TV Tuesday: Bring on the Awwws

[yourlibrarian]

A show's cast can be a major draw to viewers, but how about the non-human members? Are there any shows you watch that have a favorite animal in it? What do they bring to the show?

Comments

[feurioo]

The only animal that I can currently think of: Salem Saberhagen in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Does he count considering that he wasn't portrayed by a real cat? 🤔

[yourlibrarian]

Oh definitely -- there are a lot of CGI creatures these days. Plus we should consider animated series as well!

[starfleetbrat]

Rex from Hudson and Rex! Played by Diesel vom Burgimwald. Wouldn't be a show without Rex. I do think sometimes Rex is a little tooooooo clever, but still a great dog!

And The Cat from Red Dwarf counts, right? lol

[yourlibrarian]

Definitely!

[feurioo]

It's so funny to me that there are international Kommissar Rex remakes, several decades after it used to be all the rage over here in the '90s.

I've always wondered: Is the police dog concept something international viewers consider original, or have there been similar shows like it?

[starfleetbrat]

We had the original air here in Australia but it was called Inspector Rex. It was still in German but had subtitles. I can't think of any other police dog detective shows though, so perhaps it is considered something original and unique to the Rex series.

[meridian_rose]

There was a short lived Turner & Hooch TV series based on the movie but aside from due South's Diefenbaker I can't think of any other crime solving dogs :)

[rodo]

You can tell who the most popular character in Kommissar Rex is by the name! Plus, they went through several detectives, but Rex stays.

[meridian_rose]

Rex is the main character anyway for me. Calling it Hudson & Rex means we have to keep Charlie Hudson and I like the other main characters more than him for some reason :P

[rodo]

Hudson's not that rare a last name, right? Maybe he has a relative somewhere who is also a police officer...

[meridian_rose]

[adafrog]

Rex!!

[meridian_rose]

I was coming to say the same thing. Love Rex ♥

[tamsin]

Diefenbaker from Due South. The show wouldn't be the same without him.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes! So many are dogs, though it makes sense given their trainability and ubiquity in households and workplaces.

[meridian_rose]

Such a beautiful dog! I remember Paul Gross though saying the dog(s) used for Dief were hard to work with for various reasons.

[yourlibrarian]

My first thought was the golden retriever from Downton Abbey as we were always amused by the dog butt in the opening credits. There's also Backup on Veronica Mars, Bear on Person of Interest, Eddie on Frasier, Miss Kitty Fantastico on Buffy, Zorro's horses (one was Tornado but I can't remember the other), Porthos in ST: Enterprise and Spot in ST:TNG.

Then there are all the animated animals like the penguins of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Donald's nephews in Duck Tales, the Pink Panther, Santa's Little Helper on The Simpsons, etc.

However the ones that stick are those who were important characters in either the show or had a whole series about them (Rin Tin Tin was an early favorite). There was also Max, the bionic dog. A more recent one is probably Cheddar, Captain Holt's dog on Community who was an important character in several episodes.

[corvidology]

I can't believe I forgot Eddie! I grew up with Jack Russells and Border Collies so the dogs really were smarter than the kids! ;D

[meridian_rose]

That's a great list!
Thinking of robotic dogs, K-9 from Doctor Who, and Muffit from the original Battlestar Galactica.

[yourlibrarian]

Oh I remember Muffit!

[corvidology]

Bear in Person of Interest.

Great character *and* it allowed two Clams to express some emotion.

To this day, if you see and fandom requests for Person of Interest in exchanges and the like there's nearly always a note insisting Bear LIVE no matter what!

[yourlibrarian]

I can understand that!

[china_shop]

One of the Guardian core cast is a 10k-year-old shape-shifting cat, which is definitely one of the draws for me. :-)

I also really enjoyed all the daemons in His Dark Materials, especially Pan. :-)

[yourlibrarian]

A good example of the CGI animal!

[alchemicink]

I was always very fond of Clyde the tortoise from Elementary. Just a little guy living his life amidst whatever weirdness Sherlock and Joan were up to

[yourlibrarian]

Great to have a reptile mentioned!

[queer_scribbling]

Will Trent: Betty is a Chihuahua that Will adopts in the first episode and aspects of taking care of her are included going forward. She's presented as comforting and visitors will often open up to her or to Will if she's in their lap, so she's not largely forgotten about in the plot. (Certain other details might spoil season one.)

Prodigal Son: For some, Malcolm's budgie [parakeet] Sunshine was a draw, but she didn't really feature a lot across episodes. (Bird aware viewers often indicate wanting better husbandry in discussions, some fanworks, and fannish places like @doessunshinehaveabettercageyet.)

All Creatures Great & Small (2020): While those who live at Skeldale House have animals that reoccur throughout the seasons (mostly dogs and a rat), I would probably guess that more fans are interested in one of the reoccurring patients, a Pekingese named Tricki Woo. (Due to the premise focusing on a rural veterinarian practice in Yorkshire, England, there's a lot of animals and/or types of animals that we really only see in cases moreso than the Skeldale House's animals.)

[yourlibrarian]

Yeah, I'm afraid I don't even remember Malcolm's bird. But I do remember Betty!

And yes, Tricki Woo! Definitely the star of several episodes 😄