Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines
- For the board game, see Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (game).
| Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines | |
|---|---|
 On-screen title card. | |
| Network | CBS |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera |
| Distributor | Taft Broadcasting |
| Original release | September 13, 1969—January 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 theme song and score composed by Hoyt Curtin, who was credited as the music director.
Episodes
Cast
- Paul Winchell as Dick Dastardly and the General
- Don Messick as Muttley, Klunk, Zilly, the Narrator
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
- ^ Sennett, Ted (October 30, 1989). The Art of Hanna-Barbera, page 153. Viking Studio Books. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
- ^ Yowp, Don M. (February 8, 2012). "Stop That Pigeon". Yowp. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
