Talk:Danger Mouse (1981 TV series)/Archive 1

Duckula's accent
"The two versions of the character differ, however; the Danger Mouse Count Duckula is not a vegetarian, makes far greater use of his vampiric magic, and has an accent consisting of a Daffy Duck-like lisp (instead of the stereotypical Transylvanian accent), as well as occasional stuttering and duck-like squawks and quacks... In England, Duckula has crisp vowels and an English accent."

This bit first implies that the later, vegetarian Duckula sounded Transylvanian, and then states outright that "in England" (meaning in UK broadcasts of Danger Mouse? or of his own show?) Duckula sounded English. Neither is true. Both incarnations of Duckula have the same American accent, though the later version doesn't quack or lisp nearly so much, or sound so much like Daffy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.135.40.178 (talk) 09:28, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Releases
There were some VHS releases in the US - don't remember when, but I know they were HBO video (I'd have to borrow the tapes from my brother to get a date). There have been 6 Region 0/PAL DVD releases that I'm aware of, and within the last month or two, there has finally been a US Region 1/NTSC release, called "Complete Seasons One and Two." Notable here is that the serialized episodes include all cliffhangers, reprises and titles (on disc two, there's not an option to play these episodes without them), and no voices are altered - Stilleto has his Italian accent! Perhaps a "VHS/DVD Releases" section could be added at some point? :) (Oh and Duckula gets a US release later this year - it boggles my mind that only ONE Region 0 Duckula DVD has been produced) --JohnDBuell | Talk 04:17, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Greatest secret agent?
Is DangerMouse really "the greatest secret agent in the world"? Barbara Osgood 20:17, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
 * So the theme tune claims :) Warofdreams talk 11:49, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
 * He's the greatest secret agent in his world. But then, being secret, how can anyone really know?  --Coyoty 01:46, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Cheez TV
The bit about Cheez TV makes it sound like Danger Mouse first aired there in Australia but it wasn't until the school holidays in 1996. It originally aired in the 80s on Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Shermozle 17:15, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Penfold
Changed the bit where it says Penfold was a hamster. He was a mole! How on earth could anyone look at him and think he was a hamster? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.6.139.10 (talk • contribs) 05:50, 27 January 2006 UTC.
 * Nope. In the season 3 episode called "The Odd Ball Runaround," the voice-over refers to Penfold as a hamster. Microtonal 06:39, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

I advise everyone to be watchful here, people keep changing it to mole. On 24th February 2009, Chris Moyles had a question on the 'Monday Night Pub Quiz' about what species Penfold was. On 8:32am someone changed Penfold's description to "Mole". At 8:35am someone fixed it (another listener perhaps?). Anyway, let's just keep a close watch on this page. -86.138.77.111 (talk) 08:39, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

The article linked to reference #4 as "proof" that Penfold is a mole. The page linked had no such information. In the show, Penfold was specifically referred to as a hamster, so I've changed it. 69.204.31.191 (talk) 23:29, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

An older version of this page mentioned the show's creator, Brian Cosgrove, saying it was a hamster. Yet it still gets changed back to mole, odd. 80 Ursae Majoris (talk) 18:38, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Pilots
Perhaps someone could add a mention of the 2 pilots to the series. The one that I've seen (I believe the 2nd one) had a much different voice for both leads.
 * There was only one pilot (can't have more than one). It did have different voices, and was redone later on as a regular episode.  --Cholmes75 17:41, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
 * "can't have more than one"? Why? Star Trek had two: "This design was rejected by NBC, the network that ordered the pilot through Desilu. However an unprecedented second pilot was commissioned, "Where No Man Has Gone Before,"" --- "'Danger Mouse' began transmission in 1981, although two pilots were made two years earlier (sadly, only one of them is known to currently exist)." --- The previous quote is from a fan site (http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Danger%20Mouse%20Intro.htm) - not concrete proof, but showing at the very least that I'm not alone in my view.


 * One Pilot that existed for Danger Mouse was The Mystery of the Lost Chord This later was reworked and became 1x02: The Case of the Missing Bagpipes. Andy5421 14:14, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

DM's name
Every reference to DM I can find on the Cosgrove Hall site has it listed as "DangerMouse," not two separate words and not one word with the 'm' in lower case. So unless anyone has objections, I think this should be used as the standard spelling/format. --Cholmes75 19:51, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I think Cosgrove Hall use Dangermouse without the second capitalisation. Also, interestingly imdb use Danger Mouse, but it's quite likely they have got it wrong. I also wonder why he has the initials DM? The title screen in the cartoon and the artwork uses all uppercase, but splits the word into two, and most fansites use two words. I am not convinced either way. -- Jim182 20:00, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I suppose we could always write to Cosgrove Hall to find out. : ) --Cholmes75 21:06, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
 * The fan site dangermouse.org mostly uses DangerMouse. The Cosgrove Hall site mentioned by Jim182 seems to be the exception (see usage of DangerMouse at, , etc.). Olessi 02:50, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I've always known it to be DangerMouse, with the capital M, hence the initials DM. I think it should be kept as one word, DangerMouse, perhaps to avoid confusion with the DJ of the same name (wikipedia's article has his name as DJ Danger Mouse). What do you all think? --InvaderJem 21:49, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Why does television have the initials TV?Grant (talk) 23:46, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Sorry to raise this again, but contrary to what's been stated above, all current evidence points to the opposite: It is "Danger Mouse" with a space. In almost every instance both the show and the character are shown as two separate words. Here's my evidence:
 * - The main titles are displayed as two words.
 * - It's written this way on the Cosgrove Hall website.
 * - Official DVDs are categorised and sold under the name "Danger Mouse" and episodes from DVD tracklistings with the hero's name in them are written with a space. See below.
 * - If you want conclusive proof, you need only watch Season 2 Episode 6, "The Four Tasks of Danger Mouse", where the episode's title card is written with a space. Screenshot here
 * - Even DM's name when spoken aloud by the show's narrator is often done with particular emphasis and inflection on separating the two words.

In short, the article should be called "Danger Mouse (TV Series)" (as it's a proper series rather than just a cartoon, see Batman / Superman animated series) and the evidence produced here is fairly conclusive. Whilst it may require disambiguation with the DJ's article, I think the show should nevertheless be correctly named and referenced.

Unless anyone can offer evidence to the contrary, I think this should be altered accordingly. However, I'll wait and see what responses are made here before proceeding. Damage (talk) 21:20, 9 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Done. Just have to wait for the Bots to tidy up the other pages. I've also updated the links on all the pages that link to here, and the about link on the DJ page. Damage (talk) 16:54, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

DJ Danger Mouse
Following on from the above comment, there's a discussion over at DJ Danger Mouse to move that article to Danger Mouse. Your input would be appreciated. -- Jim182 21:47, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Running time?
Not quite sure what the running time here shows.. Is it 4min to 20min?


 * That would be reasonable, as it switched from full-length episodes to episodes of about five minutes. This is proven if you watch the DVD. 67.188.172.165 23:21, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Network Ten time?
In its Network Ten run, DangerMouse was also aired with two 11 minute episodes and three 5 minute ones back-to-back in a half-hour timeslot, even though none of the episode's titles were at the beginning of each episode.

Doesn't this add up to 37 minutes? How could this happen in a half-hour timeslot? Macthorpe 11:27, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Demise
I removed the "Demise" section of this article - it has information in it that has gone uncited for some time, and there seems to be disagreement anyway with regards to its accuracy. The only item that is stone-cold fact is the death of Terry Scott. If anyone can find a verifiable source for this info, feel free to re-add it:

'''In 1989, original series writer Brian Trueman was replaced by Angus Allen, with a notable reduction in the quality of humor. This, along with a decrease in the number of episodes per series, led to a loss of viewers. The final blow came in 1992 when Thames Television lost its franchise. Terry Scott, who voiced Penfold, died of cancer two years later.

This isn;t strictly true as Brian Trueman was stil writing for Danger Mouse up until the 1992 series. --cholmes75 (chit chat) 14:08, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Impossibly high viewing figures - 21.6 million
According to the article "in early 1983 the show broke a record for the highest audience: it reached a very high 21.6m viewers". I don't believe that. The 1983 Christmas Day edition of Only Fools and Horses had 10.8 million viewers, and Christmas Day specials are well-known for receiving the highest viewing figures of the year (especially for something as popular as Only Fools and Horses). Are we really supposed to believe a children's cartoon series shown at teatime, on a weekday, got nearly double the Xmas Only Fools and Horses? To be fair I've seen this 21.6 million figure mentioned on other sites, but it's still can't be true, even the big ITV game shows were only getting around 15 million viewers primetime on Saturday evening. 172.201.90.45 01:38, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Can someone find a citation and scope for this viewer figure? While I loved DM growing up on Nick (American...) I also would find it hard to believe most of England was watching it all at once. Pyrogen 00:46, 6 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I've found the official list of Britain's most watched TV in the 1980s, and not surprisingly DangerMouse isn't on it. The chart is from the British Film Institute which is about as reliable as it gets. I know Cosgrove Hall's own site was provided as a reference for the 21.6 million figure, but their site is still under construction, so that figure may just have been added quickly by the site designer, based on google search for example. BFI is certainly the more reliable source.


 * If the 21.6 million was true, that would make DangerMouse not only the HIGHEST rated show of 1983 (highly unlikely), but one of the 5 highest rated shows of the ENTIRE DECADE! It just didn't happen. I'd be interested to know what the real viewing figures where though. 172.201.85.6 00:14, 24 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Perhaps 21.6 million mice... :D Applejuicefool (talk) 19:15, 12 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I really don't want to dredge this old saw up but if the citation by User:Chorleypie is correct then it is so. But can anyone verify this citation? Sslaxx (talk) 19:06, 26 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Don't think it's my citation; the BBC Manchester reference seems to have been added 1 June 2012 and I don't think I ever edited this page until July. Maybe I reinstated it at some stage. My hunch is that the figure is the sum of the number of people who watched each episode (maybe there were ten with over 2.1 million watching each) and this is bad maths because some will have watched more than one episode. I'd put "in 1983 viewing figures for the series topped 21 million", which is the wording from the BBC Manchester site, but with "for the series" added in, to be ambiguous, and also to imply my hunch. Not that bothered though.(Chorleypie (talk) 23:09, 26 March 2013 (UTC))

DVD
I have the DVD and would like to comment that they should've combined the five minute episodes for the DVD. It's annoying having to watch the intro, summary, and ending five times in one episode. 67.188.172.165 23:22, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

US Syndication
I remember seeing this show on WNYW-TV Fox 5 in New York, does anyone know if this show was distributed to other Fox O&Os other local stations?
 * When did you see that? I live in the area and have never seen DM on any channel other than Nickelodeon.  --cholmes75 (chit chat) 14:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Maybe you just weren't looking? In event, I saw it in syndication as well. Back when my cable system used to carry out-of-state TV stations, I saw it on a local Los Angeles station. In any event, it was RERUN on Nickelodeon. It did originally air in U.S. syndication. Brittany Ka 11:29, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Episodes on Nickelodeon?
I taped DM religiously when it was shown on Nick and thought I had seen all the episodes (save for the pilot). However, after buying the US DVDs, it appears I was wrong. _Crumhorn Strikes Back!_, _Pillow Fright!_ and _The Intergalactic 147_ (all on the last DVD) were new to me. Did anyone see any of these episodes on US TV?

129.82.52.168 03:22, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Fifi
I'm adding some info about the unseen character 'Fifi'. Knowing someone may reject it, I've got my evidence, just so people know. My evidence: I emailed Cosgrove Hall a while back, got a reply, giving some info about Fifi (See, straight from the source). So I'm adding the info to make the DM page a better place.

Objections, anyone? InvaderJem —The preceding  signed but undated.

Digectic (sic) sound?
Does anyone know if the "digectic sound" that Miss Boathook plays is a real (albeit obscure) word, a typo of some kind, or a correct rendition of a term made up for the program? --Eliyahu S Talk 20:47, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm : Diegetic sound. I'm still not sure what the article was trying to say, though, since any sound created by a character is inherently diegetic... 68.110.206.15 (talk) 03:59, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Unsourced material
The following is unsourced information:

I can corroborate. _Bananaman_ was part of some of the Nick shows. "When Eric eats a banana, he turns into Bananaman". The plots of these short shorts were not very deep. While this is interesting, we can't use it unless you provide a source. Also, none of this is really trivia, as trivia by its definition is "unimportant information" - it therefore shouldn't be in a trivia section but instead the information should be incorporated into the main article. - Tbsdy lives (formerly Ta bu shi da yu) talk 10:36, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
 * In two different episodes, DangerMouse and Penfold encountered a longcase clock that was capable of time travel. The reference to the cult series Doctor Who was so obvious that even Penfold noticed it. A similar reference occurs in "Custard", when the duo find themselves in what DM describes as "a time-traveller's potting shed".
 * Which episode? _The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemma_ and _The Clock Strikes Back_.
 * In one episode Crumhorn is given the completely different name "Alloycious Julian Illibert Elfinstone Eugene Dionysus Barry-Manillow Crumhorn".
 * Which episode? _Penfold Transformed_. Also in _Crumhorn Strikes Back!_, he refers to himself only as Dr. Augustus P. Crumhorn III.
 * DangerMouse's headquarters are located in a Mayfair pillar box on Baker Street in London, near the legendary home of Sherlock Holmes, although in reality Baker Street is located in Marylebone, not Mayfair.
 * How do we know this? There is an episode where Penfold wishes that Dr. Watson would stop throwing stones at the Pillarbox and DangerMouse retorts that it is jealousy because "he's only Sherlock Holmes' assistant". I'll try to find the episode shortly. Sorry it took so long. The episode is called _Where There's a Well, There's a Way_.
 * When the series was repeated on Nickelodeon, DangerMouse was usually broadcast with two short episodes back-to-back in a half-hour timeslot. Even with advertisements this was not enough to fill the allotted time, so episodes of the British cartoon Bananaman (among other animated short films) were broadcast alongside it to fill the remaining time.
 * In its Network Ten run, DangerMouse was also broadcast with two 11-minute episodes and three 5-minute ones back-to-back in a half-hour timeslot, even though none of the episode's titles were at the beginning of each episode.
 * Musician John Squire was among the cartoonists that worked on DangerMouse
 * US animated series The Simpsons paid homage in an episode featuring a character called DangerDog. Instead of living in a post box the character lived in a giant fire hydrant.
 * Is this for certain?

Theme
The article currently lists Kate Bush as the singer for the theme tune on seasons 1-8 but it's my understanding that Myfanwy Talog sang the theme for ALL episodes. Can anybody verify? In the meantime I've corrected it back to Talog on the presumption that this was vandalism. Mrstonky (talk) 02:42, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was not moved. Consensus is that the DJ is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. -- Aervanath (talk) 06:39, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Since this cartoon was first, and since the DJ took his name from the cartoon, this article should have the non-parenthetical title. badmachine (talk) 18:07, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Being the first to use the name and having subsequent things named after it is not a valid way to determine primary usage. If that were the case, Boston, Lincolnshire would be at Boston. Please review WP:PRIMARYTOPIC and provide evidence that supports that this cartoon is the primary usage of the term and should be at the base name instead of the disambiguation page. --Bobblehead (rants) 19:01, 27 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I support this move; if Somone ever mentions Danger Mouse, the Cartoon is what I think of before any other references, if somone was talking about the DJ they'd have to clarify it to me. VJ (talk) 13:59, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose. The article Danger Mouse (which is where the article for the recording artist/producer was located until March 27) was viewed 26,801 times last month to the TV series 2,342 views. A vast majority of the 5,280 Google News results for "Danger Mouse" are for the musician. The artist also has over twice as many internal wiki links, more than 100, to the TV series less than 50, which lead me to believe that the artist article is the primary topic, and that Danger Mouse (DJ) should be moved back to Danger Mouse.  dissolve  talk  20:46, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose per dissolve's statistical evidence. Being the first thing so named doesn't equate to being the primary topic. Being the most sought out article does. Parsecboy : Chat  12:39, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Surely being the most sought out article just means that fewer people know about you and therefore need to look you up? I had to read the article about the DJ before commenting as I'd not heard of him, I've never closely read the one about the cartoon mouse however, as I know about him already. —Preceding unsigned comment added by VJ (talk • contribs) 16:16, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
 * More probably, it's quite the opposite of what you assert. George W. Bush gets over half a million hits last month, while George Bush (biblical scholar) was only viewed 1693 times. Surely your logic doesn't hold true. Parsecboy : Chat  23:14, 1 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Missing Character

 * One of my favourite episodes of this programme was Episode 74 "Turn Of The Tide" 18 December 1986 because it featured an Alien (who was the person who collected all the space junk together on the moon). He was from Dudley and as a kid I based my immitation of that accent on him in order to wind up my older sister (who was in Uni in Dudley)... Anyways I digress - the reason for this edit is that he is not mentionned in the character list, despite other characters who were only in one episode being mentionned? Can anyone correct this please? I don't know how to write it in a factual way (as this ramble shows!). Thanks... Gazhiley (talk) 14:18, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Kudos
So long as so many people can devote so much time to a cartoon mouse there's hope for the world. UrsusMaximus (talk) 22:06, 7 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Amen, my friend. :-) Damage (talk) 23:51, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Intermission Segments
When I watched Danger Mouse via syndication on one of the "international" stations in my area, I seem to recall that it was generally run in two parts within the half-hour slot. Sometimes each part was a stand-alone episode, other times they were parts of the same episode. Between the two parts, though, was an intermission segment featuring DM sitting at a desk and talking about something, similar to a news presenter. He would typically introduce the segments with "Hello chaps and chapesses". Neither the VHS tapes nor the DVDs make mention of those segments, nor have I been able to locate any information on the interweb. If someone has information about these intermission segments, perhaps there could be section of the article devoted to them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.228.6.77 (talk) 08:45, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Penfold Name
Is there any evidence as to where Penfold got his name, as in the inspiration for calling him that? I'm wondering if it has to do with penfold pillarbox? As they live in one. --Mrjohncummings (talk) 15:02, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Notable aspects
Surely some mention should be made in the article of notable aspects of the show that made it stand out from other cartoon series? For example, the way it would often break the 4th wall; how the characters would interact verbally with the narrator; how (in the best tradition of Looney Tunes) the fact that it was a cartoon would sometimes become apparent in the action (such as running past the sprocket holes). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.81.28.204 (talk) 15:49, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Character not mentioned in the article - Greenback's mother(?).
As seen in "Cor! What a Picture!" (at least). Sslaxx (talk) 01:39, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Richard Osman
Apparently Alexander Armstrong hinted that Richard Osman will be in a future episode of Danger Mouse-he revealed this on The One Show-you wonder about reliability... Slightnostalgia (talk) 08:17, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Infobox
Somebody NEEDS to fix it PRONTO! I don't know how to do it and it's bugging me out! StephenCezar15 (talk) 00:09, 2 June 2015 (UTC)
 * ❌ Please explain what needs to be fixed in a "Please change X to Y" format, and please provide sources. Otherwise, this is just a random complaint that will be lost to the ether. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 04:08, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

The state of this page:
How on earth did this page get so poor? Its over detailed in some section yet there is NO History. This page is not good enough. I have moved out DVD section to a new page. I have also curtailed the non supporting villains, appearing once is not supporting. Hopeful a new history section will be improved. --Crazyseiko (talk) 20:06, 25 September 2015 (UTC)