Misterjaw
Misterjaw is a 34-episode animated television series, produced at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1976 for The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show television series on NBC. Reruns continued on the Think Pink Panther Show on NBC from September 11, 1977 through September 3, 1978.
Plot
Misterjaw was a blue-colored great white shark 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 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", "ka-nucklehead" 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. In several instances, the duo were pursued by Fearless Freddy the Shark Hunter in "Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman" and "To Catch a Halibut".
All entries were directed by Robert McKimson 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, 1976 copyright and end titles were shown. All episodes include a laugh track.
Episodes
All episodes were 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 is the fifth and final cartoon series to appear in the MGM Television distribution package.Misterjaw was one of two cartoon sharks created as a cash-in on the Jaws craze.- As of July 2005, Misterjaw has regularly been seen on Cartoon Network's Boomerang in the United States. As of 2006, all the Misterjaw episodes have been aired. Three of the cartoons shown on Boomerang have been edited.
- 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 booby-trapped with mousetraps. This catchphrase was first uttered by Arte Johnson on Rowan & Martin's 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.