This year marks the 50th anniversary of the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. Back in 1969, the famous signature tune, Stop the Pigeon, heralded the start of the animated series, in which the pair played World War I flying aces.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's theme song played over a title sequence which saw Dick Dastardly and his pal Muttley being continually thwarted in their efforts to catch a carrier pigeon, who could fly faster than their planes!
Plot's origins
Despite the dreadful duo and other members of the Vulture Squadron of aviators chasing the pigeon in their aircraft, he always remained one step ahead. Although it was never definitively stated, the Vulture Squadron presumably worked for the German military, as the homing pigeon was called Yankee Doodle Pigeon.
The squadron?s aim was to prevent the pigeon from delivering messages to headquarters from the Front Line. This was a genuine practice in real life during the First World War, when carrier pigeons were deployed by several nations to carry vital messages strapped to their legs, long before digital technology was invented.
One famous such bird (known simply as Pigeon Number 498) was sent for help by Skipper Thomas Crisp of the Royal Navy, when his ship, His Majesty's Smack Nelson, was attacked by a German U-boat in August 1917. Despite being wounded by shrapnel, the trusty pigeon delivered the message.
Crisp died defending his ship and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, but the pigeon's bravery enabled reinforcements to be deployed in time to save his crew. Sadly, Pigeon Number 498 later died of his injuries, although his endeavours were noted in historical records.
Dick Dastardly
The animated Yankee Doodle Pigeon was too smart to be captured by Dastardly, Muttley and their cohorts and always outwitted their often bumbling efforts. The duo had made the transition from the earlier Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, Wacky Races, when they were the villains of a car race.
Aired in 1968, Wacky Races had been based on the 1965 motor racing movie, The Great Race, starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. The animated contestants in Wacky Races competed in an "anything goes" race to win the World's Wackiest Racer championship.
Dastardly continued to be a "bounder" in Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, which was based on the 1965 British comedy starring Terry Thomas and James Fox, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Dastardly's character was said to be based on the "cad" persona that legendary British actor Thomas played in many famous comedies.
He was always shouting frantically "Stop the pigeon!" and when this didn't happen and another cunning plan went wrong, he would say, "Drat, drat and double drat!"
Despite Dastardly supposedly being the brains of the operation, on many occasions, Muttley saved him from disaster after hearing Dastardly's familiar cry of, "Muttley! Do something!"
Muttley
The dog didn't speak much, but when Dastardly uttered his famous cry, he was always there to save the day, often putting himself at risk to do so. Muttley was a comic character whose sniggering laugh remains famous to this day, as he often giggled to himself when Dastardly got himself into yet another scrape!
Although he was portrayed as the bungling sidekick, on the contrary, it was often the dog that saved the day. He would do so while cursing indistinctly to himself, uttering the nonsensical phrase, "Sassa frassa rassa!" under his breath, through clenched teeth.
This happened a lot - usually when Dastardly described and put into action another "foolproof" plot! Muttley also chortled when Dastardly suffered another mishap. Since the days of Wacky Races, Muttley had learned how to fly without the use of an aircraft, simply by spinning his tail like a helicopter blade!
This frequently enabled him to save Dastardly from falling (most things that Dastardly attempted ended in disaster and the familiar cry of, "Muttley! Do something!"), so the dog would spin to the rescue, keeping them both in the air by using his tail.
Muttley became so popular with young viewers that he had his own weekly segment in the cartoon called Magnificent Muttley, in which he daydreamed that he was a hero and imagined all the daring antics he could get up to - Dastardly was the villain in his dreams!
Children's favourite
The cartoon by Hanna-Barbera Productions was originally broadcast in the United States on the CBS network as a Saturday morning cartoon, starting on 13th September 1969. Although the series had only a short run, ending in January 1970 after 17 episodes, it went down in cartoon folklore as one of the greatest animated series of all time.
It was then purchased by the BBC and broadcast in the UK as part of the children's television schedule. There was also a Japanese version of the show, with different actors providing the voice-overs for the characters.
Dastardly and Muttley was then shown in syndicated re-runs on various US television channels between 1976 and 1982. The series was released on DVD in May 2005 and retains its cult status to this day.
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Muttley! Do something!
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