"The Duck Factory" - 13 Week Theatre

[@l.salisbury1253]

"Dippy Duck" was even mentioned later in in an LA Law episode...

[@patterson65]

I read that another reason it didn't succeed was that NBC aired the episodes out of sequence, so this probably left viewers confused. I frankly don't know why Shout Factory or some other company hasn't released this on blu-ray, because, you know...Jim Carrey!

[@tomflorio7363]

I never watched an episode of this while it was on, but thanks to KZbin I watched the whole series a few years back. It's a nice, quiet little show - none of the forced, over-the-top canned laughter of countless unfunny shows that would soon become the norm; more of a "chuckle track" than a "laugh track". I really liked it.

[@c.s.i.inamerica2420]

It was so nice to see Jim Carrey just being normal and showing us that he CAN act and doesn't need to be constantly over the top...

[@cityhawk]

I agree. It’s his more subtle performances that I like from Jim: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, and I Love You Phillip Morris are my some of favorites from him. He can do drama. In many ways, he reminds me of Robin Williams.

[@chadk890]

Being over the top made him a star.

[@shrillbert]

@@chadk890 Oh, absolutely, it's just their personal tastes, and mine, lean towards his less wacky performances.

[@stvojay]

I can understand why the show didn’t take off but I watched many episodes of Duck Factory on KZbin and I liked it! The connection to animation is very awesome and I thought this was a great role for Jim Carey. If this show were to launch today instead of the 80s I think the chance at success might have been better

[@pferreira1983]

Now that's one good example of a series that shouldn't have been cancelled.

[@oldnerdreviews]

Original premise, good cast and writing. Sad that it didn't make it.

[@fromthesidelines]

11:46- "THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MOLLY DODD" was a true success only *after* it left NBC......as a staple of the Lifetime Cable Network.

[@christopherumberger6142]

Really enjoying this channel! The show Lucky that came out in 2003 would make a great episode.

[@kali3665]

This show had so much potential. It COULD have worked, but the networks liked niche programming less than they do now. I don't even remember seeing the episode with Bill Scott and June Foray at the time, so had to catch up so many years later (thank you, KZbin).

[@PabSungenis]

I also find it fascinating to see so much of later Jim Carrey performances could be seen this early in his career. It wasn't that he grew into the characters he played in "The Majestic" or "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." That depth and delivery were there for him from the beginning, he just needed chances to bring that skill to the foreground.

[@Raaawb]

@@PabSungenis I always liked that Carrey's first big role was essentially as a straight man to a bunch of oddballs! I met Don Messick at an animation festival type of thing at the mall in Westwood and had a nice chat with him; he finally offered that if I sent him the blank tapes he'd copy off some unaired episodes of Duck Factory. So annoyed I never followed up on that kind offer! I wonder if those ever turned up anywhere. I think some episodes were released on VHS in the UK but I don't think it ever got a U.S. release; surprised that with it starring Carrey that never happened here (that I know of)? Also one memory from the original airing, when Bill Scott and June Foray cameo'd in the "Annie Awards" episode, I distinctly remember Scott singing some different theme songs including the Road Runner theme. Recently I found that episode here on KZbin but that specific theme wasn't included there... wonder what happened? Maybe was from a home video version that didn't pay for the music rights...? Loving 13 Week Theatre and your scholarly approach to telling these stories! Have watched several already and will watch more! Request (was it 13 eps?): "Woops" on early Fox network.

[@PabSungenis]

There WAS a brief VHS release of two volumes with three episodes each in 1995. That’s where my footage came from. And, yes, there were a number of themes done by Bill Scott when it first aired that were cut from the VHS for rights issues. The day job has kept me from editing new episodes lately but “Woops!” is one on my list.

[@rexmundi3108]

In keeping with your theme, you really should dive into The Starlost: highly hyped all-star science fiction blockbuster so badly handled that Harlan Ellison used the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird in the credits. Also a great story idea that really should be revived and done right this time.

[@WinterSteele]

I just want to say that I found this channel the other day and I love it. Short-lived/forgotten programming has always piqued my interest. You're doing great work with this "13 Week Theatre" series. P.S. -- If you're ever looking for ideas on shows to cover, there's a book called "Sitcom Bombs" that highlights very short-lived comedies dating back to the 1960s. I'm sure some of them would make for interesting episodes.

[@davidlafleche1142]

Sitcoms in any decade were always crap-shoots. Some of them were good (He & She, My World and Welcome To It, etc.). Others were terrible (The Girl with Something Extra, The Betty White Show, etc.). One really pitiful thing was The Doris Day Show, which was fairly popular, but only for name-recognition. Doris Day hated doing TV, but she was broke, and needed work. CBS changed the format every year, so it was like doing three completely different shows. It was just like a lot of other sitcoms: a widow with two cute kids and a big dog. I mean, come ON! If CBS was lucky enough to rope Doris Day into a TV show, the least they could do was hire decent writers!

[@patterson65]

@@davidlafleche1142 well, that and Doris Day was a singer, so...why not a variety show instead?

[@davidlafleche1142]

@@patterson65 The field was too crowded. Dean Martin, Jim Nabors, Carol Burnett...there were already a lot of variety shows.

[@dmize2839]

One reason it had a hard time catching on was it was shown so out of production order o that it didn't make any sense. The second episode was the last episode aired, the 12 the second, and that's death due trying to follow a story arc.

[@yournamehere6002]

Loved this show

[@jobee1]

I feel like I never watched tv in the 80’s. So many shows I never heard of. Guess I was busy with Dallas and Falcon Crest.

[@jerrywood4508]

Wow, I watched Cheers from the beginning of its run, and I didn't even remember the title of this show.

[@maxbedo9645]

I liked this show very much and remember being happy to see Jim Carey show up again on Living Color.

[@mst3kanita]

That broken piano music gets me so jazzed up. Also, oh snap the guy who played Conrad on Matlock was on this show.

[@PabSungenis]

Yes. Clarence Gilyard, who played "the only black in animation" as he put in on the show.

[@jehobden]

@@PabSungenis Clarence Gilyard also spent several years w/ Chuck Norris on WALKER TEXAS RANGER.

[@kelvinthompson1660]

I liked the theme song!

[@andrewbarton2590]

@@jehobden One of 3 original cast members, along with Chuck Norris and Sheree J Wilson, to last out the entire run of Walker Texas Ranger. Chuck was the only one of the 3 to be in all episodes though, as Clarence and Sheree missed some.

[@andrewbarton2590]

@@jehobden Clarence was also one of Alan Rickman's henchmen in Die Hard.

[@andrewbarton2590]

Julie Payne also voiced Dr N'Godatu in one of the wrap around animated bumpers for The Tracey Ullman Show. Unfortunately, Dr N'Godatu found itself upstaged by those other animated bumpers seen in Ullman's show, and seems to be forgotten.

[@tamaraclaw]

I liked this show. It was unusual for its time. Allan Burns also worked with Jay Ward (Rocky & Bullwinkle, and others)

[@MrWolfTickets]

8:57 Donate on on Patreon at the $100 dollar level and get this lovely Super Train windbreaker!

[@johnathanbarnes8639]

One of just four left in existence!

[@stvojay]

Haha! There was an episode of this show parodying NBC’s failed 1979 TV season and it had a show called “Good Bye Larry.” I was surprised they didn’t knock Super Train. Super Train windbreaker FTW!

[@demi12342002]

Thank you for this!!

[@PabSungenis]

My pleasure.

[@GCBlues45]

Have you looked in on the 90's Out of the Blue. It delt with friends working at Sea World:Orlando

[@alfonsogreen2722]

I do remember watching Buffalo bill but not this show but Jim Carrey made a name 4 himself years later

[@Lotmeister]

Comedy Central showed this in their very early days... in fact they may still have been CTV or even HA! at that point. It caught my attention because it had "the white guy from In Living Color" which was how I referred to Jim Carrey at the time, but I never watched an episode. It looked dull. (I was 14 or 15 at the time.)

[@tariqshareef2877]

This show deserves a reboot, maybe even have Jim Carrey make a cameo appearance.

[@racheln8563]

Herbert Klynn’s studio did The Alvin Show, the 1961 version of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Quite a history indeed.

[@fromthesidelines]

Format Films {later Format Productions} also produced the 1965-'66 "Road Runner" cartoons for Warner Brothers under a separate contract with them [DePatie-Freleng got sole credit for them, as they were under exclusive contract to produce the studio's theatrical cartoons from 1964 through '66]. Format also produced most of the animation for the 1966 Saturday morning cartoon version of "THE LONE RANGER" for Jack Wrather......and many TV title sequences {"I SPY", "HONEY WEST", "HEE HAW", et. al.}.

[@vladobuster3281]

Could you do Logans Run Tv series?

[@purefoldnz3070]

1984! I had no idea Jim was that old.

[@daisyviluck7932]

The premise is interesting

[@kevinnelson66]

You should cover the short lived Dukes Of Hazzard spinoff Enos. Also Fast Times which was the TV spinoff from Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

[@michaelrochester48]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Theresa Ganzel in this TV show. She replaced Carol Wayne as the teatime lady on the Tonight Show

[@subtlebluntduality5997]

Until I saw this video, I had no idea they had real professional voice actors on this show. I had always heard about it but boy does this look like something that could work today in the right hands on streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix. Although considering those services seem to be really quick to cancel shows without giving them a chance to develop either.

[@jayparry1139]

Who knew that Jim Carrey would later become a great artist...in drama, comedy, and visual arts...

[@alechorowitz5279]

The Annie Awards? That's some real inside animation stuff there

[@chrislang9442]

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. It did seem too much like a dramedy. I didn’t much care for Molly Dodd either. I think The Wonder Years, which I loved, was classified as a dramedy, but it was able to give the lighthearted fare that people were wanting. I do think the opening credits are first-rate, and I am curious who was responsible for the animation.

[@PabSungenis]

Herbert Klynn himself supervised all the animation for the show, with a team of four animators working under him.

[@jcollins1305]

WAY ahead of its time. In 1984, they were shooting on location, using film(?) instead of tape, and creating an excellent cast that actually had some very good lines, instead of the normal sit com BS. Should have known it was too good to last!

[@billlonee9470]

I really enjoyed the show. Then again, I've never really considered the category of any show or movie that I watch.

[@jgdsgh]

Have you thought about looking at the short-lived British Sitcom "Curry & Chips" (1969)?

[@fromthesidelines]

Pab has done that. 🙂

[@jgdsgh]

@@fromthesidelines true, it's a very good video

[@GodfatherXXI]

Wait, what happened to Jim Curry?

[@classiclife7204]

Belongs in that elite club of 13-Weekers of the 80s that should not have been cancelled; see also: "Square Pegs"

[@kali3665]

Yeah, whatever DID happen to this guy Jim Carrey anyway? LOL!

[@Filmation77]

I am really surprised that The Cartoon Network or Adult Swim has taken a shot at rebooting or re-imagining this series. I think it would be a hit on that channel

[@Metlhd313]

The show looks to be shot on film as opposed to shot on tape like most sitcoms (especially in the 80s).

[@PabSungenis]

Yes. It was one of the first single-camera sitcoms.

[@davidlafleche1142]

@@PabSungenis All in the Family did it many years earlier.

[@waynekaress5778]

Jim Carrey as the straight man...yeah, that was brilliant casting!

[@PabSungenis]

As far back as "Doing Time on Maple Drive" Carrey was showing excellent chops as a dramatic actor. And sometimes playing straight man to some of the comic talents like they had on this show takes a better understanding of comedy than the comics need.

[@rodriguez1025]

I've seen some of this show thanks to KZbin annd can honestly say that it wasn't a bad show. Unfortunately, I think its premise (however well-done) doomed it to a short run. That said, it was certainly a better show than it could've been, and had a lot of talented people in front of and behind the camera.

[@GerarddeSouza-yt3fc]

I don’t think the lack accuracy hurt the show but did they ever have extras playing animation staff? I watched it a few times when it aired and one was lead to believe that two men could animate a series.

[@sebeku2]

this wouldve done well on adult swim....

[@johnathanbarnes8639]

The concept of doing a "dramady" today isn't new, and if anything, kinda feels old hat in spite of being a relative newcomer to the television landscape due to the delicate tightrope walking; if it ventures too far into the dramatics, it'll make the attempts at comedy akin to when Homer Simpson had to do standup after it was announced a puppy got run over in the parking lot, and if it is too comedic, then your dramatic moments obviously lose their gravity since they'll likely be followed with a groin or slapstick joke. A show like this would work well today in the right hands, but given the fact that it's about the animation industry, which the average person assumes is as wacky as the cartoons that are made (like you said), exploring aspects like budgets, deadlines, crunch time, employee stress, and the pursuit of recognition in an industry where most people will remember the character but not who drew it, it could wind up like the snafu that was ABC's "The Muppets" from earlier in the 2010s (which was one of the more recent examples of a series getting an obvious retooling where the first part of the series had a hook about Kermit being on the outs with Miss Piggy and being tempted by a new intern, and them dropping it in favor of Kermit and Miss Piggy getting back together and instead having Kermit being harassed by an obviously evil network executive), or worse yet, Cartoon Network's "Out of Jimmy's Head" (which spearheaded the network's infamous "CN Real" phase and was about an unpopular boy who, after an accident, gets his brain replaced with that of a beloved animator's... ignoring too many factors for plot reasons, and having to juggle school life with new work life, not to mention the animator's mentally unhinged brother constantly out to kill him for that brain). Then again, "Mad Men" was popular for years in the late 2000s, and they depicted the advertising industry as largely nothing but backstabbing chain smokers. As for moving relative newcomer "Night Court" over to Thursday, that was a better environment for a more absurdist show that also did dabble in the drama, since it was more structured like "Cheers" (and even featured a recurring "Cheers" guest star in the late Harry Anderson as the lead role), although "Night Court" never would become a major player in its own right. It, however, would remain as a serviceable utility player for its run until the early 1990s.

[@aiberlane3390]

Oh no, they added a laugh track. The show would've been better without it. The folksy theme song didn't help either. But the opening credit animation is great and the show is good. If only it were an hour long and didn't have the laugh track and theme song.

[@davidlafleche1142]

I loved that song!

[@pamelamays4186]

Not to be confused with The Mouse Factory.

[@wmbeam211]

It sucked buffalo bill sucked ans i never even heard of molly dodd