Darkwing Duck

**Darkwing Duck** is an American television series created by Tad Stones. It is a spin-off to the series DuckTales.

It focuses on the adventures of the titular character, who is the super heroic alter-ego of ordinary suburban duck Drake Mallard.

The series premiered on Syndication on September 6, 1991 and aired for three seasons on ABC until December 5, 1992.

## Plot

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 bafflingly 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.

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".)

## Cast and Characters

### Main

* Jim Cummings as Drake Mallard/Darkwing Duck
* Terry McGovern as Launchpad McQuack
* Christine Cavanaugh as Gosalyn Mallard

### The Muddlefoots

* Jim Cummings as Herbert "Herb" Muddlefoot, Sr.
* Susan Tolsky as Binkie Muddlefoot
* Dana Hill as Tankard "Tank" H. Muddlefoot
* Katie Leigh as Herbert "Honker" Muddlefoot, Jr.

### Allies

* Hamilton Camp as Fenton Crackshell/Gozmoduck
* Kath Soucie as Morgana Macawber
* Frank Welker as Eek and Squeak / Archie
* Susan Silo as Neptunia
* Joey Camen as Stegmutt
* Danny Mann as J. Gander Hooter
* Ron Feinberg as Vladimir Goudenov Grizzlikof
* Jodi Carlisle as Dr. Sara Bellum
* Peter Renaday as Derek Blunt
* Sara Patridge as Professor Darkwing Deer
* Jeff Rawluk as Professor Darkwing Donkey
* William Callaway as Comet Guy
* Jim Cummings as Posiduck

### Villains

* Jim Cummings as Negaduck / Newt Glimmer / Professor Moliarty / Horatio / Darkwarrior Duck / Barada
* Tino Insana as Dr. Reginald Bushroot
* Frank Welker as Posey / Lilliput / Nikto
* Jack Angel as Bud E. Flud/The Liquidator
* Darleen Carr and B.J. Ward as Liquidator's Mascots
* Dan Castellaneta as Megavolt
* Michael Bell as Quackerjack
* Rob Paulsen as Steelbeak / Flarg
* Mitzi McCall as Ammonia Pine
* Ellen Gerstell as Ample Grime
* John Stephenson as Major Synapse
* Danny Mann as Hotshot
* Teresa Ganzel as Flygirl
* Tim Curry as Taurus Bulba
* Hal Rayle as Hammerhead Hannigan / Wacko
* Marcia Wallace as Clovis
* Charlie Adler as Major Trenchrot
* Patrick Pinney as The King
* Candi Milo as Lamont
* Neil Ross as The Refrigerator / Nodoff
* S. Scott Bullock as The Television Set
* Brian George as The Electric Guitar
* Marilyn Lightstone as The Hooded Hair Dryer Chair
* Kenneth Mars as Arturo Tuskernini
* Michael Gough as Jambalaya Jake
* Hamilton Carp as Jock Newbody
* Brenda Vaccaro and Rob Paulsen as Slim and Flex
* Barry Gordon as Dr. Fossil
* Sheryl Bernstein as Isis Vanderchill
* Ron Pailillo as Ordinary Guy
* Marty Ingels as Beelzebug the Devil King
* Jonathan Harris as Phineas Sharp
* Phil Hartman as Paddywhack
* Jess Harnell as Bleeb
* Jennifer Darling as Camille Chameleon
* Susan Tolsky as Taleya
* Dani Staahl as Splatter Phoenix
* Brian Cummings as Weasel Loman
* Victoria Carroll as D-2000
* Pamela Adlon as Heatwave
* April Winchell as Bianca Beakley/The Bugmaster
* Jesse Corti as Cement Head / Swindlin' Swine
* Chick Vennera as Johnny T. Rex
* Andrei Torossian as Ice-Head Harry

## Episodes

See Also: List of Darkwing Duck Episodes

 2 | 13
 3 | 13

## Video Games

* Darkwing Duck (Video Game)
* Darkwing Duck (1992 Video Game)

## Production

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).

The show was a spin-off of the very successful series DuckTales. 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, 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.

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.

A new name was selected, "Darkwing Duck". Thus, Stones designed a new character for the lead, Drake Mallard, while selecting McQuack as the sidekick. 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. (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".)

Where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some pre-existing 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.

## Release

Darkwing Duck first aired on The Disney Channel on March 31, 1991, as a "sneak preview", and then from April 6 into July 14 of that year as a regularly scheduled run on weekend mornings, 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.

The two-part episode "Darkly Dawns the Duck" originally aired as an hour-length TV special on September 6, 1991, as part of a larger syndicated TV special, The Darkwing Duck Premiere / 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 aired in syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon block of shows. Seasons 2 and 3 aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. The final episode aired on December 12, 1992. Until ABC stopped airing reruns of the show in September 1993 and it was replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog (Sat-AM) series. But All episodes remained in syndicated reruns on The Disney Afternoon until 1995 and then returned to the line-up from 1996 to 1997.

Starting on October 2, 1995, Darkwing Duck was rerun on The Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening and which also included TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. On September 3, 1996, Darkwing Duck was dropped from the beginning of the block when Goof Troop was added to the end.

The series was last seen in the U.S. on Toon Disney on January 19, 2007, as part of the Toon Disney Wild Card Stack. Certain episodes from the show's original run rarely re-aired while the show was on Toon Disney. These episodes appear to have been removed for content reasons. The most prominent of the rarely seen episodes is "Hot Spells", which was never re-aired after its initial broadcast on ABC because of its religiously sensitive subject matter.

Darkwing Duck was one of the first American animated TV series to be officially broadcast in syndication in the former Soviet Union.

The show formerly aired on Disney XD in international territories such as the Netherlands and Germany.

The show also airs on the Disney+ streaming service, with the exception of the banned episode "Hot Spells".

## Reception

### Critical Response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval of 83% based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.00 out of 10.

Nigel Mitchell of CBR.com stated, "He was the terror that flapped in the night. He was the fingernail that scraped the blackboard of your soul. He was Darkwing Duck, and he made a generation laugh and thrill with his crazy adventures. Following the success of "Ducktales," the 1992 TV show "Darkwing Duck" was one of the first action-oriented shows on Disney's block, and wasn't like any other show on TV." Amanda Dyer of Common Sense Media rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "Darkwing Duck is a 1990s Disney animated comedy that has slapstick cartoon violence (including weapon use) and mild name calling. It follows the heroic yet self-serving antics of cartoon duck superhero Darkwing Duck as he battles various wacky supervillains with his sidekick, Launchpad McQuack."

Darkwing Duck was named the 93rd Best Animated Series by IGN, calling it "one of the many reasons why after-school cartoons rule." "Torgo's Pizzeria Podcast" gave a favourable retrospective review to Darkwing Duck in April 2012; the podcast did however note some weaknesses with the series. Nick Caruso of TVLine lists the theme song from the series, performed by long-time Disney Afternoon veteran Jeff Pescetto, among the best animated series themes of all time.