Dry Hard

Someone is poisoning St. Canard's bottled water supply during a heat wave. All the bottled water, except Bud Flud's Sparkling Crystal Pure Flud Water and Koo Koo Fizzy Water, that is. Staking out the Koo Koo bottling factory, Darkwing and Launchpad surprise Bud Flud in the act. In an unfortunate accident, Bud tumbles into the vat of contaminated water. Darkwing and Launchpad rush to save him, but it's too late. Darkwing soon learns that there's a new villain in town, the Liquidator, the master of all liquids, and the Liquidator blames Darkwing for throwing him into the vat. Yes, the Liquidator is none other than Bud Flud! And he's turned all the water in St. Canard into rubber.

Gosalyn Waddlemeyer-Mallard, Launchpad McQuack, Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard, Herb Muddlefoot, Tom Lockjaw, Liquidator, Woman, Jingle Girls

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.