# Chickenman has gone to the great coop in the sky. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2018, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087 "2018-01-07T23:56:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/1 "2018-01-07T23:56:00Z")
I just happened to learn that radio comedian [Dick Orkin](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-met-dick-orkin-obituary-20171227-story.html) died just before Christmas. He’s best know for a series of short radio spots featuring his superhero parody, _Chickenman_ (“He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!”) that started out over WCFL in Chicago during the 60s. Originally conceived as a parody of _Batman_, _Chickenman_ developed a style of its own, with low-key madness. Orkin wrote the episodes and did the male voices. The show was quickly syndicated and continued throughout the 70s. Orkin later repeated his success with _The Tooth Fairy_ (he played the title character) and joined up with Dick Bertis to create a series of funny radio ads in the footsteps of Stan Freberg. [Here is a sample.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aG1VV5pwHc) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/2 "2018-01-08T03:31:11Z")
Oh, man. I heard _The Tooth Fairy_ when it was broadcast way back in 1982 and thought it was great. I’ve had a hard time finding it, or anyone who had even heard of it. But I never heard his name, or of _Chickenman_. Really sorry to hear he died. Now I gotta look up his other stufd. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/3 "2018-01-08T03:52:27Z")
Ah, _Chickenman_. When I was working summers at Del Monte sharpening cutter blades during corn pack, we always tried to arrange our work so that we were in the back actually sharpening when the show was on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/4 "2018-01-08T04:00:44Z")
The local station played segments of Chickenman way back in the 60’s, I was in high school and boy, did it crack us up! ‘He’s everywhere, he’s everywhere!’ I can just hear the Commissioner’s secretary, Miss Helfinger, voice dripping with contempt at dealing with those fools! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/5 "2018-01-08T05:10:34Z")
He was still active in radio advertising up until his death, running a [production company](http://doublerrstudios.com/) in southern California. He had a long-running campaign in Chicago for First American Bank ([here’s an ad from the campaign](http://doublerrstudios.com/firstambank2015/)), for which he’d still been doing ads as recently as last year. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/6 "2018-01-08T13:36:22Z")
Loved _Chickenman_. Great break from the rest of the music/ads when driving long distances. Later on I listened to some episodes and realized I forgot how short they were. Sometimes less is more. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/7 "2018-01-08T13:43:21Z")
I have some fond memories of Chickenman on the Top 40 station I used to listen to back in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/8 "2018-01-15T20:10:45Z")
I remember Chickenman. I thought it was on WLS rather than WCFL though. Maybe it was after Lujack moved to CFL. I still break out _Animal Stories_ now and then. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/9 "2018-01-15T20:52:07Z")
I really enjoyed the “Chickenman”, way back in the 1970s – sad to here that he is no longer “Everywhere”. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/10 "2018-01-15T23:27:05Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > He was still active in radio advertising up until his death, running a [production company](http://doublerrstudios.com/) in southern California. He had a long-running campaign in Chicago for First American Bank ([here’s an ad from the campaign](http://doublerrstudios.com/firstambank2015/)), for which he’d still been doing ads as recently as last year. My sister was also in radio advertising in Chicago; she worked with Dick occasionally. I always enjoyed the bank ads where he’s trying to talk his grandmother out of some harebrained scheme to make money. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/11 "2018-01-16T02:53:27Z")
Chickenman was hilarious. “He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!” was ingrained deep in the synapses of everybody who ever heard it. It would pop up in their brains for the next five decades, more indelible than any Monty Python meme. Yes, it must seem strange to younger folk to have a 50-year-old radio parody be the headline of your obituary, but that’s like saying that it would be strange to have The Beatles be in the headline of Ringo’s death. Some things just can’t be topped. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/12 "2018-01-16T03:12:09Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > My sister was also in radio advertising in Chicago; she worked with Dick occasionally. I always enjoyed the bank ads where he’s trying to talk his grandmother out of some harebrained scheme to make money. People forget that Dick Orkin did a lot of boring ads, too. he was so prolific that you heard his voice on hundreds of “normal” furniture or mattress ads, too – If you grew up in Chicago (or like me, within radio earshot – the best AM stations in Milwaukee were WLS and WCFL). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/13 "2018-01-16T03:20:59Z")
We used to hear Chickenman on the radio in DC when I was a kid. Suddenly they stopped playing it and there was a local kerfuffle about the missing radio program. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/14 "2018-01-16T04:15:20Z")
Dick Orkin was most definitely a radio man. His skits required imagination on the part of the viewer to take the place of visuals. I still remember the ads (pseudo-ads?) he did for the thin vinyl record inserts that could be put in magazines. A burglar breaks into an apartment and finds a brochure on the coffee table advertising the burglar alarm. But the brochure can only simulate the sound of the alarm…bing-da-bing-da-bing, like dat? It was an illustration of what the record could do to sell your (audio) product. I guess you hadda be there. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/15 "2018-01-16T06:46:06Z")
Weeeeeeeeeeeellllllllll… that sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/16 "2018-01-16T16:21:48Z")
At this moment the next thread up has the title “How do you want your chicken dinner?” Too soon! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/17 "2018-01-16T17:30:35Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > My sister was also in radio advertising in Chicago; she worked with Dick occasionally. I always enjoyed the bank ads where he’s trying to talk his grandmother out of some harebrained scheme to make money. For certain – the First American Bank ad that I linked to is from that campaign. When I posted about Orkin’s passing on Facebook, I learned from a former co-worker of mine (I work in advertising, as well, though never worked with Orkin) that her sister was a longtime associate of Orkin’s, and, in fact, was the voice of Grandma in those ads. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickenman-has-gone-to-the-great-coop-in-the-sky/806087/18 "2018-01-16T17:35:18Z")
Those segments were part of my morning routine getting ready for school. I bought the entire cd set several years ago, to listen to on long road trips. Great memories.