DASTARDLY
& MUTTLEY IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES
(CBS, September 13, 1969-January 3, 1970)
Hanna-Barbera Productions
MAIN CAST:
Paul Winchell – Dick Dastardly,
General
Don Messick – Muttley, Klunk,
Zilly, various
Inspired by the hit film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Hanna-Barbera began work on a series utilizing airplanes. Originally, the program was going to be populated by an all-new assortment of characters led by a German Baron and his dog and called Stop the Pigeon (which many believe remained the show’s name due to its repeated utterance in the show’s theme song). However, Wacky Races happened and changed those plans.
Original concepts for The Vulture Squadron (top) and Yankee Doodle Pigeon (bottom). |
With the villainous Dick Dastardly
(Paul Winchell) and his dog sidekick, the ever-snickering and grumbling Muttley
(Don Messick), being the most popular characters of the program, it was decided
to spin them off into their own starring vehicle. Initially, they were planned
as the villains of the other Wacky Races spin-off, The
Perils of Penelope Pitstop, but it was decided to inject them into
their Stop the Pigeon show as the primary leads. Dastardly was taken off
of the racetrack and put into the skies as the leader of the Vulture Squadron,
whose primary mission was to stop Yankee Doodle Pigeon from carrying out his
secret mission. It was never explicitly stated for which side Dastardly was
working for, but it was a safe assumption it was the wrong side.
Muttley, Zilly, Klunk, Dastardly and Yankee Doodle. |
Along with Muttley, who was always seeking
to be rewarded with a medal, Dastardly was joined by the cowardly Zilly, who
would frequently pull his head into his coat to “disappear”, and the inventive
Klunk (both Messick), who invented most of the wild aircraft and gadgetry used
to go after Yankee Doodle. Zilly and Klunk were equally dim-witted, and the
things they did often backfired. Klunk also spoke constantly in a series of
sound effects mixed in with actual words, which often resulted in Zilly having
to translate what he was saying to Dastardly. The entire squadron was under the
command of an unseen General (Winchell), who would often call and yell at
Dastardly for their failures.
One of the wacky plane concepts seen during the show. |
Dastardly & Muttley in Their
Flying Machines debuted on CBS on
September 13, 1969. The characters and wild aircraft were designed by Jerry Eisenberg, who used World War
I planes as his base inspiration because of how funky they
looked to begin with. Each show was broken up into multiple segments. Two
were the primary story segments of the Squadron’s misadventures in trying to
apprehend Yankee Doodle. There were short 30-second gag segments called “Wing
Dings”, which usually played up a pun of some kind for a visual gag. The last
segment was “Magnificent Muttley”, where Muttley would daydream about himself
in various occupations or adventures and usually being the hero to Dastardly’s
villain. The series was written by Larz
Bourne, Dalton
Sandifer and Mike Maltese
with story direction by Alex
Lovy and Bill Perez. Ted Nichols composed the music,
and the show’s theme was performed by Winchell in character as Dastardly.
Anvil power! |
The series only ran for one season
before entering syndicated reruns on local stations between 1976 and 1982, and hitting
Cartoon Network in 1995 and sister
channel Boomerang in 2000. That short
run didn’t stop it from receiving a wide variety of merchandise, however. Milton Bradley
produced a board
game
and puzzles;
Whitman published a coloring
book
and a tray
puzzle; Kellogg’s ran
several promotions, including allowing kids to “join” the
Squadron, erasers in the shape
of the characters, and a plastic
plane with Muttley piloting; and Hestair made two
puzzles as part of their Puzzler 100 line. After the series
ended, London Brown Watson Ltd. published Dastardly
& Muttley and Friends in 1973, and in 1975 Rico released die-cast
toy planes featuring the characters at least on the cards in
Spain.
Spring power! |
Although never receiving its own
comic, Dastardly & Muttley was a feature in Gold Key Comics’ Hanna-Barbera Fun-In for
at least half of the series’ run. They were less prominent in Gold Key/Whitman’s
Golden Comics Digest, appearing only in #7
and #11.
In 2017, as part of DC Comics’ reimagining
of Hanna-Barbera properties, a Dastardly & Muttley
mini-series was released written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Mauricet. The series took the Flying
Machines concept by having U.S. Air
Force pilot Colonel Richard “Dick” Atcherly and his navigator, Captain
Dudley “Mutt” Muller, become gradually cartoonized when the leader of Unliklistan
tried to use the unstable radioactive element Unstablium 239 to power a
reactor. The (unofficial) Vulture Squadron comes together to try and stop an
errant drone, War Pig One, from further spreading the Unstablium around the
world. The phrase “Stop the Pig One” eventually makes its way into the book, as
does the original cartoon. In 2019, the actual characters returned in Scooby-Doo
Team-Up #44 by Sholly Fisch
and Scott Jeralds, tricking
the Mystery, Inc. gang into thinking Yankee Doodle was a ghost to capture. It
also, at long last, revealed why the Vulture Squadron was after him this whole
time.
The international version of the complete series DVD. |
Dastardly & Muttley has
seen numerous releases to home video; both in English and in other languages. In
1986, Worldvision
Home Video released a VHS collection
containing three episodes of the series. Another collection repeating a couple
of the earlier selections was released by Turner
Pictures Worldwide in 1996. In the United Kingdom, The
Video Collection released their own
compilation in 1986, and again in 1989 when they also released their own
version of the Worldvision release, and included a “Magnificent Muttley”
segment in their Bedtime
Stories: The Cartoon Collection. First Independent
Films took over distribution rights in 1994 with a series
of collections of various segments, and a collection of those in Bumper
Edition. In 2005, Warner
Home Video released the complete series to DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera
Classics Collection. It was re-released in 2017 as part of the Hanna-Barbera
Diamond Collection. In 2012, Warner also released an international collection
called Hanna-Barbera
4 DVD Bumper Pack which contained the first volumes of Dastardly & Muttley, Wacky Races, Top Cat and Hong
Kong Phooey.
EPISODES:
“Fur
Out Furlough / Barn Dance / Hot Soup / Muttley on the Bounty / Slappy Birthday”
(9/13/69) – The General promises an all-expenses paid month-long furlough for
the one that captures the pigeon. / Klunk asks the others if they’re going to
the barn dance. / The mop water gets mixed up with the soup. / Muttley dreams
he’s Fletcher Christian and Dastardly is Captain Bligh. / Muttley can’t
celebrate his birthday until the pigeon is caught.
“Follow
That Feather / Barber / Empty Hangar / What’s New Old Bean? / Operation Anvil”
(9/20/69) – The Squadron uses a feather-seeking homing missile. / Muttley
raises Dastardly’s barber chair a bit too high. / Muttley brings Dastardly a
literal hanger for his clothes. / While gardening, Muttley dreams he’s in Jack and the Beanstalk. / Klunk is
confident that his flying anvil will finally succeed.
“Sky
Hi-IQ / Prop Wash / Carpet / The Marvelous Muttdini / A Plain Shortage of
Planes” (9/27/69) – The General sends in an efficiency expert. / Klunk uses a
plane to dry his laundry. / Dastardly’s men roll out the red carpet when he
returns from vacation. / While locked in the guard house, Muttley dreams he’s
an escape artist. / The Squadron has run out of planes and there’s no money to
buy any more.
“Barnstormers
/ Arnold / Pineapple Sundae / The New Mascot / The Bad Actor / Shape Up or Ship
Out” (10/4/69) – Crashing in a barn causes a country woman to think Zilly is
her Prince Charming. / Dastardly’s giant dog is a little too good at fetching.
/ Dastardly wants his sundae the way he wants it. / Dastardly shows Muttley
their new giant dog mascot. / Muttley dreams he’s being upstaged by Dastardly.
/ The General transfers the Squadron to sea duty as Yankee Doodle’s route takes
him over the water.
“Stop
That Pigeon / Grease Job / Robot / The Big Topper / Zilly’s a Dilly” (10/11/69)
– The Squadron douses the pigeon with pepper to target their new sneeze-detecting
missiles. / Dastardly takes a nap while Zilly greases his car. / Dastardly
tries Klunk’s new housekeeping robot. / Muttley dreams he’s a circus performer
with Dastardly out to sabotage him. / Dastardly calls in a hypnotist to get
Zilly to stop being such a coward.
“The
Cuckoo Patrol / Automatic Door / Airmail / Runway Stripe / The Masked Muttley /
Pest Pilots” (10/18/69) – The Squadron tries to disguise themselves as fellow
pigeons. / Dastardly tries Klunk’s automatic hangar door opener. / Zilly sends
a letter airmail. / Klunk uses a rocket to paint the landing strip’s line. /
Muttley dreams he’s a western hero after outlaw Dastardly. / A mad scientist allows the Squadron to try
his flying machines.
“The
Swiss Yelps / Eagle-Beagle / Deep Reading / Shell Game / Slightly Loaded /
Movie Stuntman” (10/25/69) – The Squadron gives chase through the Swiss Alps. /
Dastardly decides to use an eagle to capture the pigeon. / Dastardly wants a
light to read his book by. / Klunk helps Zilly collect seashells. / Dastardly
tries to get the lightest things to offload of a truck. / Muttley dreams he’s a
Hollywood stuntman and director Dastardly is trying to get him off the
picture—permanently.
“Fly
By Knights / There’s No Fool like a Re-Fuel / Springtime / Dog’s Life / Strange
Equipment / Coonskin Caper” (11/1/69) – After failing an eye test, the Squadron
all get glasses that make their sight even worse.
/ Running out of fuel has Klunk try to devise a way they can refuel in the
air. / The Squadron has to find a new underground spring. / Zilly takes in a
dog fish. / Zilly gets his baseball equipment from Dastardly’s desk. / Muttley dreams he’s Daniel Boone and has to
rescue his girl from Dastardly.
“Movies
Are Badder Than Ever / Home Sweet Homing Pigeon / The Elevator / Obedience
School / Aquanuts” (11/8/69) – The General sends a movie director to film the
Squadron and find out what they’re doing wrong. / The Squadron refuses to
listen to Dastardly’s orders as their enlistments have come to an end. / Zilly
takes the elevator too high. / Muttley returns from obedience school. / Muttley
dreams Dastardly is out to steal the sunken treasure he’s after.
“Lens
A Hand / Vacation Trip Trap / Parachute / Real Snapper / Leonardo De Muttley”
(11/15/69) – Dastardly has to prove to the General that the Squadron is
actually working and not just collecting flight pay. / The Squadron is left to
carry on while Dastardly goes on vacation. / Zilly bails out when the
Squadron’s boat springs a leak. / Dastardly learns he’s sharing his bath with a
crab. / Muttley dreams he’s da Vinci inventing the first flying machine.
“Stop
Which Pigeon? / Ceiling Zero Zero / Fast Freight / Home Run / Start Your
Engines” (11/22/69) – The Squadron hires an actor pigeon for the General’s
inspection visit. / The Squadron tries Klunk’s weather machine against the
pigeon. / Dastardly and Zilly ride atop a train on Dastardly’s “private car”. /
The Squadron plays some baseball. / Muttley dreams he’s a famous racer.
“Who’s
Who? / Operation Birdbrain / Bowling Pin / Shrink Job / Ship Ahooey” (11/29/69)
– Dastardly loses his memory when he falls on his head. / Dastardly has the
Squadron learn to be pigeons. / While complaining about the quiet, a bowling
pin falls on Dastardly’s head. / After Dastardly’s uniform is shrunk in the
wash, they shrink him so he’ll fit. / Muttley dreams he’s trying to swim across
the English Channel.
“Medal
Muddle / Go South Young Pigeon! / The Window Washer / Beach Blast / Admiral
Bird Dog” (12/6/69) – Muttley refuses to work until Dastardly helps him recover
his stolen medals. / The Squadron loses the pigeon amongst migrating birds. / Dastardly
tasks Zilly with washing the base’s windows. / Dastardly has Zilly blow up his
beach ball. / Muttley dreams Dastardly beats him to the North Pole.
“Too
Many Kooks / Ice See You / Echo / Rainmaker / Professor Muttley” (12/13/69) – Dastardly
lets the others come up with plans for catching the pigeon. / The Squadron
gives chase over the frozen northern front. / Zilly and Dastardly have fun with
a cave echo. / Zilly seeds some clouds to bring some rain on a blistering day.
/ Muttley dreams he’s a brilliant inventor whose ideas are constantly stolen by
Dastardly.
“Balmy
Swami / Camouflage Ho-Aroo / Mop Up / Big Turnover / Wild Mutt Muttley”
(12/20/69) – The Squadron crashes in on a swami that predicts a good future for
them, and a bad one for the pigeon. / The General sends a camouflage expert to
help the Squadron. / Dastardly doles out cleaning assignments. / Dastardly
shows his men his circus high-wire act. / Muttley dreams he’s lord of the
jungle.
“Have
Plane Will Travel / Windy Windmill / Tough Break / The Ice Cream Tree /
Astromutt” (12/27/69) – The Squadron is transferred to an area devoid of
pigeons—except for one. / The Squadron uses a windmill plane to give chase to
the pigeon over the Netherlands. / Zilly fixes Dastardly’s brakes. / Klunk
plants a tree that grows ice cream cones. / Muttley dreams he’s an astronaut
with Dastardly scheming against him on a planet.
“Plane
Talk / Happy Bird Day / Boxing / Runaway Rug / Super Muttley” (1/3/70) – Klunk
develops a plane that has a spare plane. / The General orders off all birthday
celebrating until they catch the pigeon—but whose birthday is it? / Zilly takes
Klunk’s boxing stats. / On a pleasure flight, Dastardly and Muttley encounter a
flying carpet. / Muttley dreams he’s a super hero.
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