Darkwing Duck
Darkwing Duck titles.
Format	Animated Series, Action, Adventure, Mystery
Created by	Tad Stones
Starring	Jim Cummings Christine Cavanaugh Terry McGovern
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	91 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC Syndication
Original run	September 8, 1991 – December 5, 1992
Chronology
Preceded by	Acting Sheriff
Followed by	The Dream Is Alive: The 20th Anniversary Celebration Of Walt Disney World
Related shows	Duck Tales (1987) Quack Pack (1996)

Darkwing Duck is an American animated television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that ran from 1991-1995 and 1996-1997 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured an eponymous superhero anthropomorphic duck with the alter ego of Drake Mallard (voiced by Jim Cummings). It is the first of two spin-offs of Ducktales.

[edit] Characters

The main characters were:

• Darkwing Duck (Jim Cummings) - Drake Mallard, average citizen by day and St. Canard's resident superhero by night.
• Gosalyn Mallard (Christine Cavanaugh) - Drake "Darkwing Duck" Mallard's 9-year-old adopted daughter. Occasional crime fighter as "Crimson Quackette" and later as "Quiverwing Quack".
• Launchpad McQuack (Terry McGovern) - Darkwing Duck's sidekick, originally from DuckTales. He refers to Darkwing as "DW" and Darkwing often calls him "LP".
• Honker Muddlefoot (Katie Leigh) - The Mallards' next door neighbour and Gosalyn's best friend.
• Herb Muddlefoot (Jim Cummings) - Father of Honker Muddlefoot, next door neighbor of Drake Mallard (Darkwing Duck). Drake finds him very irritating but they do work together well in at least one episode. Herb sells Quakerware (the Darkwing Duck universe's version of Tupperware) as a salesman for a living.
• Binkie Muddlefoot (Susan Tolsky) - A yellow chicken housewife who is invariably overbearing yet ditzy. Competent in housework and doing her chores she is often the foil to Herb's fun.
• Tank Muddlefoot (Dana Hill) - The eldest Muddlefoot son, Tank is a bully who often makes life difficult for his younger brother, Honker.

[edit] Premise

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The success of DuckTales led to a spin-off series, Darkwing Duck, one year after the show had ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by two episodes of DuckTales, entitled Double-O-Duck and The Masked Mallard. The original concept had Launchpad McQuack as the star.

While the show establishes its own conventions, it is largely regarded as an affectionate satire on superhero mythos and lore, some obvious, some subtle, and others quite witty. Darkwing's costume, gas gun, and flashy introductions are all reminiscent of pulp heroes such as the Sandman, Crimson Avenger, The Green Hornet, and most especially The Shadow. The fictional city of St. Canard, Darkwing's rogues gallery, and the relative darkness of Darkwing as compared to other Disney heroes reflect Batman. In addition, in the episode "Time and Punishment" Gosalyn is transported into a future clearly based upon that of Batman depicted in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", with Darkwing having become much more hardline and strict on crime, wearing a suit of armour and driving a tank. As well, the episode Tiff of the Titans, with the mysterious Darkwing and the straight-arrow Gizmoduck, played on the famous relationship between Batman and Superman. At one point in the episode, Darkwing asks, "Who needs super powers when you have a super mind?" while Gizmoduck remarks that he thinks Darkwing's crime-fighting style is "disreputable, disturbed, and possibly devious." In addition, there are Marvel Universe references such as the secret intelligence organization, S.H.U.S.H., a parody of Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D., and the episode Aduckyphobia shows Darkwing being bitten by a mutated spider and growing six arms. A few James Bond parodies exist as well, such as the villain Steelbeak, whose beak makes him similar to the Bond villain Jaws, and his personality and trappings are similar to Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The character of Darkwing Duck appeared occasionally in the series Bonkers, and earlier Gosalyn appeared in the series Raw Toonage. In an episode of the Aladdin TV series, Genie changes his form from a French waiter into Darkwing Duck.

Darkwing Duck and Ducktales are directly connected by two characters crossing over into the world of Darkwing Duck. The first is Launchpad, Darkwing's sidekick, who is a longtime staple of DuckTales, and Fenton Crackshell/GizmoDuck, an armored hero who became a popular part of the DuckTales cast during the series' run. Also, in the episode "In Like Blunt", DuckTales villains Flintheart Glomgold, Magica De Spell, and The Beagle Boys make non-speaking cameo appearances.

The show was later referenced in a Pluto cartoon on Mickey Mouse Works as "Darkwing Dog". (The same treatment was given to Doug (called "Brand Spanking New Dog") and Mouse Works itself ("Pluto's Dog Works")).

[edit] Episodes

Over three seasons there were a total of 91 episodes.

[edit] References to other media

Darkwing Duck has several references to characters from other media. Darkwing himself is a parody of DC comic's Batman.

Some of the References include:

In the third episode, "Beauty and the Beet," the two scientists tormenting Professor Bushroot are called "Dr. Gary" and "Dr. Larson", a notable reference to The Far Side author and creator Gary Larson.

In episode 21, "Aduckyphobia," Darkwing parodies Marvel's Spiderman by being bitten by a spider and growing extra arms. The title also references the movie Arachnophobia.

In episode 33, "Twin Beaks," the cow aliens came from the Planet Larson. A reference to The Far Side author and creator Gary Larson.

Episode 39, "Planet of the Capes" revolves around a whole planet of superheroes with only one "Ordinary Guy" for them to rescue. The premise is a nod to the independent comic "Normalman" which was created by Image Comics founder Jim Valentino .

The group "The Fearsome Five" has the same name as "The Fearsome Five" in DC comics but bears no resemblance other than also being villainous.

[edit] Hot Spells controversy

This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (July 2008)

The episode Hot Spells has rarely been shown since its initial airing. The episode features a character named Beelzebub, who greatly resembles contemporary depictions of the devil. Gosalyn makes a deal with Beelzebub to receive magical powers in exchange for Darkwing's soul.

That a Disney-related show had any reference to Satan, and was even allowed to be aired, is highly unusual. The same "Devil" also appeared in the episode "Dead Duck," but most of that episode was evidently a dream sequence, and the devilish character whispered his name into Darkwing's ear, so the viewer was unable to hear it. Hot Spells was intended to be a Halloween-themed episode.

[edit] Broadcast history

The two-part episode Darkly Dawns the Duck originally aired as an hour-length TV special on September 7, 1991 as part of a larger TV special, "The Darkwing Duck Premiere and Back to School With the Mickey Mouse Club." The film served as the show's pilot.

Seasons 1 and 2 were aired simultaneously in the Autumn of 1991. Season 1 on syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon block of shows. Seasons 2 and 3 aired on Saturday mornings on ABC.

All episodes remained in syndicated reruns on The Disney Afternoon until 1995 and then returned to the line up from 1996 to 1997.

The series was last seen in the U.S. on Toon Disney, but due to the addition of Jetix and other Disney shows to the channel, it has vanished completely from the network. Along with a number of other shows, it was removed from schedules in November 2004. Toon Disney aired the Christmas episode featuring Bushroot on December 25, 2004. The show was last seen on Toon Disney in the United States on January 19, 2007 as part of the Toon Disney Wild Card Stack and was also removed from Toon Disney in Scandinavia since September 2006.

[edit] Opening Introduction

There are seven different versions of the Darkwing Duck introduction. The first two were aired on the Disney Channel when Darkwing Duck first premiered and featured alternate animation and a different version of the familiar theme song. The third version was used on the Darkly Dawns The Duck VHS. The fourth version was used in syndication, and is actually the one they currently use today. The fifth is the version used on The Disney Afternoon, and is the same as the fourth version only cut for time. The sixth and seventh introductions were used on the ABC Saturday Morning airings, and contained mostly scenes from those episodes, starting with Darkwing tiptoeing up the Audubon Bay Bridge.

[edit] Home media

Four VHS tapes, each containing two episodes of Darkwing Duck, were released under the title Darkwing Duck: His Favorite Adventures in the United States on September 20, 1991: Darkly Dawns the Duck. However, most countries around the world only received releases of Darkly Dawns the Duck and Justice Ducks Unite! Each video came with two glow-in-the-Darkwing trading cards. Featured on the cards were, Darkwing, Launchpad, Gosalyn, Honker, Negaduck, Bushroot, Megavolt, and Taurus Bulba.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released 3-disc DVD box set entitled Darkwing Duck: Volume 1 on August 29, 2006. It includes 27 episodes, including the 2-part pilot Darkly Dawns the Duck, which was presented in edited form as opposed to the uncut version's release on VHS. The second volume, containing the next 27 episodes, was released on August 7, 2007.^[1] Unlike DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, the episodes on the DVD's are presented in the order they aired. The sets do not contain any special features.

[edit] Reception

Darkwing Duck was named the 93rd best animated series by IGN, calling it one of the many reasons why after-school cartoons rule.^[2]

[edit] Video games

There was a Darkwing Duck video game released by Capcom on the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy. Another game was also made for the TurboGrafx-16.

[edit] "Let's get dangerous" in other languages

The show was dubbed in several different languages for international distribution. As such, the catchphrase Let's get dangerous! had to be translated into a similarly catchy phrase for the target language. It often did not keep its literal sense, as a direct translation of the phrase was unlikely to hold the same impact.

His other common introductory catchphrase was, "I am the terror that flaps in the night…!", usually followed by a somewhat strained metaphor^[4], similar to the declarations of Batman.

[edit] See also

• DuckTales
• List of anthropomorphic animal superheroes
• Paperinik

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Darkwing Duck at the Internet Movie Database
• Darkwing Duck at TV.com