The Pink Panther Cartoons

This is The Brain, and you're listening to the

GeekCast Radio Network. Yes! I don't know. Hello

and welcome to the 64th episode of Tooncast brought

to you by the GeekCast Radio Network. I am your

host, Dave DeRion -Mike, and today I'm joined

once again by Kevin, Optimus Solo Thompson. Hello,

how are you, sir? I am stupendous. I gotta come

up with a new word every week and I'm gonna run

out pretty soon. You're stupid? Wow. No, I'm

stupendous. We all know I'm not stupid. You smug

son of a - No, I'm just kidding. No, no, no,

no. That's not for me. That's for you. You smug

son of a - Yes! I have once again been called

a smug son of a - I can go to sleep better now

tonight. Yeah, there you go. Um... So this week

we're gonna be talking about the pink panther

show, why don't we get right in? The pink panther

hold on hold on pause rewind wait a second try

doing that again Anyways, for your history lesson,

we're talking about The Pink Panther Show, and

The Pink Panther Show was a showcase of Dupati

Freling animated cartoons from the 1960s and

70s, prominently by David H. Dupati, I don't

know if I'm saying that right, and Fritz Freling.

The television series was produced by Mirish

Films and, of course, the Patty Freling Enterprises

and was broadcast on several American networks

from September 6, 1969 to September 2, 1978 on

NBC and then it made the move over to ABC from

September of 78 to September of 79 and it was

retitled The All -New Pink Panther Show. It also

appeared on CBS during the 1985 -1986 television

season. There'll be more to talk about with The

Pink Panther Show, but that's basically, it's

air dates and it's very brief history lessons.

So what do you remember about Our Man in Pink?

I love this cartoon. It's a good cartoon. I absolutely

freaking love this cartoon. And I think it's

more that my mom loved it, or she loves the character,

and she loved the old movies as well. But I would

watch this cartoon. I remember I was... 10 11

12 somewhere around there. I know they were on

I believe they back in the day back in like 91

92 they were on for some reason I remember them

being on TNT And I remember going over to my

then my mom's Boyfriend's mother's house at the

time because he would always take us over there

for pizza and everything else But anyway, I remember

just sitting there in her living room. Just laughing

my ass off at this cartoon Yeah, I remember seeing

it on TNT 2 so and I you know this this cartoon

I Mean there's a testament to the writing. It's

a testament to everything that went into it because

This is one of those rare cartoons from back

in the day and that you know you don't see that

anything even remotely like this nowadays, but

one that could completely entertain you for the

entire show with barely any dialogue or well

any Always pink panther. I'm sorry to interrupt

you there with the actual pink panther shorts.

There was no dialogue I mean well outside of

like maybe the guy a little white egg -shaped

guy screaming or something But as far as from

pink panther himself, there was no dialogue whatsoever

right and Even even during the the shows there

was very limited dialogue from you know at least

from Pink Panther. I mean, obviously we do have

a voice cast and et cetera. But it's just one

of the greatest shows ever as far as being able

to entertain someone without relying all on big

time dialogue and jokes and stuff like that.

It could do everything visually. It was a testament

to just all the guys behind the scenes on this

show. And it's definitely a classic. And it's

kind of like in a class of its own. You can't

really compare it to much else out there. No,

not at all. But I do remember being entertained

and liking the Pink Panther and just loving these

segments. It reminds me of back in the day when

I used to watch the spy versus spy stuff. It

was kind of like that. It's something that could

be completely entertaining and it didn't need

to have all the fancy gadgets and gizmos. It's

like all things. years we go through the more

people get obsessed with graphics and obsessed

with hitting you over the head with stuff and

having flashes and bangs and all this other stuff

in video games and cartoons and movies everything

and it's nice and it's refreshing to remember

how they used to do it when they actually cared

about the damn story yep and they didn't need

all the extra highlights and fireworks to entertain

you yeah there was plenty of sound effects in

this though and I like that a lot but it just

didn't it just didn't need all the the craziness

that seems like people think that cartoons need

these days. Yeah. Or videos. I agree. So I remember

this show fondly. Yes, I do too. So do we have

anything else? Or do we want to go right into

the voice cast? We can go into the voice cast.

I mean, there's a lot of great characters in

this and a lot of interesting names that show

up in the voice cast. The top two, Rich Little

and Dawes Butler. I don't know why Rich Little

is credited as being the voice of the Pink Panther,

seeing as now I don't remember him ever talking.

I think he talked in like two episodes or two

shows. Okay, maybe he did then. But he might

have been, I don't know. Then you have - Oh,

go ahead. I was just saying, Dawes Butler right

there. One of the greatest of all time. Yep.

Then you have John Biner or Burner or whatever

the hell. I think it's Biner. who played my two

favorite characters, Charlie Ant and Blue Aardvark,

Don Diamond, Pat Harrington, Tom Holland, Bob

Holt. Bob Holt, who was your favorite captor

from Challenge of the Gobots. And he was Grey

Pabe. He was Grey Pabe too, you like Grey Pabe.

Yeah, well, here's this one for freeing Cop Tour.

You smug son of a b - And then you had Artie

Johnson as Mr. J. Larry Mann as the Blue Racer

in Crazy Legs Crane. Bob Ogle, who we talked

about, I think, two weeks ago as Harry Howe,

but I think he was in the production staff somewhere.

I don't think he was a voice actor in that show

that we were talking about. Arnold Stang, and

then of course the last three. are a little bit

more recognizable. Yes, Lenny Weinrib, Frank

Welker, and Paul Winchell. Exactly. Some great

guys. Just take Daz Butler, Bob Holt, and Weinrib,

Welker, and Winchell. I mean, that's a great

cast just by the way. Oh, yeah. I don't know.

Did you even watch any of them in the Aardvark

shorts? I didn't see any recently. I remember

watching them as a kid, but I didn't watch any

of them in preparation for this. I just watched

them. I didn't know that John Beiner voiced both,

the Ant and the Aardvark, but I gotta say again,

I love those ones. Those are my favorite. Those

and then the Pink Panther ones come first and

second. The Pink Panther ones were good. Every

now and then it would just be an over and over

and over again the same plot for the most part,

but other than that, I really enjoyed it. And

I think the reason why I enjoy the Ant and the

Aardvark one is because it's Bugs Bunny and Elmer

Fudd in reverse. Did you have a least favorite

character in all the different segments? Actually,

yeah, the inspector. I didn't like the inspector.

I didn't like the sergeant. I didn't like that

whole short. I cannot stand the inspector shorts.

So you like them? No, I don't like the inspector

shorts. And I know what they were going for there.

They were going for Clouseau. And, you know,

they were going for that part of the Pink Panther

stuff. But I just, I didn't like, I never liked

them. Yeah. I like, I like Pink Panther. Of course,

that's kind of cheating. But I also like the

Crazy Legs Crane and Crazy Leg Crane Jr. Don't

know why oh, I remember though. Yeah, he's always

after me. Oh, what is it? Crap No, he's always

after Damn it. I know what it is that he's always

chasing is it apparently you don't shut up Fine

what the hell is it? I know it calling people.

It's no so don't call and then it it's uh...

it's on the tip of my tongue i just can't just

tell me already jesus christ i'll let you suffer

anyway you can't fucking tell me you have till

the end of the show to figure that out uh...

the worm that's right freaking worm that was

fun though that was fun So, yeah, you got some

good characters though. Pink Panther, even though

you don't like the Inspector, you got the Ant

in the Aardvark, you got Crazy Legs, you got,

you know, Fearless Freddy, Rat Fink. You got

some good characters in here. Anything else about

voice cast and or characters? I don't think so.

We can move on to behind the scenes here. Doug

Goodwin composed the show's theme music, and

this show was hosted by the Pink Panther and

the Inspector. Each show included bumper sequences

featuring the Pink Panther and the Inspector

together, as well as the announcer, Marvin Miller,

as an off -camera narrator talking to the Pink

Panther. Okay, what the hell did I get this information

from? Because I don't remember this whatsoever.

That's because you're probably not remembering

the original show, since there's been so many

different versions. Okay, yeah. The opening sequence

showed a ten -year -old boy driving a rocket

car from the countryside to the Chinese theater

and then letting out the Pink Panther and the

Inspector. Like most Saturday morning animated

series of the era, oh yes, the Pink Panther Show

contained an adult laugh track. Gotta love the

70s and 60s cartoons with the laugh tracks. And

of course, like a lot of that stuff back then,

over the span of nine years, the Pink Panther

Show had a whole bunch of different names, starting

with the Pink Panther Show, going to the Pink

Panther meets the Ann and the Aardvark, new Pink

Panther show, Pink Panther and Friends, Pink

Panther laugh and a half hour and a half show,

and thank Pink Panther, and then finally the

all new Pink Panther show. So that's going from

1969 to 1979. Basically every year they had to

come up with a new name. It's kind of like Scooby

Doo or like the Super Friends or stuff like that.

They always have to rename it. The Pink Panther

theme is done by Henry Mancini. Other than that,

don't recognize anybody. Bob Kurtz, for some

reason, rings a bell for one of the writers.

I don't know why. And... And that's about it.

So, the actual show actually has no paragraph,

it's just segments. The Pink Panther Show featured

the following segments. The Pink Panther, the

Inspector, the Ant and the Aardvark, Honestly,

outside of the first three, I remember seeing

the Crazy Legs Crane thing in a completely different

cartoon. Maybe it was one of the earlier versions

of Pink Panther, but the main version I remember.

is the cartoon being made up of Pink Panther

shorts, Inspector shorts, and the Ant and the

Ardmark. Inspector shorts? No, don't inspect

your shorts. Or maybe you need to. No. Well,

you were chasing me. No. No, no, no. But, you

know, yeah, I had a variety of segments that

kind of helped. Helped that ahead a number of

different segments You can see it's kind of like

all the shows that we talked about back in the

day where you had different segments And you

know I guess if you had a favorite then you were

always kind of bummed out for two -thirds of

the show But you know you always had something

to look forward to I guess or if it was the first

segment you could watch it and then shut the

shut it off I Can watch the inspector segments.

I just don't like them It's not that I have to

rewatch some inspector segments because I don't

it's not that they're unwatchable. It's just

I'd never liked The music, for the music segment

we have, as I said, Henry Mancini does the theme

song, and the series music was done by Doug Goodwin,

Walter Green, and William Lava. Wow, that's an

exploding volcano. The Pink Panther, I mean,

good lord, the music is so iconic though. Oh

yeah, yeah. We played this in band when I was

in band in school. Everybody knows the theme

song. It's so widely used. It's everywhere. I

mean, without the music in this, I don't even

know if Pink Panther's as famous as it is. Oh,

yeah. Hey, kids. We're going to band camp. Stay

away from flutes. Ouch. Boom, boom, boom. Going

into the legacy segment. It was 67th on IGN's

top 100 animated shows of all time. I think that's

a little off. I think it should be down a little

bit further. I mean, I'm not a huge Pink Panther

fan, but just for what it was, it should be ranked

a little bit higher than that. But they didn't

even rank Garfield's. Yeah. All right, so let's

see here. Oh, yeah. There are DVDs. There were

originally nine individual volume sets. But back

in... let's see for a minute release... let's

see what date was this supposed to be released...

January 27, 2009 saw the release of the Pink

Panther Classic Cartoon Collection. This basically

bundles all nine volumes into one big box set.

I so want this. So, any of you looking for an

early Christmas present from me, there you go.

Go get it. And each volume, one through nine,

is basically ranging from 107 minutes to 150

minutes. Right. So, times about two hours times

nine. You're looking at at least 20 hours. Of

cartoons. Of cartoons. Volume one is pranks in

pink. Volume two is adventures in the pink. Volume

three is frolics in the pink. See getting a theme

here Volume four is swinging in the pink volume

five is the ant in the aardvark Yes, hell yeah

volume six and seven are the inspector volumes

one and two Christ Volume eight is rolling in

rat fink and volume nine is just says cartoons

I Don't know what that can mean that that's probably

where what's his name crazy legs is Yeah, we

should mention to that since we're kind of in

the legacy segment that not only was a well basically

that the pink panther was nominated for a daytime

Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment in a

children's series in 1975 as well so that's a

little bit of a legacy thing I guess if you get

nominated very very something worth mentioning

and I couldn't find out but I'm I'm you know

in a couple other shows we've mentioned like

certain cartoon icon characters that have been

named in top lists of top cartoon characters

ever. We had of course Bugs Bunny and a couple

people like that that were in the top 50 or top

20 cartoon characters ever. I would think Pink

Panther would be on some of those lists too.

Just for how much of an iconic figure he is from

the 60s and 70s cartoons. Oh yeah, very much

so. So you can't get the DVDs, they're out there

just recently within the last year or so. Yes,

must have. Must have now. Must have now, he says.

They didn't give a price on that. Oh, shit. You

asked me that as soon as I um... I did the same

thing. Let me see, where's the... Shit. I'm guessing

it's kind of expensive. Nah, hold on, let me

lug it up. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Come on shut it you son of a 99 a $69 $100 if

you live in Canada. Oh, thank God. We don't learn

in Canada now 69 98 in the US now. I'm not guaranteeing

That's what the price is gonna be at the store

you go to or if that's what it is on that That's

the MSRP. So Yeah, each volume would have been

about 15 to no eight 15, you know Oh and see

this is the thing, and I bring this up all the

time, people don't understand, and I understand

people are impatient, I'm impatient, but if you

wait for a complete series set, most TV shows

range on DVD from 20 to 40 dollars depending

on the set. Normally if it's a half hour show,

it ranges from 20 to 30 bucks for a single season

set. If it's an hour show it can range from 40

to 60. If you wait four or five years and wait

until they put out the $140, $150 complete series

set, you're spending the same amount of money

and actually you're probably saving two or three

dollars as far as getting them all together.

Well in this one you would have been saving a

whole lot because if you would have bought each

one of these nine volumes separately you would

have spent about 150 bucks and now you can get

all nine together for 70. So, a lot of times

it is worth waiting if you can hold off, which

is my new strategy with all these things is to

wait until they release the whole series. Yes,

yes. So, I think that's gonna do it for the Pink

Panther. I may put in the Ant and the Art of

Art music because I like it. So, we'll see. Good

thing. Good stuff. Did you know that Justin Bieber

is actually Webster in a girl suit? Did you know

that Teddy Ruxpin is Frank Grubby? actually a

tapeworm. Did you know that Gargamel was really

a cat lady? Did you know that Billy Zane is the

only man to ever beat Chuck Norris? If you didn't

know any of these things, then you should be

currently listening to Chicken Pop Pod Retro

Comedy Podcast. Catch it at chickenpoppod .com.

Alright, so final thoughts on Pink Panther. You

know, I'm not like, uh, I wouldn't call myself

a Pink Panther. die -hard fan or anything like

that. I mean, I don't... I respect it and its

spot in history and how classic it is. You know,

I'm not someone who drools over the idea of watching

Pink Panther or anything like that. I do remember

it fondly from my childhood. I think it's great

that they could entertain you without all the

fluff and the flair that a lot of shows think

that they need to have. And, you know, I think

it has a rightful spot in cartoon history and

it's great for what it was. I think you have

to be a very... You have to be a lover of animation

or a lover of Storytelling in order to like this

show a lot of kids these days would probably

turn it on and not want to watch more than a

couple minutes of it But that doesn't take away

from how classic it is and it's just I don't

know It deserves high ranking on any cartoon

list in my opinion That's because kids these

days have no attention span and don't know what

the hell good cartoons are when you have crap

like Generator Rex and Ben 10 alien force and

all that happy bullshit We don't need to start

listing crappy cartoons in the last decade, we'll

be here all night. Hey, that can be a part of

the 100th episode. God, don't get me started.

We'd have to rename it, like Kevin goes off on

people. Actually, it's... Well, we don't have

to rename it that, but we are. Steve and I are

planning for the future. So... That's all I'm

going to say on air, but we are planning for

Tooncast's future. It may live on in another

form or something. It won't actually be... It's

going to be like Transformers. It's just going

to keep coming back. No, no, no, no, no. No,

no, no, no, no. Just thinking it being set 65

years in the future. There we go. I like it.

I like it already! Yeah, there you go. Thank

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now, I am TF2 and Mike with Optimus Solo from

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