Duck Dodgers sends Daffy Duck and other Warner Bros. Looney Tunes characters into outer space. The idea began as a parody of Buck Rogers, whose roots go back to a 1928 story in the science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories. The familiar Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series came much later; it was not the source of the original 1953 cartoon.
The Buck Rogers newspaper strip helped popularize science-fiction adventure and space exploration in comics, influencing generations of later stories. Its place in that history is more useful than treating every later space adventure as a direct adaptation of it.
Back to the parody: Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century arrived in 1953, written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones. Both were central figures in classic Warner Bros. animation, including the cartoons featuring Pepé Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote, and the Road Runner. Dodgers started in a short film and returned in 1980’s Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century.
The character also appeared in the 3D attraction Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension in 1996. In 2003, Duck Dodgers finally became a television series of his own, running for 39 episodes. Another short, Duck Dodgers in Attack of the Drones, followed in 2004, its title taking a swing at Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
In the television series, Daffy becomes Duck Dodgers through an accident: he is frozen in the present and thawed out centuries later, in 2350. He becomes a space captain with an inflated opinion of his own heroism, assisted by the Eager Young Space Cadet—Porky Pig to the rest of us. Marvin the Martian is a recurring threat to their missions.
Other Looney Tunes favorites appear as characters from this universe rather than simply playing themselves. Yosemite Sam takes on a role that parodies Star Trek’s Klingons. Elmer Fudd, Witch Hazel, Wile E. Coyote, and the Tasmanian Devil also turn up.
The references reach beyond Warner’s usual cartoon cast. In one episode, Dodgers and Hal Jordan drop their uniforms off at the cleaners on the same day. A mix-up leaves Dodgers with Green Lantern’s costume and ring, eventually bringing him into contact with the Green Lantern Corps.
Other episodes bring in Dave Mustaine and Megadeth, a Kill Bill-inspired character voiced by Quentin Tarantino himself, and jokes drawing on Pirates of the Caribbean. The show mixes space-adventure parody with the wider pop culture of its time.
The character also starred in the 2000 Nintendo 64 game Duck Dodgers Starring Daffy Duck. You explore planets and collect atoms to open new stages. Marvin the Martian is the main villain, familiar Warner characters appear as bosses, and the mission is nothing less than saving Earth and the universe.