September 18, 1987 – The Animated Series DuckTales Premieres in Syndication
“Every day they’re out and making duck tales, woo-hoo!”
On September 18, 1987, the animated series DuckTales premiered in syndication. Based on the characters from the Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks, the series tells the story of Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, after their uncle Donald Duck leaves them in Scrooge’s care. The four go on amazing adventures, which mostly deal with thieves trying to steal Scrooge’s fortune or his “Number One Dime,” the source of Scrooge’s good luck and fortune. This series was the first Disney series for syndication, and its popularity launched other Disney series, including DuckTales spinoff Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and Chip ’n’ Dale Rescue Rangers. The series stars Alan Young as Scrooge, and Russi Taylor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie. It lasted for 100 episodes over 4 seasons, and led to a theatrical film in 1990, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. The series won a Daytime Emmy in 1990 for Outstanding Film Sound Editing.
The first episode was a television movie called “Treasure of the Golden Suns,” which has since been split into five separate episodes. The movie introduces Scrooge, with whom Donald leaves his nephews when he joins the Navy. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure helps the criminal Beagle Boys escape from jail to steal a treasure map from Scrooge’s vault. Scrooge ends up taking his nephews, their nanny Mrs. Beakley, and Mrs. Beakley’s granddaughter Webby with them on an expedition to find the treasure on the map, while battling the Beagle Boys at every turn.
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