The concept began life as a two hour standalone television special, Rescue Rangers: To the Rescue. The series itself began airing on March 5, 1989, often paired in an hour-long show with DuckTales. The last episode aired on November 19, 1990, by which time the series was a part of the then-fledgling Disney Afternoon and continued to air for some time thereafter in its lineup.
65 episodes were created in total; To the Rescue was broken up into five half-hour segments (episodes 14-18).
In this show Chip wears a fedora and a flight jacket. He serves as the leader of the Rescue Rangers and spends his free time reading detective fiction (his favorite character being Surelack Jones, apparently a play on the name of Sherlock Holmes). He is presented as very dedicated to his duty, and usually somewhat serious and responsible.
Dale wears a Hawaiian shirt. Though also dedicated to duty, he is presented as a fun-loving, mischievous prankster and somewhat irresponsible. He spends his free time reading comic books and watching Sci-fi and horror movies, mostly B-movies.
Monterey Jack is an Australian muscle mouse who has a constant craving for cheese and a pesky fear of cats. Jack first met Chip and Dale on their first case as Rescue Rangers. He joined them along with his companion Zipper and Gadget Hackwrench.
Gadget Hackwrench is a young female mouse and the mechanic and inventor of the team. She is the daughter of deceased inventor and aviator Geegaw Hackwrench, an old friend of Monterey Jack. She first met Chip and Dale on their first case as Rescue Rangers and has joined them along with Monterey Jack and his companion Zipper, since she had nowhere else to go after her father's death. Both Chip and Dale are very attracted to Gadget, but she does not notice because she is working on her inventions most of the time. The character is arguably the most popular introduced in the series and has a steady fanbase in the Internet.
Zipper the Fly appears as Monterey Jack's sidekick and the mascot of the Rescue Rangers. Zipper often handles the little jobs that the rest of the Rescue Rangers cannot handle.
Fat Cat is a cat crime boss. He has four sidekicks who include an alley cat named Mepps, a lizard named Wart, a mole named Mole, and a rat named Snout. Fat Cat is one of the Rescue Rangers' most frequent enemies. Although he belonged to the human criminal Aldren Klordane in the pilot series, he is shown as a more independent animal in the rest of the series.
Professor Norton Nimnul is a mad scientist and also one of the Rescue Rangers' most frequent enemies. Sometimes Professor Nimnul has help from his nephew Normie.
Two Rescue Rangers platformer video games were produced for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Capcom. A third (this of category "other") was made for the PC.
There has also been a Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers comic book published by The Walt Disney Company when it published the comic books instead of licensing it out to other publishers and it ran for 19 issues.Characters
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Spin-offs