The Pink Panther Show
 This Saturday morning NBC cartoon show featured the Pink
Panther and The Inspector (a cartoon version of Peter Sellers'
famous Inspector Clousseau from the Pink Panther movies).
There were three cartoon shorts per episode, with additional short
vignettes between the cartoons.
In September, 1971, The Pink Panther Show became The
Pink Panther Meets the Ant and the Aardvark, a new NBC
series.
The Inspector disappeared, and new characters were introduced -
An easy-going ant named Charlie, and a hungry aardvark (with a
snout like the hose of a vacuum cleaner), who wants to eat the
Ant.
The ant sounded just like Dean Martin, while the aardvark
sounded like Jackie Mason. Both voices were in fact provided by
comedian John Byner.
In 1976, NBC expanded its Pink Panther Show to 90
minutes, and cartoons with the panther, The Inspector, and
The Ant
and the Aardvark were joined by The Texas Toads
(a duo of intellectually-challenged toads from the Rio Grande) who
were always in search of flies and fun. This segment was also
known as The Tijuana Toads.
Misterjaw (a self-important, scheming shark with a
German accent) was also added to
the line-up (voiced by Arte Johnson).
The first Pink Panther cartoons made specifically for
television came in 1978's The All-New Pink Panther Show.
Accompanying these segments was a new character named Crazylegs
Crane. With the help of his son, Crane Jr., the dim-witted
bird chased a dragonfly named Dragonfly without much
success.
After running steadily on television for ten years the Pink
Panther was taken off the air in 1979.
Five years later, NBC launched Pink Panther & Sons.
While the panther still refused to speak, it didn’t really
matter, since he was always surrounded by his sons Pinky, Panky,
and Punkin, who more than made up for their father’s
silence.
With the title character reduced essentially to the role of
babysitter, the series left the air after a less-than-stellar run.
The final version of the beloved character debuted in 1993 as
the syndicated The Pink Panther. While these episodes were
well written and artistically animated, the series upset many
traditional Panther fans by giving the character a voice (even if
that voice did come from Matt "Max Headroom" Frewer).
Whatever support it may have lost, the show won back fans old
and new with its slapstick humour and its resurrection of The
Ant and the Aardvark and fellow DePatie-Freleng creation The
Dogfather (voiced by Joe Pesci). The new version also featured
new creations Voodoo Man and Manly Man.
After two seasons and 52 episodes, the Pink Panther again slunk
into hiding, but after three decades of fame, it isn't likely the
great cat will be gone forever.
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