Huh. Darkwing Duck was the Disney Afternoon show I watched the most of.
I still remember that live show based on The Disney Afternoon they once had at Walt Disney World. I wonder if we still have the videotape of it. I know it started with Darkwing Duck setting up Mickey Mouse's appearing act, so my family would always re-watch at least that segment of the tape before getting bored and skipping to something else we did at the parks.
I've been starting to watch this again. Perhaps i've been spoiled by SWAT Kats, my favorite from that era and which stands up as a legitimately good action cartoon even in the modern day, while this show is definitely further on the cartoony scale.
What sells it for me watching it as a 20-something (instead of the preschooler who practically worshipped this show back in the day) is Darkwing's Deadpan Snarker tendencies. Despite being a bit of a goofball himself, the guy almost has Medium Awareness for the utter lunacy going on around him.
While Darkwing is definitely the Darker and Edgier corner of the Disney Afternoon and it was definitely all the better for it given the kind of series it was a send-up to, I wouldn't say that level of wit started there.
There was Talespin with all it's brilliant classic pulp Whole Plot References, screwball comedy send-ups, and on the edginess side those episodes that pitted the heroes vs what was essentially the Soviet Union. And even Chip and Dale (which is arguably the least ambitious of the Disney Afternoon adventure/action series with the most standard kind of humor) had that whole episode Church of Happyology jab.
After all, wit generally isn't in what you do, but in how you do it. The best thing about Disney Afternoon was in how well each series knew that, and how to write the kind of stories they wanted.
edited 1st Apr '17 10:14:30 PM by KnownUnknown
Quackerjack and Darkwing beating the shit out of Paddywhack while making fun of Defeat Equals Friendship was one of my favorite gags on the show.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Oct 10th 2020 at 10:58:14 AM
I'm going to bring it up here: those who watch DuckTales (2017), what do you think so far about how Darkwing was integrated into the show?
Mad Scientists are a good excuse to include futuristic technology in the show that can be applied for plot convenience. They at least kept Ma Beagle as a mobster, though.

I am the terror that flaps in the night!
I am the trope that you can't quite find examples for!
I... am DARKWING DUCK!!!
Sorry, just felt like making one of those.
edited 24th Feb '13 11:47:38 PM by KnownUnknown