It was two years after "Batman". Disney saw an opportunity to tweak the Dark Knight, and added Darkwing Duck not only to the Disney Afternoon block, but also placed the series on ABC on Saturdays.
Drake Mallard (Jim Cummings) is a single parent trying to be a good father to young Goslyn (Christine Cavanaugh). Mallard, it happens, is a parody not so much of Bruce Wayne, but, rather, Kent Allard, the true alter-ego of The Shadow. The hat Mallard wears as Darkwing Duck references the pulp & radio legend.
Darkwing Duck ran for 2 seasons of 13 episodes on ABC (1991-3), and one season as part of Disney Afternoon (1991-2), and, like The Real Ghostbusters, the network & syndicated episodes were never mixed together, likely until the ABC run ended, though I am not sure.
Here's the intro, complete with bouncy theme music:
Series creator Tad Stones claimed that, despite the presence of Launchpad McQuack from DuckTales as Darkwing's sidekick, there was no connection between the two, even though Darkwing had, essentially, replaced DuckTales, which was out of production by 1991.
Today, however, Darkwing is clearly in the DuckTales universe, and is being primed to be spun off into his own series anew.
Rating: A-.
5 comments:
Launchpad's previous connection to DuckTales was only referenced in one episode of Darkwing Duck titled "Tiff of the Titans" where he introduces Drake Mallard to Fenton Crackshell (Gizmoduck's true identity). He tells Drake that "He (Fenton) and I used to work for the same guy!" That of course being Scrooge McDuck.
Darkwing Duck was originally conceived as a secret agent parody called "Double-O Duck", but I believe that there were some legal issues with Ian Fleming's James Bond creative team that couldn't be resolved, so Disney decided to parody The Shadow instead.
To piggy back on to Goldstar's comment, the initial seed of inspiration for Darkwing Duck supposedly came from a DuckTales episode titled "Double-O-Duck", in which Launchpad is asked to impersonate a James Bond style secret agent whom he bears a striking resemblance to. This led Tad Stones and Alan Zaslove to begin work on a spy parody show with the same title, but apparently Ian Fleming's estate didn't approve a Bond spoof, so Darkwing became more of a Shadow/superhero parody, although he retained his connection to a spy organization, SHUSH, in several episodes.
I'd read about "Double-O-Duck", and it doesn't surprise me that the Bond folks had a problem with it.
To clarify, Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered me to create a show called "Double-0 Duck" because he thought it was a catchy title. However, I was ordered not to use Launchpad as the lead since the point was to create a new character. I pitched him a parody idea which he hated (truthfully, I was not excited about it either) then told me to try again. In a brainstorming session, one of the story editors on staff, Duane Capizzi, said that with his mask, cape and tuxedo, he looked more like an old pulp hero. That got me excited and started me thinking that basing his "spy team" on Doc Savage's team of eccentric specialists was a fresh way to approach a spy story. Of course, the series didn't gel until Gosalyn was added, giving the show a sense of family-and an additional source of comedy. Disney took out ads and began selling the show, however it was Cubby Broccoli, film producer and holder of all Bond media rights, who took issue with the name, not the Flemming estate. Once freed from the name, I pushed the show to my tastes inspired by my childhood love of DC Silver Age comics which were quite goofy at times. The duck took bits from the Shadow, Green Hornet and, obviously, Batman which congealed into Darkwing.
Welcome aboard, Tad, glad to hear from you.
So Duane Capizzi worked for Disney before going to Sony, and, then, WB? Never knew that. Apparently, Cubby Broccoli had his sense of humor surgically removed......
Thanks for the input. It's greatly appreciated.
Post a Comment