Voted as the 14th most popular cartoon character ranked by TV Guide, Daffy Duck's film debut was an inauspicious one. As the quarry for hunter Porky Pig, Daffy was more of a crazy prey than the later lateral lisp-speaking bird with human features. His first official animated cartoon was April 1937's "Porky's Duck Hunt."
A creation of animator Bob Clampett, Daffy Duck was first portrayed as a completely wild duck with his antics driving experienced hunter Porky nuts while he was out on a duck hunting foray. Daffy outsmarts and outwits the hunter's stalking him in the marshes of the hunting grounds. Clampett remembered at the time that "audiences weren't accustomed to seeing a cartoon character do these things. And so, when it hit the theaters it was an explosion. People would leave the theaters talking about this daffy duck."
Voice actor Mel Blanc, later nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Voices," was the voice for the duck, whose 52 years speaking for Daffy is a record in animation. The former radio impersonator for several characters, Blanc was hired in late 1936 by Leon Schlessinger Productions, supplier for Warner Brothers' cartoons, and immediately was assigned to be the voice of a few minor characters. The original voice of Porky Pig, the stuttering Joe Dougherty, was cute, but his delays were getting in the way of the seamless production of Porky's cartoons. Blanc proved he could do as fine a job as Dougherty, and replaced him in "Porky's Duck Hunt." Blanc also was given the opportunity to be Daffy Duck's voice in the same cartoon.
The duck's role in the Porky Pig cartoon was intended to be a one-shot deal for the 'Looney Tunes' cartoon. As a veteran mainstay of all the Looney characters, Porky appeared in over 160 shorts, second only to the later appearing Bugs Bunny. Besides Blanc's voice, the only lasting feature of the original duck, which didn't contain Daffy's later distinctive lisp, was his black feathers traced with a white collar. Daffy's main vocal expression was crying "Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo!" It was another year before Daffy, in his second cartoon, received his name and appeared in color in January 1938's "Daffy Duck and Egghead." This was also the character Egghead's second animated appearance, who debuted in July 1937's 'Egghead Rides Again.' Some argue that Egghead evolved into Elmer Fudd through the years. A few cartoon historians debate that evolution, but Egghead appeaed in just four Warner Brothers cartoons, and was phased out by the end of 1938.
