Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines
Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (or simply Dastardly and Muttley in the UK and Ireland) is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and a spin-off from Wacky Races. The show was originally broadcast as a Saturday morning cartoon, airing from September 13, 1969, to January 3, 1970, on CBS. 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.
| Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines | |
|---|---|
DVD box set | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | |
| Written by | Larz Bourne, Dalton Sandifer, Michael Maltese |
| Directed by | |
| Voices of | |
| Narrated by | Don Messick |
| Composer | Ted Nichols |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 17 (34 Dastardly and Muttley segments, 17 Magnificent Muttley segments, 34 brief Wing Dings segments) |
| Production | |
| Producers |
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| Running time | 22 minutes (excluding network breaks) |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 13, 1969 – January 3, 1970 |
| Related | |
| Wacky Races | |
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.
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).