I don’t remember the year, but I know we were tiny, because Mama and Daddy squeezed us between them in the cab of Daddy’s green and white pick-up the summer we decided to go to Key West. It was a long trip, without air conditioning. And brother was touching me and looking at me, and scooting over to my side, and…
Somehow, I had mumbled and grumbled and imitated Muttley so well that I had actually cussed!
When Brother and I were little kids, we loved to spend Friday nights with Grandmaw. Any night was good, but she had a tv and if we stayed at her house Friday night, we got to loll around Saturday mornings in front of the set, eating cold biscuits and watching cartoons!
Once I explained, we all had a good laugh. They wouldn’t tell me what the word meant though, and so in secret, brother and I always paid homage to Mutley with mumbled swears, and at least one word young ladies did not say.
We had our favorites. I loved “Speed Racer” and “Johnny Quest,” and Brother liked “The Jetsons” and “Yogi Bear”. We both loved “The Flintstones” and “Scooby Doo.” Our favorite Saturday morning cartoon though, was about Dick Dastardly and his amazing cussing dog, Muttley.
Happy Saturday! Do you remember Saturday morning cartoons as a kid? Today we are looking at two classic dog cartoon characters – we are looking at Snuffles, and Muttley.
One of my fondest cartoon characters I recall was Snuffles – Hanna-Barbera produced the animated television The Quick Draw McGraw Show beginning in 1959. This from Wikipedia: “Snuffles is a bloodhound used by Quick Draw to ferret out bad guys in the old West, but needed to be bribed with a dog biscuit before performing his task. Upon chomping on one, he would hug himself in ecstasy, jump into the air and float back down, sighing. Occasionally, Snuffles would demand more than one biscuit, and was willing to accept them from bad guys as well.” (On Twitter @Wikipedia).
This YouTube shows Snuffles and his famous hug routine after receiving the necessary biscuit bribe.
Muttley does not really talk very much; his main examples of speech are his trademark snicker – a wheezing smokers laugh (usually made at Dicks expense, who sometimes retaliates by thumping him on the head) – and a mushy, sotto voce grumble against an unsympathetic or harsh Dick (usually along the lines of “Sassafrassarassum Rick Rastardly!”). However, he occasionally says intelligible words. Muttley also hates bad remarks about him as seen when Dastardly calls him dumb or an idiot, as he bites his owners hand or grits him angrily to make his owner calm himself down. And he is also known as mischievous, understanding, thoughtful, treacherous, lovable, empathetic, astute, menacing, upbeat, truthful, testy, loyal, emotional and sneaky.
In Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines, Muttley wears an orange pilot helmet and white goggles along with a matching orange scarf and he was the one who keeps saving Dastardly from falling and he uses his tail to fly like a helicopter for a brief period. Muttley is also a hoarder of medals as he is always asking Dastardly for one for obeying his commands or whenever he tries to save him from falling. If Dastardly didnt have one, he would purposely drop him. If he is given a medal he will give sighs of delight before floating in the air and land back on the ground, though Dastardly would often rip the medals off his chest as a punishment for his incompetence. However Muttley sometimes bites the hand of anyone who tries to take the medals away from him. Muttley also has his own show called Magnificent Muttley where Muttley is a protagonist being taunted by Dastardly who serves as a villain.