Family Dog

Family Dog was a Syndication network animated comedy series created by Brad Bird which aired from June 23, 1993 to July 28, 1993, lasting for one season & 10 episodes.

The show first appeared as an episode of the Syndication TV series, "Amazing Stories" and was expanded into a series of its own.

Plot
The series centered on the Binsfords, an average suburban family as told through the eyes of their dog, Jonah.

Voice Cast

 * Danny Mann as Jonah
 * Martin Mull as Skip Binsford
 * Molly Cheek as Bev Binsford
 * Zak Huxtable Erstein as Billy Binsford
 * Cassie Cole as Buffy Binsford
 * Bruce McGill as Martin Mahoney
 * Deanna Oliver as Trish Mahoney

Background
In the original "Amazing Stories" episode which aired in the show's second season in 1987, a dog named Jonah (a Bull Terrier simply called "the dog") is the main character, portrayed in three stories:

The first story involves general misadventures around the house, with Jonah ignored and somewhat mistreated by his owners, originally named the Binfords. The second part is a Christmas "home movie", narrated by the family, that culminates with Jonah eating the ham.

In the final and longest segment, a couple of burglars break into the house while the family is out seeing a movie. When Jonah fails to protect the house from the thieves a second time, the father sends him to Gerta LeStrange's Dog Obedience School, so he can learn how to become a "quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror."

The burglars hit the house yet again and flee from the now-aggressive dog, but return to their hideout to discover him still clamped to one thief's arm with his teeth. A policeman investigating the robberies raids the house and is immediately attacked by the dog.

The burglars decide to use Jonah in their heists, earning them (and the dog) fame as the "Dog Gang." Jonah finally turns on the criminals, causing an auto accident in which they hit a police car and are busted. Jonah is returned to the Binford family, who now consider him their hero. In a final gag, the father (who is locked out of the house) sneaks into the backyard, where he's attacked by the dog, duly defending the property.

The episode (which was written and directed by Brad Bird, with music by Danny Elfman & Steve Bartek) was one of the most popular episodes on "Amazing Stories."

The story was animated by Dan Jeup, Ralph Eggleston, Chris Buck, Sue Kroyer, Gregg Vanzo, David Cutler, Rob Minkoff, Alan Smart, and Darrell Rooney from an animation production design by Tim Burton.

The animation production was outsourced to Hyperion Pictures (then under The Kushner-Locke Company), and was shot in Sydney, Australia by Cinemagic Animated Films under animation director Cam Ford, with Kim Humphries as camera operator.

Spielberg's choice to make the episode using animation (especially combining the expense of high-quality animation with well-known voice actors) was considered risky and bold at the time.

The first half of the special was attached to the theatrical release of another Steven Spielberg-produced project, "The Land Before Time" because of the film's short length of just over an hour.

Development
Six years after the original "Amazing Stories" episode, a Syndication series based on the episode was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton (who contributed to the production and character designs).

It was written by Dennis Klein, Sherri Stoner and Paul Dini and animated by Nelvana, but notably lacked the involvement of the original writer and director, Brad Bird because he did not believe that the short's premise would work as a television show.

Largely hyped due to Spielberg's involvement, the series was plagued by production delays and it did not get past its original network order of 13 episodes.

Ten episodes were finished by the Wang Film Productions animation house in Taiwan but the producers were dissatisfied with the results, so they halted production on the final three episodes and outsourced the ten episodes to Nelvana for "fixes and completions."

The series was scheduled to debut on March 20, 1991 (and it was heavily promoted during the February 1991 broadcast of the Grammy Awards), but the animation was not completed in time for this premiere, so the series was ultimately pushed back until 1993.

Frederick Coffin was originally cast as the voice of Skip Binsford, but Spielberg decided to replace him with Martin Mull after animation was completed on the first three episodes.

Despite the "Amazing Stories" short airing two months before the launch of the new Fox network and the original "The Simpsons" shorts as part of "The Tracey Ullman Show", "Family Dog" eventually was lumped into a category of failed primetime animated series produced for the "Big Three" networks to compete with "The Simpsons" (alongside Syndication's "Capitol Critters" and Syndication's own, "Fish Police".

Every program was canceled after only a few weeks. Syndication burned off the series in six weeks in the summer of 1993.