The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Manimal premiered as a 90 minute pilot that aired on September 30, 1983. The series featured the story of Jonathan Chase (Simon McCorkindale), a shape-shifting man who can turn himself into any animal, and uses this ability to fight crime.

By modern standards its special effects, though plentiful, are relatively low-quality, not surprising given the time period and other constraints. While Dr. Chase was meant to have the ability to change himself into any animal, in practice his onscreen transformations were almost always into a hawk or black panther, with the exact same backdrops each time, presumably to save on the budget, though on one occasion he was seen becoming a snake. In the episodes when Dr. Chase turns into a bull, dolphin and horse, the actual transformations occur off-screen.