Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Pink Panther and Sons"

It's a common thing in cartoons - you want to give your character a kid sidekick or two, but you don't want to imply that an iconic cartoon character, y'know, did the nasty. What to do, what to do? Then you come up with a solution... don't give them a son, give them a nephew! Yep, you saddle them with a nephew or niece, likely never bothering to explain where exactly said nephew or niece's parents are. Examples of this include (of course) Donald Duck's nephews, Mickey Mouse's nephews, Inspector Gardget's niece, Popeye's nephews, and Woody Woodpecker's nephew and niece.

However, there ARE exceptions to this. Perhaps the most well-known example is Goofy, who starred alongside his son Max in such productions as Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie (though he also has a nephew who appears in a couple comic books). Sylvester the Cat also had a son, Sylvester Jr., and he's... relatively well-known, I guess? But did you know that the Pink Panther also had kids? Two of 'em, in fact.

Pink Panther and Sons was actually NOT made by the Pink Panther's home studio of DePatie-Freling Enterprises (as it existed as an in-name-only enterprise at the time after being absorbed by Marvel Productions), but rather at Hanna-Barbera Productions, with Friz Freling serving as a producer. It premiered on NBC in 1984, then moved to ABC in 1986. The show focused on the Pink Panther's kids, preteened Pinky (voiced by Billy Bowles) and toddler Panky (voiced by B.J. Ward) and their friends the Rainbow Panthers, a gang of technicolor panther cubs. They consist of purple panther Chatta (Sherry Lynn), green panther Murfel (Shane McCobb), yellow sports-obsessed panther Rocko (Frank Welker), orange construction worker panther Annie O'Gizmo (Jeannie Elias) and blue panther Punkin (B.J. Ward). They do stuff, occasionally running afoul of a group of bullying lions known as "the Howl Angels". Episodes include...

- Pinky and one of the bully lion dudes compete in a bike race. Predictably, the lion dudes cheat.

- The panthers and the lions play baseball.

- The panthers explore a house that's apparently haunted.

- The panthers renovate their clubhouse, then, um, Panky is abducted by aliens.

- One of those Prince and the Pauper parody episodes seen in like a million other cartoon shows.

Yeah, just a bunch of stock cartoon plots.

Why exactly does Pink Panther and Sons exist? Well, my best guess is that they felt having a bunch of cute panther cubs running around would result in mucho merchandising sales (noticeably, the panther cubs look more like Care Bears than they do the Pink Panther). Twenty-six episodes of the show were made before the show got cancelled, and the Pink Panther's sons and the Rainbow Panthers were never seen or heard from again. While there are of course people who look back on the show fondly, I've seen the show pop up on a few lists of Hanna-Barbera's worst shows. One such list states that "There’s a few things that make Pink Panther and Sons probably the worst cartoon Hanna-Barbera ever made. The sheer irritation factor of the Rainbow Panther characters cannot be overstated. They all have overstated vocal tics and they all speak in high-pitched simpering voices that could easily be used to cut glass. To help keep the animation cheap, every episode is loaded down with long, rambling dialog sequences that are completely unbearable."

What are MY thoughts on the show? Let's find out! We'll be watching the episode "Take a Hike".

The episode begins with the Pink Panther ditching his sons and their friends on the side of the road. Great parenting, Pink Panther!

Oh, my head. The episode just started and I just said something nasty about one of my favorite cartoon characters. I feel dirty.

Anyhow, the panthers are apparently there to go hiking. And the Pink Panther isn't hiking with them because... I don't know. Maybe he just wanted to get out of this cartoon.

By the way, Rocko sounds like Sheldon from Garfield and Friends. I know they're both
voiced by Frank Welker, but still...

Punkin shows off his camera, which he brought along so he could take pictures for his class project. They head off on their hike, and eventually arrive at a river with a rickety old unsafe bridge. Oh, no. How will they ever cross it? Well, from what I've read some panthers are able to swim. So you could hypothetically just SWIM across the river.

Here's a question, though admittedly it might be considered a nitpick: how come the Pink Panther's sons talk, but the Pink Panther himself (usually) doesn't? And how come they wear clothes, but the Pink Panther himself (again, usually) doesn't?

Whoever built that sign could've used the wood to actually, y'know, FIX
the bridge. Just sayin'.

"Now we can't get to the forest!" Rocko complains. Fortunately, Chatta knows of a sturdier bridge downstream that they can cross. But as the panthers are walking off, Panky is distracted by a grasshopper and runs off in the opposite direction. The good news is, he has a grip on a thread on Pinky's sweater, and thus Pinky notices this and reins him back in.

Who the heck names their kid "Panky" anyway?

Predictably, Panky winds up getting distracted again - first by a butterfly, then by a baby eagle - and winds up wandering off. As Panky is interacting with the baby eagle, Pinky finds out again that his baby brother has vamoosed. "Oh, terrific! I spend half my day looking for that kid!" he complains. So now the hike is on hold until they can find Panky.

Say, I wonder what the Pink Panther is doing right now. It's gotta be much more interesting than this.

Anyhow, we get some WACKY SHENANIGANS involving Chatta shouting through a megaphone and the others getting knocked into a river. Pinky suggests that they split into search parties of two. Meanwhile, a bald eagle - presumably the parent of the chick - notices Panky with its chick and gets MAD.

Here's a tip, eagle - for dry, red eyes, Clear Eyes is AWESOME.

It grabs the chick and places it back in its nest with its other chicks, then places Panky in the nest too so he can hang out with the chicks... this is so boring. I can't think of a single joke to make about this.

Okay, now back to Pinky and his friends. Punkin wanders into a cave and complains that it's too dark in there for him to see anything. I know black panthers can see in the dark, but apparently blue and pink panthers can't. But blue and pink panthers can talk and walk around on their hind legs while black panthers can't, so I guess it kind of evens out?

Pinky suggests that he use the flash on his camera. I guess neither of them thought to bring a flashlight.

I swear they use this exact same animation of Pinky talking at least four times throughout
the episode.

Predictably, the cave winds up being the home of a large bear - and when Punkin uses the flash, it ticks off the bear (because large bears in cartoons that aren't one of the main characters are always ticked off by the main characters somehow. It's just inevitable), and it gives chase. And I'm pretty sure that they just pilfered the character design of Lumpjaw from Fun and Fancy Free for this bear, because... well, this is what Lumpjaw looks like:

And here's what the bear in this episode looks like:

Pinky and Punkin climb up a tree to escape the bear, then Pinky uses the liverwurst and sauerkraut sandwich in Punkin's backpack to get rid of it. Huzzah, the episode actually had a conflict for a few seconds.

I notice that some of the panthers have colored irises and some of them don't. That's not
particularly interesting, but I couldn't think of a funny joke to make about this screencap.

Pinky tells Punkin to go find his dad to help them. Hurray, the Pink Panther's coming back! Oh, wait, never mind. Punkin promptly runs into a tree, then falls into a river. Darn, here I was expecting the Pink Panther to actually appear in the episode again. I mean, his name IS in the title of the show, right?

Meanwhile, Chatta and Annie find Panky in the eagles' nest, and Chatta tells the others. "How will we get him down from THERE?" Rocko asks. Well, you could always just climb up the tree. Even ignoring for a second that real panthers are perfectly capable of climbing trees, we saw Pinky and Punkin climb a tree just a few minutes ago. Then they hear Punkin calling for help. And wouldn't you know it, the river leads to a waterfall. Because rivers in cartoons ALWAYS lead to waterfalls. No exceptions.

The good news is that even if Punkin DOES go down the waterfall, he'll inevitably survive.
After all, he's A) a cartoon character and B) one of the main characters.

Pinky's plan to save Punkin is a bust, but fortunately he's rescued by the eagle. The other panthers start cheering.

"HOORAAAAAAAAY! WE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHIIIIIIIIIIING!"

So everyone is happy, Annie takes a photo of Panky, Punkin and the Eagles, and the episode comes to an end.

What's the Verdict?

This was so incredibly blah. I don't want to sound rude, but there is nothing of substance here. First of all, the Pink Panther? The beloved cartoon character that has his name in the show's title? Yeah, he's barely in it at all. He shows up for, like, five seconds at the beginning. Instead, we have to focus on his sons and their five stupid friends. And none of them are interesting at all. Not one of the jokes made me laugh. None of the things that make the Pink Panther cartoons so great are featured. It's basically just a generic "group of kids" cartoon. There was no reason for them to slap the Pink Panther's name and likeness on it, other than I guess because they thought it would draw people in. Just... watch some Pink Panther cartoons instead, okay? Trust me, it's a much better way to spend your time. Heck, watch the 1993 show where the Pink Panther talked or the 2010 show Pink Panther and Pals instead. Say what you will about them, but they're still much better than THIS.

It's a shame, too, because I love the Pink Panther AND Hanna-Barbera, so you'd think a Pink Panther show produced by Hanna-Barbera would be right up my alley. Ah well...