The Pink Panther Show
Title card from the 1980 syndicated version ofThe Pink Panther Show
Genre	Comedy Slapstick Anthology
Created by	David H. DePatie Friz Freleng
Voices of	Rich Little Daws Butler John Byner Don Diamond Pat Harrington, Jr. Paul Frees Bob Holt Arte Johnson Diana Maddox Larry D. Mann Bob Ogle Arnold Stang Lennie Weinrib Frank Welker Paul Winchell Mel Blanc June Foray Helen Gerald Joan Gerber Mark Skor
Narrated by	Marvin Miller
Composers	Henry Mancini Doug Goodwin Walter Greene Steve DePatie William Lava
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	10
Production
Producers	David H. DePatie Friz Freleng Jim Foss Bill Orcutt Harry Love
Running time	6–7 minutes
Production companies	Mirisch Films DePatie–Freleng Enterprises MGM Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 6, 1969 (1969-09-06) – September 2, 1978 (1978-09-02)
Network	ABC
Release	September 9, 1978 (1978-09-09) – September 1, 1979 (1979-09-01)
Related
Pink Panther and Sons

The Pink Panther Show is ashowcase of animatedshorts produced byDavid H. DePatie andFriz Freleng between 1969 and 1978, starring the animatedPink Panther character from the opening credits of thelive-action films. The series was produced byMirisch Films andDePatie–Freleng Enterprises, and was broadcast Saturday mornings on two American television networks: from September 6, 1969, to September 2, 1978, onNBC; and from September 9, 1978, to September 1, 1979, on ABC.

WhenThe Pink Panther Show first aired in 1969, it consisted of one cartoon featuringThe Inspector, sandwiched by twoPink Panther entries. Due to the number of shorts produced, two episodes feature aPink Panther cartoon sandwiched by two Inspector entries. The 30-minute show was then connected viabumper sequences featuring both the panther and Inspector together, with announcerMarvin 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 cartoonsWe Give Pink Stamps,Reel Pink,Pink Outs andSuper Pink, fitted with new incidental music and voice-over work from Miller.^[1]

Pink Panther shorts that were produced after 1969 (starting withA Fly in the Pink) were made for both broadcast and theatrical release, typically appearing on television first, and released to theaters by United Artists.^[1] A number of new series were created, includingThe Ant and the Aardvark,Tijuana Toads (redubbed as “Texas Toads”),Hoot Kloot,Misterjaw,Roland and Rattfink,The Dogfather and twoTijuana Toads spinoffs:The Blue Racer andCrazylegs 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.^[1]

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, asThe Pink Panther Laugh-and-a-Half Hour-and-a-Half Show; this version included a live-action segment, where comedianLenny Schultz would read letters and jokes from viewers. This version performed poorly and eventually reverted to the original 30-minute version in 1977 asThink Pink Panther.^[1]

After nine years on NBC, the Pink Panther moved to ABC in 1978 and was retitledThe 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 forThe All New Pink Panther Show, but 10 second "Stay tuned..." bumpers explaining an upcoming entry were produced for the first several episodes. The 32All New Pink Panther Show entries were eventually released to theaters by United Artists.^[1]

Henry Mancini composed "The Pink Panther Theme" for thelive 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".

By the time of the show's 1969 debut, fitting cartoon and children's shows with alaugh track was standard practice.^[1] In keeping with this standard, NBC added a laugh track to all seasons ofThe 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).^[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 intosyndication. Repackaging over the years has resulted in both theatrical and television versions of the entries being available. The exceptions wereMisterjaw andCrazylegs Crane, which were produced specifically for television and never re-released theatrically, resulting in laughter-only versions.^[1] The American-basedBoomerang occasionally airs versions with the laugh track intact, though these versions are more commonly found outside of the United States, such as on theBBC Two repeats circa 2011 in the United Kingdom, The Spanish languageBoomerang requires that MGM supply them with laugh track-only versions of all shorts. ThePortuguese language Boomerang, France-basedGulli, andPoland channelsTV 4 andTV6 also broadcast certain entries utilizing laugh track versions. Some laugh tracked shorts also appear on the Pink PantherYouTube channel.

Over its 10 years on various television networks,The Pink Panther Show had a variety of names:^[1]

• 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)

United Artists Television syndicatedThe Pink Panther Show in 1980, complete with bumpers and laugh-tracked versions of the shorts. By 1982,MGM Television began syndicating some individual cartoons to local stations to air them as they saw fit. This format did not contain the series' bumpers nor the laugh track.^[1]

The following series were included in MGM Television's syndication package:

• The Pink Panther
• The Inspector
• The Ant and the Aardvark
• Tijuana Toads/Texas Toads
• Misterjaw (made-for-television series)

The following series were not included in the MGM Television distribution package:

• Roland and Rattfink
• The Blue Racer
• Hoot Kloot
• The Dogfather
• Crazylegs Crane (made-for-television series)

Most television stations aired the later package released in 1982, featuring the cartoon shorts by themselves, isolated from the show's original bumpers sequences. The laugh track was also silenced on all entries except forMisterjaw.WGN-TV inChicago was one of the few stations to air the 1980The Pink Panther Show syndication package. Conversely, itsNew York City sister stationWPIX featured a stripped-down version of the shorts, airing the entries without the laugh track, bumpers, or theatrical opening/closing credits.

The Pink Panther Show (1969–1971) andThe New Pink Panther Show (1971–1974) has been remastered in its original format. It was previously shown onBBC Two,UK Gold,BBC One,Boomerang (2000–2009) andCartoon Network (1993–2002) in the UK. In the late 2000s, it aired in Canada onTeletoon Retro weekday mornings at 8:00 am. Teletoon Retro showed all 32 episodes ofThe Pink Panther Show with the panther and the Inspector, all 17 episodes ofThe New Pink Panther Show with the panther and the Ant and the Aardvark, and select episodes of the first syndicatedPink Panther Show series (only those episodes with the middle cartoon being an episode of The Ant and The Aardvark). Teletoon Retro then showed all 16 episodes ofThe All New Pink Panther Show, with the panther and Crazylegs Crane. The laugh track is muted for most entries.

The episodes shown on Teletoon Retro also featured remastered versions, while the wrap-around content was in rougher condition. The Inspector cartoon,Tour de Farce, had the wrong title card, that forReaux, Reaux, Reaux Your Boat.

In the United States,Cartoon Network reranThe Pink Panther Show from 1997 to 1999, and intermittently in 2006, 2009, and 2012. A "no-frills" version aired onBoomerang from 2005 to 2012 for five days a week at 5:30 am, 10 am and 2:30 pm; the Boomerang version included four shorts and no bumpers, in the style of its other theatrical-short compilation shows. Until August 2009, Boomerang only featured shorts fromThe Pink Panther,The Ant and the Aardvark andThe Inspector. The laugh track was present on several entries. It also aired on the Spanish Language Boomerang TV channel with most entries containing their original laugh track.

In the Arab world, it was shown on Spacetoon from 2014 to 2017, due to Spacetoon airingThe Pink Panther and low reception from Spacetoon viewers.

The show also previously aired in its original format onThis TV on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 amEastern Time or 7:30 amCentral Time (as part of itsCookie Jar Toons programming block) until September 22, 2011. The digital broadcast networkLight TV ran the series when the network launched Christmas weekend 2016 until September 29, 2019. On June 1, 2020 to May 29, 2022, the show aired for the first time in Spanish onGalavisión, known asEl show de la Pantera Rosa.^[2]

From May 2021 to May 2023,MeTV reran the show under the name Pink Panther's Party, during their Saturday morning block,Saturday Morning Cartoons, from 7:30 am to 8:00 am ET/ 6:30 to 7:00 am CT following Popeye and Pals, which aired from 7:00 am to 7:30 am ET/ 6:00 am to 6:30 am CT. The show is collectively called Popeye and Pink Panther's Party, combining Popeye and Pals and Pink Panther's Party into a single show. However, the channel lost the rights to air the non-WB DePatie-Freleng cartoons, which caused Popeye And Pink Panther's Party to be reverted to Popeye and Pals, which only airs Popeye shorts.^[3][4]

Amazon Prime carriesThe New Pink Panther Show episodes (As of 2023) for free for Prime members.The Pink Panther Show,The New Pink Panther Show,The Pink Panther & Friends (using the syndicated intro), and the aforementioned syndication version have appeared on thePink PantherFacebook page.

• Rich Little asPink Panther (on some episodes)
• Daws Butler as Pug, Louie
• John Byner as Charlie Ant, Blue Aardvark
• Larry D. Mann as Blue Racer, Crazylegs Crane
• Frank Welker as Crazylegs Crane Jr., Dragonfly
• Paul Frees as Narrator, Texan hunter, The Commissioner
• Don Diamond as Toro
• Tom Holland as Pancho
• Pat Harrington, Jr. asThe Inspector, Sergeant Deux-Deux
• Bob Holt as Hoot Kloot, Hoot Kloot's Horse, Dogfather
• Arte Johnson as Misterjaw
• Bob Ogle as Harry Halibut
• Arnold Stang as Catfish
• Lennie Weinrib as Roland, Rattfink, Scotland Yard Captain
• Paul Winchell as Fearless Freddy
• Don Messick as Sergeant Deux-Deux
• Marvin Miller as Narrator, The Commissioner, The Inspector, Sergeant Deux-Deux
• Larry Storch as The Commissioner
• Mark Skor as The Commissioner
• Mel Blanc as Drunk, Drunk's wife
• Diana Maddox as Commissioner's wife

The first season ofThe Pink Panther Show (1969–1971) consisted of oneThe Inspector entry sandwiched by twoPink Panther entries.^[1][5] The show was "hosted" byThe Pink Panther andThe Inspector, seen during the opening sequence, which showed a boy driving thePanthermobile from the countryside toGrauman's Chinese Theatre inHollywood. During the journey, images of animals mentioned in the song (rhinoceros, tiger, cats,American mink) are seen alongside clips of the panther fromReel Pink,Come On In! The Water's Pink andPut Put Pink. Upon arrival, the Pink Panther and the Inspector then disembark from the Panthermobile and enter the famous theatre. In the ending credits, the Inspector climbs back into the Panthermobile, but leaves the Pink Panther behind, who is seen chasing after the car.

The entries utilized for the second season featured complete original theatrical titles. With only two exceptions, the first and third cartoons of each episode were Pink Panthers, and second was an Inspector. In the two exceptions, the first and third cartoons were Inspectors, and the middle one was a Pink Panther. Unlike Season 1, a full laugh track wasn't used but rather an abridged version using isolated laughs from Season 1 edited onto the soundtrack by DFE (these inferior versions currently in circulation are marked with †).^[6] Seasons 1 and 2 were repackaged as a single Season 1 in the 2000s.

The New Pink Panther Show (1971–1974) featured a new opening and closing sequence and theme song, pitting the attention-seeking Aardvark against the panther. The show's new title song, "Pantherly Pride", was written by Doug Goodwin and played over the opening sequence.^[1]

This incarnation airedThe Ant and the Aardvark during the 1971–1972 season. Later seasons swappedThe Ant and the Aardvark with theatrical series'Roland and Rattfink,Hoot Kloot orThe Blue Racer, as well as reruns ofThe Inspector.^[1] Only eight newPink Panther cartoons were produced in 1971 (inbold).^[7]

The Pink Panther and Friends (1974–1976) followed the same format asThe New Pink Panther Show. The first Pink Panther entry was a new episode, while the second was a rebroadcast of an old entry. Bumpers featuringThe Inspector andThe Ant and the Aardvark connected the three entries. New seriesThe Dogfather (originally produced for theatrical release) was also added to broadcasts, in addition toThe Blue Racer orHoot Kloot.^[1]

The Pink Panther Laugh-and-a-Half Hour-and-a-Half Show was an attempt by DFE to revamp the traditional format of three entries airing in a 30-minute format. The show was expanded to 90 minutes, and included a live-action segment featuring comedianLenny Schultz reading letters from viewers. The show also featured two new made-for-television series, a first for the franchise: theTexas Toads (a redubbed version of the theatricalTijuana Toads series), andMisterjaw. New bumper sequences featuring both the Texas Toads and Misterjaw were created for the series. These new entries were aired in combination with rebroadcasts ofThe Pink Panther,The Inspector andThe Ant and the Aardvark.

The Pink Panther Laugh-and-a-Half Hour-and-a-Half Show did not do well in the ratings, so it lasted only one season.^[1]

The final series broadcast on NBC,The Think Pink Panther Show reverted to the traditional 30-minute format and consisted of rebroadcasts. No new cartoons were created for this show. The opening sequence was based on “The Pink Phink”. The layout of the closing credits was based onThe New Pink Panther Show.^[1]

A segment was called “Dear Pink Panther”, where Pink Panther would show jokes from viewers (possibly reused from the previous season).

The All New Pink Panther Show (1978–1979) was a new version of the series commenced afterNBC's broadcast of the series ended its nine-year run. For its tenth season,ABC picked up the series and requested 32 new made-for-televisionPink Panther shorts, along with 16 entries for the newCrazylegs Crane segment.^[1] A disco-flavored rendition of Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme" was used for the opening and closing credits, with the closing credits featuring Pink Panther disco-dancing. "Stay Tuned" bumpers were produced for nine episodes as well (marked inbold).^[8]

United Artists Television syndicated a weekday 30-minute Pink Panther show in 1980, complete with bumpers and laugh-tracked versions of the shorts. A new opening sequence preceding the show featured Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme" played under a segment fromPink Outs featuring the Pink Panther folding the backdrop into a square to be eaten. The closer featured the last few seconds of the theme played under a scene fromReel Pink featuring the panther water skiing.^[1]

UATV created two versions of the syndication package. The first consisted ofThe Pink Panther,Inspector,The Ant and the Aardvark andTexas Toads entries sourced from film elements utilized during the program's original network run.^[1]

The second version consisted ofThe Pink Panther,The Ant and the Aardvark andMisterjaw entries sourced from new prints of the original film negatives and transferred to videotape, resulting in sharper images. AsThe Pink Panther andThe Ant and the Aardvark entries were sourced using theatrical prints (sans laugh track), a new, less invasive laugh track being employed on sitcoms at the time was added to the soundtrack for consistency to match the made-for-televisionMisterjaw entries and bumper sequences that retained their respective laugh-tracked soundtracks.

The second version also incorporated several of the made-for-televisionPink Panther entries fromThe All New Pink Panther Show. Pre-1978Pink Panther andAnt and the Aardvark entries featured shorter opening titles with introduction music from eitherThe New Pink Panther Show (1971–1974) orThe All New Pink Panther Show (1978–1979). Closing credits featuring the Pink Panther disco dancing fromThe All New Pink Panther Show closed out the episodes.^[1]

Other versions ofThe Pink Panther Show have been seen and aired only in Spanish.

The German version of the show,Der rosarote Panther - Zu Gast bei Paulchens Trickverwandten (The Pink Panther - Being a Guest of the Pink Panther's Cartoon-relatives) which started airing onZDF in 1973 contains four cartoons per episode. The first cartoon is always aPink Panther entry, the second one is anInspector short, followed by anotherPink Panther cartoon, and usually ending with anAnt and the Aardvark short. However, cartoons fromThe Gerald McBoing-Boing Show byUPA are added into the mix starting with episode 12, making the show's format rather messy compared to its other incarnations. Several episodes start off with aPink Panther cartoon, followed by a longer UPA cartoon, and end with anotherPink Panther short. Others replace the secondPink Panther entry with a UPA cartoon, and some feature two or three UPA cartoons cut together as one 'proper' segment.^[9] Bumpers are featured in this series, but only in the first 42 episodes. All cartoons have their opening and ending titles removed; when a cartoon ends, it immediately fades into a bumper and once the bumper ends, the next cartoon starts playing with no title card or credits.

WhenThe All New Pink Panther Show was acquired by ZDF in 1980, they edited it to fit this format as well. Some episodes start out with onePink Panther short, followed by aCrazylegs Crane cartoon, a secondPink Panther short, and ending with anotherCrazylegs Crane cartoon. Others start with twoPink Panther cartoons, followed by aCrazylegs Crane entry, and ending with a thirdPink Panther short. The cartoonsYankee Doodle Pink,Pet Pink Pebbles, andThe Pink of Bagdad are skipped due to being reissues of previous shorts.

This incarnation of the show contains no laugh track on any of the series featured. The Pink Panther is given a name, Paulchen Panther (Paul or Little Paul the Panther), and the cartoons featuring him are given narration written byEberhard Storeck and spoken by voice actorGert Günther Hoffmann. A new intro and outro theme,Wer hat an der Uhr gedreht?, was composed by Fred Strittmatter and Quirin Amper Jr., with new one-minute-long intro and outro sequences being cut together from existing pieces of animation.

While most episodes are 24 or 25 minutes in length, the ones that premiered on ZDF in 1978 feature only two Pink Panther cartoons with the intro and outro sequences being only 20 seconds long each, making them only 11 minutes long. Three 23-minute-long specials,A Pink Christmas,Olym-Pinks, andPink at First Sight were also aired under this show.^[10][11][12]

On Amazon Prime, theGerald McBoing-Boing segments were excluded due to copyright issues withNBCUniversal.

• List ofThe Pink Panther cartoons
• Laugh track
• The Pink Panther in: A Pink Christmas
• The Pink Panther in: Olym-Pinks
• The Pink Panther in: Pink at First Sight

• The Pink Panther Show atIMDb
• Charles Brubaker'sDePatie-Freleng Website

This list related to film, television, or video isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(October 2021)

• The Pink Panther Show
• 1960s American animated comedy television series
• 1960s American anthology television series
• 1960s American children's comedy television series
• 1969 American animated television series debuts
• 1970s American animated comedy television series
• 1970s American anthology television series
• 1970s American children's comedy television series
• 1980 American television series endings
• 1980s American animated comedy television series
• 1980s American anthology television series
• 1980s American children's comedy television series
• American Broadcasting Company animated television series
• American children's animated anthology television series
• American children's animated comedy television series
• American English-language television shows
• American television series with live action and animation
• Animated television series about mammals
• NBC animated television series
• The Pink Panther (cartoons) television series
• Television series by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises
• Television series by United Artists Television
• Television shows edited from films

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2013
• Incomplete film, television, or video lists
• Incomplete lists from October 2021