USA's original cartoon series featured Seinfeld's Jason Alexander as the title character, a degenerate duck whose ineptitude at his job of private detective was only outdone by his constant failings as a father. Topics from political correctness to TV evangelists routinely were skewered by Duckman, an utterly dysfunctional family that includes three sons on two bodies, the twin sister of Duckman's deceased wife, and a mother-in-law that has more natural gas than a symposium on alternative energy sources, and his private eye partner Cornfed (a deadpanning pig who routinely stole the show). Invariably, there would be a moral lesson from the proceedings, as well as some sort of grisly death for Duckman's two assistants, a pair of politically correct teddy bears named Fluffy and Uranus. Both of these elements would eventually resurface in the vastly more successful South Park.

Duckman was the brainchild of Everett Peck, with a tag-team of tag-team producers in Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn on the content side and Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo, whose past credits include The Simpsons and Max Headroom, handling more of the animation. Like those two shows, it has a very distinctive visual style. In this case, it's totally neurotic, with colors and images flashing, clashing, and trashing your senses to the point of overload and then some. The writing, primarily from Michael Markowitz and Police Squad alum David Misch, was similarly paced, which can put considerable wear and tear on your VCR's rewind button. My short description of the show has always been that it's "The Simpsons on speed."

Duckman fell victim to ever-shifting programming strategy at USA, who couldn't seem to decide if it was going to focus on comedy or drama in its original programming. Comedy Central eventually picked up the show in syndication, but then consigned it to late-night weekend timeslots. Unfortunately, there has been little word (or demand, for that matter) on any sort of video or DVD release of the series' 69 episodes.

Duckman left no stone (or Rolling Stone, in Clear and Presidente Danger) unturned. Here's a list of some of the other topics that the crack writing staff of Duckman have put through the wringer, along with the episodes in which it happened.

Cornfed: "Duckman, you have the adrenal gland of an accountant who was dyslexic."
Duckman: "Bulltish!"

- Gland of Opportunity

"Once again I've confused Dod's psyche with a toasted breakfast food, although the image of fighting off a bloodthirsty waffle will forever remain a favorite in the playground of my mind."

- Ajax, Clear and Presidente Danger

"Duckman, a detective lives by his code, and under that code, the case survives the client. Also under than code, detectives get twenty percent off at Red Lobster, but don't even think about that now."

- Cornfed, Days of Whining and Neuroses

Cornfed: Duckman, daddy-o, you have ears but cannot hear. ..actually, you don't have ears.
Duckman: He's coming back on.
Cornfed: Wait, this is really creepy. How do you hear? What holds your glasses on?
Duckman: Never mind about the ears!
Cornfed: Really, I've never seen that before. Hey guys, you ever see anyone without ears before?

- Research and Destroy