Muttley or Mumbly?
Muttley first showed up in the 1968 series “Wacky Races”, as the sidekick to Dick Dastardly. Both characters were based on characters from the film “The Great Race”.
Dick Dastardly was based on the character Professor Fate, while Muttley was based on Max Meen. Dick Dastardly and Muttley have appeared in later Hanna Barbera series as bumbling villains.
In “Wacky Races”, Muttley wore only a collar, but in “Dastardly & Muttley and their Flying Machines” he wore an aviator’s cap and scarf.
A lot of people confuse Muttley with Mumbly. It’s easy to do, since they are so similar. While their laugh is similar, Mumbly has gray fur, wears a trench coat, and fights crime. He’s almost the other side of Muttley in that regard.
Interestingly enough, when they needed villains for the “Laff-A-Lympics” series, Hanna Barbera used Mumbly as the team leader of the Really Rottens. He was accompanied by a Dick Dastardly clone named “The Dread Baron”. This is a weird place for Mumbly, as in his series he fought crime. As the captain of the Really Rottens, he does some rotten things. I’m not sure why these two characters were used, as it would seem that Dick Dastardly and Muttley would be more than suited for the task.
Maybe someone with some knowledge of the inner workings of Hanna Barbera could help explain the seemingly duplicate characters?
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On May 18th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Hi, Floyd,
Actually the character predates both Muttley and Mumbly. In 1964, Hanna-Barbera did “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear!” and the two mean circus workers had a dog with them named Mugger, which is basically the same design and the same laugh. The only difference is that Mugger was on all fours and spent most of his time trying to bite someone.
On May 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I had read some about Mugger, including the fact that he came before Muttley’s 1968 appearance, but couldn’t find any images of him to see how close he really looked. You wouldn’t happen to have any?
On May 18th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I too would love to have a pic of Mugger. as a matter of fact, i wrote about this very thing, stringing all of the Muttley type characters together into a family tree. i really can’t do anything better until i have a pic of Mugger, who i have deemed the father of the clan. you can read about it here, http://hannabarberafanatics.blogspot.com/ by the way, he was completely Muttley but differetn colrs, more blues and greens, and his teeth were way more definded; lots of them in a huge mouth, and his eyes had way bigger bags under them and he seemed way more fleshed out and mean.
On May 19th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Let me look to see if I have a picture. I have “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear!” on VHS, but I also, somewhere, have an original pressbook from the movie and I would guess there’s a picture of Mugger in there. I’ll look around.
On May 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
The cartoon community, and the internet at large, would be indebted to you!
On May 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
yes, that would be wonderful…it would make my biography of the character on my blog totally complete