Danger Mouse (1981)
First episode title: Rogue Robots
How familiar with the show am I?: I haven't seen it before, but I was generally aware of it.
Danger Mouse is a miniature spy taking on the most evil criminals in London, accompanied by his hamster sidekick Penfold.
I must admit, before watching the episode, I didn't even know Danger Mouse was mouse-sized - I assumed he was a Looney Tunes-style human-sized animal. So just seeing the scale of the characters was a surprise. Also, taking a look at his design, exactly how much of him is clothes?
As the episode starts, we see that the backdrop of London is represented by photo cut-outs - this sort of thing continues throughout the episode, with the characters and foreground elements represented as drawings and the backgrounds as photos. It does add a distinctive look to the series despite definitely being a time-saving measure.
A narrator introduces us to the setting and concept, as we see the postbox where Danger Mouse lives for the first time.
Narrator: In a quiet corner of Mayfair lives the greatest guardian of peace and justice in the civilised world. A secret agent so secret that even his codename has a codename. Yes, Danger Mouse!
Narrator: Danger Mouse's trusted assistant, Ernest Penfold. Codename: the Jigsaw. Because when he's faced with a problem, he goes to pieces.
The doorbell of their headquarters rings - already I'm doubting their security - and someone with what I'm hearing as a terrible attempt at a Spanish accent (from looking it up: actually meant to be Italian) tells them they have a delivery. The door opens to reveal a pair of small hovering robots that are mostly head, who immediately start chasing Penfold around:
Those two little robots look like Sonic enemies to me. Ten years too early!
Here we see the personalities of the two main characters immediately. Penfold is panicking and running around, while Danger Mouse casually tells Penfold that his library books are overdue, before pressing a button that causes one robot to slip through a hole in the wall, and then swatting the other robot with Penfold's book!
An alarm tells them that they have a call from Colonel K. Evidently their boss, it's not at all clear what species he is:
Anyway, he's a bit of an idiot - he's just telling DM that several agents have been receiving strange deliveries, only to go and answer the door! We hear that odd accent again, and the Colonel beats up the next set of robots off-screen, returning with a bent polo stick.
Just as the Colonel tells Danger Mouse to go and investigate, one of the incapacitated robots in DM's office is suddenly revived and flees out of the door. Danger Mouse and Penfold take a sofa-lift down to their car, Penfold screaming the entire way (although his lines aren't reflected in the animation, making me suspect this is stock animation they use in multiple episodes):
As they chase the robotic tadpole (oh, that's what it is) in their car, the narrator informs us they're being watched by Baron Greenback, an evil frog, with a pet... something called Nero.
Greenback announces in a scratchy voice that the robot won't lead the heroes to his hideout, and pushes a self-destruct button. Danger Mouse and Penfold react, and I can't help but wonder if this exchange was partly improvised:
Danger Mouse: It self-destructed.
Penfold: Self-destructed?
Danger Mouse: Yes. ...You know that echo sounded just like you. Anyway, yes.
Seems to me like David Jason (as Danger Mouse) was mocking the script a little bit there!
The pair agree to split up and look around, hoping to find the villain's lair. Penfold almost immediately runs into a big-booted robot, though, so DM has to come to his rescue.
Greenback, controlling the robot from his base, prepares to stomp on Penfold. Danger Mouse drives to the rescue - some kind of broadcasting device emerges from his car and DM speaks into a microphone, giving orders to "Boots", which it obeys. Presumably this is some kind of voice-activated remote control device, then. DM orders it around like it's in the army - "Attention!" etc. - and makes it start marching forwards.
There's an odd line from Greenback at this point, as his robot starts acting out of his control:
Greenback: Don't just sit there, do something, fool!
We haven't seen anyone around that he could be addressing. Greenback is sitting in the only visible chair in his base, and his heavily accented minion hasn't been heard from since the scene with Colonel K (and hasn't been seen on-screen at all yet). I can only imagine that the writers were envisioning a different set-up where his minion had his own chair in the base, and was present at this moment, although even then it would be weird that he doesn't get a line in response.
Anyway, the boots walk right off the edge of the pavement next to the Thames. DM orders the robot to "fall in", which it does, splashing a cute little seagull as it does so. BER-DOOSH.
After this defeat, we cut back to Greenback, and now we see him talking to his minion on screen. He's a crow, and he's now named for the first time as Stiletto. Greenback orders him to prepare "Big Tom, the mouse-masher".
Stiletto: When it comes to dirty deeds, Barone, you are the dirtiest.
Greenback: Oh, I bet you say that to all the great frogs you know.
Danger Mouse and Penfold are on their way back to base in the car. DM is giving a report to Colonel K through a little screen on the dashboard, like some kind of amazingly futuristic video phone. All of a sudden, the car is menaced by a whole bunch of giant metal arms with various deadly appendages, like a spiked wheel, an axe, and a mace, each dropping in from off-screen.
It might be obvious even from that short gif, and some of the others I've posted, that there is a lot of re-used animation in this episode. I can only assume their budget was quite low, and I have no idea whether later episodes are just the same. Still, all the animation serves its purpose well enough.
DM and Penfold escape off the city road and seem to pretty immediately find themselves on a country lane, with London looking quite distant all of a sudden. Penfold is relieved, but they immediately run into what's been menacing them - a giant cat robot with six arms. (Oh, Big Tom.)
Greenback, Nero, and Stiletto are all inside the head of Big Tom - Stiletto, by means of two levers, is controlling the robot's actions, with Greenback giving him his orders. Stiletto's first action is to open the cat's mouth, making a kind of tube pop out. DM activates an ejector seat in the car to boost himself up to the robot's torso, and then extends his DM badge down (on a string?) for Penfold to grab onto and join him, just in time for Penfold to avoid a jet of flame from the cat's mouth.
Now that the pair are climbing the robot, Greenback orders Stiletto to pluck them off. One of the robot's pinchers grabs Penfold, and then the robot turns its attention to Danger Mouse, leading to my favourite part of the episode: DM dodging various parts of the robot.
The robot uses its flame breath and an extra pincher from its chest, and Danger Mouse dodges every attack, dancing around as he does so.
Penfold: Danger Mouse, what are you doing?!
Danger Mouse: It's called the super-spy sidestep.
Greenback is getting angrier, Stiletto is pumping the levers harder, and the robot is attacking faster, until DM moves in just the right way to get the cat's pincher to grab the fire-breathing tube.
...The cat got its own tongue!
This damage is enough to completely destroy the robot, which starts blowing up all over, like, yes, a video game final boss. The pincher drops Penfold, conveniently right into the car, where Danger Mouse is waiting for him, and they reverse the footage of when they approached the robot drive away as fast as they can!
Narrator: Some hours later, while the fire brigade struggles with a mysterious blaze in Willesden Green, Danger Mouse reports to HQ.
This is interesting because we don't actually see any humans in this whole episode, but they clearly exist by the scale of all the structures, and this fire brigade is presumably a human fire brigade that doesn't know anything about rodent super-spies, hence the blaze being considered "mysterious".
Colonel K is pleased with DM and Penfold's work and suggest that the two of them have earned a holiday, to which Penfold responds by immediately showing up in a holiday outfit surrounded by suitcases and accessories, which would seem to be the episode-ending gag, until...
We see the head of Big Tom hovering around above London, with the voices of Greenback and Stiletto coming from inside, Greenback still ordering Stiletto around, until Stiletto pushes the wrong switch and they are catapulted into space.
As the credits start, there's some chatter from the narrator about what might happen next time, which is another bit that makes me wonder if improvisation was involved.
Narrator: Will Danger Mouse be able to solve the mystery of the exploding microphones, that is causing havoc among - BOOM! - AAAAAARGH!
The credits themselves were a revelation to me - I'd heard of "Cosgrove Hall Productions" in passing several times before before, and I always assumed it was called that because it was based somewhere called Cosgrove Hall. So, seeing that the show was produced by men called Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall sort of turned my world upside down!