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 children's drama series that aired on CBS between 1966 and 1969. The series, an Ivan Tors Films Production in association with MGM Television, stars Marshall Thompson as Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian at the fictional Wameru Study Centre for Animal Behaviour in East Africa.

The show follows the work of Dr. Tracy, his daughter Paula (Cheryl Miller), and his staff, who frequently protected 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. Dr. Harthoorn was a tireless campaigner for animal rights, and with his research team developed the capture gun, 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.