Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines

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For the board game, see Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (game).
Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines
D&M title card.png
On-screen title card.
Network CBS
Production company Hanna-Barbera
Distributor Taft Broadcasting
Original release September 13, 1969January 17, 1970
Starring Paul Winchell
Don Messick
Producer(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Alex Lovy
Music composed by Hoyt Curtin
Writer(s) Larz Bourne
Dalton Sandifer
Mike Maltese
Director(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Animation director(s) Charles A. Nichols
Series navigation
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Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, also known as Dastardly & Muttley, is an American animated slapstick comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for CBS' Saturday morning children's programming. It ran from 1969 to 1970, airing 17 episodes that spanned one season. It was the first spin-off from Wacky Races.

Dick Dastardly and Muttley lead the Vulture Squadron, with other members Klunk and Zilly, flying in World War I-style aeroplanes, trying to capture a messenger pigeon called Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering top-secret messages to an opposing army.

There are two other segments: Wing Dings, which features short jokes, and Magnificent Muttley, starring Muttley who plays the hero in his daydreams, only to be cut off and put back to work by Dick.

Production

Development

Fred Silverman, head of children's programming for CBS, suggested the idea of spinning off the Wacky Racers based on the success of Wacky Races.[1]

Yankee Doodle was originally set for his own series, but was reworked as a "plot device" to appear with Dastardly and Muttley from Wacky Races, due to the pairs' rise in popularity.[2]

Segments

  • Dastardly & Muttley
  • Wing Dings
  • Magnificent Muttley

Music

The music was composed by Hoyt Curtin, who was credited as music director.

Episodes

Episode Original air date
1x01 September 13, 1969
1x02 September 20, 1969
1x03 September 27, 1969
1x04 October 4, 1969
1x05 October 11, 1969
1x06 October 18, 1969
1x07 October 25, 1969
1x08 November 1, 1969
1x09 November 8, 1969
1x10 November 15, 1969
1x11 November 22, 1969
1x12 November 29, 1969
1x13 December 6, 1969
1x14 December 13, 1969
1x15 December 20, 1969
1x16 January 10, 1970
1x17 January 17, 1970

Cast

Legacy

In the Yogi's Treasure Hunt 1987 episode "Yogi's Heroes," Dick and Muttley showed its captives Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines as a form of torture. The scene involved the theme song playing over a scene of Dick and Muttley chasing Yankee Doodle Pigeon in their plane.

In 2018, DC Comics published Scooby-Doo! Team-Up #44, which concluded the series with the revelation that the Vulture Squadron was really working for a Chinese restaurant that was the rival of a pizza delivery service that Yankee Doodle Pigeon worked for. Yes, really.

Also in that same year, DC Comics reinvisioned the series with Dastardly & Muttley, a comically dark, yet fleshed out take of the characters written by Garth Ennis.

Yankee Doodle Pigeon and Klunk appear in the Max original series Jellystone! since 2021.

In other languages

Language Name Meaning
Japanese スカイキッドブラック魔王 (Sukai Kiddo Burakku Maō)

References