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. 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

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• Eric Tiberius Duckman (Jason Alexander), the main character, a slovenly, womanizing private detective who is more interested in sex than work. He is lazy, sarcastic and obnoxious, and usually has a cutting quip or insult on the tip of his tongue. Because he is easily distracted by beautiful women or get-rich-quick schemes, he relies heavily on his right-hand-pig Cornfed, who has gotten him out of numerous precarious predicaments. Duckman is also a widower, and when his wife died he began living with her sister, Bernice, who hates Duckman with a passion. He also has an arch-enemy named King Chicken who blames Duckman for his persona as an evil genius (he was hazed by Duckman in high school), as well as various problems in the world and is constantly looking for revenge. With all this animosity directed toward the poor water fowl, is it any wonder that his catch phrase is "What the hell are you staring at?!?" He is a graduate of Don Galloway Detective School and also has a detective license from Panama signed by Manuel Noriega.
• Willibald Fievel Cornfed, also known as Cornfed Pig (Gregg Berger), Duckman's mildly Joe Friday-esque business partner, an amazingly talented pig. Knows dozens of ancient martial arts, and secretly a virgin - this was "remedied" in an episode regarding the Cornfed family's genetic disease contracted from a relative generations past who enraged a tribal elder in a foreign country and was force fed an odd berry. 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. Cornfed deals with all of the elements of the detective agency that Duckman cannot...such as getting the clients, paying the bills and solving the cases. Cornfed has also helped Duckman numerous times with his personal life, and has often offered him advice on how to keep his family together and how to avoid the various villains, scoundrels and old ladies who want to see him dead. Cornfed might look mild-mannered, but in his chest beats the heart of a super pig. He has had numerous former occupations, such as mailman, truck driver (at which point he reunited Duckman and his wife Beatrice, also naming their son Ajax after the company he was employed by), 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 VCR repair.
• Charles and Mambo Duckman (Dana Hill then Pat Musick, and Elizabeth Daily), Duckman's twin sons, whose heads shared the same body and both think very differently. In fact, both heads are often arguing with each other. Charles and Mambo are geniuses. Although Charles and Mambo may seem physically odd, they often are more level headed than their single craniumed father. Duckman can never seem to remember Mambo's name (calling him "la bamba," "mendingo," "mono" and "Gumbel," among other things). In later episodes, occasionally one will attempt to commandeer their one shared body.
• Ajax Duckman (Dweezil Zappa), Duckman's eldest teenage son. Speaks mostly like a surfer, always calls his father "Dod" and is usually very shy. Ajax is not the smartest person in the world, and does not seem to have very many friends. Despite being somewhat slow on the ball, he is a skilled free-verse poet, and occasionally surprises Duckman with a few words of slacker wisdom, as well as the occasional piece of obscure knowledge. He is not quick to take action unless he needs to, and when he does need to take action, usually finds a way to avoid it. Still, his dad is proud of him. 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 a fitness buff(with oddly thick thighs for a duck), always trying out the latest exercise trend to keep her body fit and muscular. Because she blames Duckman for the death of his wife, Bernice hates him with a passion and constantly criticizes him for his lack of interest in his children and anything else involving his family. She would like nothing more than to see him fail or get in over his head on one of his investigations. To Duckman's kids Ajax, Charles and Mambo, she is considered to be their primary caretaker, since their father is usually either running off on a dangerous case or dealing with a dangerous case of the runs. Bernice does have a soft spot though... she never fails to show her appreciation to anyone who can show up her no good brother-in-law. This may be among the reasons why she 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 Hufnagel (Nancy Travis), is 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 Bernice was elected to Congress.
• Grandma-ma, Duckman's apparently comatose and immensely flatulent mother-in-law. In the episode "Aged Heat" She was kidnapped by her dopplegänger Agnes Delrooney (played by Brian Doyle-Murray), who posed as her for several episodes until her scam was revealed (although in the meantime there was an episode which made it obvious that it was really Grandma-ma). Grandma-ma sits in the same chair and rarely moves. She never says a word, but rarely keeps quiet. How does she do this? She usually lets her flatulence do the talking for her. Grandma-Ma has a soft spot in her round form for her son-in-law, but can only express it in her disgusting bouts of wind-passing. Grandma-Ma also loves to watch TV, although most of the Duckman family often wonders if she is aware of what she is watching... or whether or not she knows where she is.
• Gecko, Duckman's purple dog. Although this may seem strange in the real world, in a family that has a two headed duck and a patriarch whose best friend is a pig, Gecko is the most normal of the bunch. Like most dogs, Gecko likes to eat, but as far as watch dogs go, is not very good. Still, Duckman prefers his company any day over Aunt Bernice's. It's also shown in one episode that Gecko was stolen by Duckman from one of his neighbors, and that his true name is "Fluffy."
• King Chicken (Tim Curry), Duckman's arch-nemesis. Stops at nothing to try to rid the earth of his nemesis. King Chicken hates Duckman with every feather of his being. Blaming Duckman for some past transgressions (such as hazing him back in high-school), he has been the constant thorn in Duckman's side, doing everything he can to ruin the duck detective's life. Although his plots often end in defeat, King Chicken keeps on clucking, returning again and again with more nefarious schemes. Became engaged to Bernice during the series finale. His catch phrase is simply "Mwah ha haa, bawk bawk bawk!" At first, every time he appeared, he would give the same speech about why he does what he does, and in later episodes, the other characters act bored with his story. The final time he does this, it cuts to a live acted news bulletin, stating that actor Tim Curry has disappeared, leaving a statement that "He will not return until they promise to stop making him repeat that stupid speech about..." and then the newsman recites the whole thing straight and verbatim, complete with the laughing and clucking at the end.
• Honey Chicken, King Chicken's wife. She has frequent 'romantic' affairs with Eric, and has had a daughter together with King. Is engaged to Eric in the final episode.
• 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. They file his files, clean his desk and floors, and always greet him with a smile and a kind word. Is it any wonder that Duckman usually ends up tossing them into a blender or throwing them out a window? Poor Fluffy and Uranus would do just about anything for their boss, Mr. Duckman, but their syrupy good nature often provokes mindless acts of violence. In one episode in the fourth season, they get their revenge when Duckman fires them, causing them to turn into giant killer grizzlies, and hunt him down.

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