syndication. Repackaging over the years has resulted in both theatrical and television versions of the entries being available. The exceptions were
Misterjaw and
Crazylegs Crane, which were produced specifically for television and never re-released theatrically, resulting in laughter-only versions. The American-based
Boomerang occasionally airs versions with the laugh track intact, though these versions are more commonly found outside of the United States, such as on the
BBC Two repeats circa 2011 in the United Kingdom, The Spanish language
Boomerang requires that MGM supply them with laugh track-only versions of all shorts. The
Portuguese language Boomerang, France-based
Gulli, and
Poland channels
TV 4 and
TV6 also broadcast certain entries utilizing laugh track versions. Some laugh tracked shorts also appear on the Pink Panther
YouTube channel.
Incarnations Over its 10 years on various television networks,
The Pink Panther Show had a variety of names: •
The Pink Panther Show (1969–1971, also considered the umbrella title of the series) •
The New Pink Panther Show (1971–1974) •
The Pink Panther and Friends (1974-1976) •
The Pink Panther Laugh-and-a-Half Hour-and-a-Half Show (1976–1977) •
The Think Pink Panther Show (1977–78) •
The All New Pink Panther Show (1978–1979) •
The Pink Panther Show (1980, Syndicated) ==Syndication==