Beyond The Animated TV Grave is a sub-series of Beyond The TV Grave, and takes a look at short-lived prime time adult animated series that aired on ABC, CBS, or NBC. This fifth edition focuses on CBS’s 1993 series Family Dog. After being plagued by delays, it aired a ten-episode season across six weeks in the summer.
Background
As a series, Family Dog is widely considered to be the third of three shows that premiered in the aftermath of The Simpsons’ success: the other two being Capitol Critters and Fish Police. Despite this moniker, Family Dog actually made its television debut earlier than The Simpsons. Whereas The Simpsons premiered in April 1987 on The Tracey Ullman Show, Family Dog premiered in February 1987 on Amazing Stories. The Steven Spielberg-created anthology series featured a different story every week, with the Family Dog being the 16th episode of the second season. The short was written by Brad Bird, who would go on to write and direct the Incredibles movies and Ratatouille for Pixar.
The Simpsons’ first season aired primarily in early 1990, and it didn’t take long for CBS to find the desire to replicate its success. They ordered Family Dog to series for the 1990-91 TV season, the same year The Simpsons would be in its second season. As promoted during the February 1991 telecast of the Grammy Awards, Family Dog was scheduled to premiere on March 20, 1991. It would then get delayed to fall 1991 due to the animation being incomplete, with production of the 13-episode order halted after dissatisfying results and subsequent reanimation of the first ten. The series was then delayed again to summer 1993. By the time the series was re-animated, Family Dog was estimated to cost around $1 million an episode, making it one of the most expensive shows on television. When it finally premiered, CBS doubled up on episodes in the Wednesdays at 9 pm hour, previously occupied by the ill-fated The Hat Squad, Space Rangers, and How’d They Do That?. After being delayed by 118 weeks, CBS aired Family Dog’s season in just over a month.
Synopsis
Family Dog’s premise was rather simple. It focused on a family of four, the Binsfords, who lived in the suburbs with a Bull Terrier dog named Jonah. The family was mostly neglectful of the dog. The entirety of the first episode saw the dehydrated dog try and fail to get a single drop of water from the oblivious family. Later on in the series, the Binsfords lose their home in a fire. Jonah has to escape for himself after the family initially forget to save him, and the mom could care less that he survived. Given most viewers would understandably be rooting for Jonah and find him as the protagonist of the series, it’s tough to justify the show’s supposed classification as a comedy.
Ratings & Cancelation
Family Dog’s original short delivered Amazing Stories its highest rating in over a year, a rating it also would not surpass in the subsequent episodes leading to its cancelation. It was acclaimed not only by audiences but also by critics and animators, with some considering it an Emmy snub.
The TV series was a different story. When it finally premiered in summer 1993, it notched only a 7.4 Household rating at 8 pm and a 7.2 at 8:30. While that was at least higher than the comedy reruns ABC aired in the same hour, it was lower than the rerun that aired on the same network as its lead-out. Ratings were overall on a downswing from there. By its series finale on July 28, it was at a 5.4 rating at 8 pm and a 5.8 at 8:30. By that point, even reruns on FOX were tying or exceeding it. While it was not included in the 1992-93 TV rankings due to airing in the summer, it would tied for 31st place on CBS out of 35 shows had it gotten that same 6.6 average in the standard TV season and 115th overall, behind quite a few FOX shows. For perspective, their lowest-ranked renewal that season came in 24th place on the network.
Aftermath
Family Dog, Capitol Critters, and Fish Police are three shows remembered as short-lived attempts by non-FOX networks to capitalize off the success of The Simpsons. Even The Simpsons realized this, with the picture included here being a still from an episode. None of these shows seemed to understand quite what made The Simpsons successful in the first place. Family Dog at least had the flawed suburban family aspect down, but the popularity of The Simpsons did not and does not stem from the family neglecting their poor dog. The Amazing Stories episode of Family Dog is still available to stream on Internet Archive, while the full series can be found via a search on YouTube.
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