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Duck Dodgers (TV series)

Duck Dodgers is an American animated television series developed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone based on the 1953 theatrical animated short film of the same name, which stars the character Daffy Duck. It is a comic science fiction series, featuring the Looney Tunes characters in metafictional roles, with Daffy Duck reprising his titular role from the original short. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation from 2003 to 2005.[1] It originally aired on Cartoon Network and later ended on Boomerang.[2]

Duck Dodgers

Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
by Charles M. Jones, Michael Maltese, & Warner Bros.

Spike Brandt
Tony Cervone

Spike Brandt
Tony Cervone

Wayne Coyne
Steven Drozd

"Duck Dodgers", performed by Tom Jones and The Flaming Lips

"Duck Dodgers" (Instrumental)

Robert Kral
Douglas Romayne

United States

English

3

39 (list of episodes)

Sander Schwartz

Rob Desales

22 minutes

Warner Bros. Animation

Cartoon Network (2003–2005)
Boomerang (2005)

August 23, 2003 (2003-08-23) –
November 11, 2005 (2005-11-11)

Concept[edit]

Though primarily based around the original Duck Dodgers short (which is set in roughly 2318 AD), the series also takes visual and thematic cues from other Looney Tunes shorts, with other Looney Tunes characters appearing in the series, albeit adapted to fit within the show's universe.[3] For example, Yosemite Sam becomes "K'chutha Sa'am", a parody of Klingons in Star Trek, Elmer Fudd becomes "The Fudd", a parasitic mind-altering alien disease, (a combination of the Flood and the Borg), Wile E. Coyote was a Predator-like alien hunter. Also appearing in the show were Witch Hazel, Count Bloodcount, Goofy Gophers, Nasty Canasta, Taz, Rocky and Mugsy, the Crusher, "Shropshire Slasher", Michigan J. Frog, Ralph Phillips, Egghead Junior, and the unnamed evil scientist who owned Gossamer.

Theme songs[edit]

The show's theme song (arranged by the Flaming Lips) is sung by Tom Jones, in a style reminiscent of the theme from the James Bond film Thunderball.[4] Daffy once played a caricature of Jones, who was his singing voice in the second-season episode "Talent Show A Go-Go", singing his signature song, "It's Not Unusual". Dave Mustaine of the thrash metal band Megadeth was featured in the third-season episode "In Space, No One Can Hear You Rock", with the band performing the song "Back in the Day" from their 2004 album The System Has Failed.

Accolades[edit]

Duck Dodgers was nominated in 2004 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production Produced For Children, Music in an Animated Television Production, Production Design in an Animated Television Production, and Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. It won the Annie award in 2004, for Music in an Animated Television Production, music by Robert J. Kral. It was also nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing – Live Action and Animation and Special Class Animated Program in 2004,[5] and again in 2005.[6] It later won for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program—Joe Alaskey.[7] The series ended production in 2005 after its third season.

(voiced by Joe Alaskey) – A hapless soul that was accidentally frozen for over three centuries for unknown reasons. He was later revived by Dr. I.Q. Hi in the 24½th century. Dodgers is arrogant, lazy, gullible, and not particularly intelligent. However, throughout the series, he occasionally displays surprisingly high levels of heroism and competence, suggesting that he is not quite as daft as he appears to be, although he usually succeeds through sheer dumb luck and the work of the Eager Young Space Cadet. Though he doesn't show it often, Dodgers cares deeply for his cadet, even though he often demeans and puts him through humiliating situations. He is played by Daffy Duck.

Duck Dodgers

(voiced by Bob Bergen) – Looks up to Dodgers, seeing him as a father-figure in many ways. He is utterly loyal to Dodgers and doesn't doubt a word he says. Despite being much smarter than his so-called hero, he lets him give all the orders. Dodgers cares deeply for his Cadet though he rarely shows it, and often tries to take credit for the Cadet's work. Dodgers relies heavily on the Cadet's assistance and would likely fail most missions without it. The Cadet is also fairly successful as a ladies man, often being the one who gets the girl Dodgers swoons over. He graduated summa cum laude from the Protectorate Academy. The Cadet is played by Porky Pig.

The Eager Young Space Cadet

Dr. (voiced by Richard McGonagle) – The overweight scientist that revived Dodgers after being frozen for three centuries. Serious and hard-working, he is often irritated and frustrated with Dodgers' incompetent side, and doubts that Dodgers truly was a 21st-century hero. In addition to being a hard-working scientist, he constantly wears gloves that stretch up his arm, ending at his elbow and leaving a gap between his fingertips and the glove's tips (which he did not wear in the 1953 short).

I.Q. Hi

Captain Star Johnson (voiced by ) – Johnson is a rival captain of Dodgers' in the Galactic Protectorate. Gifted with a university education, Johnson has a Flash Gordon-like personality about him, and once took Dodgers to court over his incompetence. Since then, Johnson has been involved in freeing Mars from the military coup by General Z9, and searching for gangsters when Dodgers went missing for a brief period of time. He also played rocketball in college.

John O'Hurley

Bigfoot (voiced by Michael Patrick McGill) – In "The Six Wazillion Dollar Duck" (a parody of ), it was revealed that Bigfoot worked for the Protectorate as a Maintenance Supervisor and was also the first (thing) to receive cyborganic implants (Steve Boston was the first man to receive them, but before The Protectorate tested it on someone with a similar anatomy). These implants enhanced his combat abilities, as he is able to hold off several centurions before they bait and trapped him with pie. He is seemingly very uneducated as the only two words he says are "Duck" and "Stereo".

The Six Million Dollar Man

Production[edit]

Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone were both fans of the Daffy Duck short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century and spent six years trying to get the concept made as either a TV series or feature film until the two were given a production commitment.[8] After a prime time Daffy Duck series Brandt and Cervone were developing with Paul Rugg described as The Larry Sanders Show meets Jack Benny failed to emerge from development hell, Brandt and Cervone moved on to Duck Dodgers and incorporated some of their unused concepts.[8]

 – (Daffy Duck as) Duck Dodgers, (Marvin the Martian as) Martian Commander X-2, Beaky Buzzard, Drake Darkstar, Hubie and Bertie, Rocky, Muttley

Joe Alaskey

 – (Porky Pig as) the Eager, Young Space Cadet

Bob Bergen

 – Dr. I.Q. Hi

Richard McGonagle

 – Queen Tyr'ahnee

Tia Carrere

 – Centurion Robots, Captain Long, Klunkin Warrior

Michael Dorn

 – Captain Star Johnson

John O'Hurley

Looney Tunes

Daffy Duck

Duck Dodgers

List of Duck Dodgers characters

at IMDb

Duck Dodgers