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The Duck Factory

1984 · 1 season · 30m per episode · Comedy

The Duck Factory is a 1984 NBC television series produced by MTM Enterprises that is perhaps most notable for being Jim Carrey's first lead role in a Hollywood production. The show was co-created by Allan Burns. The premiere episode introduces Skip Tarkenton, a somewhat naive and optimistic young man who has come to Hollywood looking for a job as a cartoonist. When he arrives at a low-budget animation company called Buddy Winkler Productions, he finds out Buddy Winkler has just died, and the company desperately needs new blood. So Skip gets an animation job at the firm, which is nicknamed "The Duck Factory" as their main cartoon is "The Dippy Duck Show". Other Duck Factory employees seen regularly on the show were man-of-a-thousand-cartoon voices Wally Wooster; comedy writer Marty Fenneman; artists Brooks Carmichael and Roland Culp, editor Andrea Lewin, and business manager Aggie Aylesworth. Buddy Winkler Productions was now owned by his young, ditzy widow, Mrs Sheree Winkler, who had been married to Buddy for all of three weeks before his death. The Duck Factory lasted thirteen episodes; it premiered April 12, 1984. The show initially aired at 9:30 on Thursday nights, directly after Cheers, and replaced Buffalo Bill on NBC's schedule. Jay Tarses, an actor on The Duck Factory, had been the co-creator and executive producer of Buffalo Bill, which had its final network telecast on Thursday, April 5, 1984.

Seasons

• Season 1 — 13 episodes (April 12, 1984)

Cast

• Jack Gilford as Brooks Carmichael
• Jim Carrey as Skip Tarkenton
• Jay Tarses as Marty Fenneman
• Teresa Ganzel as Mrs. Sheree Winkler
• Don Messick as Wally Wooster
• Clarence Gilyard Jr. as Roland Culp
• Julie Payne as Aggie Aylesworth
• Nancy Lane as Andrea Lewin

Details

Created by

Herbert Klynn and Allan Burns

First aired

April 12, 1984

Episodes

13

Genres

Comedy

Network

NBC

Status

Ended

TMDB score

6.1 / 10 from 8 votes