Otto Mannkusser

Otto Mannkusser is the German owner of The Grotto, a dude ranch, and was Francis' boss and sidekick for season 4 and 5. He speaks English with a fairly heavy German accent. He hired Francis to become his new ranch foreman at The Grotto in the first episode of season four, Zoo, only minutes after first meeting him.

Biography[]

Otto Mannkusser is the owner of The Grotto, a dude ranch he runs together with his wife Gretchen. The Grotto was named by combining the couple's first names.

Otto had stolen Gretchen from his former best friend Manfred Schmitt, who was Gretchen's fiancé at the time. As Otto told Francis in the episode Hot Tub, he had been in love with Gretchen too and just before Manfred and Gretchen would have eloped, Otto lied to Manfred, claiming that Gretchen had already left and would meet him at the train station in Berlin. Gretchen was devastated about Manfred not showing up, standing in the rain for hours, when Otto arrived and comforted her. With one thing leading to another, the two eventually got married.

According to "Zoo", Otto ran a factory in Germany which focused on manufacturing an unspecified kind of machine for many years before he and Gretchen moved to the US. Otto and Gretchen claim that it was a very stressful position ("Twenty-five hard, long machines per day, and if you make one teeny, little mistake, boing, you will hear about it"), and thus the two eventually decided to take a vacation in America to get away from the stress. While in America, the stayed on a dude ranch in Texas, and they ended up loving the area so much that they sold the factory and bought a ranch of their own which they named The Grotto, moving to America in the process.

Otto has an estranged son together with Gretchen, named Rutger. Otto had planned for Rutger to come live with them on the ranch after finishing college, but Rutger had different plans from his father, instead attending medical school and eventually becoming an emergency surgeon. This deeply hurt Otto to the point that he would burn any letters from his son and pretend that nothing had happened. Rutger is never seen in the show, but mentioned in the episode Garage Sale.

Otto also has a nephew named Willy, who appeared in the episode Kicked Out. Willy is a skilled pianist, but does not speak any English. He clashes with Francis, when he plays sound effects to any and all actions Francis does in the room, culminating in Francis losing his temper and smashing Willy's piano to bits.

In the episode Christmas Trees, Otto and Gretchen's extended family visit from Germany to celebrate Christmas.

Otto made his first appearance in the season 4 episode Zoo, in which he meets Francis and Piama at a gas station near The Grotto. Francis and Piama were on their way back from Alaska when their 1974 Cadillac broke down. Otto, an aficionado of American cars, walked up to Francis and engaged him in conversation. After Francis mentions that he is essentially broke and currently out of a job, Gretchen suggests to Otto that he could work at their ranch. Otto then hires Francis on the spot as the new ranch foreman.

Otto is a nice, while slightly overbearing and rather naïve boss, not noticing how many of his employees shamelessly take advantage of his good-naturedness. Francis, while occasionally also taking advantage of this when it suits him, generally tries to respect Otto and do proper work as a sign of gratitude for Otto offering him a job and effectively a new home for him and Piama at that.

His final appearance is in the season 5 episode Dewey's Special Class, in which he and Francis attempt to blow up a dam on the ranch that blocks the access of local fish to their natural breading grounds, but end up accidentally exploding a truck by confusing the dynamite with a picnic cooler.

He received a final mention in the season 6 episode Hal's Christmas Gift. When asked to borrow some money, Francis tells Hal that Otto had fired Francis and was suing him, after Francis had accidentally deposited thousands of dollars belonging to The Grotto into what he had thought to be an ATM, but apparently was not. Piama later urges Francis to quit his job after noticing how much happier he is when away from the ranch, giving Francis an easy out.

Personality[]

Otto is a good-natured man, but gullible, naïve and a bit of a pushover.

He is very accommodating towards his employees, to the be point of endangering the profitability and the ability to run The Grotto in general, giving them extra vacation days, undeserved raises, and overfilling job positions twice over. Hence, Francis had to teach Otto to be more business savvy, a better boss and stand up for himself.

He also spends a lot of money on junk sold to him by scammers.

Episode Appearances[]

Season 4[]

Season 5[]

Season 6[]

Hal's Christmas Gift (Mentioned Only)

Trivia[]

Otto's last name is an anglicized version of the German compound word "Mannküsser", which translates to "man kisser".
- Otto's last name uses the correct German spelling with an Umlaut in the German version of the show.
- Also in the German version of the show, Otto and the other Mannkussers are Danish instead of German.
Otto is one of the few recurring characters, aside from Eric, who was given an in-series reason for his character having been dropped. This was likely due to Kenneth Mars suffering from Pancreatic Cancer in late 2004 and couldn't reprise his role as Otto.