Father of the Pride
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| Father of the Pride | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Format | Animated sitcom |
| Created by | Jeffrey Katzenberg |
| Directed by | Mark Risley Steve Hickner Brett Holland John Holmquist |
| Starring | John Goodman Danielle Harris Cheryl Hines Carl Reiner Orlando Jones Julian Holloway |
| Opening theme | Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" |
| Ending theme | U2's Beautiful Day |
| Country of origin | USA UK |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 14 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Jeffrey Katzenberg |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC Sky |
| Original run | August 31, 2004 – December 28, 2004 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Father of the Pride is an American animated television series that began broadcasting on NBC on August 31, 2004 and was one of the first CGI series in prime-time network TV (after UPN's Game Over). The show, which was produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg and his company, DreamWorks Animation, revolves around a family of white lions, the patriarch of which stars in a Siegfried and Roy show in Las Vegas. The show was unsuccessful despite heavy promotion. Transmission and production were also delayed by the real-life on-stage mauling of Roy Horn.
Contents |
[edit] Voice talent
The show featured the voice talent of John Goodman, Danielle Harris, Cheryl Hines, Carl Reiner, Orlando Jones, Julian Holloway, Daryl Sabara and David Herman. The per-episode cost of the series was reportedly US$1.6 million and each episode took nine months to create. Due to costs, physical animation production was contracted to the Hong Kong-based Imagi Animation Studios.
[edit] Directors
The series employed a small group of seasoned directors which included Mark Risley, Brett Holland, Steve Hickner and John Holmquist.
[edit] Opening sequence
The opening sequence starts off with a red sports car, with the Nevada license plate "MAGIC1", being driven by Siegfried and Roy past many of the attractions in Las Vegas. Cast names are presented on billboards before the car swerves into the Mirage Hotel. The scene changes to the lions' house. Larry wakes up, late for his performance, on his favourite couch before dashing towards the stage (but not before having a pre-show beer). John Goodman voices a rousing rendition of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" as the background music throughout the title sequence.
[edit] Series run on NBC
The show was almost cancelled long before its broadcast, following the near-death of Roy Horn in October 2003; but after his condition improved, both Siegfried and Roy urged NBC to continue production. The show was promoted heavily during NBC's coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and garnered above average ratings for the network, but the show received a negative response from TV critics who considered it to be little more than a gimmick and a shill for other NBC and DreamWorks properties (two early episodes extensively featured The Today Show's Matt Lauer and another featured Donkey - voiced by Eddie Murphy - from the DreamWorks movie Shrek); some consider the show a mild version of the similar-styled show South Park.
The show's ratings began to decline, and by November 2004 it was pulled from NBC's sweeps line-up. In early December 2004, the CEO of Dreamworks announced that that show was cancelled, a few months after it was initially aired. A DVD version of the show has been made available, containing the original pilot, an alternate pilot (which draws heavily on the original), an un-aired episode, and one episode that was voice-recorded, but was not animated, and therefore remains at the storyboard stage.
[edit] International airings
It first broadcast on Sky One in United Kingdom on March 6, 2005. It was also repeated on Sky Three. The show is also shown on Teletoon in Canada, RTÉ One in Ireland, MTV3 and Subtv in Finland, NHK in Japan, Canal FOX in Latin America, VTM in Belgium, Channel 5 in Singapore, GMA Network in the Philippines, Telefé in Argentina, TV2 in New Zealand and ProSieben in Germany.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Major characters
| Character | Voice Actor | Profile |
| Larry | John Goodman | The star of Father of the Pride, Larry is a middle-aged, overweight white lion who through a bizarre series of events becomes star of Siegfried and Roy's world famous magic show (replacing his less-than-delighted father-in-law). Larry tends to speak before he thinks. |
| Kate | Cheryl Hines | Kate is Sarmoti's daughter and Larry's wife. Primarily known for her relation to Sarmoti and Larry, Kate is constantly attempting to establish her own individuality. |
| Sarmoti | Carl Reiner | Sarmoti is Kate's Father. He has a dislike for Larry and is disappointed with her for marrying him, thinking she could have done better. He fancies himself the feline member of the Rat Pack. The name "Sarmoti" is an acronym of "Siegfried And Roy, Masters Of The Impossible". |
| Snack | Orlando Jones | Snack is a gopher and Larry's best friend. He is sneaky, manipulative and constantly getting into trouble with the other residents of the park. |
| Sierra | Danielle Harris | Sierra is Larry's rebellious teen-aged daughter. She is an activist with very left-winged views. She has been compared to an older, more popular version of Lisa Simpson on some occasions on Father of the Pride discussion forums. |
| Hunter | Daryl Sabara | Hunter is Larry's somewhat immature 9 year old son. He is always shown wearing a plastic Elizabethan collar to stop him from biting himself and is portrayed as slightly mentally-deficient. He is the most rarely-used main character, being entirely absent from a few episodes. |
| Roy | David Herman | Roy (brown hair) is the animal trainer of the Siegfried and Roy duo and frequently has to defend his animals from the criticisms of Siegfried. |
| Siegfried | Julian Holloway | Siegfried (blond hair) is the more magically-inclined of the duo and constantly argues with Roy. |
[edit] Supporting characters
| Character | Voice Actor | Profile |
| Foo-Lin | Lisa Kudrow | A female giant panda who is very jealous of her younger, pregnant sister, she is very prone to becoming depressed because she has almost given up on finding a man. She constantly looks to Kate for comfort, and finds Sarmoti's cracks about her mental state funny instead of insulting as they're meant to be. |
| Donkey | Eddie Murphy | Donkey from Shrek visits the compound and he is known as a massive star by all of the animals. Larry tries to get him to go to Hunter's school. |
| Emerson | Danny DeVito | Emerson is an activist lobster who befriends Sierra, much to Larry's dismay. Emerson was later thrown into the sewers by Sierra after he insulted her father Larry, even though Larry saved him twice. |
| Blake | John O'Hurley | Blake is a white tiger and the main adversary of the white lions. The two groups constantly compete to be the stars of the show. Blake is a self-professed "whore for applause". |
| Victoria | Wendie Malick | Victoria is Blake's wife. She also competes with the lions to act with her husband in Sigfried and Roy's show. She has a drinking problem, and has already had 2 liver transplants from baboons. |
| Nelson | Andy Richter | Nelson, aka 'Bong Bong', is a giant panda whom Larry and Kate try and introduce to Foo-Lin. He is extremely nervous about meeting other women as he had never seen other women because he was isolated before brought into captivity by Siegfried and Roy |
| Bernie | Garry Marshall | Bernie is Sarmoti's poker buddy and friend. He is a bit of a suck up, he constantly calls him boss and agrees with every single thing he says. |
| Tommy | David Spade | Tommy, a coyote, is the wise-cracking 'guide' that Larry and Sarmoti meet in the Road Trip episode. Eventually Larry and Sarmoti realise Tommy manages to get them lost, and becomes a bit of an annoyance to them both. |
| Kelsey Grammer | Kelsey Grammer | Siegfried and Roy take Larry to see Kelsey Grammer in the revised pilot, as Siegfried and Roy believe that he is a real psychologist |
| Roger | Greg Cipes | Roger the orangutan is a local at the 'Watering Hole' pub |
| Hi Larious | . | Hi Larious is a snail comedian who is not very funny. He features in a plot against the lions with the tigers. |
| Vincent | Don Stark | A flamingo with a sexual interest in sombreros and a New Yorker's accent. |
| The Snout Brothers | John DiMaggio | The Snout Brothers are a pair of steroid-abusing, exercise enthusiast warthogs who are old friends of Sarmoti. They are right winged characters who are homophobic. |
| Lily | . | Leader of a women's empowerment group, who encourages the compound's women to find the goddess within themselves...and advises that you don't need a man as long as you have your tail. |
| Tom the Antelope | John DiMaggio | Tom is an alcoholic, verbally abusive adulterer, who often tries to pick fights after he's had a few. |
| Duke | Gary Marshall | One of Sarmoti's poker buddies. |
| Chaz | . | One of Sarmoti's poker buddies. |
| Brittany | Julia Sweeney | Brittany is a warthog sow whose name might be a play on Britney Spears. |
[edit] Episode list and airdates
Main Article List of Father of the Pride episodes
The episodes are listed below as ordered on the DVD, with original broadcast sequence and airdate given in brackets.
- Original Pilot (unaired)
- Sarmoti Moves In (10, 12/28/2004)
- Catnip and Trust (3, 09/14/2004)
- One Man's Meat Is Another Man's Girlfriend (7, 10/16/2004)
- What's Black, White and Depressed All Over? (1, 08/31/2004)
- Larry's Debut and Sweet Daryll Hannah Too (2, 9/7/2004)
- And the Revolution Continues (5, 9/28/2004)
- The Thanksgiving Episode (9, 12/28/2004)
- Possession (6, 10/12/2004)
- Donkey (4, 9/21/2004)
- Road Trip (11, 12/28/2004)
- Rehabilitation (8, 12/21/2004)
- Stage Fright (Revised Pilot, 12, 5/27/2005)
- The Siegfried and Roy Movie Fantasy Experience Movie (13, 5/29/2005) (Sky One only)
[edit] Scenes that were cut from TV
- In Sarmoti Moves In, Sarmoti says 'You Fabulous Striped Bastard' after explaining how he made his first kill in Africa was cut from TV airings but was included on the DVD.
- In Rehabilitation, a line at the rehab center where Alan the Duck asks Larry 'When did he force himself on you?' was cut. At the end of the same episode, he asks Snack the same question. He has a doll, and Snack starts crying, on TV this part is cut to the end titles.
- In Donkey, the scene with all the clothing of Grandma Wilson on the floor was cut from future airings on TV but was included on the DVD.
- In The Siegfried and Roy Movie Experience Movie, Lily says "Because we allow men to define our sense of self-worth." Lily's continued statement of "We have to take responsibility for our lives, as well as our orgasms. As long as I have THIS, *holds up about 9 inches of her tail as if it were a dildo* I don't need a man." This episode then shows Foo Lin, who points over her shoulder at her stubby tail and says "Story of my life." This scene was cut from TV but was included on the DVD.
- In the original premiere airing of What's Black, White and Depressed All Over?, just after Larry and Sarmoti trade horrified looks when Foo Lin cries out in despair "I'm going to be sleeping on your couch the rest of my life!", the viewer hears a decidedly suggestive licking sound and the camera quickly pans down to show Foo Lin's cat ("Mister Right") sitting on Larry's lap. The cat looks up and says to Larry, "What? Your wife ain't doing it for you. I'm all you've got, sunshine." This scene was quickly cut from the re-broadcast of the episode a couple of days later, and is not included on the DVD. (The scene now freeze-frames and fades to black when Larry and Sarmoti trade glances.)
[edit] Comic devices used
The show employs satire, black comedy, crude adult comedy, and wit. The series has been criticized because it features anthropomorphic animals, giving it the appearance of a children's show, while including adult jokes. Satirical elements feature very strongly, with topics such as racism and drugs being covered.
The comic style of the characters Siegfried and Roy furnishes another comic device. Their eccentric lifestyles and personalities allow them to make jokes that other characters wouldn't be able to deliver effectively. Their behavior is often ludicrous and vulgar.
