Disney Afternoon: Lost Episodes, Etc.

Darkwing Duck:
Episodes by WDAS Australia introduce many of the characters- the pilot episode, quite a few villains' first episodes, Darkwing’s spooky love interest Morgana Macawber, neighbor Herb Muddlefoot, etc. But oddly, these were scattered throughout the series, many originally airing in the final seasons.

As I mentioned on the Darkwing thread, there were supposedly episodes in pre-production when the show was cancelled.


Bonkers:
Bonkers has the highest number of lost episodes for any cartoon I’ve heard. 46 completed episodes are said to have never aired or been released in any format. The reason given, that they came back from overseas production not looking up-to-par.

These ought to have been re-animated (come to think of it, Warner Bros. probably should have pulled and reanimated episodes of Tiny Toons that were sloppier/blander than the better ones- at least they figured that out by the time Animaniacs came out, but Tiny Toons had greater potential). Hopefully the rejected Bonkers episodes still exist for the sake of the storylines/humor and voice-acting (unless they never performed for it?). Even if the animation in these episodes was poor, they're worth preserving for collectors' sets and future re-production.

These were all ‘Miranda episodes’, where Bonkers is sidekick to attractive female officer, Miranda Wright. 65 of these were made- when most were rejected, the gap was filled with new episodes featuring Bonkers as sidekick to humorously frustrated detective Lucky Piquel. A new pilot episode (‘Going Bonkers’) and transitional episode (‘New Partners on the Block’) were created to explain the change in cast, with the surviving Miranda episodes airing after. It’s interesting to see two versions of this series- both are good, but the missing episodes are important and hopefully still exist.

Bonkers was envisioned as a Roger Rabbit series (thus the similarities), but problems securing legal rights resulted in a new cast of characters. Other ‘toons’ in the show include friends from Bonkers’ acting days, such as stunt double, Fall-Apart Rabbit, Bonkers’ girlfriend Fawn Deer, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland, etc. The cartoons Bonkers starred in during his pre-police showbiz career were created for Raw Toonage and later combined to form several additional episodes for the series.


Goof Troop:
The completed pilot episode of Goof Troop has never been shown or released (titled ‘Party Animal’, so I’m guessing was censored). Which is a shame, since pilot episodes tend to have higher quality than the average episode (the art for example in the Goof troop Christmas Special, ‘Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas’, is very vintage-looking).

Goof Troop had two direct-to-video feature films ‘A Goofy Movie’ and ‘An Extremely Goofy Movie’.

Voice actor clips for characters from The Disney Afternoon:

Donald Duck (DuckTales/Quack Pack) & Goofy (Goof Troop)
Tony Anselmo and Bill Farmer goofing around at the 2010 Annie Awards:

Scrooge McDuck (DuckTales)
Scottish-born Alan Young enjoying a swim in his money bin, not realizing the Beagle Boys have zapped all the coins with Gyro’s invisibility ray:
http://www.youtube.com/...ynext=1&index=19
Darkwing Duck (Darkwing Duck)*
Man-of-1000-Voices Jim Cummings with wrinkle-proof tux borrowed from S.H.U.S.H.:
*Other credits: Negaduck, Herb Muddlefoot (Darkwing Duck) Louie, Don Karnage (TaleSpin) Pete (Goof Troop) Bonkers Bobcat, Lucky Piquel (Bonkers) Zummi Gummi (Gummi Bears) Monterey Jack, Fatcat (Chip ’n Dale rescue Rangers) ..(Etc.)!
Gosalyn Mallard (Darkwing Duck)
‘Gee, dear!’- It’s Christine Cavanaugh, guest starring as Terry Gardner:

Launchpad McQuack (Darkwing Duck/DuckTales)
Terence McGovern crash lands at the wrong mansion:

Rebecca Cunningham (TaleSpin)
Sally Struthers after a long week of bookkeeping:

Bonkers’ mentor http://youtube.com/...&feature=related

Speaking of voice actors, I was surprised to meet Irene Bedard (Pocahontas) a couple years ago at an Indian Days festival in Balboa Park. She has her own booth at Native cultural events. Easy to converse with and a real hottie!

If you live in the area and enjoyed the film, take the kids to see her next May!