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 was the puppeteer. He also performed in a number of other Children's BBC programmes, notably as The Cat from "Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow". When "Fully Booked" moved to Sundays on BBC2, the extended Saturday CBBC was renamed "Saturday Aardvark", with Otis being a key feature. In 1996, he presented "CBBC on Nickelodeon" during school hours on "Nickelodeon" alongside Nick Junior and his co-presenter was mascot "Arthur the Ant" in front of an ice cream parlour. He left in 1997 and was replaced by his cousin Marvin who presented from a shed until the strand finished on 16 July