Misterjaw

Misterjaw
Misterjaw (left) with sidekick Catfish (right) in Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman
Portrayed by	Arte Johnson
Information
Species	Great White Shark
Gender	Male

Misterjaw is a 34-episode made-for-television cartoon series, produced at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in 1976 for The Pink Panther and Friends television series on NBC.

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 tall black top hat) who liked to leap out of the water and shout "HEEGotcha!" or "Gotcha!" at unsuspecting folks (who would, as would be expected, run off in terror screaming "SHARK!!!!!"). 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 simply named Catfish (voiced by Arnold Stang) who usually referred to Misterjaw as "boss" or "chief"; Misterjaw usually called Catfish either "pally", "fella" or "sonny" when in a good mood, or names like "dumbkoff", "knucklehead" or "macaroni brain" when irritated.

Sometimes, Misterjaw would mistakenly address his sidekick as "Dogfish" only to correct himself a split second later by saying "I mean, Catfish." The two would get into all sorts of mischief ranging from trying to catch Harry Halibut (voiced by Bob Ogle, and usually mispronounced "HAB-ill-up" by Misterjaw) to outwitting Fearless Freddy the Shark Hunter (voiced by Paul Winchell) in Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman, amongst other adventures.

All the shorts 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 and 1976 copyright, and end titles were shown. All episodes include a laugh track.

Episodes

All episodes 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
9. The Codfather
10. Davey Jones' Locker
11. Flying Saucer
12. The Shape of Things
13. Caught In The Act
14. Merry Sharkman, Merry Sharkman
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
22. Moulin Rogues
23. Holiday in Venice
24. Shark and the Beanstalk
25. The Aquanuts
26. Cannery Caper
27. Fish Anonymous
28. Maguiness Book of Records
29. Cool Shark
30. Deep Sea Rodeo
31. Mama
32. Easy Come Easy Go
33. No Man's Halibut
34. Sweat Hog Shark

Production notes

• Misterjaw was one of two cartoon sharks created as a cash-in on the Jaws craze, release (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 boobytrapped with mousetraps. This catchphrase was first uttered by Arte Johnson (who voiced Misterjaw) on 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.

External links

• Toonarific
• Big Cartoon Database