Trading Faces

Trading Faces

September 24, 1991 TV Episode Darkwing Duck

Studio
Walt Disney Television Animation.
Animation studio
Sun Woo Animation.
Distributor
Buena Vista Television

Synopsis

FOWL is at it again: using a giant rocket, it has managed to stop the rotation of the Earth, causing one side to fry and the other to freeze. But Darkwing has problems of his own. A freak accident has left him in Gosalyn's body.

Characters

Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard, Launchpad McQuack, Gosalyn Waddlemeyer-Mallard, Honker Muddlefoot, J. Gander Hooter, Steelbeak, Police Officer

Credits

Producing

Producer
Tad Stones, Alan Zaslove

Writing

Writer
Julia Lewald (as Julia Jane Lewald), Dev Ross
Story
Tad Stones

Voices

Voice
Jim Cummings (Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard), Terence McGovern (Launchpad McQuack), Christine Cavanaugh (Gosalyn Waddlemeyer-Mallard), Katie Leigh (Honker Muddlefoot), Danny Mann (J. Gander Hooter), Rob Paulsen (Steelbeak, Police Officer), Edie McClurg

Production notes

First aired in syndication on The Disney Afternoon.

Darkwing Duck, a spin-off from Disney's hugely successful DuckTales, took the noble premise of cartoon superheroes like Batman and Superman, then turned it on its head.

In the vast reaches of the fictional metropolis of St. Canard, where evil lurked and crime ran rampant, there was only one chance for the future. By day, this great, feathered hope was known as Drake Mallard, a mild-mannered working duck. But by night, when his services were needed most, he turned into his crime-fighting alter ego, Darkwing Duck.

Like Batman and Superman, Darkwing was destined to fight the forces of evil and restore order to civilization. But unlike Batman and Superman, the superhero thing didn't come naturally to Darkwing Duck. A rather ill-fated (and all around hapless) superhero, Darkwing was helped in his efforts by his adopted daughter Gosalyn, her friend Honker Muddlefoot, and personal pilot Launchpad McQuack. While Darkwing and Launchpad believed themselves to be the saviors of duckkind, they couldn't have done it alone. Like Penny and Brain in the Inspector Gagdet cartoons, the resourceful Gosalyn and the intelligent, perpetually congested Honker were usually the true heroes.

The oversized ego of Darkwing Duck was often humbled by his rival, Fenton Crackshell, better known as Gizmo Duck. Both were in competition to defeat such criminal masterminds as Megavolt (an electrically charged rat), Negaduck (who was like a Bizarro Darkwing), and Bushroot. Perhaps worst of the arch-villains was Steel Beak, leader of F.O.W.L. (the Fiendish Organization of World Larceny).

Over the course of its lengthy run, Darkwing Duck proved to be as popular as its parent program. The show debuted on The Disney Channel in April 1993, then moved to a much wider audience that fall when new episodes appeared both on ABC's Saturday morning lineup and in weekday syndication as part of the Disney Afternoon. Whatever the location, time, or station, you could rest assured that when Darkwing Duck was around, there would be no fowl play in ducktown.