A&E suspended reality television show Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson from the network Wednesday, after Robertson made anti-gay remarks during a magazine interview.
As the family patriarch, Robertson is worth an estimated $5 million. And it started with his desire to craft a realistic duck call, a device known as the Duck Commander.
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Mashable examined the famous Duck Commander and the company as a whole to see what makes it so unique (you know, besides Uncle Si). Here's what we found.
A hunter at a young age, Robertson created his original Duck Commander call to mimic the actual sound of a duck. After testing other calls on the market, which he claims were made for "world champion-style duck callers" instead of for killing real ducks, Robertson decided to make his own. And thus, a "dynasty" was born.
Image: Duck Commander
In addition to the sound, it's the only type of call that features Robertson's patented, whistle-like design. The call achieves its sound through unique design, the first of its kind on the market. The call is comprised of two parts: a blowing stem at one end and a whistle at the other. Both sit inside a resonance chamber, which makes for a fuller sound. Other typical calls often contain multiple disassembling pieces to mimic the sound of a female mallard duck.
The call, when used correctly, produces the sound of a mallard drake (a male). Theoretically, its performance withstands any type of weather condition, features Robertson saw as lacking in the market.
Earlier on, Phil Robertson pursued a potential career as a NFL football star. Despite playing first-string quarterback ahead of Pittsburgh Steeler's champion Terry Bradshaw in college, Robertson instead chose a Master's degree in education and a teaching job, before quitting it all to make duck calls.
Robertson says playing football would have been great if it hadn't interfered with duck season.
Image: Duck Commander
In the first year after quitting his teaching job to sell duck calls, Robertson earned a meager $8,000. Somehow his wife stretched it to feed her husband and herself, as well as their four boys.
It wasn't just Robertson's determination that resulted in the family's success; it was a family affair. In the early years of Duck Commander, the family assembled, packed and shipped every duck call sold from their house in West Monroe, La. They also kept food on the table by selling fish they caught running nets in the Quachita River in a commercial fishing business.
Robertson traveled store to store in the early days of the business, selling duck calls "like watermelons" at Walmart before the business took off. He loves to tell the story of the chain store in Stuttgart, Ark., which laughed him out of the building. That store now is one of the Duck Commander’s largest accounts.
Image: Getty, David Becker
Jeptha "Jep" Robertson is responsible for filming and editing the "Duckman" videos the family produces as part of its hunting empire. The videos cover techniques from expert duck hunters. Some friends from Robertson's church made the first few videos, but after Jep filmed "Duckman X," he's been the family video expert ever since.
Okay, so maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves, but Robertson himself didn't put it first on the list of necessary objects for a good duck hunter. He didn't even put it second. The first is obviously a shotgun. The second? Staying power. Robertson said in an interview for Waterfowl and Retriever, "These ducks are pretty slick. Human beings try to pattern ducks so they can kill them. These ducks in the 21st century are so slick that they are now patterning us."
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Image: Getty, D Dipasupil