The Duck Era: 1985-1997

October 13, 2009

The Duck Era: 1985-1997

Posted by Mary at 8:35 am

With pioneers like Donald and Daffy, it’s no wonder ducks have been central characters in cartoons and stories. However between the periods of 1985-1997, a fascinating phenomenon occurred and all of a sudden duck shows were popping up everywhere, giving rise to what some are calling the Duck Boom. Vampire ducks, Hockey ducks, Billionaire ducks, Batman/Shadow-wannabe ducks… Ducks seemed to be the perfect ingredient for a hit series.

As we look back at the famous ducks that brought us laughter and entertainment when we got home from school and at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings, let us commemorate The Duck Era.

Darkwing Duck

The terror that flaps in the night, the neurosis that requires a $500-an-hour shrink, Darkwing Duck was an Emmy-nominated show released by the Walt Disney Company. It was the first of two spin-offs of Duck Tales that ran from 1991 to 1995 and again from 1996 to 1997. The show’s hero- clumsy caped crime buster Darkwing Duck- protected the citizens of St.Canard from enemies like NegaDuck, Quackerjack, Ammonia Pine and Ample Grime, with the help of his sidekick Launchpad McQuack (the fumbling pilot cross-over from Duck Tales).

DuckTales

Duckworth, Scrooge, Mrs. Beakley, the Beagle Boys, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Launchpad, the Sea Duck plane… DuckTales was an all-time classic. It aired from 1987-1990. The show had enough success that it spawned a feature film, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp and two spin-off series’: Darkwing Duck and Quack Pack.

Count Duckula

Does the opening narrator’s voice sound strangely similar to the one at the beginning of Thriller? Coincidence, it is not. That is the voice of Vincent Price. Count Duckula was a spin-off from an episode of the British television series Danger Mouse. The show follows the misadventures of Count Duckula- a vegetarian Vampire Duck and his servants Igor and Nanny. Most of the stories revolved around Count Duckula’s search for riches and fame, and his castle has the ability to teleport around the world.

Duckman

Unlike most duck shows of the time, Duckman was geared towards a more mature audience. Duckman was the lascivious, rude, raunchy private detective, who always managed to solve enough cases to cover his alimony payments and cable bills. The show aired Saturday nights, from 1994-1997, and featured the renown voices of actors Jason Alexander as Eric Tiberius Duckman and Tim Curry as his arch nemesis George Herbert Walker ‘King’ Chicken.

Howard the Duck

In 1986, Lucasfilm and Universal Pictures produced the movie Howard the Duck. Inspired by the 1976 Marvel Comic character Howard the Duck, the film was among Siskel and Ebert’s picks for the Worst Films of 1986, however it went on to have a significant cult following.

The Plucky Duck Show

The Plucky Duck Show, starring Plucky Duck was a short-lived spin-off of Tiny Toon Adventures and ran for 13 episodes in 1992.

Wade Duck: Orson’s Farm- a segment of Garfield and Friends

Garfield and Friends ran on CBS Saturday mornings from 1988 to 1994 and on Nickelodeon from 1997-2000. Orson’s Farm was the quickie segment between Garfield shorts and Wade Duck was the hypochondriac, phobic duck that was petrified of everything from chocolate donuts to his own shadow.

Hard Luck Duck

Hard Luck Duck aired on the Cartoon Network in 1995. The show was created by William Hanna (Hanna-Barbera). Hard Luck Duck’s character was criticized for being almost identical to the 1960’s Hanna-Barbera character Yakky Doodle.

Quack Pack

Another animated duck series made by The Walt Disney Company, Quack Pack debuted in 1996 and lasted one season. The show followed the adventures of Donald Duck and his teenage nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. DuckTales fans were pretty pissed about how little Quack Pack’s characters resembled their beloved Disney ones. Trying to appeal to the 12-and-over crowd, the show idiotically dropped the spitty, incomprehensible duck voices and the efforts were received poorly.

The Mighty Ducks

The Mighty Ducks movie in 1992 was the first in the series of Mighty Ducks crazes. It went from movie, to NHL franchise, to a cartoon show. In the film, hot-shot lawyer Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) gets pulled over for drunk driving and sentenced to coach a “District 5″ peewee hockey team. They are notoriously awful, they lose every game, and what’s more is that Bombay’s traumatic hockey past makes coaching these losers an even bigger obstacle. Eventually Gordon lightens up and starts acting like a mentor to the kids. They start getting really good. The “Ducks” get their name after Bombay’s employer, Mr. Ducksworth. Then they start implementing cool duck tricks like the Flying V and eventually beat the evil Hawks.

The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim played their first NHL game in the 1993-94 season. The club was founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a name based on the 1992 film. Disney sold the franchise for $75 million in 2005 to Henry and Susan Samueli, who changed the name of the team to the Anaheim Ducks before the 2006–07 season.

Inspired by The Mighty Ducks films and the subsequent NHL hockey team, the Mighty Ducks animated series was a show about an intergalactic ice-hockey team from another dimension. Though the idea of alien ducks playing hockey was nothing short of genius, the show only aired from 1996-1997.

Ace Duck

Ace Duck made a brief appearance in The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, however, if you had parents that liked to give you reject toys, then you certainly had this duck in your collection.