Misterjaw
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| Misterjaw | |
|---|---|
| 250px
Misterjaw (left) with sidekick Catfish (right)
in Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman |
|
| Portrayed by | Arte Johnson |
| Information | |
| Species | Great White Shark |
| Gender | Male |
Misterjaw is a 34-episode made-for-television cartoon series, produced at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1976 for The Pink Panther and Friends television series on NBC.
Plot
Misterjaw (voiced by Arte Johnson) was a blue-colored great white shark (who wore a purple vest with white collar, a black bow tie and black top hat) who liked to leap out of the water and shout "HEEGotcha!" or "Gotcha!" at unsuspecting folks who would run off in terror. He spoke with a German accent and was known to mispronounce words, such as "knucklehead" pronounced as "ka-nucklehead". He also had a sidekick, a green-scaled, brown bowler hatted Brooklyn-accented catfish named Catfish (voiced by Arnold Stang) who usually referred to Misterjaw as "boss" or "chief"; Misterjaw usually called Catfish either "pal-ly", "fella" or "sonny" when in a good mood, or names like "dumbkoff", "knucklehead" or "macaroni brain" when irritated. At times, Misterjaw would mistakenly address his sidekick as "Dogfish", only to correct himself a split second later by saying "I mean, Catfish."
The primary goal of Misterjaw and Catfish was to catch Harry Halibut (voiced by Bob Ogle). In several instances, the duo were pursued by Fearless Freddy the Shark Hunter (voiced by Paul Winchell) in Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman and To Catch a Halibut.
All entries were directed by Robert McKimson (who died suddenly after production was completed) with co-direction from Sid Marcus and produced by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng. The music and score for the series were composed by Doug Goodwin. A brief version of the John Williams Jaws theme was used with the variation of the two note theme. None of the shorts contained any credit information; only the series title, episode title and 1976 copyright, and end titles were shown. All episodes include a laugh track.
Episodes
All episodes directed by Robert McKimson and Sid Marcus
- Flying Fool
- Shopping Spree
- To Catch a Halibut
- Beach Resort
- Monster of the Deep
- Showbiz Shark
- Aladdin's Lump
- Little Red Riding Halibut
- The Codfather
- Davey Jones' Locker
- Flying Saucer
- The Shape of Things
- Caught In The Act
- Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman
- Sea Chase
- Aloha, Hah, Hah!
- Never Shake Hands With a Piranha
- Stand-In Room Only
- The Fishy Time Machine
- Transistorized Shark
- The $6.95 Bionic Shark
- Moulin Rogues
- Holiday in Venice
- Shark and the Beanstalk
- The Aquanuts
- Cannery Caper
- Fish Anonymous
- Maguiness Book of Records
- Cool Shark
- Deep Sea Rodeo
- Mama
- Easy Come Easy Go
- No Man's Halibut
- Sweat Hog Shark
Production notes
- Misterjaw was one of two cartoon sharks created as a cash-in on the Jaws craze, release (the other being the Hanna-Barbera created Jabberjaw).
- As of July 2005, Misterjaw has regularly been seen on Cartoon Network's Boomerang in the United States (along with The Pink Panther Show and other DePatie-Freleng cartoons). As of 2006, all the Misterjaw episodes have been aired. Three of the cartoons shown on Boomerang have been edited (some scenes from Beach Resort, Monster of the Deep, and the ending of Holiday in Venice were removed).
- The show was also known as Mr. Jaws and Catfish.
- In the entry Little Red Riding Halibut, Misterjaw quips "Verrry interesting..." after looking in a picnic basket that Harry Halibut left behind which was boobytrapped with mousetraps. This catchphrase was first uttered by Arte Johnson (who voiced Misterjaw) on Laugh-in.
- Misterjaw was featured on South African television in the 1980s as a morning cartoon called "Grootbek en Katvis" and was dubbed into Afrikaans.
Blu-Ray/DVD releases
The complete series was digitally remastered, issued and cropped into widescreen (first 17 1.75:1 cartoons on disc 1 and final 17 1.66:1 cartoons) on its own two-disc Blu-Ray/DVD collection by Kino International in 2016.
