10 Movie Spinoffs Much Better Than The Franchise That Spawned Them
8. A Shot in the Dark
The Pink Panther might have been a success that launched a franchise that would run for almost five decades, but it was second installment A Shot in the Dark that saw Peter Sellers fully develop his iconic portrayal of Inspector Clouseau, as well as introducing several of the supporting characters that would go on to become inextricably linked to the bumbling detective.
Ironically, the movie wasn't initially set to feature Clouseau at all given that it was an adaptation of a French play, but now it would be impossible to imagine A Shot in the Dark without him. If The Pink Panther set the stage, then the spinoff that saw Sellers ascend to leading man status established the tone for the rest of the series.
With or without Sellers, the Pink Panther movies would never again reach the benchmark set by A Shot in the Dark no matter how hard they tried, and try they certainly did. Steve Martin pratfalling his way through the sequel to his reboot marked Inspector Clouseau's twelfth big screen outing, even though he'd peaked 45 years earlier in his second.