101 Dalmatians: The Series

Premise

The show focuses primarily on three puppies: Lucky, TV addict leader and unconventional hero; Rolly, his cheerful, laid-back, and always-hungry brother; and Cadpig, their uncanny but loveable sister who is the runt of the family. The three siblings are often joined by Spot, a chicken who wants to be a dog and a member of the Bark Brigade. Early promotional material had listed dictatorial Penny and mischievous Patch as two other puppy cast members, but the highlighted puppies were whittled down to three so Penny was dropped and Patch was no longer a main character. Unlike the original film, but like the 1996 live-action film, the series is set in England in the 1990s, on the Dearly Farm.

Other puppies appearing in the show included the fearless, three-legged Tripod, the friendly dimwitted Dipstick, the constantly urinating Wizzer, the fashion-conscious diva Two-Tone, and the Sheepdog mix, Mooch, who serves as the farm's bully. Patch also makes occasional appearances, though with a different personality than originally promoted.

Characters

Main

• Lucky (voiced by Pamela Adlon and Debi Mae West) is the most plucky of the puppies and is unique in having his only spots in the shape of a horseshoe on his back. He is the leader of the main pups and is very adventurous and determined to do whatever he thinks is right. But he is very obsessed with TV and he is usually the one at fault when the main pups get into trouble.
• Cadpig (voiced by Kath Soucie) is the smallest of the puppies and one of the most intelligent, if not deluded somewhat by her abstract state of mind. She is unique in having long floppy ears and a big head. She has a kind-hearted personality, is quite strong for her size and can have a very strong temper.
• Rolly (voiced by Kath Soucie) is always hungry; almost all his decisions are based on food, which sometimes gets him and the pups into trouble. However, he is a cheerful and diligent sibling, especially when it comes to his incredible sense of smell. He's also very timid and is an easy target for bullies due to him being such a foodie.
• Spot (voiced by Tara Strong) (credited as Tara Charendoff) is a chicken who wants to become a dalmatian. She is the most intelligent of the main four and is a voice of reason for the foursome, but is more often than not ignored. She is easily scared and is prone to literally bouncing off the walls. But she is a great dancer and appears to be good at math. She is also able to fly to some extent. In certain episodes, she acts as a private investigator and sports an alter-ego by the name of Pullet Marlowe.
• Roger (voiced by Jeff Bennett) and Anita Dearly (voiced by Kath Soucie) are owners of the 101 Dalmatians and the Dearly Farm.
• Cruella de Vil (voiced by April Winchell and Tress MacNeille in 2 episodes) is now a corporate criminal and most of her plans revolve around getting richer, tormenting the dalmatians and plotting to steal the Dearly Farm. Her frequent catchphrase in the series is "Memo to myself", followed by whatever her current scheme is or sometimes her emotional state, uttered into her personal recording device.
• Horace (voiced by David Lander) and Jasper (voiced by Michael McKean) are Cruella's henchmen. They are usually hired to carry out her plans and generally fail, due to their lack of intelligence.

Supporting

• Nanny (voiced by Charlotte Rae) is Dearlys' caretaker who helps Roger and Anita around the Dearly Farm, also helps with feeding the dalmatians from the huge Chow Tower that she operates with a bike.
• Pongo (voiced by Kevin Schon) is the father of fifteen puppies, the adopted father of the eighty-four orphaned pups and the husband of Perdita. He is Roger's devoted pet.
• Perdita (voiced by Pam Dawber) is the mother of fifteen puppies, the adoptive mother of eighty-four orphaned pups and the wife of Pongo. She is Anita's beloved pet.
• Mooch (voiced by Danny Cooksey) is an adolescent sheepdog mix who is the bully of the farm. He can sometimes be intimidating, but deep down he is very sensitive and nice.
• Two-Tone (voiced by Tara Strong) is one of the dalmatian puppies and Mooch's ex-girlfriend and second-in-command. She is depicted as half-black with white spots and half white with black spots. She is a tomboy who loves fashion and has a crush on Lucky.
• Dipstick (voiced by Thom Adcox-Hernandez) is a male dalmatian puppy who is the most dimwitted of Mooch's gang. He is constantly infested with fleas. In some episodes, he is has a soft side.
• Wizzer (voiced by Pamela Adlon in "Purred It Through the Grapevine" and Christine Cavanaugh for the rest of the series) is a male dalmatian puppy and bladder control issues who is part of Mooch's gang.
• Tripod (voiced by Toran Caudell) is a male dalmatian puppy who serves as Lucky's friendly rival. He has spotted ears, a green headband and is missing his front left leg.
• Scorch (voiced by Frank Welker) is Cruella's pet ferret who has an appetite for Spot.
• The Colonel (voiced by Jim Cummings) is an old English sheepdog and commanding officer of the Bark Brigade.
• Sergeant Tibbs (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is a cat and trusted ally of the Colonel.
• Captain (voiced by Frank Welker) is a horse on the Dearly Farm who is usually seen helping Nanny.
• Lieutenant Pug (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is one of the training officers of the Bark Brigade. He is paranoid about a potential feline invasion. He gets very brutal with the main pups and has a habit of insulting them, and suffers from narcolepsy.
• Thunderbolt (voiced by Frank Welker) is a German shepherd and Lucky's favorite superhero.
• Cornelia (voiced by Tress MacNeille) is Spot's overprotective mother who wants her to behave like a chicken.
• Lucy (voiced by Paddi Edwards) is a goose who gets grumpy when the dalmatians play in her pond at Hiccup Hole.
• Swamp Rat (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is a rat salesman who lives in the swamp.
• Steven the Alligator (voiced by Frank Welker) is Swamp Rat's associate and is fixated on eating Spot.
• Cydne (voiced by Frank Welker) is a snake who lives in the swamp and Swamp Rat's other associate.
• Mayor Ed Pig (voiced by Jim Cummings) is a pig who is the mayor of the animals on the Dearly Farm.
• Dumpling (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh) is Mayor Ed's daughter who has an unrequited crush on Lucky.
• Princess (voiced by April Winchell in "The High Price of Fame" and "Shake, Rattle and Woof" and Cree Summer for the rest of the series) is a cow who lives on the Dearly Farm.
• Duchess (voiced by Marla Gibbs) is a cow and a companion of Princess.

Production

In March 1996, Disney announced an animated television series based on the 1961 film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, created in a partnership between Disney and Kellogg's ordered for 52 episodes with two cartoons and one comedy bit in between each. The series was developed by Jim Jinkins, who had previously created Doug and Allegra's Window for Nickelodeon, and his partner David Ray Campbell, both serving as executive producers alongside Bobs Gannaway and Tony Craig, who were previously the supervising producers of The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa, another television adaptation of a Disney animated feature film, being The Lion King. The show used the thick-and-thin line approach from Hanna-Barbera's 2 Stupid Dogs, another television series which Gannaway and Craig previously worked on. Alongside Gannaway and Craig, many of the staff had been previously involved with The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa.

Release

Broadcast

The show debuted in syndication on the Disney-Kellogg Alliance block on September 1, 1997, running episodes five days a week; this was the second season. Two weeks later, the first season aired on ABC's One Saturday Morning programing block. That season was originally going to air on ABC on September 6, 1997, but was delayed a week due to the death of Princess Diana.

In total, 65 half-hour episodes with 105 episode segments were produced. The first season contained 12 episodes: 3 full-length episodes, and 9 that contained 2 segments each. Meanwhile, the second season contained 53 episodes: 22 full-length episodes, and 31 that contained 2 segments each. On March 4, 1998, the show aired its last episode with reruns continuing to play in syndication through August 28, 1998.

Reruns of the show aired on Disney Channel from 1998 to 1999 and Toon Disney from September 1, 1998, to March 9, 2007.

On March 23, 2012, the show returned to television as a launch title for the Disney Junior channel, but only about half of the episodes aired and most of them were edited down. On September 3, 2013, the series was removed from Disney Junior's lineup.

Home media

While the series as a whole never made a true home media release either on VHS or DVD, the episode, "A Christmas Cruella", was released on VHS in 1998, which also contained the episode "Coup De Vil" as a bonus episode. This was also released on DVD in the UK.

The 3-part series finale, "Dalmatian Vacation", was also released on VHS and Laserdisc in Japan, which included two songs that were exclusive to this release and not on the TV broadcasts of the trilogy of episodes.

Streaming

The series has been available on the iTunes Store and Amazon Prime Video since February 2017, with the exception of the episode "Alive N' Chicken"/"Prima Doggy". In May 2020, the entire series became available on Disney+ in Australia, and on the US version of Disney+ on June 19, 2020, with all 65 episodes listed as one season and arranged in release date order, including "Alive N' Chicken"/"Prima Doggy".

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1997–1998)

With the pups' annual fall ball approaching, Two-Tone is expecting Mooch to ask her out, but after acting rude with her, Two-Tone decides to break up with Mooch. Lucky offers to take Two-Tone to the dance instead. When Mooch finds out about this, he gets revenge on Lucky by getting him infested with fleas and then dying his fur pink during his flea bath.

After hearing one of the Colonel's boring stories, Rolly jokingly says that he wants to hear it again, but Colonel takes it seriously and sets up a time to tell it to him again. This conflicts with the main pups' schedule as they were going to go swimming at that time and could not reschedule, so Rolly fakes being sick for the Colonel and the pups have to find a way to get to Hiccup Hole without getting caught by Colonel or Sgt. Tibbs.

Fed up with Tripod always beating him at all the Bark Brigade courses and Lt. Pug calling him a loser, Lucky is determined to win an obstacle course before Tripod does.

When the Dearlys leave for a while, Cruella tricks Nanny into leaving too and poses as a farmer to try to get a business man to make a deal with her as one of her schemes to try to expand her business onto the farm.

Thunderbolt, Lucky's favorite superhero, comes to Dearly Farm to film his next episode. Lucky is excited at first, but he soon discovers that his idol is a fraud since he relies on stunt doubles to do his stunts for him.

The main pups are fed up with Lt. Pug spreading rumors about a cat invasion and think it's all a hoax, but they soon find out it's real when a mob of cats unexpectedly invades the farm and make themselves at home there.

The main pups are planning another swim day at Hiccup Hole, but Spot has to babysit Peeps the chick. She brings her along, but it turns out Peeps is much more of a handful than Spot expected. Now, Spot and the pups have to work together to keep Peeps out of danger.

A German Shepherd pup named Blaze visits the farm. Lucky thinks he's cool and wants to hang out with him, but Rolly gets jealous thinking that Blaze is stealing his brother away from him.

After predicting that Rolly would win a race and saving the farm animals from a falling windmill, Spot's mother, Cornelia, believes that Cadpig is psychic, and the other farm residents come to her to predict their futures. Cadpig decides to play along, but when her predictions end up falling flat, things backfire on her. Cadpig is now determined to get the farm to love her again.

Season 2 (1997–1998)

When the pups miss lunch, they come up with various attempts to get into the Chow Tower, but aren't listening to what Spot is trying to tell them.

Roger picks Tripod to enroll in a bone-digging contest. Lucky gets jealous that Roger picked Tripod instead of him and fears that if Tripod will be Roger's new favorite if he wins. Lucky is now determined to try to stop him.

Cadpig gets locked in the pound and drives the other dogs crazy while Lucky, Rolly and Lt. Pug try to rescue her.

Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig and Spot sleep through a class on barking code, and when they hear a message in code, they have to try to figure out what it means.

After a long, grueling night hike, the main pups seem to be disappearing one-by-one due to the legendary beast Lock Jaw. Are they really being eaten alive, or is something else going on?

Fed up with things being too crowded with all the puppies at the farm, Lucky asks Pongo and Perdita if there's a possibility for him to get a room of his own. They decide to send him to live with his aunt and uncle. At first, Lucky enjoys this life, but he soon realizes things are not the same without his brothers and sisters.

Rolly is fed up with his friends mocking him over his weight, so he decides to hang out with Ed Pig. While living this new life, Lucky, Cadpig and Spot start to have second thoughts on whether or not Rolly should be their friend anymore.

Lucky sees an ad for a new Kanine Krunchies flavor and sees that they are holding auditions for dogs to be in a commercial. He auditions and gets the job, but being a star turns out to be much more difficult than Lucky expected.

Cruella decides to move into the farm with the pups. This becomes a huge inconvenience for them, so they try to make things miserable for her to force her to leave.

The main pups think Cruella left her purse behind and return it to her. When they later discover that it was really Anita's purse, they must try to steal it back.

Lucky tries to set up a scheme to earn paw merits in the Bark Brigade so that he can be a higher rank than Tripod.

After watching a sci-fi movie, Spot notices the pups are acting very strange and suspects they might have been possessed by aliens.

Cadpig sees a lobster at a seafood takeout place. She decides to rescue the lobster and find a new home for him where he will be safe from anyone who wants to eat him.

The pups are annoyed by Duchess and Princess bickering over the lack of space they have between them. Cadpig tries to help them out, but she ends up making things worse instead.

Lucky accidentally saves Dumpling's life, and Dumpling will not leave him alone. Lucky tries everything he can to get Dumpling out of his fur.

When the pups hear about a lamb being on the loose in the city, Lucky decides to play the superhero Thunderbolt once again and try to track him down, but all Lucky's plans end up backfiring as the lamb turns out to be a lot tougher than he expected.

Cruella forces the Dearlys to temporarily vacate their house after discovering it is infested with termites. The main pups were left behind and decide to hang out and do whatever they want. They also try to outsmart Horace and Jasper when they invade the house.

Lt. Pug and Cornelia decide to swap their duties on the farm. Things go downhill as the pups discover Cornelia is a worse instructor than Pug while Pug is failing at all of his chicken duties.

Rolly gets caught by an ice cream truck driver who turns out to be Cruella's cousin and gets drunk on a new ice cream flavor. Lucky, Cadpig and Spot try to save him with help from Pongo and Perdita.

Cornelia is trying to get Spot to act more like a chicken and less like a dog. The main pups try to help her but don't have much luck.

When Rolly bites into one of Cruella's shoes, he all of a sudden becomes obsessed with chewing on shoes, and now his friends need to try to snap him out of it.

Mooch is put on trial for stealing things that belong to the Dearly Farm residents. Mooch tries to prove his innocence while also trying to find out who the real culprit is.

Pongo and Perdita have restricted the main pups from swimming in Hiccup Hole until they apologize to Lucy for disrespecting her. Lucky refuses to apologize. Not wanting to tolerate the hot weather, Lucky tries to find a new place with water for them to swim in.

Rolly is in danger of being kicked out of the Bark Brigade until the pups discover that Rolly's incredible sense of smell could potentially save his reputation despite what Lt. Pug thinks.

Bored with her life, Dumpling decides to hang out with the main pups, but she becomes a nuisance to them. Fed up with Dumpling's interferences, the pups decide to set up a test for her in hopes of discouraging her from hanging out with them again.

Lucky gets injured and is forced to wear a cone on his head. Lucky now has to put up with not just the humiliation of the cone but also the inconvenience it causes him.

Lucky notices the spots on his back that make up a horseshoe have disappeared. Now Lucky thinks he is a jinx without his lucky horseshoe and loses his confidence, discouraging his friends from involving him in anything that they do.

Rolly is fed up with being a butt monkey, so he teams up with Swamp Rat to get revenge on the animals who pranked him. However, Rolly gets carried away and ends up stealing from innocent animals. Now he must find a way to give all the stuff back.

The famous dog wrestler, El Diablo, is scheduled to pay a visit to Dearly Farm for a wrestling match with Mooch. Mooch and Cadpig wind up falling in love with each other distracting Mooch from preparing for his fight. Lucky, Rolly and Spot try to get Mooch prepared for his fight by trying to disguise their attempts as dating experiences for him and Cadpig, but Cadpig sees through their plots.

Spot is desperate to be a Dalmatian like her friends. A Fairy God-Chicken grants her wish, but she soon realizes there are many advantages and disadvantages to being a dog.

Roger, Anita, Pongo and Perdita leave for a while leaving the main pups in charge of the house. While they're away, Cadpig comes down with P.D.S. and has to suffer through it. At the same time, Swamp Rat and all his friends from the swamp invade the Dearlys' house and throw a wild party. The pups have to put up with all the chaos and bring everything back in order.

Part 2 — "Cross-Country Calamity": While still on their vacation, Cruella tries various schemes to get Anita to break up with Roger. Her attempts fail until she finally sets things up to look like Roger signed up to join a baseball team in Venezuela causing Anita to ditch him for good.

Part 3 — "Dearly Beloved": While still on their vacation, the pups work together to try to get Roger and Anita back together. Cadpig takes care of Anita while Lucky, Rolly and the rest of the pups try to get Roger to the church. Can they make it to the church on time before it's too late?

Notes

References

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