Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines

Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines
DVD box set
GenreComedy
Created by
Written byLarz Bourne, Dalton Sandifer, Michael Maltese
Directed by
Voices of
Narrated byDon Messick
ComposerTed Nichols
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes17 (34 Dastardly and Muttley segments, 17 Magnificent Muttley segments, 34 brief Wing Dings segments)
Production
Producers
Running time22 minutes (excluding network breaks)
Production companyHanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 13, 1969 (1969-09-13) –
January 3, 1970 (1970-01-03)
Related
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (or simply Dastardly and Muttley in the UK[1] and Ireland) is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and a spin-off of Wacky Races. The show was originally broadcast as a Saturday morning cartoon, airing from September 13, 1969, to January 3, 1970, on CBS.[2] The show focuses on the efforts of Dick Dastardly and his canine sidekick Muttley to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon, a carrier pigeon who carries secret messages (hence the name of the show's theme song "Stop The Pigeon"). The title is a reference to the film and song Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.[3]

The original working title of the show was Stop That Pigeon. The peppy and memorable theme song by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (based on the jazz standard "Tiger Rag") has a chorus that repeats the phrase "Stop the pigeon" seven times in a row.[4]

The show had only two voice actors: Paul Winchell as Dick Dastardly, the indistinctly heard General and other characters and Don Messick as Muttley, Klunk, Zilly and other characters. Each 22-minute episode was broadcast over half an hour on the network, including network breaks, and contained: two Dastardly & Muttley stories, one Magnificent Muttley story (Muttley's Walter Mitty-style daydreams), and two or three short Wing Dings (brief gags to break up the longer stories).

  1. ^ Dastardly and Muttley Radio Times entry at the BBC Genome Project, accessed 17 July 2023
  2. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 148. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  3. ^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
  4. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 234–236. ISBN 978-1476665993.