''Daktari'' ( Swahili for "doctor") is an American family drama series that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

between 1966 and 1969. The series is an

Ivan Tors Ivan Tors (born Iván Törzs; June 12, 1916 – June 4, 1983) was a Hungarian playwright, film director, screenwriter, and film and television producer with an emphasis on non-violent but exciting science fiction, underwater sequences, and s ...

Films Production in association with

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

starring

Marshall Thompson James Marshall Thompson (November 27, 1925 – May 18, 1992) was an American film and television actor. Early years Thompson was born in Peoria, Illinois. He and his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Laurence B. Thompson, moved to California when he was a ...

as Dr. Marsh Tracy, a

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...

at the fictional Wameru Study Center for Animal Behavior in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

Concept

The show follows the work of Dr. Tracy, his daughter Paula (

Cheryl Miller Cheryl D. Miller (born January 3, 1964) is an American former basketball player. She was formerly a sideline reporter for NBA games on TNT Sports and also works for NBA TV as a reporter and analyst, having worked previously as a sportscaster fo ...

), and his staff, who frequently protect animals from poachers and local officials. Tracy's pets, a cross-eyed

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

named Clarence and a

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

named Judy, were also popular characters. ''Daktari'' was based upon the 1965 film ''

Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion ''Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion'' is a 1965 light comedy-adventure film, produced by Ivan Tors, Leonard B. Kaufman, and Harry Redmond Jr., directed by Andrew Marton, and starring Marshall Thompson and Betsy Drake. The film was shot at Soledad Ca ...

'', which also stars Thompson as Dr. Tracy and Miller as his daughter. The concept was developed by producer

, inspired by the work of Dr.

Antonie Marinus Harthoorn Antonie Marinus Harthoorn, or 'Toni' Harthoorn (August 26, 1923 - April 23, 2012) was a veterinarian and environmentalist known for his role in the development of large-animal tranquilizers and their impact on the conservation movement. Addition ...

and his wife Sue at their animal orphanage in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. Dr. Harthoorn helped invent the capture gun, and was a tireless campaigner for animal rights. He was known as ''Daktari'' by the local Swahili people. On the series, Clarence did not do all his own stunts; he had a stand-in. Leo (previously known as ''Zamba''), another lion trained by

Ralph Helfer Ralph Helfer (born April 9, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American animal behaviorist, creator of Marine World/Africa USA, and author of books about animals. He was born in Chicago and had one sister, Sally. In 1942, his mother left her husband ...

, doubled for Clarence whenever any trucks were involved because Clarence was frightened by those vehicles. Leo had his own makeup artist apply cosmetic scarring like Clarence's so that he would resemble Clarence in closeups. An inside joke from the preview trailer for the film ''

'' was that Leo the MGM logo was not related to Clarence (in addition to similar appearances, the lions had similar temperaments). Another less friendly lion, also named Leo, doubled for Clarence in some scenes. He was used only for the snarling scenes and scenes not involving proximity with humans. His ferocity was genuine, the result of physical abuse by his previous owners. In the show's final season, child star

Erin Moran Erin Marie Moran-Fleischmann (October 18, 1960 – April 22, 2017) was an American actress, best known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the television sitcom ''Happy Days'' and its spin-off ''Joanie Loves Chachi''. Early life Erin Marie ...

joined the cast as Jenny Jones, a seven-year-old orphan who becomes part of the Tracy household.

Cast

as Dr. Marsh Tracy *

as Paula Tracy *

Hedley Mattingly Hedley Howard Mattingly (May 7, 1915 – March 3, 1998) was a British actor who appeared in many American films and television series. Career Hedley Mattingly was born in London, England. He began his career as a stage actor before the ou ...

as District Officer Hedley *

Hari Rhodes Hari Rhodes (April 10, 1932 – January 15, 1992) was an American author and actor whose career spanned three decades beginning around 1960. He was sometimes billed as Harry Rhodes, and appeared in 66 films and television programs, such as ABC ...

as Mike Makula *

Yale Summers Yale Summers (July 26, 1933 – May 6, 2012) was an American actor and producer, whose credits included the 1960s CBS television series, ''Daktari'', with Marshall Thompson. Summers was heavily involved with the Screen Actors Guild. He was a m ...

as Jack Dane (1966–1968) *

Ross Hagen Ross Hagen (born Leland Lando Lilly; May 21, 1938 – May 7, 2011) was an American voice actor, actor, director, screenwriter and producer whose television acting credits included ''Daktari''. His film credits included ''The Hellcats'' in 1967 a ...

as Bart Jason (1968–1969) *

as Jenny Jones (1968–1969) * Judy the Chimp as Judy Judy the Chimp also portrayed "Debbie the Bloop" on ''

Lost in Space ''Lost in Space'' is an American science fiction television series, created and produced by Irwin Allen, which originally aired between 1965 and 1968 on CBS. The series was inspired by the 1812 novel ''The Swiss Family Robinson.'' The series fo ...

''. Clarence the Lion died at the age of 7 on July 14, 1969, six months after ''Daktari'' was last telecast on CBS. When he was not being filmed, the lion was booked as an attraction at expositions and died in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

, where he was scheduled to appear at the "Heart of Illinois Fair". Notable guest stars over the years included

Louis Gossett Jr. Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor. Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, He had his stage debut at the age of 17, in a school production of '' You Can't Take It with You.'' Shortly after he successfully ...

Sterling Holloway Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 4, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in ''Dumbo'', Ad ...

Bruce Bennett Bruce Bennett (born Harold Herman Brix, also credited Herman Brix; May 19, 1906February 24, 2007) was an American film and television actor who prior to his screen career was a highly successful college athlete in football and in both intercol ...

Virginia Mayo Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Brothers' biggest box-office money-maker in the late 1940s. ...

Chips Rafferty John William Pilbean Goffage MBE (26 March 190927 May 1971), known professionally as Chips Rafferty, was an Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the late 1930s until his death ...

and

Paul Winfield Paul Edward Winfield (May 22, 1939 – March 7, 2004) was an American stage, film and television actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark fi ...

. 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 Gentle Ben is a bear character created by author Walt Morey and first introduced in a 1965 children's novel, ''Gentle Ben''. The original novel told the story of the friendship between a large male bear named Ben and a boy named Mark. The story p ...

''.

Episodes

The series was broadcast in four seasons, the first in early 1966, and the last three each beginning in September 1966, 1967, and 1968.

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

The original broadcasts in the US were on CBS. According to IMDB it was also broadcast on TV channels in the UK, the Netherlands, and (dubbed) in Germany and France.

Production notes

Location

According to the show's closing credits, it was "filmed in Africa and Africa U.S.A.", a wild-animal ranch created by animal trainers Ralph and Toni Helfer in

Soledad Canyon Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon/valley located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale, California, Palmdale and Santa Clarita, California, Santa Clarita. It is a part of the Santa Cl ...

north of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. 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 Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. 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 Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

African African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

influences, conducted by American jazz drummer

Shelly Manne Sheldon "Shelly" Manne (June 11, 1920 – September 26, 1984) was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, s ...

. Manne released the associated record, '' Daktari: Shelly Manne Performs and Conducts His Original Music for the Hit TV Show'', on the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

label in 1967. On the album,

Mike Wofford Mike Wofford (born in San Antonio, Texas) is a jazz pianist who was raised in San Diego, California. He was an accompanist to singers Sarah Vaughan (in 1979) and Ella Fitzgerald (1989–1994). He was known in the jazz community going back to th ...

plays a

tack piano A tack piano (also known as a harpsipiano, jangle piano, and junk piano) is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which objects such as thumbtacks or nails are placed on the felt-padded hammers of the instrument at the point where the ham ...

to evoke an African sound, and Manne is joined by percussionists

Emil Richards Emil Richards (born Emilio Joseph Radocchia; September 2, 1932 – December 13, 2019) was an American vibraphonist and percussionist. Biography Musician Richards began playing the xylophone aged six. In High School, he performed with the Hartfor ...

Larry Bunker Lawrence Benjamin Bunker (November 4, 1928 – March 8, 2005) was an American jazz drummer, vibraphonist, and percussionist. A member of the Bill Evans Trio in the mid-1960s, he also played timpani with the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. ...

Frank Carlson Frank Carlson (January 23, 1893May 30, 1987) was an American politician who served as the 30th governor of Kansas, Kansas State representative, United States representative, and United States senator from Kansas. Carlson is the only Kansan to ...

, and

Victor Feldman Victor Stanley Feldman (7 April 1934 – 12 May 1987) was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as ...

. According to the record liner notes, Manne and fellow percussionists play ankle and wrist

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

s, Thai

mouth organ A mouth organ is any free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed. Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, an ...

angklung The (Sundanese: ) is a musical instrument from the Sundanese people in Indonesia made of a varying number of bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame. The tubes are carved to have a resonant pitch when struck and are tuned to octaves, similar t ...

ocarina The ocarina is a wind musical instrument; it is a type of vessel flute. Variations exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is traditionally made from c ...

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

tympani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

, and different kinds of

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

Vehicles

The series featured several

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

four-wheel-drive cars and also a

Jeep Gladiator Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...

pickup truck with an iconic zebra-striped paint job.

Corgi Toys Corgi Toys (trademark) is the brand name of a range of die-cast toy vehicles created by Mettoy and currently owned by Hornby Railways, Hornby.Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

has released all four seasons on DVD in Region 1 via their

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

manufacture-on-demand series.The 4th and Final Season is Coming to DVD Very Soon

References

External links

*
''Daktari'' Episode Guide

Vehicles as listed at imcdb.org
* {{discogs master, 359277 1966 American television series debuts 1969 American television series endings 1960s American children's television series American children's adventure television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Television shows set in Kenya Live action television shows based on films Television shows about chimpanzees Television series about lions Television series by MGM Television