How The Pink Panther came alive and how The Thin Man grew fatter: Hungry franchises and the adaptation industry

Abstract

While entertainment franchises are usually not associated with engaging in adaptive work in the traditional sense of the term, the sheer necessity of creating new material for serialised properties makes adaptive work a necessity. Frequently, franchises will absorb other material, an aspect that has so far been neglected in studies of what Simone Murray calls the ‘adaptation industry’. This article discusses two entertainment properties that made a habit of lapping up cinematic trends and other properties in order to feed their appetite as ‘hungry franchises’: the Thin Man series (1934‐47) and the Pink Panther films (1963‐2009). They exhibit similar adaptive strategies to reconcile contemporary audience expectations and industrial trends with their needs as profitable studio properties. In the process, they also show somewhat Frankenstein-like tendencies towards monstrosity, eventually turning against their own creators.