Family Dog

If you were around in the ‘80s, there’s a good chance that you remember Family Dog. The charmingly bent animated film was wildly popular when it aired as a 1987 segment on Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories, and it got more exposure on video, TV and in theatres. You might even remember that they turned it into a TV series… but since the premiere of the series was first announced in 1990 and it didn’t actually air until 1993 (for a scant 5 weeks), there’s a very good chance you never actually saw the show. Well, here’s the big story of the genesis and long-delayed debut of that series….

In the early ‘80s after animator Brad Bird had been fired by Disney (though he returned to the company more than two decades later) he decided to put together a demo reel of project ideas in hopes of catching the attention of a producer. This reel included a short called Family Dog, which friend and fellow Disney outcast Tim Burton helped design. The reel wound up in the clutches of Steven Spielberg, who liked it and ultimately hired Bird to storyboard it. Bird’s concept was that it would be a theatrical short to play before a feature film, but by this point in time, cartoon shorts had been phased out of cinemas altogether.

Nothing more happened with the project until the mid-‘80s, after Bird had co-written a quirky first season episode of Spielberg’s anthology show Amazing Stories titled “The Main Attraction” (which featured an egotistical high school jock with a magnetic personality who literally became magnetic). Spielberg liked the episode and then approached Bird with the idea of animating Family Dog as an episode of Amazing Stories, so work finally began on the short.

With a crew of 21 people (ten animators and eleven assistants) and a one million dollar budget, it took 11 months to complete the episode. One has to keep in mind that in 1986, TV animation was not only made cheaply, but it looked cheap. This is particularly evident when reviewing any animated ’80s shows on DVD. Family Dog was a departure from that mold – it was higher quality animation than had ever been seen on TV before, right on par with a theatrical film.

Featuring a put-upon underdog, Family Dog focused on the titular character, a loveable pooch that was not so beloved by his loathsome family. Terrorized by the children, scorned by their mother and continuously criticized by their father, the nameless canine ultimately became a hero when he outmaneuvered a pair of burglars. Comedian Stan Freberg provided the voice of the father, Skip Binsford, and Annie Potts (Designing Women, Ghostbusters) voiced mother Bev. A four year old named Brooke Ashley provided the voice of young Buffy Binford. Ashley had the unfortunate luck of having the same stage name as woman who had an illustrious career in porn throughout the ‘90s (until she contracted HIV), which has led to Family Dog being repeatedly cited on porn star Ashley’s resume.

A week before the episode was set to air, Spielberg made one last-minute alteration – he removed the original ending. As aired, the episode ends with the dog attacking his owner, who’s locked himself out of the house and is breaking in. The tape that was sent out to critics included another moment of footage in which the father kicks the dog back outside. Removing this segment was indicative of the light tone that Spielberg had established on episodes of Amazing Stories (particular compared to its darker anthology show counterparts like Tales from the Darkside and The New Twilight Zone). “It simply feels better to have the dog inside [at the end],” producer David Vogel commented to the L.A. Times.

The Amazing Stories episode was heavily promoted and quite a sensation. It garnered high ratings for the low-rated show and there was talk that it would win an Emmy for best animated special. Unfortunately, because it aired as part of an anthology series instead of as a one-shot special, the people who give out the awards decided it was ineligible (the Emmy ultimately went to the first special based on the Cathy comic strip).

Brad Bird's original plans for Family Dog were finally realized when, in 1988, Spielberg produced the popular animated film The Land Before Time. Because of the film’s short 69 minute running time, the movie was preceded by Family Dog during its theatrical run, garnering even more attention for the short. The Land Before Time dominated at the box office, beating out Disney’s Oliver & Company as well as family-friendly Ernest Saves Christmas and the horror flick Child’s Play.

Flash forward to 1990. The once-unemployed Brad Bird found himself in high demand, eventually taking a job on a new show called The Simpsons, which became an instant success for Fox (leading to a tidal wave of short-lived animated sitcoms), Burton was drawing crowds in theatres and his films were huge renters on home video so it was little wonder when CBS announced in May 1990 they'd be picking up the show -- continuously associating it with Burton’s and Spielberg's names. Brad Bird, however, was never mentioned. Bird was busy with The Simpsons, and he later revealed that he declined to take part in the Family Dog series because there wasn’t enough of a story to sustain a weekly show. According to at least one source, Bird was miffed that the press was giving Burton and Spielberg creator credit.

CBS ordered 13 episodes – a standard episode order for a new series – budgeted at $650,000 per episode, and Dennis Klein was hired to write the scripts. Klein had a background in sitcoms that generally veered toward the offbeat ("Bakersfield, P.D.," "Mary Hartman," "Best of the West," "Buffalo Bill," "The Larry Sanders Show"), so he seemed like a good candidate for the show’s warped material… aside from the fact that he’d never written for animation. Klein’s scripts were later cited as the source of many of the show’s problems, with crew members complaining he had no idea how to write in a way that animators could effectively translate. Recalled animator Joe Suggs: "[Klein] called us out in every trade article at the time, rolling up his newspaper and swatting us on the butt: 'Bad animators! Bad animators!' Like the dog, we were helpless to respond. The one comment I remember was that the lesson he'd learned from the experience was not to work with animators, and that he found himself thinking of Dusty Springfield's hit "Wishin' And Hopin'". A little "Writin' And Producin'" might have been the more useful approach. I vowed then and there to get even on some obscure message board twenty years later."

The show was rushed into production as a midseason replacement for the spring of 1991. Problems abounded from the very start, though then few were willing to go on the record since this was the brainchild of Spielberg and Burton, two untouchable forces in the world of entertainment. Animation was having a renaissance at the time, with Disney’s acclaimed return to glory (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast), The Simpsons garnering high ratings, MTV’s quirky Liquid Television in the works, and syndicated, weekday and Saturday morning children’s cartoons flooding the networks. As a result, storyboard artists were hard to come by, and several who were hired didn’t quite understand the sly visual humor of the material – a few artists were fired early on. Further complicating matters, Burton was consumed with Edward Scissorhands and Spielberg was busy with Hook and numerous other projects, so neither was very hands-on with the initial production of Family Dog.

Presumably because time had passed, none of the original voice actors from the Amazing Stories outing returned. Character actor Fred Coffin and Molly Cheek (It’s Garry Shandling’s Show) were cast as the parents. There are conflicting reports as to when exactly this occurred, but at some point around episode three, Spielberg decided to replace Coffin. Enter Martin Mull, a comedian and actor whose name, face and voice were recognizable to TV audiences from Mary Hartman, Fernwood 2night and a series of Michelob beer commercials. Mull’s career seemed to be on a downward slide (he was starring in low-budget dreck like Rented Lips, Cutting Class and Far Out Man) but by the time the show finally aired, his sitcom career was back in full bloom thanks to a regular role on the sitcom Roseanne. Not that his inclusion in the cast had any affect whatsoever on the show’s ratings.

Family Dog was heavily promoted during the Grammy Awards telecast on February 20, 1991, and a tentative premiere date of March 20 was set. Ultimately they missed that deadline by two years. CBS, anxious to get the show on the air, ordered an additional five scripts, which would have pushed the number of episodes up to eighteen.

Ten completed episodes finally made their way back from Taiwan’s animation house Wang Film Productions in April 1991… and when they arrived, Spielberg and Burton were both displeased with the results. One source commented, “The sharpness of the humor and the dog’s personality were not captured through the animation.” This put the kibosh of the completion of the final three episodes, as well as the additional five scripts that were written.

Producers laid off the entire production staff and the ten episodes were outsourced to Canada’s Nelvana animation studio for “fixes and completions,” according to an Amblin rep. Unlike a film, trying to “fix” animation is a Herculean task which basically boils down to completely re-animating it. And presumably that’s exactly what happened. Family Dog became a money pit with a $650,000 per episode budget that swelled to around a million in the end (at a time when Saturday morning fare averaged $250,000 an episode).

That July, MCA home video released Amazing Stories, Book Two on VHS and laserdisc. This installment featured “Go to the Head of the Class,” a bizarre horror episode featuring Christopher Lloyd as a tyrannical teacher who is killed – and revived – by two of his students, as well as “Family Dog.” It was unusual in that era for TV shows to be released on home video, and even more unusual for prerecorded videos to be affordably priced (most tapes were sold exclusively to video stores, with price tags usually set at $99.95). The VHS retailed for $29.95 and the laserdisc was priced at $34.98, both considered affordably priced for the time. Throughout the '90s, "Amazing Stories: Book II" frequently aired on USA and other American TV networks, often as Saturday afternoon and late-night fare.

Meanwhile, there was a merchandising craze surrounding The Simpsons – everything from T-shirts and toys to CDs, with a vast array of unauthorized knock-offs floating around. Anticipating the success of the series, someone signed a deal with Applause, Inc. to produce plush dolls of the titular character. Nintendo produced a video game. There was the obligatory apparel and even dinnerware plastered with pics of the pooch. As the show’s debut was pushed back repeatedly, all of this merchandise wound up gathering dust in warehouses before finally being relegated to bargain bins. Family Dog was rescheduled with a launch in October ’91, but when it became clear that that was unfeasible, it remained on their midseason replacement list for the ’91-92 season. Unfortunately, the show would hit another snag in early ’92…

CBS was utterly desperate to cash in on the success of The Simpsons so, in addition to Family Dog, they ordered six episodes of another animated show called Fish Police, which was based on an offbeat ‘80s independent comic series. Fish Police, which featured an all-star voice cast led by John Ritter, debuted in February 1992, paired with Scorch, a goofy sitcom starring a dragon puppet (which was frequently likened to A.L.F.). Lambasted by critics and ignored by audiences, Fish Police and Scorch both lasted three weeks on the air before being canceled. ABC, meanwhile, also launched a prime-time animated series created by Stephen Bochco called Capitol Critters, which didn’t fare any better (Capitol Critters even had tie-in toys released at Toys R Us and in Burger King kids’ meals). It seemed to executives that the success of The Simpsons was a fluke. Although every other American broadcast TV network has tried out prime time animation again (with varying results), CBS never tested the format again once Family Dog finally aired.

In November 1992, the ten completed and "fixed" episodes were finally handed over to CBS. It’s unclear whether the network was displeased with the show, distraught over the failure of Fish Police, or merely annoyed at having to wait so long for the show after scheduling it (again and again), but CBS sat on the tapes for months. In early June, 1993, CBS finally scheduled the show to air. New shows that air on the networks between May and September are most generally being “burned off.” In other words, it was clear that CBS had given up on the show and had no intention of ordering more episodes.

The June 23 release of the show, unsurprisingly, coincided with June 11 release of Spielberg’s latest film, Jurassic Park. Family Dog received minuscule promotion and aired in hour-long blocks on Wednesday nights for five weeks from June through July, 1993. Scheduled opposite reruns of Unsolved Mysteries, Beverly Hills 90210, The Wonder Years and Doogie Howser, viewers simply didn’t tune in (or perhaps even know it was finally airing), with the first two episodes ranking #40 and #42 out of 94 shows in the weekly Neilsen Ratings.

Television critics were utterly merciless. Washington Post critic Tom Shales said “the series seems shabbily drawn and poorly written” before concluding it’s “not only a bad show, but it sends bad messages.” Los Angeles Daily News critic Ray Richmond said “comparing it to The Simpsons is like linking Billy Ray Cyrus with U2,” then he went on to call the show “mean-spirited and as amusing as a choke chain.” Daily Herald critic Gordon Walkk said of the first episode, in which the Binfords are oblivious to the fact that their un-beloved pet is dying of thirst, “rather than being funny, the episode is annoying. Just give the dog a drink and get it over with!” Associated Press TV writer Frazier Moore commented, “If you tune into Family Dog, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.” One of the only good reviews of the show came from Mark K. Lyons at Indiana’s Kokomo Tribune, who cited “moments of brilliance in each half hour episode.” His wife, however, called the show “tasteless and degrading to animals.” It was little surprise when the show ended its run in July not with a bark but a whimper.

Perhaps to recoup some of their losses, several episodes were released on VHS in 1994, and the complete series was released in a laserdisc boxed set. And with that, Family Dog was all but forgotten by the studios. WB owned a stake in the show and Cartoon Network merged with WB in the mid-90s. No reruns there. Aside from DVD-Rs duped from the laserdisc set, which have been illegally sold on eBay and i-offer, the show’s never been released on DVD. Not even the Amazing Stories episode is currently available, as Universal halted the American DVD release of season 2 due to lackluster sales of season 1. It's a doggone travesty.

EPISODES

Episode 1: Show Dog

The Binsfords enter the dog in a rodeo showcase of the stars, believing him to be specially talented. Unfortunately all the dog wants is a drink of water.

Episode 2: Hot Dog at the Zoo

When the Binsfords take a trip to the zoo, their pooch tags along and causes plenty of trouble.

Episode 3: The Doggone Girl Is Mine

The dog falls hard for a neighbor's pet. Meanwhile, Skip fears Bev might leave him.

Episode 4: Enemy Dog

When the pretentious Mahoneys pick up a mammoth police dog from an auction, the Binfords force their pooch to interact with it.

Episode 5: Eye on the Sparrow

The pooch minds a bird who's unable to fly.

Episode 6: Call of the Mild

The Family Dog dreams of cavorting with the neighborhood strays, but he soon discovers he doesn't have what it takes to run with the pack.

Episode 7: Dog Days of Summer

It's father's day and the Binsfords head to the beach, where they're forced to contend with a trashy family and their ferocious bulldog.

Episode 8: Party Animal

The Binfords host the neighborhood block party. Meanwhile, Billy becomes a pyromaniac.

Episode 9: Family Dog Goes Homeless

The family dog befriends a homeless woman.

Episode 10: Family Dog Gets Good and Sick

The family dog becomes ill after being bitten by a mosquito that was feasting on toxic waste. Meanwhile, a neighborhood dog is killed by a car.

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