Customer Reviews

Duckman - Seasons One & Two

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At last, one of my favourite modern cartoon characters is coming to a DVD player near me soon. I purchased Ren and Stimpy season one and two and enjoyed them, but this character is the one I've been waiting for. Trying to follow the adventures of this excitable private dick was an adventure in itself, as the TV station over here put it on at anytime, but always very late at night.
It always seemed to me that the TV station didn't know how to handle this show.
My VHS tapes are on the way out now, so this release has come at the right time.
Most of the subject matter will go over a childs head, but this is definitely not a cartoon for kids anyway.
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The eponymous character comes across as a mixture of a wise cracking, un-pc, Inspector Clouseau type, it's his side kick Cornfed who's the real brains behind this outfit, and he's obviously based on; "Dragnets" Joe Friday.
If your easily offended you may find some episodes a bit indecorous, so you've been warned.
Though personally I can't wait, as I've pre-ordered it.
My favourite character after Duckman himself was his eldest son Ajax, "most excellently" voiced by Frank Zappa's son Dweezil.
Hopefully the remaining two seasons won't be too far behind in getting released.
This set should consist of twenty two episodes.
Original run dates, march 5 1994-september 6 1997.
(Overall there were four seasons, seventy episodes in total.)
This one will be played the moment it's delivered.
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Thanks to mattd, I have been reliably informed that the Complete series will be released on the 6th of january 2009, it would perhaps be more financially astute to hold on till then.

I won't echo the sentiments of all the previous reviews: clearly, if you remember Duckman enough to be searching for this DVD, you, like me, were a big fan when it was on USA. It's great to finally have this DVD after many years of no Duckman available to the public, and for many of you who didn't have the good fortune to tape the show when it was on the air, this will be your first chance in over a decade to relive the show AT ALL. The one thing that brings down the quality of this set is the occasional cut material. Granted, most episodes are untouched, and the ones that were only lost about 10 seconds of material, almost always for copyright purposes. For example, in one episode, Duckman has a seventies-style hallucination orchestrated by a Frank Zappa instrumental and culminates in a few bars of "Let the Sun Shine In." On the DVD, the hallucination ends before the song starts. It's literally just a few seconds of material, and of course this type of cut doesn't really kill any of the humor, but for purists like myself, it's annoying. If you're not annoyed with these very minor cuts, and are just plain thrilled to finally have whatever Duckman you can get, period, this set will not disappoint.

I've always enjoyed animated ducks for some reason: Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck. Though none of them are as deranged as Duckman. It's been 11 years since the inception of DVD and I've been waiting impatiently this entire time for this show to get a release. Originally broadcast between 1994 and 1997 Duckman lasted for a total 70 episodes but could easily have gone on forever without becoming stale.

The titular character is a discombobulated, unapologetic slob and pretty much the worst living person in the world. He's a private detective, a widower, a peeping tom, an alcoholic, a sex maniac, a murderer, a (fill in the blank). You name it, Duckman has done it. But who can blame him for being such a slimeball when the world he/we live in is so insane, outrageous and just plain nonsensical?

Eric Tiberius Duckman(voiced by the maniacal Jason Alexander) could carry the whole show by himself but when he's surrounded by a bunch of eccentric supporting characters you just know that trouble is just waiting to explode at every opportunity. My favorite has to be Willibald Feivel Cornfed (or just Cornfed Pig), Duckman's incredibly deadpan sidekick who is seemingly talented and highly skilled at everything and is perpetually oblivious to his partner's infinity of vices and incompetence.

The typical plot will involve some bizarre case he'll inevitably blunder through or will revolve around his highly dysfunctional household, though every now and again Duckman's arch-enemy King Chicken (Tim Curry), a sort of Professor Moriarty in fowl form, hatches some diabolical scheme in revenge for being bullied in high school.

Since I was a teenager this has been my absolute favorite animated show, better than The Simpsons, Family Guy and even King of the Hill. Nothing will ever surpass it. There never was, or will be, anything quite like Duckman ever again. The level of satire, observational humor and writing is so sharp it's deadly and the animation is done in that unique Klasky/Csupo style (anyone who has seen Rugrats will understand). It's a wonderful, highly imaginative and wild world and all with a noirish, 1940s feel.

I do hope this DVD set gives us all of the episodes complete and uncut. I cannot wait to get my hands on it and I eagerly await seasons 3 and 4. Plus, for all you other fans, check out the Duckman video game. You can never have too much of this bird!

Bought some crappy, foreign DVD copy of this most excellent show - the other reviewers are correct: excellent voice acting, writing, and amusing if not minimalist in its style of execution (Duckman has no eyes when his glasses fall off for example).

Duckman is a "Private Dick (for hire)", but doesn't even know what clues, evidence or even detective work all mean. He is emotional, judgemental, politically incorrect, abusive, controlling and yet he is also stupidly optimistic.

Highly recommended for laughing so hard, your abs might hurt! This review is for the show, as I await the DVD's with eager anticipation (or stupid optimism - see, it works!). Show is based on comic books of same name or vice versa.

Without doubt Duckman was one of the most clever and iconoclastic animated shows of all time! With great animation and perfectly voiced by a host of superb comic actors (and guest stars), and drawn with a touch of Salvador Dali, this cartoon gem has been too long in coming to DVD. For those who enjoy satire with a dash of anarchy then Duckman is the perfect place to spend a couple of hours. Forget Donald, Daffy and even Howard...Duckman rules!

I never, ever missed an episode of "Duckman" no matter how hard the USA Network tried to hide it from me. It was a brilliantly written show: subversive and funny and even (in its own way) sweet. Can't wait for the DVDs, and I HOPE HOPE HOPE it has extras!

I too can't wait for this to come out..The show brings me back to my late high school years and early college years.

It was a show that developed a brain. I recall the first season being total comedy with great gags to make me laugh to where I coughed hard. Then they added a lot of social and political stuff with the humor.

I vividly recall a great concept ep where Duckman seems to travel through past decades looking for "America" (voiced by Heather Lockerlear) and he gets depressed searching for "her"....Another good one, and even a little chilling, was the one where the neighbours are trying to destroy each other and Duckman jumps up and down with glee shouting "I WON..I WON".

I agree that to this day I'm ticked at USA. Those were the days before on-screen cable guides. After season 2 or 3, I thought the show was done. Then I'd see in the newspaper that the show (and I'll never forget the times) was airing at 1am or 3am at times. So I assumed they were all reruns no longer being in the key 10pm USA Friday slot. I'd either be out on the town or sleeping and forgetting to tune in.

A few years ago Comedy Central was airing reruns of this gem on Sunday nights. I finally caught up and saw the eps I've been missing including the final ep. Not even sure that it was meant to be a total series finale or if it was a season cliff hanger, but obviously the show never came back..

Sadly, I think the show could have lasted as over the years Comedy Central and Cartoon Network have been willing to spend money to buy rights and produce NEW TV shows instead of just being all rerun channels. I'm sure if times were different back then one of them would have been glad to pick Duckman up from USA.

Anyway, good to share some memories with fellow fans.

I don't know what the various legal holdups were, but it's finally out.

I won't get into the whole deal of what Duckman is about, but suffice it to say that if you enjoy dumb fathers (Family Guy, Simpsons) outrageous, absurd, and frequently R-rated adventures (South Park, Clerks), rapid-fire dialogue (Black Adder, Gilmore Girls , or biting social commentary (Norman Lear, Bill Hicks, George Carlin,) then THIS IS THE SHOW FOR YOU!
One caveat: a lot of the topical humor will now be sorely dated, but some of it will be as current as ever. But that aside, DUCKMAN RULES!

Finally coming to DVD is Duckman, the cult animated series about a foul-mouthed, sex crazed, duck turned private eye (voiced by Jason Alexander) who gets into all sorts of mischief and mayhem. Among his cohorts is his pig partner, the Joe Friday-based Cornfed (voiced by Gregg Berger), his hated sister-in-law Bernice (voiced by Nancy Travis), and his dim-witted son Ajax (voiced by Dweezil Zappa), his conjoined twin sons, and the incontinent and flatulent Grandma-ma. Subversive and occasionally intelligent, Duckman ended up being a pretty funny animated blast during it's entire four season run, and during these first two seasons, we bear witness to Duckman evading the IRS, falling under the spell of a televangelist, and goes to war with his arch-nemesis King Chicken (voiced by Tim Curry). There's definitely nothing refined about Duckman, but for what it is, Duckman is an often funny and comical animated blast that deserves another look. All in all, now that Duckman is on DVD, now is the time to give the series another well-deserved look.

It's about time this was released! DUCKMAN is, alongside REN & STIMPY one of the funniest animated series of the 90's. I've given it Five Stars purely based on the quality of the show - the writing is spot-on, the voice acting is top-notch and the humour itself is twisted - that's why I like it! Modern shows like Family Guy owe a lot to Duckman. Let's hope there are some good extras on this long overdue dvd set.