Family Dog

1993

CAST MARTIN MULL, MOLLY CHEEK, CASSIE COLE, ZAK HUXTABLE EPSTEIN, DANNY MANN, BRUCE MCGILL, DEANNA OLIVER

CREATOR BRAD BIRD

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS TIM BURTON, STEVEN SPIELBERG

Family Dog is a half-hour animated comedy exploring the simple day-to-day concerns of a family's perfectly average pet dog—concerns such as avoiding confrontations with larger, neighboring species, looking for a sunny place to nap, digging up and burying bones, dreaming his dog dreams, and relating to his human family, the Binfords.

The Binfords are Skip (voiced Martin Mull), Bev (Molly Cheek, Harry and the Hendersons TV series), three-year-old Buffy (Cassie Cole) and the terror of the household—nine-year-old Billy (Zak Huxtable Epstein). Each of the family members are aware of their dog (Danny Mann, Balto), but are mostly wrapped up in their own concerns, such as outdoing their obnoxiously perfect neighbors, the Mahoneys (Bruce McGill and Deanna Oliver, Casper).

Based on the popular 1987 Amazing Stories episode written and directed by Brad Bird (*batteries not included) and designed by Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), this Amblin Television/Warner Bros. Television/Universal Television co-production for CBS expanded on the misadventures of the poor put-upon pooch (formerly a "quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror") first introduced in Bird's Amazing Stories short.

Charles Leland Richardson produced the series, with Burton, Steven Spielberg and Dennis Klein serving as executive producers. Chris Buck served as the series animation director, with Clive A. Smith as episode director. Once more, up-and-coming composer Danny Elfman's vibrant main theme music gave the series its distinctive character, with Elfman's longtime collaborator Steve Bartek composing the episodic scores.

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