Duckman

***Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man*** (or commonly known as ***Duckman***) was 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.

## Premise

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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 (Gregg Berger), a pig who is Duckman's Joe Friday-esque business partner and best friend, Ajax (Dweezil Zappa), Duckman's eldest, mentally-slow teenage son; Charles (Dana Hill; Pat Musick) and Mambo (E. G. Daily), Duckman's Siamese twin child genius sons whose heads share a body; Bernice (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 (Travis), Duckman's comatose, immensely flatulent mother-in-law; Agnes Delrooney (Brian Doyle-Murray), Grandma-ma's doppelgänger who kidnaps her and poses as her for several episodes; Fluffy and Uranus (Pat Musick), Duckman's two Care Bear-esque teddy-bear office assistants.

Recurring characters include George Herbert Walker "King" Chicken (Tim Curry), a supervillain who schemes to ruin Duckman's life; Beatrice (Nancy Travis), Duckman's first wife who was believed to be killed in an accident; Beverly (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:

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## 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:

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* Charlie Adler
* Pamela Adlon
* Joe Alaskey
* Jason Alexander
* Ed Asner
* John Astin
* James Avery
* Dee Bradley Baker
* Ed Begley Jr.
* Michael Bell
* Jim Belushi
* Jeff Bennett
* Gregg Berger
* Sandra Bernhard
* Sheryl Bernstein
* Susan Blu
* Susan Boyd
* Elayne Boosler
* Charlie Brill
* Clancy Brown
* James Brown
* Carol Burnett
* John Byner
* Tisha Campbell
* Jack Carter
* Dan Castellaneta
* Catherine Cavadini
* Kim Cattrall
* Margaret Cho
* Coolio
* Jim Cummings
* Tim Curry
* E.G. Daily
* Eddie Deezen
* Shelley Duvall
* John de Lancie
* Dana Delany
* Grey DeLisle
* Dom DeLuise
* James Doohan
* David Duchovny
* Sheena Easton
* Walker Edmiston
* Paul Eiding
* Chris Elliott
* Brendan Fraser
* Janeane Garofalo
* Teri Garr
* Linda Gary
* Estelle Getty
* Leeza Gibbons
* Henry Gibson
* Bobcat Goldthwait
* Gilbert Gottfried
* Benny Grant
* Bob Guccione
* Pat Harrington Jr.
* Bret Hart
* Phil Hartman
* Pamela Hayden
* Billie Hayes
* Andy Houts
* Ice-T
* Kathy Ireland
* Judith Ivey
* Michael Jeter
* Jeffrey Jones
* Brian Keith
* George Kennedy
* Robert Klein
* Lisa Kudrow
* Phil LaMarr
* Vicki Lawrence
* Eugene Levy
* June Lockhart
* Heather Locklear
* David Lodge
* Bernie Mac
* Tress MacNeille
* Taj Mahal
* Melissa Manchester
* Joe Mantegna
* Merrill Markoe
* Kenneth Mars
* Andrea Martin
* Mitzi McCall
* Chuck McCann
* Roddy McDowall
* Maureen McGovern
* Michael McKean
* Lee Meriwether
* Laurie Metcalf
* Cathy Moriarty
* Garrett Morris
* Howard Morris
* Iona Morris
* Liliana Mumy
* Lorenzo Music
* Kathy Najimy
* Bebe Neuwirth
* Leonard Nimoy
* Soon Teck-Oh
* Alan Oppenheimer
* Bibi Osterwald
* Ken Page
* Ron Palillo
* Morgan Paull
* Rob Paulsen
* Ron Perlman
* Sam Phillips
* Jeremy Piven
* Amanda Plummer
* Carl Reiner
* Walt Reno
* Burt Reynolds
* Jack Riley
* Roger Rose
* Maggie Roswell
* Jack Roth
* John Rubinow
* Katey Sagal
* Ernie Sabella
* Macho Man Randy Savage
* Kevin Schon
* Charles Shaughnessy
* Susan Silo
* Marina Sirtis
* Paul Sorvino
* Kath Soucie
* Aaron Spann
* Jerry Sroka
* Ben Stein
* Ben Stiller
* Peter Strauss
* Tara Strong
* Sally Struthers
* Jeffrey Tambor
* Russi Taylor
* Judy Tenuta
* Dave Thomas
* Jay Thomas
* Michelle Thomas
* Courtney Thorne-Smith
* Brenda Vaccaro
* Jim Varney
* John Vernon
* Sal Viscuso
* Janet Waldo
* Joe Walsh
* B.J. Ward
* Beau Weaver
* Steven Weber
* Lennie Weinrib
* Bruce Weitz
* Jimmy Weldon
* Frank Welker
* Billy West
* Nancy Wible
* Lee Wilkof
* John Williams
* Helen Wilson
* April Winchell
* Paul Winchell
* William Windom
* Henry Winkler
* Edward Winter
* Jonathan Winters
* James Woods
* Alan Young
* Cameron Young
* Keone Young
* Marian Zajac
* Ted Zeigler

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## 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

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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.

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