Duckman
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Duckman.gif Duckman was an animated sitcom developed by Jeff Reno & Ron Osborn, based on characters created by Everett Peck in his Dark Horse comic. The series consisted of 70 episodes airing from 1994 to 1997 on the USA Network. The initial showrunners were Reno & Osborn, and the show was produced by Paramount Television. The animation was produced by Klasky Csupo, a company owned by Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky, though Csupo and Klasky themselves had little day-to-day involvement in the show. In later years, the showrunning duties went to David Misch and Michael Markowitz. Producer Gene Laufenberg was with the show for most of its run. The music for first season episodes was composed and performed by Frank Zappa.
The series followed the adventures of a dim-witted and lascivious private detective duck who lived with his family and sister-in-law named Bernice (an identical twin to his wife). Duckman's wife, Beatrice, died before the show began.
Characters
- Eric Tiberius Duckman (Jason Alexander), the main character, a slovenly, womanizing private detective who is more interested in sex than work. Usually takes cases from attractive women, paying more attention to their physical features than the cases they bring. He is a graduate of Don Galloway Detective School and also has a detective license from Panama signed by Manuel Noriega.
- Willibald Fievel Cornfed, a.k.a. Cornfed Pig (Gregg Berger), Duckman's mildly Joe Friday-esque business partner, an amazingly talented pig. Most (if not all) 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, and member of the Irish Parliament. He has a medical degree from a Peruvian med school, and was also educated in air conditioner and TV repair.
- Charles and Mambo Duckman (Dana Hill then Pat Musick, and Elizabeth Daily), Duckman's twin sons, whose heads shared the same body. Charles and Mambo are geniuses. Duckman can never seem to remember Mambo's name (calling him "la bamba," "mono" and "Gumbel," among other things).
- Ajax Duckman (Dweezil Zappa), Duckman's eldest teenage son. Speaks mostly like a surfer and always calls his father "Dod." Ajax isn't the smartest person in the world, and doesn't seem to have very many friends. Ajax got his name from a trucking company Cornfed was driving for when he and Duckman first met.
- Bernice Florence Hufnagel (Nancy Travis), Duckman's sister-in-law. Dresses in spandex and is obsessed with workouts. Hates Duckman with a passion and constantly criticizes him for his lack of interest in his children and anything else involving his family. Fell in love with King Chicken towards the end of the series and they were engaged in the final episode. The identical twin sister of Duckman's wife Beatrice, it was 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: 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 she was elected to Congress.
- Grandma-ma, Duckman's apparently comatose and immensely flatulent mother-in-law. Was kidnapped by her dopplegänger Agnes Delrooney (played by Brian Doyle-Murray), who posed as her for several episodes until her scam was revealed.
- King Chicken (Tim Curry), Duckman's arch-nemesis. Stops at nothing to try to rid the earth of his nemesis. Became engaged to Bernice during the series finale.
- Fluffy and Uranus (Pat Musick), Duckman's two teddybear-like office assistants who, despite being constantly killed, maimed, or otherwise tortured, always kept an attitude surprisingly like that of the Care Bears.
The show regularly featured high-profile guest stars, including David Duchovny, Heather Locklear, Burt Reynolds, Carl Reiner, Lisa Kudrow, Leonard Nimoy, Ben Stiller, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Brian Keith, Ben Stein, Janeane Garofalo, Tim Curry, and Dan Castellaneta.
Trivia
Duckman's catch phrases included "What the hell are you starin' at?", "Hommina hommina how wah," and his trademark scream of "D'wah!".
In the final episode, many characters get married and as the ceremonies draw to a close, Beatrice (Duckman's deceased wife) appears and shocks the entire crowd. Cornfed reveals he knew that Beatrice was alive all along. 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!"