Count Duckula (TV Series 1988 - 1993)



 

Plot

The story (as shown in the title sequence each episode) is that Duckula has been active as a vampire for centuries. He could only be destroyed by exposure to sunlight or by a wooden stake thrust through his heart. In fact, Duckula has died numerous deaths  but he always returns through a mystic ritual, performed once a century, "when the moon is in the Eighth House of Aquarius" (The opening credits depict Igor's incantation). Several episodes explore the theme that each resurrection creates a new incarnation with little to no memory of its past life; thus, every incarnation is free to develop its own personality and pursue its own personal interests. The vampire is thus able to pose as a "dreadful dynasty," the Counts of Duckula. The preceding generations included knights, sorcerers, scientists, artists, Egyptologists and even professional gamblers, all of whom were also secretly "vicious vampire ducks".
Yet, as the title sequence put it, "the latest reincarnation did not run according to plan." The successful conclusion of the ritual requires blood (A send up to the Hammer Dracula films), the source of sustenance for any vampire, but Nanny accidentally substituted tomato ketchup. Consequently, the newest version is not a blood-sucking vampire, but a vegetarian one. He is more interested in juicy carrots than hunting for victims. Naturally, Igor is appalled at this. Even worse, his "new" master is obsessed with pursuing wealth and fame as an entertainer.
The stories often centre around Duckula's adventures in search of riches and fame, assisted by the castle's ability to teleport around the world. Another regular theme is Igor's attempts to turn Duckula into a proper vampire. Some episodes feature Duckula's nemesis Doctor Von Goosewing (based on Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, the nemesis of Dracula), a vampire hunter who blindly refuses to believe the current incarnation of Duckula is harmless. There is also an array of bizarre, often supernatural foes, from zombies to mechanical werewolves. The show also features a cuckoo clock whose bat-like Russian-accented characters come out and make jokes about the current situation (or just corny jokes in general); the clock is also a vital part of the castle's travelling mechanism, and even has the ability to turn back time.

 

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Episode Guide
Season 1, Episode 1: No Sax Please: We're Egyptian
Original Air Date6 September 1988
One day while awaiting a breakfast of "cocoa and chocie bickies", Duckula is fed up with his predicament as a false vampire, and Igor takes him through the picture gallery of the castle to remind of his ancestry. While being lectured about the pictures, Duckula asks Igor about his great-uncle's great-uncle, The Archduck McGanza discovery of the "mystic saxophone", an instrument known to give any who play the saxophone power over life and death, and over all the forces of the universe. And so Duckula, Nanny, and Igor set off to Egypt to find the saxophone, taking with them the Crow Brothers, who unwittingly tagged along when the castle teleports to Egypt. The two parties set off to find the saxophone...



Season 1, Episode 2: Vampire Vacation
Original Air Date13 September 1988
Count Duckula and his family retainers are coping with the rainy days and Duckula wishes to leave the rain and gloom behind, so Igor suggests that they head to Spain, and visit Don Diego, Duckula's pyromaniac cousin. And so when the castle moves off to Spain, Duckula receives a rude awakening in the form of his castle catching fire, Nanny mistakenly puts out the fire, and this act doesn't sit well with the local villagers, who have them all imprisoned, until they find Don Diego, who wishes to chop the villagers up and invite some other vampires as guests to join in, so soon he makes a pact with Duckula: Duckula defeats the most evil-tempered bull and Don Diego promises to not harm a single one. But this may prove more difficult than seems.

 

Season 1, Episode 3: One Stormy Night
Original Air Date20 September 1988
On a dark and stormy night, Count Duckula is being read a scary story and soon abandons this little happening to try and fetch himself a snack, while, unbeknown to him, Von Goosewing is in another wing of the castle and is making a monster which he hopes will wipe out Duckula. The lightning used for Goosewing's experiment, however, redirects itself into the crypt-like basement of the castle, where it finds a stone Duckula and reanimates it, creating a new, evil Duckula which wishes to find people to brutalize. All around the castle, then, everything is a mess, Duckula is on the search for bread for his snack, the stone Duckula commands Igor to fetch him a shovel so as to kill and bury victims, Igor take orders from both real and stone Duckula, Nanny hides in the attic (from a non-existent monster from the story that was being read to Duckula), where only moments ago, Von Goosewing's creature awoke and made its sullen way to find a headache pill, Von Goosewing goes to find his experimental creature and bring it to eliminate Duckula.



Season 1, Episode 4: Transylvanian Homesick Blues
Original Air Date27 September 1988
Count Duckula and his servants have decided to visit the funfair and soon visit a ride on a roller-coaster which can take them back and forward in time, where they see things such as the first vampire, a future ruled by vegetables, the French Revolution, and trouble hits in the most garish of ways when the conductor of the roller-coaster says that he will leave Duckula and Igor back in time to marry Nanny.

 

Season 1, Episode 5: Restoration Comedy
Original Air Date4 October 1988



Season 1, Episode 6: The Mutinous Penguins
Original Air Date11 October 1988
Count Duckula has lost the castle somewhere in the Arctic seas and enlists the aid of some piratical penguins with the twisted plot to leave Duckula and his retainers out in the Arctic seas so that they might search for treasure. It works, and the trio is abandoned out on a desolate icy island where Nanny produces piping hot tea which awakens several vikings from being frozen in ice. These vikings further aid Duckula and company their queen is thawed out as well courtesy of Nanny's tea. With time, the castle is found through a fight out in Arctic seas, more treachery and Von Goosewing's blunders.

 

Season 1, Episode 7: Dr. Von Goosewing's Invisible Ray
Original Air Date18 October 1988



Season 1, Episode 8: Down Under Duckula
Original Air Date25 October 1988

 

Season 1, Episode 9: All in a Fog
Original Air Date1 November 1988



Season 1, Episode 10: Castle Duckula: Open to the Public
Original Air Date8 November 1988

 

Season 1, Episode 11: The Ghost of McCastle McDuckula
Original Air Date15 November 1988



Season 1, Episode 12: Igor's Busy Day
Original Air Date22 November 1988

 

Season 1, Episode 13: Autoduck
Original Air Date29 November 1988



Season 1, Episode 14: The Vampire Strikes Back
Original Air Date6 December 1988
Count Duckula wishes to be a superhero much like his space-faring idol, Tremendous Terrance, so he stocks up on cereal tokens to earn a helmet like the one Tremendous Terrance wears. Von Goosewing, meanwhile, schemes to blow the castle up into orbit. It works, and the castle is sent off into space, where it is bombarded with troubles, first oncoming asteroids, then it is attacked by Oids, creatures in the Tremendous Terrance comic book. Tremedous Terrance soon arrives on the scene to save Duckula and company from the aliens, and at Duckula's request is sent off to the dreaded planet Cute to stave off the inhabitants, which prove to be nothing more than overtly cute rabbit-like creatures. Needless to say, after but a few moments' time, both Duckula and Igor are fed up with these creatures and wish to escape, but don't know how.

 

Season 1, Episode 15: Hardluck Hotel
Original Air Date13 December 1988
Count Duckula decides to go on a holiday to a hotel called Hardluck Hotel, though when he arrives, nothing is even close to his liking. The hotel itself is in terrible disrepair, the service is bad, and everything is rank and fetid. To end this torment, Duckula goes straight to the hotel manager to check out, but as luck would have it, it has only just been revealed in the papers that Transylvanian drachmas (Duckula's currency) are now deemed worthless in the current market. Faced with this dilemma of not having one red cent to pay for his considerably short stay, Duckula is then forced to work as a hotel employee to pay off his debt. To make matters the worst possible for this unfortunate Count, his servants, Nanny and Igor stop at this hotel for a vacation, and, not knowing that Duckula is himself and not the staff see fit to order the hapless young duck around and around. Change, however, may be on its way for the Count.



Season 1, Episode 16: The Hunchbudgie of Notre Dame
Original Air Date20 December 1988

 

Season 1, Episode 17: Dear Diary
Original Air Date3 January 1989
Count Duckula is writing in his diary and suspects nothing out of the ordinary, when Igor comes along and tells him that Duckula's diary reminded him of the previous Count and the fact that he himself, kept a diary. This lifts Duckula's interests for a moment or so long enough to decide to take this book straight to the presses to have printed out. As luck would have it, Dr. Von Goosewing, up to his usual vampire-snagging tricks, decides to see whether or not he can disguise himself as a publicist so as to infiltrate Castle Duckula. As he looks for a reporter's disguise in his trunk he stumbles upon the diary of his great-uncle, Dr. Von Gosling. Von Goosewing studies it well, for in this diary is a design on how to destroy a vampire with a device disguised as a camera, loaded with a wooden stake. As all of this happens, we see many a flashback from both the Count and Von Goosewing's parts. Duckula tries to get Nanny and Igor to tidy up the castle, and as this happens, Nanny and Igor both inform the Count that they, too, have diaries. This plays up to an important level later on for all three.



Season 1, Episode 18: Rent a Butler
Original Air Date10 January 1989

 

Season 1, Episode 19: Jungle Duck
Original Air Date24 January 1989



Season 1, Episode 20: Mobile Home
Original Air Date31 January 1989

 

Season 1, Episode 21: A Fright at the Opera
Original Air Date7 February 1989

Season 1, Episode 22: Dr. Goosewing and Mr. Duck
Original Air Date14 February 1989
Von Goosewing is, as usual, hovering over Castle Duckula trying to find some way to obliterate Duckula and broods on his inability to do so, but as he is about to take a sip of some coffee, actually drinks from his patented carpet stain remover. This has a surprising effect on the drinker; it will turn them into the reverse of what they are for a short time. Von Goosewing then comes to the conclusion that he can get Duckula to take this chemical so as to neutralize him long enough to eliminate him, and he plans to put it in Duckula's milk. Needless to say, chaos soon ensues and virtually everyone in the castle takes this potion. Soon, in some form or other, everyone is the exact reverse of what they'd normally be: Duckula is a real vampire, Igor is perfectly benign, and Nanny is a genius.

 

Season 1, Episode 23: Town Hall Terrors
Original Air Date21 February 1989



Season 1, Episode 24: Sawdust Ring
Original Air Date28 February 1989

 

Season 1, Episode 25: Duck and the Broccoli Stalk
Original Air Date7 March 1989



Season 1, Episode 26: Family Reunion
Original Air Date21 March 1989

 

​Season 2
Season 2, Episode 1: Ghostly Gold
Original Air Date12 September 1989
As Duckula and his family retainers are cleaning out the attic one night, they find a newspaper with the main article depicting a Gold Rush in the Yukon. As soon as Duckula grasps that the gold may be his for the taking, the castle is set off to the Yukon to seek gold, and the three gold-seekers stop in the prospecting town of Goldsville, though the residents are not revealed to the protagonists as what they truly are, ghosts.



Season 2, Episode 2: Ducknapped
Original Air Date19 September 1989
Count Duckula is eating his breakfast, expecting nothing out of the ordinary when he checks his mail, revealing a ransom note for him saying that the Count has been kidnapped and can be saved if the servants will amass fifty-thousand Transylvanian drachmas to give to the kidnappers. Nanny sees the letter and runs off in fear, bleating that Duckula is missing, though Duckula was not. It is then that the kidnappers are shown; they are two inept gentlemen living in Transylvania, one of who mistakenly sent off the letter before capturing the Count. To correct this, the kidnappers set off to the castle to try and capture him. To complicate matters even more than they already are, Von Goosewing shows up at the castle, crashing through the roof and landing in a bed, where the kidnappers find him, and think that it is the Count Duckula himself, so they make off with him. Nanny and Igor head off in search of the Count with the money in tow, dropping it off at the indicated place, and when Duckula is found, attempt to head off to the kidnappers' home and try to fix this egregious error, not knowing that now that the money has been received, the kidnappers wish to explain that they plan to return the money so as to start the whole kidnapping scam over again. Duckula accepts, realizing that they are fools, and soon makes things miserable for the kidnappers by playing music which they hate on his banjo.

 

Season 2, Episode 3: The Lost Valley
Original Air Date26 September 1989
Coutn Duckula, Nanny, and Igor all head out to the movie theater one night, seeing the film "The Lost Valley", which leaves Igor bothered (he wished to see a film on Bela Lugosi, and hates fiction) and Duckula starstruck, which means that he is then fantasizing about heading to the Lost Valley to find the treasures there. Count Duckula (by some paradoxical ploy) transports the castle to the fictitious world of the Lost Valley, where he meets the natives and attempts to find the treasures there. They are found, but Duckula is dissatisfied when he finds out that they are cheap props, and to make matters worse, the castle soon transports off without its inhabitants, leaving them stuck in the film, which soon ends, and leaves them in the screen



Season 2, Episode 4: Incredible Shrinking Duck
Original Air Date3 October 1989
Von Goosewing is shown brooding as usual that he cannot capture the Count Duckula as he wishes, but soon has an idea to capture him and end him for good: Von Goosewing plans to shrink the Castle Duckula so as to put its and its inhabitants in a snow-globe, where they will be no danger to anyone, (thought they were not to begin with) and with this new plot in mind, Von Goosewing works hard constantly (for years) building a machine that can shrink the castle itself to a snow-globe size, though he inevitably drops it off the edge of a cliff, where it rolls into a gift shop, and is put on the shelf with other globes. Von Goosewing does not know which one could contain the real Castle and so he left with the forced choice of having to buy them all so as to crack them all open. When Count Duckula realizes what has happened, he begins to panic; what will happen to him if he is tiny forever? And so he, Igor, and Nanny head off to the shrink ray to try and reverse the effect, though they are saved the trouble when they realize that they can simply find the ray and reverse it. Von Goosewing, however, being a dim bulb, realizes that now his quarry has escaped him, and thus shrinks himself down to size so as to look for Duckula, but as he is small, sees that the effect projected by the machine does not last long.

 

Season 2, Episode 5: Hi-Duck
Original Air Date10 October 1989



Season 2, Episode 6: Prime-Time Duck
Original Air Date17 October 1989
Count Duckula wakes up one morning plagued by bright lights coming from outside, only to find out that the lights are coming from a filming crew, who has set out to make a documentary about the life of the Count Duckula, and Duckula jumps for joy at the prospect of this, and is sorely disappointed that the host of the show prefers Igor as the Count and Nanny as a Countess, leaving the true Count Duckula as the servants. This infuriates Duckula and causes troubles much later for him, as he is booted out of his own castle.

 

Season 2, Episode 7: Bloodsucking Fruit Bats of the Lower Amazon
Original Air Date24 October 1989
Igor is summoning his new pet, a "bloodsuckung fruit bat" and plots to use his pet to convert Count Duckula into the vampire that he truly is, but fails when he finds out that Nanny and Duckula have been treating the bat (known to Igor as "Fang" but to Nanny and Duckula as "Fluffykins") as a benevolent pet. Igor realizes that his plan has gone awry when this happens and so plots to head to South America to go and find another bat like Fang, or rather, like Fluffykins so as to restart the training of said bat to convert Duckula into a vampire. Igor thus tricks Duckula into sending the castle off to South America to find a bat, and the four of them all meet a zoologist there who is looking for such a bat, as well as a tribe of warrior women who not only resemble Nanny in exact appearance, but capture Duckula, Igor, and the zoologist, making Nanny their queen. Nanny convinces them to release Duckula and co. so as to let them continue hunting for the bat needed. But this proves to have rather a surprising event.



Season 2, Episode 8: The Count and the Pauper (I Don't Wanna Work on Maggots Farm No More)
Original Air Date31 October 1989

 

Season 2, Episode 9: In Arctic Circles
Original Air Date7 November 1989
Duckula is forced to put up with the summer heat in Transylvania and finally decides that he wants no more of the heat, so he and his servants set off in the castle to the Arctic. When the trio sets camp outside in the snow, they find a stately igloo, headed by a servile penguin known as Jives who claims that his master is gone, and due to his absence, Duckula may use the master bedroom. Hearing that Duckula is fed up with Igor's sepulchral manner, Jives offers to serve for Duckula, and in turn, Igor is dismissed, in favor of Jives and his distant cousins, which all work as maids, cooks, etc. With that in mind, Igor teams up with Dr. Von Goosewing to try and rid Duckula of these newfound servants, but Duckula may have his own problems with these new workers.



Season 2, Episode 10: Transylvanian Take-Away
Original Air Date14 November 1989

 

Season 2, Episode 11: Who Dunnit?
Original Air Date21 November 1989
Count Duckula has received a letter from a law firm in London saying that a relative (a Duke of Mallardborough) had died and left him (as well as others) something in his will. When Duckula makes it to London, the will reader tells Duckula and the other inheritors that since the Duke was murdered by a person within that room, that none may leave until one confesses. Duckula, being confused, suspects himself and must therefore testify his case in court.



Season 2, Episode 12: No Yaks Please, We're Tibetian
Original Air Date28 November 1989

 

Season 2, Episode 13: Beau Duckula
Original Air Date5 December 1989



Season 2, Episode 14: Mississippi Duck
Original Air Date12 December 1989
Count Duckula has yet another venture of success and fame planned: to be a jazz musician. To do this, he, Igor, and Nanny have set out to the Mississippi to find the means for Duckula to be a musician. When he is kicked out of a local jazz club for sounding bad, he states out loud that he "killed them", which is to say, he was better. But a local steamboat captain takes these words to mean that he is actually a hit-man, and offers the Count a job aboard his ship. Duckula accepts, not knowing what is in store for him.

 

Season 2, Episode 15: Amnesiac Duck
Original Air Date19 December 1989



Season 2, Episode 16: Mysteries of the Wax Museum
Original Air Date2 January 1990

 

Season 2, Episode 17: Return of the Curse of the Secret of the Mummy's Tomb Meets Franken Duckula's Monster...
Original Air Date9 January 1990



Season 2, Episode 18: Lost City of Atlantis
Original Air Date16 January 1990

 

Season 2, Episode 19: Bad Luck Duck
Original Air Date23 January 1990

Season 3
Season 3, Episode 1: Private Beak
Original Air Date22 October 1990

Season 3, Episode 2: Astro Duck
Original Air Date29 October 1990

 

Season 3, Episode 3: Unreal Estate
Original Air Date5 November 1990



Season 3, Episode 4: Bombay Duck
Original Air Date12 November 1990

 

Season 3, Episode 5: There Are Werewolves at the Bottom of My Garden
Original Air Date19 November 1990



Season 3, Episode 6: Duck Ahoy
Original Air Date26 November 1990

 

Season 3, Episode 7: The Great Ducktective
Original Air Date3 December 1990
Von Goosewing attempts to rid the world of Duckula by having two misled detectives try to implicate Duckula as a murderer. Duckula is innocent and does not realize that the person who was allegedly killed, as well as all the murder weapons found in the house, are planted by Von Goosewing as a form of trickery. The detectives do not realize what has truly happened and so try to defraud the Count as a murderer.



Season 3, Episode 8: Dead Eye Duck
Original Air Date10 December 1990

Season 3, Episode 9: The Show Must Go On
Original Air Date17 December 1990

 

Season 3, Episode 10: A Christmas Quacker
Original Air Date24 December 1990



Season 3, Episode 11: The Rest Is History
Original Air Date7 January 1991

 

Season 3, Episode 12: O.O. Duck
Original Air Date14 January 1991

Season 3, Episode 13: Mystery Cruise
Original Air Date21 January 1991

 

Season 4
Season 4, Episode 1: Around the World in a Total Daze
Original Air Date5 January 1993



Season 4, Episode 2: Manhattan Duck
Original Air Date12 January 1993

 

Season 4, Episode 3: Alps-a-Daisy
Original Air Date19 January 1993

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Season 4, Episode 4: Prince Duckula
Original Air Date26 January 1993

 

Season 4, Episode 5: Venice a Duck Not a Duck
Original Air Date2 February 1993
Miles off from Transylvanian lands, in the depths of the Venice canals, the sinister villain known as the Egg plots his wicked plot to end the life of Count Duckula as vengeance for ruining his earlier schemes. The Egg is a clever and devious being with many tricks up his...shell. These tricks are to enlist the help of all of the foes which Duckula had encountered in the days before and try to have them maul Duckula. The foes include the Crow Brothers, Morris the Strongman and Charlie the Clown, the Phantom of the Opera and his disfigured servant Cruel, a crew of piratical penguins, and the devious French con-men Gaston and Pierre. Duckula is unsuspecting of any attack and proceeds to Venice and the traps only because he wishes to seek a jewel known as the Eye of LaBorgias that was said to be hidden in Venice just waiting to be found. Waiting for him, however, are all of the sinister forces working for the Egg, though these forces are (unknowingly) made short work of by Duckula.

Season 4, Episode 6: A Mountie Always Gets His Duck
Original Air Date9 February 1993

 

Season 4, Episode 7: The Zombie Awakes
Original Air Date16 February 1993