Danger Mouse

You're listening to the deep cast radio network

of podcast Hello and welcome to the 72nd up Opposode?

What's an Opposode? Apparently we've done one

too many Opposodes. Of CastTune, brought to you

by GeekCast Radio Network. I am your host here,

Jim and Mike, and once again I'm joined by Kevin

OptimusOlaThomson. Hello, sir. I'm the greatest.

I'm fantastic. Sorry. Yes, and for those of you

who didn't catch that reference... Today we are

going to be talking about the better of the mice

in the last two weeks. Danger mouse. I think

I'm going to shoot myself because we've agreed

with each other two weeks in a row. I'm still

fantastic and I'm still the greatest and wherever

there's danger I will be there. Yes, so getting

right into the history lesson sir. Danger Mouse

is a British animated television series, which

was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames

Television. It features the eponymous Danger

Mouse, a English, not British mouse, who works

as a superhero slash secret agent. The show is

a loose parody of British spy fiction, particularly

James Bond, the Danger Man series, with some

influences coming from Sherlock Holmes, and there's

lots of other nods to British stuff which we'll...

probably get into as we go through here. With

the Watson -like assistant Penfold, the show

originally ran in the United Kingdom from 1981

to 1992. Danger Mouse was the first British cartoon

to break into the American TV market. since the

animated shorts Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings,

Ludwig and Paddington Bear, which were all shown

in the 70s. In the United States it was broadcast

on Nickelodeon in the 1980s in the late afternoons

and in the early evenings as they segue into

prime time hours as the A &E Network and later

Nick at Night as the series appealed to both

pre -teens and adults with its quick witted English

humor. Danger Mouse aired for a whopping 10 seasons

consisting of 89 episodes which were broadcast

in the UK or in the US basically from 1981 to

1992 What do you remember about good old Danger

Mouse? It's James Bond as a mouse Basically,

I actually do remember watching it in prime time

though. I do too I remember watching it on Nickelodeon

at prime time and it was like Right in that segment,

right before Nick and Night, I remember that

clear as day. I don't necessarily remember if

I watched it in the afternoons when it was on,

but I do remember watching it in prime time for

sure. Oh yeah, I do too. It was awesome. Yeah,

and this is something that we'll get into, but

basically, Danger Mouse, to me, maybe more than

most cartoons, stands the test of time because

it is aimed... It was supposed to be a kids cartoon,

but they did everything in their power to aim

it almost totally at adults. Oh, yeah. And especially,

I mean, I can imagine that if you were someone

who grew up with British television series exposure

or British lit background that you would like

that your appreciation for the show is even more

than mine is because besides James Bond and Sherlock

Holmes, you know, there's some. Some references

like some of the Monty Python references I might

not get Some of the Doctor Who references I might

not get but someone who is big on all the British

TV stuff Has to really appreciate this show.

I have never gotten Into Doctor Who I know nothing

about the show. I It's not that I don't care

for it. It's not that I dislike it. I just don't

There's It's one of those shows that unless you're

going to try attempt to get into it from the

beginning You're hopelessly lost. I think yeah

It's it's one of those shows that you're either

gonna be way into or you better just stay away

from yeah the only at this time in the 80s the

only British TV or the only British comedy show

that I ever watched two of them actually was

faulty towers with John Cleese and rising damp

I don't remember either of those. Faulty Towers

is just comedy gold. Basically, take John Cleese

out of the queue or our role and put him in a

hotel. It was called Faulty Towers. It's just

awesome. I think I think this may be I mean I'd

have to do a search or Do some research on all

the British cartoons that have ever come out,

but this may be the best British cartoon. I've

ever seen Yeah, oh, yeah, I'd have to agree I

mean this is just and I you know I remember watching

that as a kid like I said primetime right before

Nick at night And I watched quite a few segments

here and there recently and it's still just as

good Yeah, I mean I can't get over it. I love

everything about this show almost. I love the

theme song. It's one of the best theme songs

of the 80s. At least top 30, 40 in there somewhere.

I love the voice acting in this show. I love

the characters. I love just about everything

about this show. I didn't realize how much I

liked it until I started re -watching it actually.

knew I liked the characters because I could remember

you know you that a character or a show stuck

with you as a child if you can remember more

than the main character and I remembered like

five or six characters from this before I even

started rewatching it like I could have told

you the bad guy was I could have told you who

danger Mouse was who his sidekick was I could

have told you about the little white pet thing

with you know that the the evil guy has i could

have i could have told you about you know the

the colonel k i remembered all that without ever

watching a minute just from my childhood yeah

and that's when you know a show was good back

then oh yeah compared to last week's show you

couldn't None of us could remember anything besides

Mighty Mouse until we started rewatching them.

Now, it's different. If you start rewatching

them, obviously that doesn't count because you've

had your memory jogged then. But to remember

the characters before you start rewatching it

means it was a good show. Oh, yeah. And, you

know, shows like this, like, you know, and I

don't really want to equate it to other shows,

but I mean shows that we grew up with, like Transformers

and G .I. Joe and... Thundercats and Voltron

and Mask and He -Man and She -Ra and Tiny Toons

and all that other good stuff. Keyword there

is good stuff. Those damn metal things don't

count. Solarhawks are awesome. Shut up. You know,

they all have characters that we remember that

we grew up with. I mean, I don't think anyone,

unless you go through a memory eraser... only

anyone is going to be able to forget optimist

prime or he man or you know why no uh... with

the buddha but i think what i'm saying uh...

you know i think you kind of the same point is

up if it is a great show every day impact on

you as a child you remember more than just those

characters oh yeah i think you're gonna remember

the sidekicks you're gonna remember that all

yes but yeah yeah i i i totally agree And this

show to me this show is kind of like I I mean

obviously we can't compare them to all the action

the action boys shows or the action shows of

the 80s but to me this one you could put this

one kind of with um I'd say like Garfield um

that type of show um you could put it with I'm

trying to think of some other ones that were

kind of like that where it's just kind of comedy

for both kids and adults just kind of General

themes almost like inspector gadget. You could

kind of put it with that Yeah, you know, it's

just a good all -around show and You know, obviously

inspector gadget Garfield are more known But

I think danger mouse could hold its own against

some of those shows. Oh, yeah, I agree So any

other memories before we actually talk about

some of these characters that were remembering

so finally, nope Alright, starting off obviously

with Danger Mouse. He's the greatest secret agent

in the world. He's fantastic. He's the greatest

wherever there's trouble he's there. So secret

in fact that his code name has a code name. He

speaks 34 languages fluently including some extra

terrestrial ones. He regularly bounces himself

on his index finger and bounces up and down on

it. He refers to this as going into a seventh

level yoga hopping trance. His eye patch is not

actually needed and as he points out is worn

because it's part of the suit. His biggest catchphrases

are Good Grief and Penfold Shush and Blast. He's

also a practitioner of the ancient martial art

of Kung Maggi. Sounds like something Hong Kong

Flu would come up with. Yeah, I don't remember

the martial arts part or that it was called that,

but I remember him just being kind of this over

the top like, greatest secret agent in the world.

He can do all this crap that you're like, what?

But I think the thing about Danger Mouth that

I like... is he has a unique look for a cartoon

mouse. Oh yeah. This isn't Mighty Mouse slash

Mickey Mouse slash Superman whatever this isn't

and even other mouses that we've seen over the

years and cartoons all seem to have like a similar

look but Danger Mouse found a new look a unique

look and a good look and I like that about him.

Yeah I agree. the uh... for a second there when

you're reading his old bio he said good grief

i'm thinking wait since when did charlie brown

get mutated i couldn't help it because that's

what charlie brown always says is good grief

good observation of course danger mouses sidekick

is a guy named ernest penfold hopefully you remember

what he looks like uh... Yeah, there's a picture

right there. Well, I mean the viewers Kind of

like a little you know, I glass wearing hamster.

Yeah Um stands just over the height of danger

mouse and always wears thicker on glasses and

a crumpled blue suit with a white shirt and yellow

and black striped tie He's danger mouse sidekick.

He calls danger mouse chief and basically he's

a coward I don't think we need to get too much

into anything else about him. But you know, but

he you know, he's funny. He's a He's a good little

sidekick not as annoying as some sidekicks in

the 80s, but Still your timid scaredy -cat sidekick.

I can watch this guy over that other Crazy learning

sidekick of the metal variety stupid copper kid.

I think I like copper kid better No, but uh,

what's turning? Why are you hating on silverhawks?

It's been like 20 70 episodes since that show

I think you want to take some of the other characters.

You got Colonel K, who is basically Danger Mouse's

boss. He's often mistaken for a walrus. It was

revealed in issue of Look -In magazine that he

is in fact a chinchilla. He previously worked

for Special Branch, where he was known as Special...

Oh, God, no. Special K. Oh, no, no, no, no. Gotta

you gotta you gotta tell the viewers the next

part though about the Colonel K. Oh god. He is

a champion Oh, oh boy. I don't know if I can

finish this. Yeah, this is great stuff He is

a champion penis thrower Judo expert the first

to climb Mount Everest on a on a pogo. What the

hell? There's no way in friggin you know you

can go make this show awesome come on everest

on a fucking although stick you got danger mouse

balancing and jumping on his fingers you got

colonel k climbing on everest on a polo stick

and he was once an eskimo and he took up tap

dancing and was a former kleptomaniac and cheats

at croquet this guy's who else would you want

to have your boss as the greatest boss ever i

want a boss that can do all of those things Except

for maybe being a former kleptomaniac Then you

had professor that professor professor Heinrich

von squawk and cluck oh Boy, it was an inventor

mad scientist guy inventor of mark 3 danger mouses

flying car and the space hopper His personal

spacecraft. He's a mole Despite his avian name

squawk and cluck. Um, then you got agent 57 is

awesome He's an initial initially a master disguise

agent 57 later gained the ability to alter his

own molecular structure to transform into any

appearance he wished and I can remember an episode

where Basically every time he's I don't know

if this was throughout the whole series or if

this is just in this episode because I can't

remember each specific episode that well But

agent 57 was in this episode where every time

he sneezed he turned into something else Yeah,

and he couldn't really control it. So he'd sneeze

and turn into like Baron von Silas read sneeze

and turn in danger mouse or it sneeze and turn

into a penfold or it sneeze and turn into some

weird creature Yeah, I just love agent 57 Remember

that it's funny for some strange reason as we're

going through this I'm drawing so many conclusions

between this and get smart. Oh, yeah, it has

a lot of get smart stuff, too Yeah, but those

are the main good guys I think those are the

ones that are worth talking about and I think

you know you should remember if you don't everybody

should remember danger mouse and You should remember

either Penfold or Colonel K or Agent 57, one

of those guys you should remember. If not, you

need to get the show on DVD and watch it. And

yes, I said DVD, not YouTube. This is worth some

money. Yes, unlike last week's show. Right. Some

of the villains we have Baron Silas Greenback,

the recurring villain in Danger Mouse's Arch

Enemy, and a toad with a wheezy voice, although

sometimes he was referred to as a frog. known

as Baron Green Teeth in the un -broadcast pilot

episode. Commonly known as the terrible toad

in America, Greenback is slang for dollar bill

in many regions. Adding to the sense of his commercial

greed, allegedly he turned to a life of crime

as a schoolboy when other children stole his

bicycle. I love this guy. I love his wheezy voice.

That was so unique for the time as far as an

80s villain and He's a freaking green toad He's

a green toad with a wheezy voice. That's like

a mob hitman guy not hitman, but like a mob like

Godfather he is awesome He's one of my favorite

favorite villains of the 80s. He's probably in

my top 10 favorite villains And that's saying

a lot because there were some damn good villains

in the 80s You know what happens to his toad

when it's struck by lightning the same thing

that happens to everybody else The only other

main bad guy that you see a lot is a stiletto

full name stiletto mafiosa He's a greenbacks

henchman, which is He's a crow. He always calls

Greenback Barone, Italian for Baron. In the original

English version, he spoke with an Italian accent

to avoid offending Italian Americans. That was

changed to a Cockney accent when it was aired

in the U .S. But he's a pretty cool little sidekick,

too. You got a green, huge frog and then this

little black crow. And they just they just made

a good a good pairing. um you should recognize

one other villain on the list though um let's

see oh count duckula yes count duckula was a

showbiz obsessed vampire duck who wanted to get

his own show his ongoing gag of him craving his

own show and show business inspired a later spin

-off series titled count duckula starring the

count himself so this is where count duckula

basically got his start um get this though God,

we're good at scheduling. He is loosely based

on Count Quackula, a filmation animated character

from the 1979 The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse

and Heckel and Jekyll. Which was last week's

episode. We're good here, folks. So let's see

here, folks. We've got episode two was Animaniacs,

and episode three was Tiny Toon Adventures. Now

we have episode 71 being Mighty Mouse and episode

72 being Danger Mouse. The only way that that

would have been better is if we had done Count

Duckula before Mighty Mouse. But those are the

main bad guys. There's other bad guys that make

good one -shot appearances and stuff like that.

But if you're interested in those guys, you need

to watch the actual show. The only thing I don't

recognize about this series is the voice cast.

I do recognize the main guy only because he does

the voice of both Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.

So David Jason does Danger Mouse and Count Duckie.

He's done other stuff, but not really too much

as far as like American voiceover. I mean, obviously

most of these guys are British. I'm assuming

they're mostly British voice actors. Yeah. So

we don't see him a lot in our cartoons or whatnot,

but he's done other stuff. I think he's actually

been on Doctor Who. I don't remember any of the

other, I don't recognize any of the other voice

actors, but I'll name them. Terry Scott, Edward

Kelsey, Brian Truman and Jimmy Hibbert. Kevin's

gonna kill me for that this next reference ladies

and gentlemen If you take David Jason's name

put the Jason before the David and then add a

Frank you have the voice You have the actor that

played Tommy and Power Rangers Jason David Frank

That's gay Oh, I forgot I almost forgot to mention

though greenbacks pet Nero the little white I

Don't know what you actually call him He was

a fluffy white caterpillar and he didn't speak

but His sounds were made by recording David Jason

laughing and talking gibberish and then speeding

up the soundtrack like they do with the chipmunks

or whatever Oh cool. So David Jason's just all

over the show. Yeah, very cool. Very cool Getting

into the behind -the -scenes segment here. I

Don't recognize any of the producers Brian Cosgrove

Mark Holland John Hambly. I don't recognize any

of them either As a cost -cutting measure, the

cartoons made frequent use of repeated footage,

and in the dark sequences, black with eyeballs

visible only, or in Danger Mouse's case, simply

one eyeball. A recurring setting for the episodes

was the North Pole, so chosen because the white

snow -covered backgrounds would require minimal

painting and coloring. Hey, if you gotta be cost

-cutters, do it the right way. Yep, as far as

the directors and the writers don't recognize

any of them. Yeah, apparently Brian Cosgrove

is all over this production. Brian Truman's name

has come up again, Jimmy Hibbert, but I don't

recognize him mostly because we're not going

to recognize a lot of the names behind this.

Because it's a British show. But they did a good

job. I will say that much. Oh, I can't wait till

we get to reception. Oh boy. Although, getting

into the actual show here, although the characters

in the series are animals, the adventures of

Danger Mouse appear to be taking place alongside

the human world. There are various examples of

a mouse -sized Danger Mouse walking through human

scale sets, standing on table. football tables

and not least living inside a normal -sized pillar

box. This becomes less consistent as the series

goes on as many later episodes show the characters

being human -sized. There are also times where

the cast attempts to deliberately interact with

humans such as ducal and mind -controlling human

members of Parliament to be showbiz mad as he

is as well as the episode trip to America where

the danger mouse and Penfold are seen to interact

with a Texan so I I think the thing about the

actual show that I want to bring up that I like

the most is is the The nods to the adults that

they put in there I was rewatching some of the

shows recently and one of them danger mouse is

in his car or whatever and He's with agent 57

And Agent 57 keeps changing to different things.

This is the same episode when he was sneezing,

actually. And at one point, Danger Mouse asked

him what Agent 57 really looks like. And so he

changes into something. But it's so small that

you can't see him because we're looking from

the front view of the car. So we can see the

windshield. And he goes basically below that.

And Danger Mouse gets all disgusted. And he's

like, oh, god. please can you change something

into something else and he changes into like

a I can't remember like a hippo or like a some

huge animal which sends the car crashing to the

ground because it's flying through the air and

it sends the car to the ground and as he crashes

then when danger mouse gets out he's not even

worried about anything else his line and only

adults obviously would get this he's like if

you would have done that three minutes or if

you would have changed because he rechanged into

something else, which wasn't as heavy. And he's

like, if you would have changed into that person

three minutes earlier, I wouldn't have had to

worry about my no claims bonus going out the

window. And it's just stuff like that that's

thrown in all over the show that kids probably

wouldn't get. They would have thought it was

funny because we just had this hippopotamus or

whatever make the car crash to the ground. But

as we're enjoying the kids with some just overtly

physical humor, they throw in lines that the

adults would laugh at. And I love that about

the show. Yeah, I mean besides all the nods to

all the other pop culture stuff like Bond like

Doctor Who like Get Smart and all that stuff

Sherlock Holmes you have just these regular just

good One -liners and stuff like that that adults

would appreciate Yep So that's my favorite part

about the show. Yes and getting into the music

segment here This theme song rocks It does rock

Because every time I listen to it, I'm reminded

of the fact that I am the greatest and I'm fantastic

No, I disagree but Whatever blows your ego up

exactly. No, it's a great theme song It's I wouldn't

say it's like the best theme song of the 80s,

but it is way better than most of the theme songs.

Yeah, no, I don't know I'm not I don't even think

there is one best ever theme song in the 80s.

Gummy Bears might be. What? Gummy Bears and Mascar.

And Mysterious Cities of Gold. Those three are,

without a doubt. Okay then. Alright. There's

no arguing this with me. Getting into the legacy

segment here. Actually it's very funny. In Britain's

Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kids TV shows, Danger

Mouse came third, beaten only by The Muppet Show

and The Simpsons. Why does Britain like The Simpsons?

I don't know. I can understand The Muppet Show

and Danger Mouse. Damn Simpsons. It's still good.

I want to see what their list is because it's

probably better than IGN's list. Yeah, I don't

know so if anyone wants to give it point that

out to Kevin send us Oh, but that just gets to

the point where I saying that people that were

are from Britain or people that have a background

of Britain Pop culture history or entertainment

history TV shows literature or whatever do appreciate

it obviously that shows and it being ranked third

there So Britain people love it, but I love it

too Yes, and there are DVDs for seasons 1 and

2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 to 10, or you could

just get the complete series. Exactly. The complete

series came out in 2007, all the rest were kind

of earlier, but I don't know if the extras on

the... Basically, season 1 and 2 are packaged

together and so forth, so there's 1, 2, 3, 4

individual sets. I don't know if the special

features on those are all included on the complete

set or not. Might be. I'd have to do some research,

but I'm assuming they would be. Yeah. But I don't

know how much it cost, but it's 89 episodes and

I am really tempted to get it if it's a good

price. If I can find this on like when Amazon

has their deal of the day or something like that,

if they ever did that with this, I would probably

purchase it. Or if I could just figure out, you

know, I'll have to look after the show or something

to find out a price. This this show is worth

owning, I think, in my opinion. Especially if

you like any of the shows that we're talking

about if you're a Doctor Who fan or like You

know Sherlock Holmes fan or get smart fan and

you've never seen this cartoon You should get

it because it might be one of your favorite cartoons

ever. Oh, yeah This is worth way more than just

a YouTube watch Yes, very much. So I'm actually

on TV shows on DVD calm uh... looking at the

complete series thing here and he has scheduled

in august twenty eighth two thousand seven debut

of danger mouse the complete series mega set

the nine dvd set contains tons uh... every episode

was a great deal of bonus material uh... cost

is eighty nine ninety five srp in the u .s .a

amazon dot com pre -order cost is sixty two ninety

nine courses three years ago so if i could get

it for like under fifty bucks would probably

do it yeah I'm in the same boat with you I agree

if I get the entire series for like 40 45 you

know something like that I would probably do

it oh and the last thing we didn't mention about

the Legacy there are rumors of a CGI revival

of the show. Yeah, I was gonna get to that. Yeah,

you're right Nothing has been officially yet.

Thank God So if they did it, right, I'd be all

about that. But chances are they wouldn't do

it, right? As we've seen when people try to redo

other mice in the past We do other When they

tried to redo Mighty Mouse, it didn't work out

so well. I don't want them to redo Danger Mouse.

They did it right the first time. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Mighty Mouse was done right the first time and

then done wrong twice. Danger Mouse was done

right the first time. Let's not do it wrong.

Let's not do it wrong even once. Yes. So I think

that's it for this week. And we will be back

after this. Chief Quimby here, and your assignment

is to listen to all the Deepcast Radio Networks

podcasts. This is Dr. Wily, and I will destroy

Mega Man while listening to Tooncast! I go go

go go go go balls while listening to Tooncast!

Now back to Tooncast! So final thoughts on DM.

DM is one of the best mouse characters in history

Obviously most people probably would say Mickey

Mouse is number one, but I love my I love me

some danger mouse I love the look of Danger Mouse.

It's unique. Like I said before, the voice acting

is cool because it's people you haven't heard

as an English audience. You haven't heard them

very often, so they're unique voices. I love

the green frog bad guy. I love almost all the

characters. The theme song's good. The adult

humor is good. The nods to pop culture is good.

I can't say anything bad about this show. That's

my final thought there's nothing bad to say about

danger mouse. I dare someone to say something

bad about danger mouse And if you do I will send

Mighty Mouse after you Well what I was gonna

say was we triple dog dare you to say something

bad about danger mouse oh Jesus oh come on. I'm

just kidding. I just like getting reactions out

of you so Thank you for joining us here on Tooncast.

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on cops the best show We've covered since Silverhawks

Not for now he's TFG one Mike The bastard solo

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