The Pink Panther The first film in the series had an animated opening sequence, created by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, featuring The Pink Panther Theme by Mancini, as well as the Pink Panther character. This character, designed by Hawley Pratt and Friz Freleng, was subsequently the subject of his own series of animated cartoons which gained its highest profile when aired on Saturday mornings as "The Pink Panther Show." The character would be featured in the opening of every film in the movie series except "A Shot in the Dark" and "Inspector Clouseau". Although the original film was actually centred on the Phantom/Sir Charles Lytton,
The Pink Panther Show preceding the show featured Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme" played under a segment from "Pink Outs" featuring the Pink Panther folding the backdrop into a square to be eaten. The closer featured the last few seconds of the theme played under a scene from "Reel Pink" featuring the panther water skiing. MGM/UA created two versions of the syndication package. The first consisted of "The Pink Panther", "Inspector", "The Ant and the Aardvark" and "Texas Toads" entries sourced from film elements utilized during the program's original network run. The second version consisted of "The Pink Panther", "The Ant and the Aardvark"