Dog days of summer TV
Will ‘Downward Dog,’ ‘Wishbone’ ever return?
Even in a normal year, August marks the dog days of summer TV. This summer I’ve been thinking a lot about dogs and TV, prompted by the pet shorts created by Pittsburgh’s Animal Studios, the local company behind the short-lived filmed-inPittsburgh ABC comedy “Downward Dog,” and because even with hundreds of cable channels and multiple streaming services in our house, my 6- and 10year-old sons have spent the summer watching episodes of the 1990s PBS Kids show “Wishbone” on now warbly VHS tapes.
When I wasn’t doing a deep dive down an internet “Wishbone” rabbit hole, I wondered why it is that as much as TV viewers are drawn to animal stories, so many TV shows fronted by dogs fail to take off.
Sure, in the early days of TV you had “Lassie” (1954-74) and “Rin Tin Tin” (1954-59), but since the 1970s most dogfronted series have been a bust, from the “Benji” rip-off “Here’s Boomer” (1980-82) to “Wishbone” (two seasons over four years, 1995-98) and one-and-done “Downward Dog” (2017). “Pup Academy,” a spinoff of the “Air Bud” movie/DVD franchise, debuted on Disney Channel last year; it’s unclear if it will continue.
So I asked some of the folks who worked on these shows why they think these programs didn’t go the distance.
“Wishbone” may have been a kids show, but it had plenty of adult fans of episodes that featured Jack Russell terrier Wishbone — viewers heard his thoughts, but he didn’t talk — traipsing through great novels (“Frankenstein,” “Oliver Twist”) in period dog-sized attire.
“CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent Mo Rocca, who will appear virtually at Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Nov. 2, began his TV career as a writer for “Wishbone.” He says some of the challenge in dog-fronted TV series may stem from the concept itself.
“It’s hard to buy a dog in a lead role communicating,” he says. “Obviously it would be fantastical, but ‘Wishbone’ worked because it was his fantasy life we were going into.”
“Wishbone” head writer Stephanie Simpson (“Octonauts,” “Hilda”) says it’s a challenge to come up with a concept that will continue to be interesting to viewers.
“People may feel like the formula of ‘Lassie’ or ‘Rin Tin Tin’ where the dog always saves the day gets old,” she says. “Even though we love watching our pets, I don’t know that I’d want to watch that for 22 minutes. And the character needs some sophistication to it, and that can be a hard thing to pull off.”
That’s what “Downward Dog” attempted with its lead character, self-absorbed mutt Martin.
“We treated the dog character within the bounds of what dogs could do,” says “Downward Dog” co-creator Michael Killen. “He wasn’t riding skateboards or saving a village.”
But Killen acknowledges creating storylines for a character who lacks opposable thumbs has its challenges.
“You have to be really strong in figuring out how to create new storylines with a character that has incredible physical limitations without being redundant and telling the same dog-andcat story over and over again,” he says. “That was always a challenge for us.”
In the cases of “Wishbone” and “Downward Dog,” both shows faced another similar challenge: money.
Dog-fronted shows tend to be more expensive than their peers that don’t star an unpredictable animal. “Wishbone” ended after PBS and producers couldn’t line up funding for a third season. “Downward Dog” ran into similar troubles.
“ABC did say they’d do another eightepisode season,” Killen says, “but the studios [Legendary and ABC Studios that financed the first season] weren’t
interested in financing a second season.”
And while you might think those involved in making a dog TV series would be keen to check out other dogstarring shows, none of the half-dozen folks I interviewed who worked on “Wishbone” ever saw “Downward Dog,” which also speaks to the cluttered TV environment and ABC’s lack of promotion. Killen said he hadn’t watched “Wishbone.”
Some of the original “Wishbone” production team attempted to buy the rights to the show for a series reboot, but in July Mattel Films instead announced a movie version from producer Peter Farrelly (“There’s Something About Mary”), which doesn’t bode well for the future of “Wishbone” as a TV property. “Downward Dog” may fare better.
“There’s definitely some interest in reviving ‘Downward Dog’ in some way [for TV],” Killen says. “We’re actively pursuing and working on it.”
‘Love in the Time of Corona’
We’ve already seen several pandemic-themed episodes of shows filmed remotely (most notably NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” special), and now comes Freeform’s two-night romanticcomedy limited series, “Love in the Time of Corona” (8-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday).
It’s not another show recorded over Zoom. “Corona” was filmed in the homes of cast members with real-life married couples and roommates playing fictional married couples and roommates.
Viewers see the characters inside their houses and on porches — they’re not constantly in a rectangular video chat box — which helps “Love in the Time of Corona” feel significantly less claustrophobic than earlier remotely filmed efforts even if some of the quarantine topics covered prove similar.
“Love in the Time of Corona” follows four couples: James (Carnegie Mellon University grad Leslie Odom Jr., “Hamilton”) and wife Sade (Nicolette Robinson, Odom’s real-life wife) consider whether to have a second child; Sarah (Rya Kihlstedt) and husband Paul (Gil Bellows, Kihlstedt’s real-life husband) debate telling their daughter (Ava Bellows, real-life daughter of Kihlstedt and Bellows) that they’ve separated; roommates Oscar (Tommy Dorfman) and Elle (Rainey Qualley) try to set one another up with online dates; and elderly Nanda (L. Scott Caldwell, “Lost”) plans a party that may bring them all together, just not within 6 feet of one another.
An easy, breezy binge, “Corona” puts a welcome, mostly upbeat spin on trying times.
In the works
Pittsburgher Connor Trott, a Pine-Richland High School and Duquesne University grad, will be among the “sexy singles” looking for a love match on this season’s land-locked edition of CBS’s “Love Island” (8 p.m. Monday, KDKA-TV), which is filming inside a Las Vegas hotel due to COVID-19.
ABC has found a way to restart production of “Dancing With the Stars,” which returns for a new season at 8 p.m. Sept. 14 with new host Tyra Banks.
Disney+ will stream the new animated “LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special” on Nov. 17. Set after “The Rise of Skywalker,” the special features Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose and Chewie returning to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyk for a Life Day celebration, just as Luke, Han and Leia did in an infamously terrible live-action 1978 made-for-TV special.
Streamer Peacock will develop a contemporary series adaptation of 1990s hit comedy movie “Clueless” with a mystery twist.
Channel surfing
Apple TV+ renewed “Ted Lasso” for a second season. ... Comedy Central canceled “Drunk History” after its sixth season . ... Netflix canceled talk show “Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj” after two years and almost 40 episodes but renewed drama “Warrior Nun.” . ... The 12th, eight-episode season of NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” debuts at 8 p.m. Sept. 7 . ... Comedy Central’s “The Other Two” and “South Side” will move to streamer HBO Max for their second seasons, possibly to air in 2021 . ... On Sept. 7, former MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts will take over anchor duties from Jesse Palmer on “Daily Mail TV” (1 and 1:30 a.m. weekdays, WPGH-TV) . ... There’s one last TV Q&A next week and then it’s a wrap on my tenure with the Pittsburgh PostGazette. It’s time to change the channel. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts on TV over the past 22 years. I’ve enjoyed the conversation.
Tuned In online
This week’s Tuned In Journal includes posts on the upcoming excellent Showtime docuseries “Love Fraud” and The CW’s “Dead Pixels.” Read online-only TV content at http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in.