Friday, April 13, 2007

Flashback Friday: Platypus Man

In tribute to the late Richard Jeni, beloved comedian who unfortunately never made it as big as he should have and commited suicide, we shall honor one of his greatest failures, his short-lived TV series Platypus Man. I don't remember a single thing about this show, other than the fact that it wasn't that funny and the sight of Richard Jeni in an apron cooking just didn't fit.

Trivia
* The opening explained that a platypus is a mammal that attempts to mate frequently but spends most of its time alone, and a platypus man is a mammal that attempts to mate frequently but spends most of its time alone.
* His TV show on the series was called Cooking with the Platypus Man.
* The series aired in 1995, the early days of UPN, which sucked.
* The problem of cooking and his character's problems with relationships were supposed to parallel. They didn't.
* Ron Orbach played Richard's executive producer and longtime friend. He's the cousin of actor Jerry Orbach of Law and Order fame.

Links:
* Unofficial UPN homepage's profile of Platypus Man
* TV.com's profile of Platypus Man
* Wikipedia's entry on Platypus Man

Related:
Flashback Friday: Out of This World
Flashback Friday: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Flashback Friday: Herb

3 comments:

Maurice Mitchell said...

This unfortunately is one of the few Flashback Fridays I can't really comment on because I never watched one second of this show. Maybe because it was a lousy name for a television show or because it was also the premiere season of "Nowwhere Man". Who knows.
A fitting tribute though.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
It figures a dago would make a lousy TV show like that. What kind of loser has a show that only lasts one season! Fifty years ago we'd have had him upside down with a f***ing fork up his a**!

Signed,
Michael Richards

Nigel G Mitchell said...

Dear Sir,

That racist rant came out of nowhere. Just like a jew.

Signed,
Mel Gibson