# Muttley
**Muttley** is a fictional cartoon dog created in 1968 by Hanna-Barbera Productions as the snickering canine sidekick of the villain [Dick Dastardly](https://www.edgepedia.org/dick-dastardly). He first appeared in the television series *Wacky Races* and its 1969 spin-off *[Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines](https://www.edgepedia.org/dastardly-and-muttley-in-their-flying-machines)*, and he is remembered chiefly for his wheezing laugh, his muttered complaints, and his habit of demanding medals.[1](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Debut | September 1968, in the premiere of *Wacky Races* on CBS[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) |
| Original voice | Don Messick, who had used versions of the wheezing snicker for earlier minor characters[1](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley) • [2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) |
| Characterization | A mixed-breed dog who rarely speaks; his hallmarks are a wheezy snicker, usually at Dastardly's expense, and a mushy grumble such as "Sassafrassarassum Rick Rastardly"[1](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley) |
| Breed (in-universe) | Identified in the *Wacky Races* episode "Dash to Delaware" as a mix of bloodhound, pointer, Airedale, and hunting dog[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) |
| Spin-off | *Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines*, 17 episodes on CBS from September 1969 through January 1970[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) |
| Signature skills | In the spin-off he flies by spinning his tail like a helicopter rotor and demands a medal before doing Dastardly's bidding[3](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Dastardly_%26_Muttley_in_Their_Flying_Machines) • [2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) |
| Later voice | Billy West took over the role from the 2000 *Wacky Races* video game; the 2020 film *Scoob!* used archival recordings of Messick[4](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley) |
## Creation and debut
Muttley was created by Iwao Takamoto, the [Hanna-Barbera](https://www.edgepedia.org/hanna-barbera) character designer also responsible for [Scooby-Doo](https://www.edgepedia.org/scooby-doo).[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) He first appeared in September 1968 in the premiere of *Wacky Races*, a CBS Saturday-morning series about a cross-country automobile race in which Dick Dastardly and his dog, racing in the Mean Machine, served as the resident villains.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) • [5](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Wacky_Races)
The show drew on the 1965 comedy film *The Great Race*. Muttley was modeled on Max Meen, the henchman played in that film by [Peter Falk](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-falk), while Dick Dastardly was the cartoon equivalent of Professor Fate, the villain played by [Jack Lemmon](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-lemmon).[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
**Appearance.** In the original series Muttley wore only a collar. In the spin-off he added a World War I style aviator's cap and scarf as a member of the "Vulture Squadron".[4](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
## Voice and comic function
[Don Messick](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-messick), a Hanna-Barbera voice actor whose credits included Scooby-Doo and Astro on *The Jetsons*, originated Muttley's voice and laugh.[1](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley) • [6](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/don-messick/) The wheezing snicker did not begin with Muttley: Messick had deployed versions of it for minor characters in *Huckleberry Hound*, *Quick Draw McGraw*, and *Top Cat* before the character existed, and with Muttley he finally had a character whose entire personality was built around that sound.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
Muttley does not really talk very much. His speech consists of the trademark snicker, usually made at Dick Dastardly's expense, and a barely audible muttered grumble against his unsympathetic master, usually along the lines of "Sassafrassarassum Rick Rastardly"; Dastardly sometimes retaliates by thumping him on the head.[1](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
In the spin-off's "Magnificent Muttley" segments, Muttley daydreamed of himself as the hero of various adventures with Dastardly as the villain, giving the character a fantasy life that was rare for a cartoon character of the time.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
## The Flying Machines spin-off
After *Wacky Races* ended its original run, Fred Silverman, who oversaw children's programming at CBS, saw Dastardly and Muttley as the show's breakout characters and asked Hanna-Barbera to build a spin-off around them. *Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines* premiered on September 13, 1969, and ran 17 episodes on CBS through [January 1970](https://www.edgepedia.org/january-1970).[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
The premise, suggested by the title's reference to the 1965 British film *Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines*, casts Dastardly as commander of the Vulture Squadron, which tries and fails every time to stop the carrier pigeon Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering his messages.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) • [7](https://www.authorsden.com/SampleWorksPDF/78609.pdf) Two new traits defined Muttley here: he learned to fly by spinning his tail like a helicopter rotor, useful whenever Dastardly needed catching in freefall, and he developed an obsession with medals, demanding one from Dastardly before doing anything asked of him.[3](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Dastardly_%26_Muttley_in_Their_Flying_Machines) • [2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
The spin-off later moved into syndication from 1976 to 1982, and Dastardly and Muttley were paired together in still later Hanna-Barbera series such as *Yogi's Treasure Hunt*, again as bumbling villains.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) • [1](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
## Mumbly and the ownership problem
Understanding the near-twin character requires knowing who owned the original. *Wacky Races* was a co-production between Hanna-Barbera and Heatter-Quigley Productions, a game-show production company, which meant that the characters introduced on that show, including Dastardly and Muttley, were jointly owned rather than fully controlled by Hanna-Barbera.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) • [8](https://toonopedia.com/mumbly.htm)
When Hanna-Barbera wanted a similar dog for new programming in 1976, it created **Mumbly** instead of reusing Muttley by name. In *The Mumbly Cartoon Show* (ABC, September 11 to December 18, 1976), Mumbly, also voiced by Don Messick, was a detective lieutenant in an orange trench coat who worked under Chief Shnooker (John Stephenson) and drove a dilapidated little car that lost parts as it went.[9](https://www.saturdaymorningsforever.com/2018/06/the-mumbly-cartoon-show.html) • [8](https://toonopedia.com/mumbly.htm) Don Markstein's Toonopedia reports that the reason for creating a "new" character had less to do with Muttley's villainous history than with Heatter-Quigley's part ownership of the character, which meant Hanna-Barbera would have had to pay for Muttley's use.[8](https://toonopedia.com/mumbly.htm) The Hanna-Barbera Wiki calls this the most commonly suggested explanation but treats the reason as not certain, noting that it does not explain the pair's reappearance in *Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose* or their substitution by Mumbly and the Dread Baron in *Laff-a-Lympics*, where Mumbly led the Really Rottens team.[10](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Mumbly)
The design lineage was openly recycled: Mumbly resembles Muttley except for bluish-gray fur and the trench coat, and both trace back to the wheezy laugh Messick had been refining for a decade. Mumbly was additionally modeled in part on Peter Falk's television detective Columbo, a rumpled, unassuming sleuth who always got his man, just as Muttley had begun as a cartoon version of Falk's Max Meen.[10](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Mumbly) • [2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
## Later appearances and legacy
Messick stayed with the character until 1991, when a series of strokes ended his career; he died in 1997. [Billy West](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-west) took over the role from the 2000 *Wacky Races* video game and continued it into the 2020s, while the 2020 film *Scoob!* combined new voicing with archival recordings of Messick's laugh.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) • [4](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
The character also traveled well. In Japan, where Hanna-Barbera cartoons had been popular since the early 1960s, Muttley became "Ken-Ken"; Dastardly was voiced there by Chikao Otsuka, father of Akio Otsuka.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) When Hayao Miyazaki made *Howl's Moving Castle* in 2004, the flying dog Heen was described by critics as having "the Muttley cough", a reference that was immediately understood.[2](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley) Commentators have attributed the character's endurance to comic timing rather than dialogue: one wheezing laugh, as one ranking of Hanna-Barbera characters put it, turned a villain's sidekick into a character more popular than his boss.[11](https://cartoonvibe.com/hanna-barbera-cartoon-characters/)
## References
1. [Muttley | Hanna-Barbera Wiki](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
2. [The History of Muttley, The Retroist (March 30, 2026)](https://www.retroist.com/p/history-of-muttley)
3. [Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines | Wacky Races Wiki](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Dastardly_%26_Muttley_in_Their_Flying_Machines)
4. [Muttley | Wacky Races Wiki](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Muttley)
5. [Wacky Races | Wacky Races Wiki](https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/Wacky_Races)
6. [Don Messick - Voice Actor, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/don-messick/)
7. [Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, AuthorsDen entry](https://www.authorsden.com/SampleWorksPDF/78609.pdf)
8. [Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Mumbly](https://toonopedia.com/mumbly.htm)
9. [Saturday Mornings Forever: The Mumbly Cartoon Show](https://www.saturdaymorningsforever.com/2018/06/the-mumbly-cartoon-show.html)
10. [Mumbly | Hanna-Barbera Wiki](https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Mumbly)
11. [Hanna-Barbera Characters: The 30 Greatest, Ranked, Cartoonvibe](https://cartoonvibe.com/hanna-barbera-cartoon-characters/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Film characters and fictional worlds › Animated television characters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license