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.
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 WilliamsJaws 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 directed by Robert McKimson and Sid Marcus
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.
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.
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 by Kino International. It was released on April 24, 2018.
