8.2 /10 1 Votes8.2
8.7/10 TV Country of origin United States | 7.8/10 IMDb No. of seasons 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre Adult animationAnimated sitcomBlack comedySurreal comedy Starring Jason AlexanderGregg BergerNancy TravisDana HillPat MusickE.G. DailyDweezil Zappa Cast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man (or 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. The sitcom is based on characters created by Peck in his Dark Horse comic. Klasky Csupo animated the series and produced it along with Reno & Osborn Productions for Paramount Network Television. It marks Klasky Csupo's second adult-oriented television series after The Simpsons. Years later after Duckman, Peck went on to create Squirrel Boy for Cartoon Network, from 2006 to 2007.
Contents
Premise
The series centers on Eric T. Duckman (voiced by Jason Alexander), a lascivious, widowed, anthropomorphic duck who lives with his family in Los Angeles and works as a private detective. 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).
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 Siamese twin child genius sons whose heads share a body; Bernice (voiced by Nancy Travis), Duckman's sister-in-law and the identical twin of Beatrice who is a fanatic fitness buff and hates Duckman with a passion; Grandma-ma (voiced by Travis), Duckman's comatose, immensely flatulent mother-in-law; 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 Pat Musick), Duckman's two Care Bear-esque teddy-bear office assistants.
Recurring characters include George Herbert Walker "King" Chicken (voiced Tim Curry), a supervillain who schemes to ruin Duckman's life; Beatrice (voiced by Travis), Duckman's first wife who was believed to be killed in an accident; 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) got married – the last three in a joint ceremony. The kids, Fluffy and 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." The show then ends with "To be continued...?" superimposed on the screen. In regards to this cliffhanger, Duckman writer Michael Markowitz 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. Ah, the Spandex suits they'll wear, the hovercrafts they'll fly!"
On August 13th, 2015, writer Michael Markowitz revealed after 18 years what the resolution to the cliffhanger was going to be. He revealed the information on his Twitter page in response to a question from a fan:
"Was then ( & now) #XFiles fan (bride in ep was Dana Reynard, a Mulder-Scully hint) so involved gov't coverup of aliens"
Production
The series consists of 70 episodes that aired on Saturday nights from 1994 to 1997 on the USA Network. In the United Kingdom it aired on Sky 1 and in Canada it is a former program on MTV2. 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. 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. The first season also featured excerpts from Frank Zappa's published catalog.
Guest stars/additional voices
The show regularly featured high-profile guest stars and additional voices, including:
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.
Originally intended for release in the United States, the game was completed and ready for distribution when the publisher, Playmates Interactive Entertainment, declared bankruptcy. Eventually, the rights were bought at auction by FunSoft; the game had localized text added to replace the English (audio was untouched) and it was released in Germany and South Korea.
Episodes and home release
In January 2008, TVShowsonDVD.com reported that Duckman would be coming to region 1 DVD. 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. The final two seasons, 48 episodes, were released on a seven-disc set on January 6, 2009. Both DVD sets were released by CBS Home Entertainment. With the DVD release, many episodes were edited to remove copyrighted music and as a result they differ somewhat from the aired TV episodes.
Reception
In January 2009, IGN listed Duckman as the 48th best in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows. The show was critically acclaimed.
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.