Sunday evening, as the opening bars of Henry Mancini’s classic “The Pink Panther Theme” played on my TV, my 18-year-old daughter in the other room said, “Does your dog bite?”
Actually, it was more like “Dez urr dooig biete?”
It was a funny moment on its own, but also a proud one. As parents, it is our obligation to introduce our children to the classics, and Peter Sellers’ work as Inspector Clouseau ranks right up there with works by Shakespeare, The Beatles and Mel Blanc.
Many have argued that the Sellers dog scene from “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” is one of the funniest in all of filmdom. It’s certainly up there. It’s also one that everyone should instantly recognize.
It got me thinking of classic movie lines and how they become part of our everyday lives and culture. Rhett Butler’s famous dismissal of Scarlett O’Hara continues to be rated the No. 1 movie line of all time by a variety of sources. That’s partly because it’s great but also because people can actually use it in everyday life to great effect.