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| Available at Amazon.com |
Jason Alexander may forever be linked to the masses as George Costanza, idiot best friend of Jerry Seinfeld, but for a select few he’ll be remembered as a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking candidate for worst father ever in Duckman.
Duckman (Alexander) is a private detective of astonishing incompetence. While his partner Cornfed (Gregg Berger) solves most of the cases, he’s left to deal with his family: Ajax (Dweezil Zappa) is his oldest son and is as dumb as a rock. Charles and Mambo (Dana Hill and Elizabeth Daily) are his youngest sons, twins who share the same body. Bernice (Nancy Travis) is his sister in law and head of his household, his deceased wife’s identical sister to boot, who doubles as a foul-mouthed antagonist.
Throw in an arch nemesis who’s stunningly more incompetent than he is in King Chicken (Tim Curry) and Duckman was the animated opposite of The Simpsons in nearly every way. Running late at night on USA, right before Up All Night with Gilbert Gottfried, Running for four seasons to low ratings, Duckman is the sort of father even Homer Simpson would look down to. While he shows some love to his family, he’s a sexual deviant who’s more offensive than Andrew Dice Clay at a N.O.W convention.
With cult television shows finding their way to television, Duckman has finally had its first two seasons released onto DVD. But anytime you have a show that developed an audience because it was incredibly offensive for its time. But does it still hold up? Shockingly, Duckman is still as relevant now as it was then because a lot of the issues are still similar.
The first two seasons still hold up because the film is really well written, the show’s strength throughout. While there’s lot of craziness going on, the show isn’t about the jokes but about strong stories and characters. While a lot of the references are specific to the mid-1990s, so younger viewers might not get some of the jokes, its still noxiously funny in a way only animation designed for adults can be.
In an age where South Park sets the bar for pointed and offensive commentary, Duckman is the sort of show that set the stage for it.
Presented in a Dolby Digital surround, with a full screen presentation, the series has an erratic presentation. For the most part it looks wonderfully, having been cleaned up for its first release onto DVD, but there are times when it goes out of focus on occasion and looks horrid. This usually happens once every other episode or so for a couple seconds.
What the hell are you looking at? is a retrospective on the series with everyone involved. There are lots of great tidbits located in, including that Jason Alexander thought he was auditioning for a guest spot as opposed to the lead of the show. Its interesting to hear everyone discuss the show a decade after it came out, as it obviously was something they enjoyed very much by the whole crew.
Designing Duckman is a feature on how the world of Duckman was designed from the comic book to the small screen.
There’s also an interactive game, Six Degrees of Duckman
The first episode contains a Commentary with Alexander and series creator Everett Peck.
To say that South Park was the first mainstream animated show in America to cross the line from being aimed at the family to adults only would be to ignore Duckman, a show that still pushes the limit on what is offensive a decade after its initial run.
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CBS presents Duckman (Seasons 1 and 2). Created by Everett Peck. Starring Jason Alexander, Gregg Berger, Nancy Travis, Dana Hill, Pat Musick, Elizabeth Daily, Dweezil Zappa. Running time: 480 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: September 16, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
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