Tacoman: Private Dick/Family Man

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

## Plot

The series centers on Stuart Tacoman (voiced by Samuel T Nelson), a widowed, lewd, self-hating, egocentric anthropomorphic taco 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 Tacoman's Joe Friday–esque business partner and best friend, Ajax (voiced by Dweezil Zappa), Tacoman'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, Bernice is a fanatical fitness buff who hates Duckman with a passion; and Grandma-ma (voiced by Nancy 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 Pat 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 Tacoman's life; Beverly (voiced by Nancy Travis), Beatrice and Bernice's long-lost sister; and Gecko, Tacoman's pet dog.

**Finale spoilers!** **Read at your own risk.**

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, *Tacoman* 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 Tacoman is revived by future generations." 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".

**Spoilers end here.**

## 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. It also aired on both Cartoon Network and Canal+ in Spain. In the United Kingdom, it aired on Sky 1 and BBC Two, and in Canada, it is a former program on MTV2 and Teletoon.

## Comic books

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

Including the original comic, there are a total of 9 comics released.

More information can be found here.

* **Issue Number 0**
* **Issue Number 1:** *Naked Taco*
* **Issue Number 2:** *Robo Taco*
* **Issue Number 3:** *Night of the Living Taco*
* **Issue Number 4:** *Think Taco*
* **Issue Number 5:** *The XXX Files*
* **The Mob Frog Saga Issue 1:** *Dead Taco*
* **The Mob Frog Saga Issue 2:** *Where's Grandma-ma?*
* **The Mob Frog Saga Issue 3:** *In The Name of the Taco*

## Video game

In May 1997, a point-and-click adventure computer game, *Tacoman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick*, was released for Microsoft Windows.

In it, Tacoman has become a famous detective, and a television series based on him is about to debut, but someone is pushing Tacoman out of his own life, and replacing him with a bigger, better, heroic Tacoman.

The player's goal is to help Tacoman get rid of the impostor and reclaim his rightful place.

## Episodes

A guide to the episodes can be found here.

## Home media

In January 2008, TVShowsOnDVD.com reported that *Tacoman* 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 DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment.

**Note:** The covers of the individual discs of the *Tacoman* DVDs lists an episode total of 71. This is because there is no episode listed as #42, it simply goes from #41 to #43.

## Reception

The show was critically acclaimed. In January 2009, IGN listed *Tacoman* as the 48th best in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows.

Episodes *T.V. or Not to Be*, *Noir Gang*, and Tacoman and Cornfed in 'Haunted Society Plumbers' were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1994, 1996, and 1997, respectively.

On March 25, 1994, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly stated "What in the world does **Tacoman** have to be so smug about?" and gave a brief word of criticism mostly on the episode *T.V. or Not to Be.* This specific review is mocked by Cornfed in *In the Nam of the Father*, after he overlooks the episode's events.