Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines
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Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for CBS from September 13, 1969 to September 5, 1971. The show's working title was Stop the Pigeon, and the show's theme song (sung by Dick Dastardly himself) repeats the phrase so often that many viewers mistake that for the show's actual title. Under the working title, Dick and Muttley weren't part of the cast; a chubby, heavy-jowled Red Baron-esque pilot and a dachshund in flying goggles were the central figures. It appeared that those figures weren't going anywhere insofar as development, so Dastardly and Muttley were plucked from Wacky Races for the series.
The show features Dick Dastardly and Muttley, the comic villains from Wacky Races, as World War I flying aces and members of the Vulture Squadron, a crew of aviators on a mission to stop a homing pigeon named Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering messages to the other side. The show was unusual in having only two voice actors—Paul Winchell as Dastardly and the indistinctly heard General, and Don Messick as everybody else. Each half-hour episode typically features two stories, plus "Wing Dings" (short, corny gags) and "Magnificent Muttley" (Muttley's Walter Mitty-style daydreams).
In the UK, the series remains best known by the shorter name "Dastardly and Muttley".
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[edit] Characters
[edit] The Vulture Squadron
- Dick Dastardly is the leader of the Vulture Squadron, an ex-Wacky Racer turned aviator. He is still the accident prone villain he has been. He is referred to as "DD" or "Chief" by Zilly and Klunk. Although he's sometimes mean to Muttley, Zilly and Klunk, he's a nice guy (he says that to himself, numerous times to calm his nerves). When he gets angry, he usually uses his catchphrase "drat, drat and double drat", just before crashing hard into the ground.
- Muttley is Dastardly's bungling canine sidekick. He rarely speaks, and when he does it is either just cursing to himself indistinctly, usually following some misfortune that has befallen him, or an excited "yeah-yeah-yeah..." at the offer of something appealing. He does, however, have a distinctive rasping laugh which he employs whenever something bad happens to Dick, or whenever Dick is describing his latest "foolproof" plot. Since leaving the Wacky Races, Muttley has learned to fly by spinning his tail like a helicopter rotor. This enables him to save Dastardly from falling, although Muttley usually demands a medal for doing so. During Wacky Races, Muttley's popularity had grown, so when Dastardly and Muttley began production, he got his own segment, Magnificent Muttley, in which he daydreams that he is a different hero each week, usually with Dastardly as the villain.
- Zilly is a pilot in the Vulture squadron. He is a cringing coward, forever running away and having to be fetched by Muttley. Each new plan fills him with dread, and he usually utters his catchphrase, "Ohhh dear! Ohh my!", before retracting his head into his collar like a tortoise retracting into its shell. Dastardly puts up with his cowardice because he is needed to fly planes and interpret Klunk's gibberish. In one episode he is temporarily turned into a reckless hero via hypnotherapy, but his new heroism turns out to be even more damaging to the squadron than his usual cowardice, leaving no choice to Dick Dastardly but to change him back to normal (causing both Dastardly and Zilly to become a duo of cowards in the process).
- Klunk is the Vulture Squadron's stout chief designer and pilot. Each episode sees him developing aircraft or weapons (often missiles which home on some bizarre trait, such as a person sneezing) with odd features and attachments designed to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon. His attempts to explain his inventions are complicated by the fact that he apparently suffers from Tourette syndrome: his speech is punctuated by howls, clicks, whistles, and growls, accompanied by bizarre facial contortions. Only Zilly can understand him. His eyes are never seen because of his pilot cap and goggles pulled above them.
[edit] Other characters
- Yankee Doodle Pigeon is a patriotic American homing pigeon carrying a mail bag, and a bugle which he always plays to announce his presence in defiance of the Vulture Squadron.
- The General is Dastardly's superior, who always speaks (or rather, bellows unintelligibly) to Dastardly on the telephone. He is always able to reach Dastardly by phone even when Dastardly is flying (or, more often than not, falling) with randomly appearing telephones, although it is never explained how. The telephones are almost always of the old-fashioned "candlestick" design, and often delivered to Dastardly by paradrop. They also occasionally explosively self-destruct when the general hangs up. The General is an unseen character except for his uniformed arm, which occasionally emerges from the telephone earpiece to grab Dastardly's neck or strike directly on him. In one episode he pays a personal visit but only his foot is seen. In one of the "Wing Dings" short cartoons, we can see a photo of an officer hanging on the wall, which is possibly the General (although that fact was never confirmed).
- Muttley's girlfriend is only seen in some of the Magnificent Muttley shorts. She is usually the damsel in distress whom Muttley has to rescue from Dastardly's clutches. She looks like a female of Muttley's breed (whatever that may be) but unlike him she is able to speak distinctly. She may be a figment of his imagination, although in one of the episodes we can see a picture of her in a wall, next to Muttley's bed, which can be a proof that she really exists.
[edit] Story
Each story features variations on the same plot elements: the Vulture Squadron tries to trap Yankee Doodle Pigeon using one or more planes equipped with Klunk's latest contraption(s), but one or more of the Squadron messes up the attempt and the plane(s) either crash, collide or explode.
While they are falling out of the wreckage, Dastardly calls for help, which Muttley either offers or refuses depending on whether Dastardly agrees to give him a medal. Even when Muttley does agree to fly Dastardly out of trouble, Dastardly seldom has a soft landing.
At some point the General calls Dastardly on the phone to demand results. Dastardly assures him that they will soon capture the pigeon, but the General disbelieves him and either bellows down the phone or reaches through it and pulls Dastardly's moustache or nose.
Klunk then comes up with a new invention and "explains" it in his own unique way. Dastardly says "What'd he say? What'd he say?" and Zilly interprets, before attempting to run away. Once Muttley has "persuaded" Zilly to return, the Vulture Squadron take off in their new plane(s) to repeat the whole procedure over and over again. Eventually the Squadron are left to lick their wounds as Yankee Doodle Pigeon flies off over the horizon, blowing his bugle triumphantly.
Like its predecessor, Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines owes a great deal to the Road Runner cartoons, with Dastardly once again taking the Wile E. Coyote role. Both characters are fanatics, incapable of giving up even in the face of repeated and painful failure. Michael Maltese, who wrote many of the original Road Runner shorts, is also credited as a writer on Wacky Races, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley. Around 2005 a DVD of the complete series was released from Warner Home Video.
Dick Dastardly's appearance in this show was based on the English actor Terry-Thomas, the moustache-twirling villain of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, the film which provided the inspiration for Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.
[edit] Magnificent Muttley
In the 17 episodes of this small cartoon, in which Muttley is the main character, Muttley imagines himself in a lot of situations. These are the characters he pretends to be:
- Sailor
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- Magician
- Theatre Actor
- Circus Acrobat
- Masked Avenger
- Movie Stuntman
- Daniel Boone
- Scuba Diver
- Leonardo Da Vinci
- Car Racer
- Olympic Swimmer
- Arctic Explorer
- Inventor
- Tarzan
- Astronaut
- Super-Hero
[edit] Trivia
- We never know if the Vulture Squadron is American, German or English, because we never see a clue for the nationality of their members.
- Although the Wacky Races series is never mentioned, The Mean Machine can be seen in the numerous episodes of Magnificent Muttley.
- During the entire series, the Vulture Squadron destroys 182 planes, 2 balloons, 1 ship, 1 Zeppelin, 1 gas station and 1 train.
- Klunk is a vegetarian (it is seen this in one of the "Wing Dings" episode).
[edit] Voice cast
- Paul Winchell - Dick Dastardly, General, others
- Don Messick - Muttley, Klunk, Zilly, Yankee Doodle Pigeon, Narrator, others.
[edit] Series credits
- Produced and Directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna.
- Story: Larz Bourne, Dalton Sandifer, Mike Maltese.
- Animation: Ed Barge, Emil Carle, Izzy Ellis, John Garling, Maria Jursic, Carlo Vinci, Jerry Hathcock, Bob Maxfield, Ken Muse, Morey Reden, Veve Risto.
- Direction: Alex Lovey, Bill Perez, Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto, Victor O. Schipek.
- Design and Layout: Jerry Eisenberg, Lou Appet, Ed Benedict, Jim Fletcher, Don Jurwich, Lin Larsen, Jack Manning.
- Backgrounds: Walt Peregoy, Dave Weidman, William Butler, Robert Gentle, Iraj Paran, Curtis Perkins.
- Titles: Bill Perez, Robert Schaefer.
- Music Director: Ted Nichols.
- Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker.
- Ink & Paint Supervisor: Roberta Greutert.
- Xerography: Robert West.
- Sound Direction: Richard Olson.
- Film Editing: Pat Foley, Richard Allen.
- Camera: Dick Blundell, Bill Kotler, Ralph Migliori, Cliff Shipser, Rex Stevens, Roy Wade.
[edit] Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines in other languages
- Portuguese: Dick Detestável e Muttley e as suas Máquinas Voadoras
- Spanish: Pierre Nodoyuna y Patán en su Escuadrón Diabólico
- German: Fliegende Männer in tollkühnen Kisten
- French: Satanas et Diabolo
- Polish: Dastardly i Muttley
- Norwegian: Råttesen og Bumly
