Duckman

Duckman
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man
Duckman logo.jpg
Genre Adult animation/Sitcom
Format Animation
Created by Everett Peck[1]
Developed by Everett Peck
Jeff Reno
Ron Osborn
Starring Jason Alexander[2]
Gregg Berger
Nancy Travis
Dana Hill (1994–1996)
Pat Musick
E.G. Daily
Dweezil Zappa
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 70 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Everett Peck
Jeff Reno
Ron Osborn
Arlene Klasky
Gabor Csupo
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s) Klasky Csupo
Reno & Osborn Productions
Paramount Television
Distributor Paramount Television (1994-2006)
CBS Paramount Television (2006-2007)
CBS Television Distribution (2007-present)
Broadcast
Original channel USA Network[3]
Original run March 5, 1994 (1994-03-05) – September 6, 1997 (1997-09-06)

Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man is an American animated sitcom that aired from 1994–1997, created by Everett Peck and developed by Peck. The sitcom is based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Horse comic.[4] Klasky Csupo animated the series and produced it along with Reno & Osborn Productions for Paramount Network Television.

Contents

Description

The series consists of 70 episodes that aired on Saturday nights from 1994 to 1997 on the USA Network. The initial showrunners were Peck, Reno and Osborn, and the show was produced in association with Paramount Network Television. The animation was produced by Klasky Csupo.[5] In later years, the show running duties went to David Misch and Michael Markowitz. Creator and Executive Producer, Everett Peck, was with the show for its entire run. Producer Gene Laufenberg was with the show for most of its run. Scott Wilk and Todd Yvega created original music for the series, including the theme.[6] The first season also featured excerpts from Frank Zappa's published catalog. The original timeslot for Duckman episodes while still being produced was changed to later at night due to complaints from parents about children seeing the adult humor-oriented show.[citation needed] Duckman is the only character to appear in every episode.

Plot

The series follows the adventures of a lascivious, widowed private detective duck who lives with his family and sister-in-law Bernice (his late wife Beatrice's identical twin). The tagline of the show, seen in the opening credits, is "Private Dick/Family Man" ("dick" being short for "detective", as well as serving as a double entendre).

The series takes place in Los Angeles, as indicated by the episode "Bev Takes a Holiday", when Beverly's detective tells her, "here is the address in LA", when referring to Duckman's address.

Characters

  • Eric Tiberius Duckman (voiced by Jason Alexander): The title character is portrayed as a lazy, incompetent, self-serving, morally unscrupulous, sexual deviant. He is a widower; when his wife Beatrice died, she left their house to her sister Bernice, so as to ensure some sort of stable environment for her and Duckman's three children: Ajax, Charles and Mambo. Though frequently taking his children for granted, Duckman honestly loves and cares for them. He graduated high school in 1971,[7] and is also a graduate of Don Galloway Detective School and has a detective license from Panama signed by Manuel Noriega. Duckman is an Aries, born April 18.[8] Duckman wears glasses which contain his eyes. They can be removed like normal glasses, taking his eyes with them. His glasses stay up, even though he has no ears (something that Cornfed once observed with fascination). Duckman often uses his catch phrases, "What the hell are you staring at?", "Hommina hommina how wah", "Whatever" (whenever corrected by his kids) and his trademark scream of "D'wah!" He is the only main character not to wear clothes.
  • Willibald Feivel Cornfed, known as Cornfed Pig or Corny (voiced by Gregg Berger): Duckman's Joe Friday-esque business partner and best friend; loosely based on the character "Greggery Peccary" as portrayed by Frank Zappa in a handful of songs. Affable, studious, as well as morally and sexually scrupulous, Cornfed is an amazingly talented pig and has specialist knowledge from practically every walk of life, and knows dozens of ancient martial arts. For roughly the first half of the show's run, Cornfed is a virgin, which contrasts to his popularity among women and earns Duckman's mockery. He loses his virginity to Bernice in order to avoid succumbing to a family genetic disease (contracted from a relative of generations past who enraged a tribal elder in a foreign country and was force fed an odd berry). Most of the cases solved by the Duckman Detective Agency are solved by Cornfed, with Duckman usually hurting the case rather than helping. He has had numerous former occupations, such as mailman, truck driver, waiter, plumber, clerk for a Supreme Court justice, member of the Irish Parliament, and keyboard player for A Flock of Seagulls. He has a medical degree from a Peruvian medical school, and was also educated in air conditioner and VCR repair (the former of which was paid for by Ivana Trump when he did her wainscoting at Mar-A-Lago). He is also a Vietnam veteran; this was revealed when a young man claiming to be his son fathered in the war found him (he was really a con man). He claims to know "200 ways to kill a man". The series has portrayed different ways in which he met Duckman: saving his life three times while working at a bakery; meeting at an airport before Ajax was born; and the two having attended high school together.
  • Ajax Duckman (voiced by Dweezil Zappa): Duckman's eldest, teenage son. He speaks with a slight surfer-dude accent, and always calls his father "Dod". He is extremely slow mentally, but is a skilled free-verse poet. He occasionally surprises other characters with a few words of philosophical wisdom or obscure knowledge, but this is usually followed by him saying something more inline with his insensibility. It has been said that Ajax is the only member of the family to whom Duckman can truly relate. His singing voice is a powerful soprano. He can even sing piano music to perfection. He commented in one episode that if he kept practicing he'd be able to work his way up to idiot savant. Ajax got his name from a trucking company Cornfed was driving for when he and Duckman first met. Ajax is a huge Merv Griffin fan.
  • Charles and Mambo Duckman (voiced by: Dana Hill then Pat Musick, following Dana Hill's death, and E.G. Daily): Duckman's Siamese twin sons. They are child geniuses whose heads share a body. They view Duckman as a subpar and inadequate father (both true assessments), but love him anyway. Duckman can rarely seem to remember Mambo's name and has called him everything from "La Bamba", "Mandingo", and "Simba", to "Gumbel" to simply "Charles' brother." In later episodes, occasionally one will attempt to commandeer their shared body.
left to right: Eric Duckman, Bernice, Ajax Duckman, Gecko, Charles and Mambo Duckman, 'Grand-Ma-Ma', Cornfed Willibald Feivel Pig
  • Bernice Florence Hufnagel (voiced by Nancy Travis): Duckman's sister-in-law; the identical twin of Beatrice. She is a fanatic fitness buff and hates Duckman with a passion. Though she loathes and reviles their father, Bernice is very loving to her nephews and is considered to be their primary caretaker. Despite this, Duckman views her as an abrasive, domineering, self-righteous shrew who constantly tries to control his life. Despite being physically identical to his wife, Duckman harbors no physical attraction to her, though they once engage in sex while intoxicated. She eventually falls in love with King Chicken, Duckman's arch-enemy. In the final episode, they become engaged and marry. It is revealed in the fourth season that she was actually a triplet, and had another sister, Beverly, who was separated at birth. She eventually became a congresswoman.
  • Beverly Glenn Hufnagel (voiced by Nancy Travis): Beatrice and Bernice's long-lost sister. It was revealed in the fourth season that Bernice and Duckman's wife Beatrice were separated from their triplet sister at birth. Eventually, she tracked them down and took over Bernice's place in the household when Bernice was elected to Congress. She is much nicer to Duckman than Bernice was, and sees the good in him, though she never ceases to be disgusted or mildly offended by his overall behavior. Other than just having a different hairstyle comparing to Bernice's, Bev is distinguished by her blue eyes. Though Duckman often wooed her, Beverly took more of an interest in Cornfed and the feeling was mutual. They marry in the series finale.
  • Beatrice Hufnagel Duckman (voiced by Nancy Travis): Duckman's first wife. Duckman met her in a farming county in Iowa while working for a magazine that sent him to take pictures of covered bridges. They spent a lot of time together and quickly fell in love. However, she turned out to be married to a duck named Richard, until he had a heart attack (inadvertently caused by Duckman, who told him the truth of their affair). Soon afterwards, she found out she was pregnant with Duckman's first son, Ajax. The two were married for a number of years, until she was believed to be killed in an accident. (Duckman had flicked his cigarette out into the street during a parade and it hit a balloon which deflated and knocked her down a manhole.) Beatrice looks a lot like her sisters Bernice and Beverly, but is much softer-spoken than either. She is usually seen wearing a dress with her hair fixed up. Duckman idealizes his love for her. Despite his puerile tendencies, he never cheated on her and felt extremely guilty about pursuing other relationships a year after she had supposedly died. She is revealed to still be alive in the series finale.
  • Grandma-ma/Sophia Longnameovich (voiced by Nancy Travis): Duckman's apparently comatose, immensely flatulent mother-in-law. In the episode "Aged Heat", she is kidnapped by her dopplegänger Agnes Delrooney (played by Brian Doyle-Murray), who poses as her for several episodes until her scam is revealed (although in the meantime there was an episode which made it obvious that it was really Grandma-ma). Grandma-ma sits in the same chair and rarely moves. In the episode "Crime, Punishment, War, Peace, and the Idiot", it is revealed that she is a Russian immigrant. She had a boyfriend named Petrov, who looked like Cornfed and was coveted by Trigorin, who looked like Duckman.
  • Gecko: Duckman's purple dog. In one episode, it was implied that Gecko was stolen by Duckman from one of his neighbors, and that his true name is "Sparky".[9]
  • George Herbert Walker 'King' Chicken (voiced by Tim Curry): Duckman's arch-nemesis. Duckman constantly teased him in high school, which encouraged other kids to do the same. King Chicken cites this for why he became a supervillain. His earliest appearances would have him continually recap his motive, but characters would frequently get bored. (In one particular joke, an episode suddenly cut to a news report of Tim Curry having gone missing and leaving behind a note where he expressed frustration and resistance to ever saying the motive again.) His schemes were often overcomplicated attempts to ruin Duckman's life and usually involved disguises. Upon meeting Bernice, an attraction and affair developed. He became engaged to Bernice during the series finale. His catch phrase, simply "Mwah ha haa, bawk bawk bawk!," usually punctuates the end of his speeches about his evil plan. His first three names are a parody of the 41st President George H.W. Bush of the USA.
  • Honey Ursula Chicken (voiced by Judith Light): King Chicken's wife. They have an unseen daughter, Tammy, who had a relationship with Ajax. Although, since she and King Chicken never consummated their relationship and were only married nine years (in her debut episode, however, she claimed to have been married to King for 17 years), it is likely that their daughter is either adopted or the result of a previous relationship on Honey's side. She is engaged to Duckman in the final episode; they have a turbulent romantic history.
  • Fluffy and Uranus (voiced by Pat Musick): Duckman's two teddy-bear office assistants. One named Fluffy is pink, the other called Uranus is blue, but are otherwise identical and try to get Duckman to act kindly and more politically correct. They are actual teddy bears filled with stuffing, and are apparently immortal, as evidenced by Duckman's habit of killing them in unique or unusual ways in nearly every episode. When angered enough by Duckman they once turned into ferocious killer bears with large claws and teeth. Only wonderful showtunes can revert themback to their original and civilized versions.

Guest stars

The show regularly featured high-profile guest stars, including:

Episode 51 "With Friends Like These" was supposed to be voiced by the cast of Friends, however designs were changed at the last minute.[citation needed]

Final episode

In the final episode, four couples (Dr. Stein/Dana Reynard, Duckman/Honey, King Chicken/Bernice, Cornfed/Beverly) got married – the last three in a joint ceremony no less. The kids, Fluffy & Uranus, and a number of characters from previous episodes are shown to be in attendance. As the ceremonies draw to a close, though, Beatrice (Duckman's supposedly deceased wife) appears and shocks the entire crowd. When Duckman asks how she can still be alive, Beatrice indicates Cornfed always knew. The last line of the series is Cornfed saying, "I can explain." This plot twist is never resolved and has thus created a cliffhanger. Writer Michael Markowitz noted (in Sep 1998): "We never formally planned Part II... and I'll never tell what I personally had in mind. I'm hoping to leave it to my heirs, for the inevitable day when Duckman is revived by future generations. Ah, the Spandex suits they'll wear, the hovercrafts they'll fly!"[10]

Video game

Towards the end of the series, a point-and-click adventure game called Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick was created for PC. In it, Duckman has become a famous detective, and a television series based on him is about to debut, but someone is pushing Duckman out of his own life, and replacing him with a bigger, better, heroic Duckman. The player's goal is to help Duckman get rid of the impostor and reclaim his rightful place.

Episodes and home release

Season Episodes Originally Aired DVD Release
Volume Release date Discs
1 13 1994 1 September 16, 2008 3
2 9 1995
3 20 1996 2 January 6, 2009 7
4 28 1997

In January 2008, TVShowsonDVD.com reported that Duckman would be coming to region 1 DVD.[11] Details followed in May, when it was announced that the first release in the series would be the first two seasons, 22 combined episodes on three discs, on September 16, 2008.[12] The final two seasons, 48 episodes, were released on a seven disc set on January 6, 2009.[13] Both DVD sets were released by CBS Home Entertainment. With the DVD release, many episodes were edited to remove copyrighted music.

Reception

In January 2009, IGN listed Duckman as the 48th best in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.[14]

See also

  • Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick
  • Squirrel Boy

References

External links


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