The now classic character of Pink Panther had a rather inauspicious debut as garnish during the opening credits of an Inspector Clouseau movie about a rare diamond dubbed The Pink Panther. Audiences were so charmed with the pink feline that DePatie-Freleng produced more animation featuring the Panther that aired as theatrical shorts along The Pink Panther sequels. The hip cartoons coupled with Henry Mancini's jazz theme became instant hits and spawned an entire line of animated characters that were bundled together as The Pink Panther Show.

For its TV debut,  The Pink Panther Show was hosted by comedian Lenny Schultz and the Ritts Puppets but that feature was dropped after the first season. In addition to the Pink Panther segments, there were also shorts of The Inspector, a bumbling detective that was inspired by the Clouseau character. The Ant and the Aardvark was a popular  segment and followed the adventures of an ant that sounded like Dean Martin at his smoothest and an aardvark that sounded like comedian Jackie Mason. The two animals had a natural predator-prey relationship but the ant always managed to elude the not so bright anteater. Misterjaws was a myopic shark whose favorite past time was to sneak up on unsuspecting swimmers and yelling, "Gotcha!" If a desert setting was more to your liking, The Tijuana Toads jumped and ducked out of the way of hungry birds for your viewing pleasure.

All these amusing animals aired under The Pink Pather Show umbrella throughout the 70s. In 1978, The All-New Pink Panther Show included cartoons made specifically for television--as opposed to previously released theatrical shorts--and added the new character of Crazylegs Crane that perpetually stalked a dragonfly with very little luck.

After a five-year hiatus, the Pink Panther returned to the small screen in 1985, two offspring in tow, in Pink Panther and Sons. The series was updated with new characters but was not up to par with older Panther cartoons. The conspicuous feline (laugh as he tries to blend into a jungle background) was seen again in a remake of The Pink Panther movie but if you want the true Pink Panther experience, catch reruns of the old TV show on cable.