The Road to Dendron

“	Come on, Dod. Everyone's going to the desert to see a pair of mids where you can play soccer for Gus.	”
—Ajax Duckman

“	Pyramids. Sarcophagus.	”
—Cornfed Pig translating for a confused Duckman.

The Road to Dendron
Airdate	May 11, 1996
Directed by	Peter Shin
Written by	Bill Canterbury & Gene Laufenberg, Michael Markowitz, and David Misch
Episode Guide
Previous	"They Craved Duckman's Brain!"
Next	"Exile in Guyville"

"The Road to Dendron" is the sixteenth episode of Season 3, and the thirty-eighth episode of Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man overall. This episode aired on May 11, 1996.

Synopsis

In a parody of the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope "Road to..." films, Duckman and Cornfed chaperon Ajax's class trip to the Dendron in Sudan, where Ajax is kidnapped and held hostage by a sultan, his fakir, and a beautiful princess.

Plot

Duckman and Cornfed act as chaperones for Ajax's class trip to Sudan. When Ajax is kidnapped, Duckman and Cornfed must rescue him from the evil Fakir who intends on killing the royal family. Whilst scamming the Sulton out of money, Duckman and Cornfed manage to get themselves captured. The Princess, however, takes a liking to Duckman and has him brought to her; after three days, Cornfed escapes on his own and finds them. Princess Fallopia is madly in love with Duckman, but just so happens to have an identical face to Ajax, causing Duckman to not truthfully reciprocate those feelings. After Princess Fallopia informs the two of its location, Duckman and Cornfed soon find the wicker basket that contains the kidnapped Ajax. However, they are then captured yet again. Fakir takes them to his tent of terror and explains his plan to poison the Princess at the royal toast. The three escape yet again and attempt a number of bad comedy routines to switch out the goblets at the toast. They are unsuccessful each time, but as it turns out, Ajax and Fallopia had switched places.

Character Appearances

Main Characters

• Duckman
• Cornfed
• Ajax

First Appearances

• Princess Fallopia
• Achmed Abjeer
• Sulton of Dendron

Minor Appearances

• Dr. Ben Stein
• Bernice (nonspeaking)
• Charles and Mambo (nonspeaking)
• Fluffy and Uranus (nonspeaking)

Music Used

• "The Road to Dendron" performed by Duckman and Cornfed
• "(Love Theme from 'The Road to Dendron')"
  • Series original songs. Music by Scott Wilk and Todd Yvega, lyrics by David Misch (credited as D.A. “Yip” Misch).

Trivia

• The episode is a parody of the "Road To..." musical comedies from the 1940s and '50s, starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
• A Fallopia is a type of flower.
• Duckman claims to be rehearsing for a play written by Salman Rushdie. 
• At the end of the episode, Duckman says "Sing, and we're out." But when the cast starts singing there is no sound whatsoever. At this point, a message scrolls across the bottom of the screen reading "Due to a limited music budget, we have used our allotment of one song per show. Consider yourselves lucky." (The song is credited as "Silent Farewell")
  • When the last sentence, "Consider yourselves lucky" appears, it is just as Charles, Mambo, Bernice, Fluffy and Uranus slide into frame. A combination of these five voices singing would no doubt be irritating. 

• Some fake credits are given at the beginning of the episode, such as:
  • "Gowns by Edith Head." Edith Head was a famous Hollywood costume designer from the '40s to the '70s. Interestingly, none of the characters actually wear a gown in the episode.
  • "Makeup by Samuel L. Westmore."
  • "Wigs by Adrian"
  • "Color by USACOLOR", done in the logo style of "Technicolour", a company that actually fell out of favor fairly quickly for better coloring companies, like WarnerColor and EdisonColor, but is well remembered for being tied to the classic Walt Disney films, such as Snow White, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.