The Pink Panther in: Pink at First Sight


The Pink Panther in: Pink at First Sight is a 1981 American animated Valentine's Day special starring The Pink Panther, that premiered on ABC on February 14, 1981 and the third and final Pink Panther special on ABC, following 1978's A Pink Christmas and 1980's Olym-Pinks. This would be Marvel's first Pink Panther cartoon.

Plot

It is Valentine's Day and the Pink Panther is lonely and has no money. After receiving another person's Valentine gift package by mistake, he goes to the messenger service for a job but messes his rehearsal up. He then goes to a store, buys a cassette player and pre-recorded cassettes with the seven cents he had left and goes back to the messenger service miming to Enrico Caruso's version of "Vesti la giubba", an aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci, and gets hired as a messenger.
Antics on the job entangle the breezy cat with a jealous husband, a snobby classic violinist, a priest and a crime boss named Big Joe and his gang.
Finally, after warding off Big Joe and his gang with a cassette containing excerpts of a police radio show, our hero is sitting alone and discouraged on a park bench when he finally meets the pantheress of his dreams, the ideal feline valentine.

Voice cast

After its original network broadcast, Pink at First Sight made its debut release on VHS by MGM/UA Home Video sometime during the 1980s. On November 6, 2007, the special alongside Olym-Pinks and A Pink Christmas was released as part of The Pink Panther: A Pink Christmas "single-disc" DVD collection from MGM Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Production

Most of the animation staff utilized for The All New Pink Panther Show worked on Pink at First Sight, which also utilized several music cues from the series as well but unlike that program, a laugh track wasn't featured. With Friz Freleng not on board, this would be DePatie's first solo work on a Pink Panther cartoon without him. Many of the other characters' voices for this special were done by Frank Welker, Marilyn Schreffler, Hal Smith, Brian Cummings and Weaver Copeland.