Daktari

Daktari
Clarence and Judy
Genre	Children's drama Adventure
Created by	Art Arthur Ivan Tors
Written by	William Clark Meyer Dolinsky Lawrence L. Goldman Alf Harris John Hogan Jack Jacobs Robert Lees Robert Lewin D.D. Oldland S.S. Schweitzer Stanley H. Silverman Malvin Wald
Directed by	Paul Landres Andrew Marton Otto Lang
Starring	Marshall Thompson Cheryl Miller Hari Rhodes Yale Summers Hedley Mattingly
Theme music composer	Shelly Manne Henry Vars
Composer(s)	Herbert Doerfel Shelly Manne Henry Vars
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	89 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ivan Tors
Producer(s)	Leonard B. Kaufman
Cinematography	William A. Fraker Fred Mandl Paul Ivano Richard Moore
Editor(s)	George Hively
Running time	45–48 minutes
Production company(s)	Ivan Tors Productions MGM Television Warner Bros. Television (current distribution)
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	Metrocolor
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	January 11, 1966 (1966-01-11) – January 15, 1969 (1969-01-15)
Chronology
Preceded by	Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion

Daktari (Swahili for "doctor") is an American family drama series that aired on CBS between 1966 and 1969. The series is an Ivan Tors Films Production in association with MGM Television starring Marshall Thompson as Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian at the fictional Wameru Study Centre for Animal Behaviour in East Africa.

Concept

The show follows the work of Dr. Tracy, his daughter Paula (Cheryl Miller), and his staff, who frequently protect animals from poachers and local officials. Tracy's pets, a cross-eyed lion named Clarence and a chimpanzee named Judy, were also popular characters.

Daktari was based upon the 1965 film Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion, which also stars Thompson as Dr. Tracy and Miller as his daughter. The concept was developed by producer Ivan Tors, inspired by the work of Dr. Antonie Marinus Harthoorn and his wife Sue at their animal orphanage in Nairobi.^[1] Dr. Harthoorn was a tireless campaigner for animal rights, and with his research team developed the capture gun,^[2] used to sedate animals to capture them without injury.

On the series, Clarence did not do all his own stunts; he also had a stand-in. Leo, another Ralph Helfer-trained lion, doubled for Clarence whenever any trucks were involved, since Clarence spooked at the sight of these vehicles. Leo even had his own makeup artist who applied cosmetic scarring like Clarence's, so that he would resemble Clarence when photographed in closeups. This was referred to in an inside joke from the preview trailer for the movie Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion, that Leo (which also appeared in the MGM logo and had a gentle temperament very similar to Clarence's) was not related to Clarence.

Another less-friendly lion, also named Leo, doubled for Clarence in some scenes. He was used only for the snarling scenes and general scenes which did not involve proximity with humans. This Leo had come from a family in Utah. His ferocity was due largely to abuse he received from former owners, who beat him badly with a stick.

In the show's final season, child star Erin Moran joined the cast as Jenny Jones, a seven-year-old orphan who becomes part of the Tracy household.

Cast

• Marshall Thompson .... Dr. Marsh Tracy
• Cheryl Miller .... Paula Tracy
• Hedley Mattingly .... District Officer Hedley
• Hari Rhodes .... Mike Makula
• Yale Summers .... Jack Dane (1966–1968)
• Ross Hagen .... Bart Jason (1968–1969)
• Erin Moran .... Jenny Jones (1968–1969)
• Judy the Chimp ....Judy
• Clarence the Lion ....Clarence

Judy the Chimp also portrayed "Debbie the Bloop" on Lost in Space.

Notable guest stars over the years included Louis Gossett Jr., Sterling Holloway, Virginia Mayo, Chips Rafferty and Paul Winfield.

Bruno the Bear also appeared as a guest star before he became the main bear playing the title role in the later Ivan Tors series, Gentle Ben.

Episodes

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

Production notes

Location

According to the show's closing credits, it was "filmed in Africa and Africa, U.S.A.", a 600-acre (2.4 km²) wild-animal ranch created by animal trainers Ralph and Toni Helfer in Soledad Canyon 40 mi (64 km) north of Los Angeles.^[4] Ralph Helfer was the animal coordinator of the show. Leonard B. Kaufman, the producer, wrote in liner notes for Shelly Manne's Daktari that he shot the series on location close to a ranch once owned by Antonio Pintos' father in Mozambique.^[5] Indeed, the outdoor scenes involving the actors were shot in the Africa, U.S.A. compound in California, with footage of African landscape and animals in between to get the African look and feel. Some of the animals shown were, however, at odds with the location - a tiger (not native to Africa) is shown in the starting credit sequence, as well as an Indian elephant.

Other indoor and some outdoor scenes of the animal hospital were shot in Ivan Tors' studios in Florida.

Music

The show had distinctive theme and incidental music, a fusion of jazz and African influences, conducted by American jazz drummer Shelly Manne. Manne released the associated record, Daktari: Shelly Manne Performs and Conducts His Original Music for the Hit TV Show, on the Atlantic label in 1967. On the album, Mike Wofford plays a tack piano to evoke an African sound, and Manne is joined by percussionists Emil Richards, Larry Bunker, Frank Carlson, and Victor Feldman. According to the record liner notes, Manne and fellow percussionists play ankle and wrist jingles, Thai mouth organs, angklungs, ocarinas, vibraphones, tympani, and different kinds of marimbas.

Vehicles

The series featured several Land Rover four-wheel-drive cars and also a Jeep Gladiator pickup truck with an iconic zebra-striped paint job. Corgi Toys produced a green and black zebra-striped toy version of a Land Rover, available in several different action sets.

DVD releases

Warner Bros. has released all four seasons on DVD in Region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection manufacture-on-demand series.^[6][7][8][9]

See also

• Cowboy in Africa

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daktari.

• Daktari on IMDb
• Daktari at TV.com
• Daktari Episode Guide