Fox interested in new animated Bob and Doug McKenzie series airing on Global
TORONTO - The Fox network is eyeing the new Global-TV cartoon "The Animated Adventures of Bob and Doug McKenzie" - and Doug is ready to dump a reluctant Bob in order to continue with the show.
Dave Thomas says his McKenzie sibling, Rick Moranis, was a hesitant participant in the series, airing on Global this fall.
"He doesn't enjoy doing any showbiz stuff anymore," Thomas said Tuesday in an interview from Los Angeles, where he was busy working on scripts for the show.
"I can't even guarantee his involvement long term in this, but whatever ... if I have to drag a sound-alike in for his voice, I'll do that. I don't think anyone would care because it's a new product."
Thanks to Global's haste in green-lighting the show, Thomas says, Fox executives were immediately interested when he pitched it to them and asked to see scripts and the pilot.
"We submit the pilot in early August, and we'll hear after that. But I think they'll go for it - I think they like this show. Just to get them this close is good, and means we can probably get someone else interested if they're not."
The series is based on the lovable hosers from the SCTV show, but Thomas says the beer-swilling brothers find themselves in a whole different environment in the new series.
"They are in a world that they weren't in before, and they have some friends who are a little raunchier than they are," he says.
"But Bob and Doug are tolerant guys and they like everybody. That's why people like them - they're so good-natured. They don't hate anybody."
U.S. fans have long loved the iconic Canadian duo, Thomas adds, and there's been no push by Fox to have him Americanize the show in any way. The network has had runaway successes with its animated series, including "The Simpsons" and "American Dad."
"They've got thoughts on jokes and stuff like that but nothing that would make it any less Canadian," Thomas says.
"And Americans have been behind Bob and Doug from the get-go ... 'Strange Brew' is a perennial college, beer-drinking movie here in the States. Americans are looking for stuff to laugh at just like Canadians."
Thomas says he never dreamed that Bob and Doug would have such enduring appeal when he and Moranis dreamed up the concept almost 30 years ago as a raised middle finger to the CRTC's Canadian content regulations during SCTV's heyday.
Offended by the CBC's request to add some obvious Canadian content into the show to keep the CRTC happy, Moranis and Thomas came up with Bob and Doug, who embodied every possible Canadian stereotype - from their fondness for beer, toques and lumberjack jackets to their use of the word "eh" in almost every sentence.
"I thought it was a bit of a nightmare back then, when I thought of myself as a young artist, but now that I think of myself as an old hack, I'm glad I have Bob and Doug," Thomas says.
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
See Also
posted by adamargitwagner @ 23:38
<< Home