Darkwing Duck - Production

Production

Darkwing Duck was initially developed as a spin-off of the very successful DuckTales series. Darkwing Duck entered production roughly one year after DuckTales ended. Darkwing Duck was inspired by a specific episode of DuckTales: "Double-O-Duck", starring Launchpad McQuack as a secret agent. Tad Stones was directed to come up with a series around the premise, as an executive liked the title Double-O Duck; Stones was initially reluctant as he felt this would have "no heart or a sense of family" but created a pitch, with GizmoDuck, a character from the final season of DuckTales, as the sidekick (Gizmoduck would end up as a recurring guest star).

The first pitch was rejected but Stones was ordered to try again, and decided this time to take the job more seriously. Taking the idea back to basics, he left the James Bond pastiche idea behind and ended up thinking more of The Shadow; "suddenly I was engaged and enthusiastic about the idea". Double-O Duck became a separate character to Launchpad (who was kept as the sidekick) and made into an egotist 'man of mystery' and given an array of duck-headed vehicles after Batman and a motorcycle based on Judge Dredd's Lawmaster bike. Gosalyn was introduced in order to "complicate his life" and "play havoc with his ultra smooth and sophisticated self image".

When it turned out that the title "Double-O Duck" could not be used as the Ian Fleming estate owned the 'double-o' title, Disney TV Animation held a competition to come up with a replacement. Alan Burnett, who would soon after leave Disney to work on Batman: The Animated Series, contributed the name "Darkwing Duck". This name would result in a new look (Double-O Duck was to wear a white tuxedo and black domino mask). Other elements of the show, such as Darkwing's habit of coining new catchphrases every time he announced himself, would be invented during production. (As an in-joke, the episode "A Duck By Any Other Name" would have Drake suggest Double-O Duck as a new secret identity and Launchpad remark it "sounds kinda silly")

Where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some characters from classic Disney animation, Darkwing Duck featured a completely original cast. Even the DuckTales characters it reused had no counterpart in early Disney shorts or even the Carl Barks comics. The only exception was the episode "In Like Blunt", which featured cameo appearances by the Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold, and Magica De Spell.