/ / Show Synopsis and Info \ \

Drake Mallard is a single male duck living in the suburbs with his best friend, Launchpad McQuack, and his adopted daughter, Gosalyn. By day, they deal with the trials and tribulations of everyday family life, such as living next door to the Muddlefoot family (consisting of Herb, door-to-door Quackerware salesman, his perfect housewife Binkie, his older bully of a son Tank, and his younger genius of a son, Honker, who happens to be Gosalyn's best friend). By night, Drake dons a mask, cape, and wide-brimmed fedora to become his alter-ego, Darkwing Duck, to protect the city of Saint Canard from crazed supervillains. Launchpad acts as his sidekick and personal pilot, and Gosalyn usually tags along even when her dad tells her not to. Sometimes, even Honker Muddlefoot tags along either to keep Gosalyn company or to act as Darkwing's scientific consultant. Among the villains are heroes must face, there's the electrifying Megavolt, the evil spy codenamed Steelbeak, a swamp-dwelling hick named Jambalya Jake with his gator named Gumbo, the melodramatic movie director Tuskerninni, and even Darkwing's evil lookalike, the chainsaw-wielding Negaduck. But these personages are only a sample of all the villains Darkwing went up against, relying only on his wit, his intellect, his skill in Quack-Fu, and his trusty gas gun. Not to mention countless gadgets supplied to him by international peace-keeping spy organzation SHUSH.

The Darkwing Duck TV show was very popular back in the day, and it's no wonder: the stories were so exciting, and the characters were so interesting, and both were so completely hilarious with their clever and cutting wit that it was, quite simply, a fun show for all to watch. There was a little controversy back then, however, over the amount of violence the show presented, and it seems to have affected many of the current broadcasts of the episodes; some scenes are cut out entirely because of a little gunplay. But the violence was by no means overwhelming, and the show did manage to receive a few Emmy nominations, so you should keep in mind that Darkwing Duck wasn't only about good guys and bad guys beating each other up; there is much more to it than that. If you ever watched the two-parter first episode, "Darkly Dawns the Duck," you'd see what I mean. It's about making you laugh and cry, too.

There are very few complaints made about the show these days (after all, no more episodes are being made), but these are the kind I feel should be addressed. One "DuckTales" fan complained that the cynicism in show's humor was overwhelming to the point where it got tired out. Perhaps being a "DuckTales" fan didn't exactly prepare this person for the Darkwing brand of humor. "DuckTales" relied heavily on the types of gags used in the old Donald Duck and Uncle $crooge comic books. They were a little more cartoony and fantasy-oriented. The Darkwing series took place in an environment that was very real and more modern, despite the comic book outrageousness of the characters and the occasional anvil gag. The humor of both shows were very much tied in with their storytelling. It all depends on what method of storytelling you prefer when you want to decide which show is better.

Another complaint, one that is the most commonly made about DWD, is that the show resembles "Inspector Gadget." Many even claim that Darkwing is a rip-off of this classic cartoon. Sez they: "Gosalyn and Honker are always running around helping Darkwing save the day, and Darkwing has all these crimefighting tools with him, making it a complete, no-doubt, no-questions-asked rip-off of Inspector Gadget." My response to this is that they are full of crap. They apparently have never watched the show, or they only watched one episode. Gosalyn and Honker do help, but only sometimes, and they usually create more trouble than help stop it... well, at least Gosalyn does. Darkwing more often than not saves the day himself, and not always through dumb luck like the Inspector. And yes, DW has a fondness for crimefighting doohickeys, but he'd prefer to use his Quack-Fu instead. Does Inspector Gadget know martial arts? No! He'd probably tangle up his arms and legs before he did a proper Kung-fu form. If there was any ripping-off going on, I'd have to say that Gizmoduck was the Inspector Gadget rip-off... but he was originally a "DuckTales" character, and he's only a guest star on Darkwing, so that doesn't really count (although I'd say Gizmoduck was more of an answer to Robocop. Even their names sound similar!). What really annoys me, also, is that "Inspector Gadget" fans often point out that Gosalyn is Darkwing's niece, like Penny is to Gadget. Let's get one thing clear - Gosalyn is NOT Darkwing's niece! She is his adopted daughter. It was the original intention of Disney to present Gosalyn as Darkwing's niece, but for whatever reason, this was changed. What annoys me even more is that Disney reference books still call Gosalyn his niece... even the recently published ones. Their ignorance surprises me; they made the show and they can't even get their own details right!

Okay, I'm done ranting. Moving on...

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