For four seasons, this animated series based on Everett Peck's underground comic nested comfortably in the USA Network's “Up All Night” programming block, its politically incorrect misanthropy given full voice by Jason Alexander as a character whose cluelessness, insensitivity, deviancy, and boorishness are, uh, his best qualities. Who is Duckman? “I'm just one more duck detective who works with a pig and lives with the twin sister of his dead wife, three sons on two bodies, and a comatose mother-in-law who's got so much gas she's a fire hazard.” As with Alexander's signature Seinfeld character, George Costanza, Duckman has few redeeming traits. He's an incompetent detective whose acts of heroism are inadvertent (in one episode, he is sent flying after groping two women—and unwittingly lands on a presidential attacker). Duckman rants and raves about everything from “clean” comics to the commercialism of TV news. His catchphrases are admittedly tiresome (such as “What the hell are you starin' at?”), but what buoys Duckman are its inventive and vivid animation (produced by Klasky Csupo, the folks who birthed Rugrats), occasionally sharp and clever writing, and virtuoso voice work by Alexander and company, which includes Nancy Travis as Duckman's braying sister-in-law Beatrice, Dweezil Zappa as Duckman's dim son Ajax, E.J. Daily and the late Dana Hill as Duckman's two-headed son(s) Charles and Mambo, and Gregg Berger as breakout character Cornfed Pig, Duckman's brilliant porcine partner, whose deadpan just-the-facts delivery suggests Jack Webb, but who insists that his “spiritual forerunner” is Jack Lord. Duckman is hit and miss, and some of its satiric targets (reality shows, fact-based TV movies, etc.) are obvious, but it does have some cult cachet. Compiling all 22 episodes from the 1994-95 first and second seasons, DVD extras here include audio commentary on one episode by Alexander and Peck, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and character biographies. A strong optional purchase. (D. Liebenson)
Duckman: Seasons One & Two
Paramount, 3 discs, 498 min., not rated, DVD: $46.99 December 22, 2008
Duckman: Seasons One & Two
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