Various Plots
Each story features variations on the same plot elements: the Vulture Squadron tries to trap Yankee Doodle Pigeon using one or more planes equipped with Klunk's latest contraption(s), but one or more of the Squadron messes up and the plane(s) either crash, collide or explode (or even all of the above!). While they are falling out of the wreckage, Dick Dastardly calls for help, which Muttley either offers or refuses depending on whether Dastardly agrees to give him a medal. Even when Muttley does agree to fly Dastardly out of trouble, Dastardly seldom has a soft landing. At some point the General calls Dastardly on the phone to demand results. Dastardly assures him that they will soon capture the pigeon, but the General does not believe him and either bellows down the phone or reaches through it and pulls Dastardly's moustache or nose. Klunk then comes up with a new invention and "explains" it in his own unique way. Dastardly says, "What'd he say? What'd he say?" and Zilly interprets, before attempting to run away. Once Muttley has "persuaded" (usually by biting/attacking him) Zilly to return, the Vulture Squadron take off in their new plane(s) to repeat the whole procedure. Eventually, the Squadron is left to lick their wounds as Yankee Doodle Pigeon flies over the horizon, blowing his bugle triumphantly.
Like its predecessor Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines owes a great deal to the Road Runner cartoons, with Dastardly once again taking the Wile E. Coyote role. Both characters are fanatics, incapable of giving up even in the face of repeated and painful failure. Michael Maltese, who wrote many of the original Road Runner shorts, is also credited as a writer on Wacky Races, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley.
Dick Dastardly's appearance in this show was based on the English actor Terry-Thomas, the moustache-twirling villain of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, the film which provided the inspiration for Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.
The setting of the series is never clearly stated, although the type of aircraft suggests the First World War (mostly biplanes, all with fixed undercarriage and some with pusher configuration). The nationality of the Vulture Squadron is also never revealed, if they come from an English-speaking country it is unclear why they are trying to stop an apparently American pigeon.
Read more about this topic: Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines
Famous quotes containing the word plots:
“Nothing aids which may not also injure us.
Fire serves us well, but he who plots to burn
His neighbor’s roof arms his hands with fire.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
“‘O opportunity! thy guilt is great,
‘Tis thou that execut’st the traitor’s treason;
Thou set’st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
Whoever plots the sin, thou point’st the season;
‘Tis thou that spurn’st at right, at law, at reason;
And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,
Sits Sin to seize the souls that wander by him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)