Darkwing Duck

Darkwing Duck is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. A total of ninety-one episodes were aired.[1] It features the adventures of Darkwing Duck, who is the superheroic alter-ego of ordinary suburban duck Drake Mallard.[2]
Though it was originally thought by some fans to be a spin-off of the 1987 DuckTales series, creator Tad Stones stated in a 2016 report that he believes the two shows exist in different universes.[3] Despite this, supporting characters Launchpad McQuack and Gizmoduck appear in both series in similar roles, and Scrooge McDuck is mentioned in the Darkwing Duck episode "Tiff of the Titans", and thus established a relation to both shows. Additionally, the 2011 comic book series DuckTales makes reference to Darkwing Duck and features various villains from the series. A crossover between the Darkwing Duck and DuckTales comics occurs in issues 17–18 and issues 5–6, respectively, of each. A reboot of the series is in development for Disney+.[4]
== Premise[edit] ==
Darkwing Duck tells the adventures of the titular superhero, aided by his sidekick and pilot Launchpad McQuack (from DuckTales). In his secret identity of Drake Mallard (a parody of Kent Allard, the alter ego of the Shadow), he lives in an unassuming suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn, next door to the dim-witted Muddlefoot family. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a good father to Gosalyn and help do good in St. Canard. Most episodes put these two aspects of Darkwing's character in direct conflict, though Darkwing's better nature usually prevails.[5]
The show was the first Disney Afternoon series to emphasize action rather than adventure, with Darkwing routinely engaging in slapstick battles with both supervillains and street criminals. While conflict with villains was routine in earlier Disney Afternoon shows, actual fight scenes were relatively rare.
Darkwing Duck was also the first Disney Afternoon property that was produced completely as a genre parody. Prior shows would contain elements of parody in certain episodes, but would otherwise be straight-faced adventure concepts, this in the tradition of Carl Barks' work in the Disney comics. By contrast, every episode of Darkwing Duck is laden with references to superhero, pulp adventure, or super-spy fiction. Darkwing Duck himself is a satirical character. His costume, gas gun and flashy introductions are all reminiscent of pulp heroes and Golden Age superheroes such as The Shadow, The Sandman, Doc Savage, Batman, The Green Hornet and the Julius Schwartz Flash, as well as The Lone Ranger and Zorro. The fictional city of St. Canard is a direct parody of Gotham City. ("Canard" is the French word for "duck".)
== Episodes[edit] ==
Main article: List of Darkwing Duck episodes
Season	Episodes	Episodes	Originally aired 	Originally aired 	Originally aired
Season	Episodes	Episodes	First aired 	Last aired 	Network
1 	65 	65 	September 6, 1991 	May 20, 1992 	Syndicated (Disney Afternoon)
2 	13 	13 	September 14, 1991	December 7, 1991 	ABC
3 	13 	13 	September 12, 1992	December 12, 1992	ABC
== Characters[edit] ==
Main article: List of Darkwing Duck characters
== Production[edit] ==
Darkwing Duck was developed as a last-minute replacement with concept artwork by Michael Peraza for a proposed reboot of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, when the management team realized that Disney did not own the rights to the characters (Disney merely held home video rights to the series).[6]
The show was a spin-off of the very successful series DuckTales.[6] Darkwing Duck entered production roughly one year after DuckTales ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by two specific episodes of DuckTales: "Double-O-Duck" starring Launchpad McQuack as a secret agent,[6] and "The Masked Mallard" in which Scrooge McDuck becomes a masked vigilante superhero wearing a purple uniform and cape. The name "The Masked Mallard" became an epithet often used in the new show to refer to Darkwing himself.[7]
Tad Stones was directed to come up with a series for The Disney Afternoon around the premise of Double-O-Duck, as an executive liked the title Double-O Duck as a spoof of James Bond and felt Launchpad McQuack would take the starring role. It turned out that the title Double-O Duck could not be used as the Broccoli family owned the 'double-o' title.[8]
A new name was selected, "Darkwing Duck". Thus, Stones designed a new character for the lead, Drake Mallard, while selecting McQuack as the sidekick.[8] This name would result in a new look (Double-O Duck was to wear a white tuxedo and black domino mask). Other elements of the show, such as Darkwing's habit of coining new catchphrases every time he announced himself, would be invented during production.[9] (As an in-joke, the episode "A Duck by Any Other Name" had Drake suggest "Double-O Duck" as his new secret identity and Launchpad remarked that it "seems kinda silly".[10])
Where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some preexisting animated characters, Darkwing Duck featured a completely original cast. Even the DuckTales characters it reused had no counterpart in early Disney shorts or the comics. The only exception was the episode "In Like Blunt", which featured cameo appearances by the Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold and Magica De Spell.[11]
== Broadcast history[edit] ==
Darkwing Duck first aired on The Disney Channel on March 31, 1991, as a "sneak preview",[12][13] and then from April 6 into July 14 of that year as a regularly scheduled run on weekend mornings,[12][14][15] as it was advertised to be "The newest animated TV series exclusively to The Disney Channel". In reality, this was a preview-run of the series before it aired on The Disney Afternoon.
Category:1991 cartoons
Category:Darkwing Duck Cartoons
Category:Walt Disney Productions Cartoons