Ubu Productions

Ubu Productions, Inc., is an independent production company founded in 1982 by television producer Gary David Goldberg. Ubu's notable productions include Family Ties (1982–1989), Brooklyn Bridge (1991–1993), and Spin City (1996–2002).^[1][2]

Ubu co-produced many of its shows with Paramount Television and in later years, DreamWorks Television.^[2]

Mascot dog

Ubu's mascot is Goldberg's dog Ubu Roi, a black labrador retriever which he had in college and subsequently traveled the world with. The closing tag for Ubu Productions is a photograph of Ubu Roi with a flying disc in his mouth, taken in the Tuileries Garden close to the Louvre Museum in Paris. Along with the picture is Goldberg's voice saying "Sit, Ubu, sit! Good dog!", followed by the sound of a bark. The dog was named after Alfred Jarry's 1896 play Ubu Roi, considered a precursor to the Theatre of the Absurd. Ubu the dog died in 1984.

In popular culture

The sequence was frequently referenced and parodied in pop culture.

• Goldberg's autobiography is titled Sit, Ubu, Sit: How I Went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog, and a Lot Less Hair.
• In the Robot Chicken episode "Easter Basket", a character voiced by Seth Green says the line "Sit, Ubu, sit! Bad dog", followed by the sound of a gunshot and a dog whimper.^[3]
• The Netflix Original series Bojack Horseman uses Ubu as a running joke. In episode "Prickly Muffin", Bojack verbally imitates a credit rolling sequence and finishes with the line, "Sit Ubu, sit, good dog!". The gag becomes a running joke when in "The Telescope", Charlotte meets an anthropomorphic dog that resembles Ubu, and remarks that he's "Ubu, that guy who sits". ^[4]
• In the Family Guy episode "Running Mates", Peter ends an opening statement with "Sit Ubu sit, good dog".^[5]
• In the Psych episode "Yang 3 in 2D" one of the antagonist tells Gus to sit by waving a gun towards a chair and saying "Sit Ubu, sit".^[6]
• In the Colby's Clubhouse episode, "Willing for Forgiveness," instead of the usual TBN/NiteLite end card, it had a shot of the frog from the episode. Like the logo, a person told the frog to sit.

References

External links

• Ubu Productions at the Internet Movie Database

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