Duckman

Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man
Genre	Adult animation Animated sitcom
Created by	Everett Peck
Based on	Duckman by Everett Peck
Developed by	Jeff Reno Ron Osborn Gábor Csupó Arlene Klasky Everett Peck
Starring	Jason Alexander Gregg Berger Nancy Travis Dana Hill Pat Musick E. G. Daily Dweezil Zappa Tim Curry Maurice LaMarche Ben Stiller
Composers	Scott Wilk Todd Yvega
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	70 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Everett Peck Jeff Reno Ron Osborn Arlene Klasky Gábor Csupó
Producers	Sherry Gunther (1994–1995) Michael Markowitz (1995–1996) Margot Pipkin (1995–1997) Mitch Watson (1997) Gene Laufenberg (1997)
Running time	22–23 minutes
Production companies	Klasky Csupo Celluloid Studios (1995–1997) Reno & Osborn Productions Paramount Network Television
Distributor	Paramount Domestic Television CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	USA Network
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	March 5, 1994 (1994-03-05) – September 6, 1997 (1997-09-06)

Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man (commonly known as Duckman) is an American adult animated sitcom that aired on the USA Network from March 5, 1994, through September 6, 1997. It was created and developed by Everett Peck and is based on characters he created in his 1990 one-shot comic book published by Dark Horse Comics.

Plot[]

Left to right: Duckman, Bernice, Ajax, Gecko, Charles and Mambo, "Grand-Ma-Ma", and Cornfed.

The series centers on Eric Tiberius Duckman (voiced by Jason Alexander),^[1] a widowed, lewd, self-hating, egocentric anthropomorphic duck who lives with his family in Los Angeles (as mentioned in the episode "Bev Takes a Holiday") and works as a private detective. The tagline of the show, seen in the opening credits, is "Private Dick/Family Man".

Main characters include Cornfed (voiced by Gregg Berger), a pig who is Duckman's Joe Friday–esque business partner and best friend, Ajax (voiced by Dweezil Zappa), Duckman's eldest, mentally-slow teenage son; Charles (voiced by Dana Hill and later Pat Musick) and Mambo (voiced by E. G. Daily), Duckman's genius conjoined twins whose heads share a body; Bernice (voiced by Nancy Travis), the identical twin of Duckman's presumed-dead wife Beatrice, a fanatical fitness buff who hates Duckman with a passion; and Grandma-ma (voiced by Travis), Duckman's comatose, immensely flatulent mother-in-law.

Recurring characters include Agnes Delrooney (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray), Grandma-ma's doppelgänger who kidnaps her and poses as her for several episodes; Fluffy and Uranus (voiced by Musick), Duckman's two Care Bear–esque teddy-bear office assistants; George Herbert Walker "King" Chicken (voiced by Tim Curry), a supervillain who schemes to ruin Duckman's life; Beverly (voiced by Travis), Beatrice and Bernice's long-lost sister; and Gecko, Duckman's pet dog.

In the final episode, four couples (Dr. Stein/Dana Reynard, Duckman/Honey, King Chicken/Bernice, Cornfed/Beverly) get married – the last three in a joint ceremony. The kids, Fluffy and Uranus, and a number of characters from previous episodes are in attendance. As the ceremonies draw to a close, 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. Cornfed says, "I can explain." The show then ends with "To be continued...?" superimposed on the screen. In regards to this cliffhanger, Duckman writer offered the following shortly after the series came to an end: "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."^[2] On August 13, 2015, Markowitz posted on his Twitter page in response to a question from a fan about the cliffhanger, "Was then (& now) an #XFiles fan (bride in ep was Dana Reynard, a Mulder-Scully hint) so involved gov't coverup of aliens".^[3]

Production[]

The series consists of 70 episodes that aired on Saturday nights from 1994 to 1997 on the USA Network. It later reran on Comedy Central in the United States. In Spain, it aired on Canal+ in the 90s and on Cartoon Network, alongside The Critic, through a nightly Adult Swim programming block aimed at adults, which would be launched on September 2, 2001 in the US. In the United Kingdom, it aired on Sky 1 and BBC Two, and in Canada, it is a former program on MTV2 and Teletoon. 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.^[4] In later years, the show running duties went to David Misch and . At the time the series was produced, Klasky Csupo also produced another animated series in 1994: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters on Nickelodeon. 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.^[5] The first season also featured excerpts from Frank Zappa's published catalog (Frank Zappa died several months prior to this series' premiere).

Comic books[]

Between 1994 and 1996 various comic books were published by Topps based on the TV series.^[6]

Video game[]

In May 1997, a point-and-click adventure computer game, Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick, was released for Microsoft Windows. 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. A PlayStation port was also planned, but it was cancelled at the last minute.^[7]

Episodes[]

Home media[]

In January 2008, TVShowsOnDVD.com reported that Duckman would be coming to region 1 DVD.^[8] 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.^[9] The final two seasons, 48 episodes, were released on a seven-disc set on January 6, 2009.^[10] Both DVD sets were released by CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment.

With the DVD releases, many episodes were edited to remove copyrighted music because of royalty issues, and as a result they differ somewhat from the aired TV episodes though Everett Peck was involved in the process of the DVD releases and he felt the most important music was preserved.^[11]

The Complete Series DVD was released on February 6, 2018.^[12]

Reception[]

The show was critically acclaimed.^[13][14][15] In January 2009, IGN listed Duckman as the 48th best in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.^[16]

Episodes "T.V. or Not to Be", "Noir Gang", and "Duckman and Cornfed in Haunted Society Plumbers" were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1994, 1996, and 1997, respectively.^[17]

See also[]

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

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Duckman

• USA Network site at the Wayback Machine (archived June 14, 1997)
• Comedy Central site at the Wayback Machine (archived November 9, 2000)
• Official Website at the Wayback Machine (archived December 27, 1996)
• Duckman at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 5, 2016.
• Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man at IMDb