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Butt-head: Beavis, I told you I wasn't gonna let you touch the remote anymore. Now, give me that, buttknocker.
Beavis: No, way. And stop calling me buttknocker!
Butt-head: Give it here before I ki...Beavis & Butt-Head
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 Aired: 1969 - 1971
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US
Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for CBS from September 13, 1969 to September 5, 1971. The show's working title was Stop the Pigeon, and the show's theme song (sung by Dick Dastardly himself) repeats the phrase so often that many viewers mistake that for the show's actual title. Under the working title, Dick and Muttley weren't part of the cast; a chubby, heavy-jowled Red Baron-esque pilot and a dachshund in flying goggles were the central figures. It appeared that those figures weren't going anywhere insofar as development, so Dastardly and Muttley were plucked from Wacky Races for the series.
The show features Dick Dastardly and Muttley, the comic villains from Wacky Races, as World War I flying aces and members of the Vulture Squadron, a crew of aviators on a mission to stop a homing pigeon named Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering messages to the other side. The show was unusual in having only two voice actors—Paul Winchell as Dastardly and the indistinctly heard General, and Don Messick as everybody else. Each half-hour episode typically features two stories, plus "Wing Dings" (short gags) and "Magnificent Muttley" (Muttley's Walter Mitty-style daydreams).
In the UK, the series remains best known by the shorter name "Dastardly and Muttley".
Each story features variations on the same plot elements: the Vulture Squadron tries to trap Yankee Doodle Pigeon using one or more planes equipped with Klunk's latest contraption(s), but one or more of the Squadron messes up the attempt and the plane(s) either crash, collide or explode.
While they are falling out of the wreckage, Dastardly calls for help, which Muttley either offers or refuses depending on whether Dastardly agrees to give him a medal. Even when Muttley does agree to fly Dastardly out of trouble, Dastardly seldom has a soft landing.
At some point the General calls Dastardly on the phone to demand results. Dastardly assures him that they will soon capture the pigeon, but the General disbelieves him and either bellows down the phone or reaches through it and pulls Dastardly's moustache or nose.
Klunk then comes up with a new invention and "explains" it in his own unique way. Dastardly says "What'd he say? What'd he say?" and Zilly interprets, before attempting to run away. Once Muttley has "persuaded" (usually by biting/attacking him) Zilly to return, the Vulture Squadron take off in their new plane(s) to repeat the whole procedure over and over again. Eventually the Squadron are left to lick their wounds as Yankee Doodle Pigeon flies off over the horizon, blowing his bugle triumphantly.
Like its predecessor, Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines owes a great deal to the Road Runner cartoons, with Dastardly once again taking the Wile E. Coyote role. Both characters are fanatics, incapable of giving up even in the face of repeated and painful failure. Michael Maltese, who wrote many of the original Road Runner shorts, is also credited as a writer on Wacky Races, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley. Around 2005 a DVD of the complete series was released from Warner Home Video.
Dick Dastardly's appearance in this show was based on the English actor Terry-Thomas, the moustache-twirling villain of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, the film which provided the inspiration for Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.
Magnificent Muttley--
In the 17 episodes of this small cartoon, in which Muttley is the main character, Muttley imagines himself in a lot of situations. These are the characters he pretends to be:
Sailor
Jack and the Beanstalk
Magician
Theatre Actor
Circus Acrobat
Masked Avenger
Movie Stuntman
Daniel Boone
Scuba Diver
Leonardo Da Vinci
Car Racer
Olympic Swimmer
Arctic Explorer
Inventor
Tarzan
Astronaut
Super-Hero
Although the Wacky Races series is never mentioned, The Mean Machine can be seen in the numerous episodes of Magnificent Muttley.
Muttley's Birthday is on the 16th of April (it is seen in the "Happy Birthday" episode).
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