edit: I've decided to upgrade this to two stars, because maybe my memory is just too poor, and maybe it was a little better than I'm judging it. Someone buy it for me, and I'll decide for sure.

You must realise how easy it is for a little kid to be confused. First, I remember seeing 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines' at the theatres, then the HB 'The Wacky Races' came onto TV at almost the same time, and before I knew it, this spin-off show was on - and both of them had comic books as well, which I used to read. And of course, Muttley was in other shows. So was Dick... but that was later. *sigh*. Oh, hell, it's hard to keep track of the things after 35+ years.

Well, anyway, Don Messick got Muttley's distinctive snigger down pat by this stage - which is probably good, because he was really a more memorable character than Dick Dastardly.

It was a sort of WWI era show, and our villains were supposed to stop a carrier pigeon from delivering messages ('Valiant', perhaps). Back in 1969-71 it was about as good as anything else new on animation TV, which is to say, not very.

Hanna Barbera had a pretty simple quality curve, at least until about 1990. Basically they started out good, and gradually got worse, for about thirty years. For my money this show, along with 'Cattanooga Cats', which debuted the same year, was one of the last real throws of the die for HB before they sunk into utter 70's drivel. I have not seen this show for.. well, since it was on TV in Tasmania - and I'm tempted to give it 2.0 stars, because of my muddy memory, but to be honest I can't (I actually have much better memories of 'Wacky Races', for some reason, though it was earlier).

This was the point just before American TV animation tipped over the edge into true junk, but it still had something of the early Hanna Barbera to keep it above that level.