Duckman


Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man is an American animated sitcom that aired on the USA Network from March 5, 1994, through September 6, 1997 and reran on Cartoon Network. It was created and developed by Everett Peck. The sitcom is based on characters created by Peck in his 1990 one-shot comic book published by Dark Horse Comics. Anivision and its parent Sunwoo Entertainment animated the series and was produced by Klasky Csupo and Reno & Osborn Productions for Paramount Television. It marks Klasky Csupo's second adult-oriented television series after the first three seasons of The Simpsons on the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Plot

The series centers on Eric Tiberius Duckman, a widowed, lewd, self-hating, egocentric 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".
Main characters include Cornfed, a pig who is Duckman's Joe Friday–esque business partner and best friend, Ajax, Duckman's eldest, mentally-slow teenage son; Charles and Mambo, Duckman's genius conjoined twins whose heads share a body; Bernice, 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, Duckman's comatose, immensely flatulent mother-in-law; Agnes Delrooney, Grandma-ma's doppelgänger who kidnaps her and poses as her for several episodes; Fluffy and Uranus, Duckman's two Care Bear-esque teddy-bear office assistants.
Recurring characters include George Herbert Walker "King" Chicken, a supervillain who schemes to ruin Duckman's life; Beatrice, Duckman's first wife who was believed to be killed in an accident; Beverly, Beatrice and Bernice's long-lost sister; and Gecko, Duckman's pet dog.
In the final episode, four couples 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 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 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." On August 13, 2015, Markowitz posted on his Twitter page in response to a question from a fan about the cliffhanger, "Was then an #XFiles fan 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 and Teletoon. It also aired in both the US and Spain on Cartoon Network. 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, and was the studio's second television series produced. In later years, the show running duties went to David Misch and Michael Markowitz. 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. 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:
Between 1994 and 1996 various comic books were published by Topps based on the TV series.

Video game

In May 1997, a point-and-click adventure computer game, , 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.

Episodes

Home media

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 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.
The Complete Series DVD was released on February 6, 2018.

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.