[videogallery id=”antaardvark”]
From John:

One year after John Byner arrived in Los Angeles, he was called into the office of Depatie and Freleng, producers of cartoons for movie theaters. Friz Freleng showed him a poster sized drawing of a drawn parody of an ant, explained the character of the ant, then asked “what kind of a voice do you think he’d have.” John immediately began talking like a lackadazical Dean Martin like voice and Mr. Freleng said “Perfect!”. Next, a drawing of a cartoon aardvark, his attitude was explained to John and when Friz Freling looked back at the drawing, John began talking like Jackie Mason and once again, Mr. Freleng said, “perfect!”
So began John’s voice- over career… “The Ant and the Aardvark” cartoons were a big hit in theaters for years and since then have been shown hundreds of times on television and are now on DVD.
A multitude of guest voice overs followed for many cartoon series on TV and some full length animated movies,”The Black Cauldron” for Disney and “A Wish For Wings”


From Wikipedia
The Ant and the Aardvark is a series of 17 theatrical short cartoons produced at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and released by United Artists from 1969 to 1971.

The cartoon follows attempts of a blue aardvark named Aardvark (voiced by John Byner, impersonating Jackie Mason, to catch and eat a red ant named Charlie (also Byner), impersonating Dean Martin, usually doing so by inhaling with a loud vacuum cleaner sound. The character is essentially unnamed; in the episode Rough Brunch, he claims his name is simply “Aardvark.” Charlie Ant gives his nemesis a variety of names as sly terms of endearment (Ol’ Sam, Ol’ Ben, Ol’ Blue, Claude, Pal, Buddy, Daddy-O).

The Ant and the Aardvark series was originally released by United Artists. 17 theatrical shorts were produced in the original series, and were subsequently featured in various television syndication packages, usually shown with DFE’s other characters such as the Pink Panther and The Inspector. Four of the 17 entries (The Ant and the Aardvark, Never Bug an Ant, Scratch a Tiger and Don’t Hustle an Ant with Muscle) appear in their television syndication form, complete with an audible laugh track added by NBC-TV when released on DVD in 2007. Laugh-tracked versions of all 17 entries are currently available via the video-sharing website YouTube.

When The Ant and the Aardvark first appeared on The Pink Panther Meets the Ant and the Aardvark in 1970, the series became wildly popular, so much in fact that the duo became a featured part of the NBC series. Even though the 17 entries remained popular throughout the broadcast run of The Pink Panther Show, no new entries were produced.

The series used several unique production techniques for the period. The aardvark’s body was solid blue: his only clothes—a pair of blue shorts and matching T-shirt—were a matching blue. Similarly, Charlie Ant was solid red, and did not sport any clothing. As such, the character’s solid colors allowed them to stand out clearly against the multi-colored backgrounds featured prominently in the series. Charlie also sported half-closed eyes, as a sign of a bon viveur.

Musical director Doug Goodwin was responsible for the jazzy music score. Goodwin assembled an established group of jazz session musicians to perform the series’ theme music and musical cues. For the first time in animated cartoons, all six musicians—Ray Brown, Billy Byers, Pete Candoli, Shelly Manne, Jimmy Rowles and Tommy Tedesco—received on-screen credit.

Art Leonardi was responsible for the main title graphic for all DePatie-Freleng entries. For the Ant and the Aardvark series, Leonardi expanded on a technique first introduced for the first Pink Panther cartoon, The Pink Phink. This entailed tearing paper into the forms of objects and characters to form stylized images.

3/5/69 S 1: Ep 1 The Ant And The Aardvark Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
3/6/69 S 1: Ep 2 Hasty But Tasty Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
4/2/69 S 1: Ep 3 The Ant From Uncle Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
5/14/69 S 1: Ep 4 I’ve Got Ants In My Plans Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
6/25/69 S 1: Ep 5 Technology, Phooey Ant/Aardvark/The Computer
9/12/69 S 2: Ep 1 Never Bug An Ant Ant/Aardvark
10/29/69 S 2: Ep 2 Dune Bug Ant/Aardvark/Lifeguard/Man buried in sand
12/18/69 S 2: Ep 3 Isle Of Caprice Aardvark
01/28/1970 S 2: Ep 4 Scratch a Tiger Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
04/29/70 S 2: Ep 5 Odd Ants Out Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
6/10/70 S 2: Ep 6 Ants in the Pantry – Ant/Aardvark/Bongo Pest Control Man
6/28/70 S 2: Ep 7 Science Friction – Ant/Aardvark/The Scientist
09/27/70 S 3: Ep 1 Mumbo Jumbo Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
11/18/70 S 3: Ep 2 The Froze Nose Knows Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
12/27/70 S 3: Ep 3 Don’t Hustle an Ant with Muscle Ant/Aardvark/Additional Voices
1/3/71 S 3: Ep 4 Rough Brunch – Ant/Aardvark/Termite
5/16/71 S 3: Ep 5 From Bed to Worst Ant/Aardvark
The Pink Panther Show Ant : Aardvark Aardvark/ Ant
12/23/66 S 1: Ep 24 Rock-a-Bye Pinky Aardvark/ Ant
12/14/65 S 1: Ep 14 Bully for Pink Aardvark/ Ant
1993 The Pink Panther (TV series) Pilgrim Panther/That Old Pink Magic Aardvark / Ant
1993 Pink, Pink and Away!/Down on the Ant Farm Ant  / Aardvark (voice)
1976 The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show (TV series) The Ant/The Aardvark (voice)
1969 The Pink Panther Show (TV series) Aardvark / Ant
3/14/2010 Pink Panther and Pals S 1: Ep 2 Pink Hi-Tops / Land of the Gi-Ants / Pink Thumb The Aardvark