Misterjaw
Title card
Portrayed byArte Johnson
In-universe information
SpeciesGreat White Shark
GenderMale
Misterjaw (left) with sidekick Catfish (right) in Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman

Misterjaw is a 34-episode cartoon 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.[1] Reruns continued on the Think Pink Panther Show on NBC through September 3, 1978.

Plot

Misterjaw (voiced by Arte Johnson) was a blue-colored great white shark (who wore a purple vest with white collar, a black bow tie and black top hat) 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 (voiced by Arnold Stang) 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.[2] 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 (voiced by Bob Ogle). In several instances, the duo were pursued by Fearless Freddy the Shark Hunter (voiced by Paul Winchell) in Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman and To Catch a Halibut.

All entries were directed by Robert McKimson (who died suddenly after production was completed) 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.

  1. Flying Fool
  2. Shopping Spree
  3. To Catch a Halibut
  4. Beach Resort
  5. Monster of the Deep
  6. Showbiz Shark
  7. Aladdin's Lump
  8. Little Red Riding Halibut (a parody of Little Red Riding Hood)
  9. The Codfather (a takeoff of The Godfather, title is the same most of previous series The Dogfather)
  10. Davey Jones' Locker
  11. Flying Saucer
  12. The Shape of Things
  13. Caught In The Act
  14. Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman (a takeoff of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman)
  15. Sea Chase
  16. Aloha, Hah, Hah!
  17. Never Shake Hands with a Piranha
  18. Stand-In Room Only
  19. The Fishy Time Machine
  20. Transistorized Shark
  21. The $6.95 Bionic Shark (a takeoff of The Six Million Dollar Man)
  22. Moulin Rogues
  23. Holiday in Venice
  24. Shark and the Beanstalk (a parody of Jack and the Beanstalk)
  25. The Aquanuts
  26. Cannery Caper
  27. Fish Anonymous
  28. Maguiness Book of Records (a take of Guinness Book of World Records)
  29. Cool Shark
  30. Deep Sea Rodeo
  31. Mama
  32. Easy Come Easy Go
  33. No Man's Halibut
  34. Sweat Hog Shark (a reference to Welcome Back, Kotter)

Episodes 2, 3, 5, 13, 21, 22, and 26 were pulled from NBC's 1977-1978 reruns of the show.

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, (the other being the Hanna-Barbera-created Jabberjaw).
  • As of July 2005, Misterjaw has regularly been seen on Cartoon Network's Boomerang in the United States (along with The Pink Panther Show and other DePatie-Freleng cartoons). As of 2006, all the Misterjaw episodes have been aired. Three of the cartoons shown on Boomerang have been edited (some scenes from Beach Resort, Monster of the Deep, and the ending of Holiday in Venice were removed).
  • 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 (who voiced Misterjaw) 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.

Home video

VHS

Misterjaw Cartoon Festival Featuring Monster of the Deep was released for VHS on 1987 as part of the "Viddy-Oh for Kids". It contains the first five episodes of the series.

DVD / Blu-ray

The complete series was digitally remastered, issued on its own two-disc Blu-Ray/DVD collection (the first 17 shorts on disc 1 and the last 17 shorts on disc 2) by Kino Lorber (under license from MGM).[3] It was released on April 24, 2018.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part I: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 222. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  2. ↑ Markstein, Don. "Misterjaw". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "The Pink Panther Show DVD news: Announcement for Kino Lorber Cartoon Volumes | TVShowsOnDVD.com". Archived from the original on 2016-05-09. Retrieved 2016-04-10.
  4. ↑ Update (Including New Street Date, Artwork Extras) for 'MisterJaw: The DePatie-Freleng Collection'
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