The series TaleSpin (1990) was originally intended to be a Duck Tales spin-off featuring Launchpad, hence the word "Tale" in the title of that series.
When the initial ideas for DuckTales were being brainstormed, Disney was also considering a TV series inspired by Indiana Jones, about a team that would go on adventures worldwide searching for treasures. After rereading the Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks, Michael Eisner realized that many of these adventure elements were already incorporated into their story lines. The two ideas were merged together into one show, which ended up being DuckTales.
Uncle Scrooge's nemesis Flintheart Glomgold is portrayed in this series as a Scot. In the original comics, he was portrayed as South African; this was removed due to the apartheid regime that was part of that country's history.
In the Carl Barks comics, Scrooge McDuck was much greedier and meaner, who could be portrayed as much an antagonist as a protagonist. He was considerably toned down in this series to be more affectionate and kindhearted.
In January 2009, IGN listed DuckTales as the 18th best show in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.