Friz Freleng so popular that United Artists, distributors of "The Pink Panther", had Freleng produce a short cartoon starring the character, "The Pink Phink" (1964). After "The Pink Phink" won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), Freleng and DePatie responded by producing a whole series of Pink Panther cartoons. Other original cartoon series, among them "The Inspector", "The Ant and the Aardvark", "The Dogfather", "Roland and Rattfink" and "Crazylegs Crane", soon followed. In 1969, "The Pink Panther Show", a Saturday morning anthology program featuring DePatie–Freleng cartoons, debuted on NBC. "The Pink Panther" and the other original DePatie–Freleng series would
Otis the Aardvark of "The Weakest Link" for the BBC. He was voted off in the second round by Roland Rat (who hilariously nicknamed him as "Otis The Anteater"), Nobby The Sheep, Jelly and Jackson, Zippy and George and Soo (puppet), while he, Roly Mo and Nev the Bear voted off Zippy and George. In a 2009 interview BBC Presenter Kirsten O'Brien revealed that she has the Otis the Aardvark puppet and once used it unsuccessfully to impress a date. On 1 April 2010, Otis appeared on the ITV2 show "Celebrity Juice". Otis made another appearance along with other former presenters and puppets