An illegal arms deal is being transacted. The only witness is a panther. While the big shots exchange money, one of the low level hoods leaves to get the guns. His taxi is being followed by another cab. In the second cab is Jonathan Chase (Simon MacCorkindale). When the two cabs get to the warehouse Chase turns back into the panther and hides in the arms delivery truck.
On the street are Officer Brooke McKenzie (Melody Anderson) and her partner, Simmons (Wynn Irwin). Seeing a sewing machine delivery truck in the middle of the night makes Brooke suspicious. She turns the squad car around and follows. Chase, now a panther, lets out a shriek causing the driver to crash into a parked car. The trucks tips over and the guns spill out. As Simmons keeps one hood at bay, Brooke goes after the other. Chase gets shot in the arm, the hood is hit by a car and Simmons is shot by the man he was covering. Brooke tracks the cat to a dead-end alley but only finds a man. The cat is gone.
Brooke learns that the man that shot her partner is Charles Drew (Terry Kiser). She also wants to find out how the panther fits into all of this. Her boss, Lt. Rivera (Reni Santoni) tells her to talk to a British college professor at New York University. He is an expert on animals in police work. Brooke goes to the college and finds that the professor is the man she found in the alley, Jonathan Chase.
It doesn’t take long for Brooke to become suspicious that Chase is always around when an animal is involved in the case. Eventually she learns that Chase is a shape shifter and can change into any animal he wants. He and his friend, Ty Earl (Glynn Turman), fight crime in their own way. The three team up when they learn that terrorists are buying a large supply of stolen toxic gas.
“Manimal” was released in 1983 and was created by Glen Larson. It was an eight-episode series that started with a ninety-minute pilot. The show is basically a superhero mystery fantasy series.
As far as the transformations are concerned, they’re pretty good, although not all of them are on screen. The primary one is the black panther. In the pilot episode Chase also turns into a hawk and a white cat. In addition to being a shape shifter he also has the ability to communicate with other animals mentally and can use animal traits to heighten his senses and human abilities. The transformation sequences were designed and created by Stan Winston.
Invariably whenever Chase turns back into a human he appears as dapper as he was before the transformation. No torn clothing and every aspect of him in place, right down to the white scarf around his shoulders and his tie in a perfect Windsor. He is just as sleek as a panther as he is a human. The explanation of how he became a shape shifter is glossed over. He learned from his father, but how his father learned it is vague. None of that takes away from the fun.