No, this isn't from the "Toon In With Me" in the 7 AM hour on weekdays.
This was part of the "Bugs Bunny & Friends" at 9 AM on Saturdays.
I don't know the name of this dog, but I know Porky Pig was in this episode as his master - at least, until the pup turned the tables and made the pink one the pet!
Hahahaha! Hahaha!
(smile!)
It certainly served well as the perfect lead-in for my Doggone Film Festival on UP Faith & Family.
(Remember? Comcast gave that channel to me as a Reward, and I've been taking full advantage!)
So, just what was all this about?
Three movies that featured a group of kids, a bumbling - but kind - pair of guys, parents who are out of work, and a dog that talks.
No, wait: as the dog states, he "thinks" his side of the conversation at whoever he wants to contact, so only that person or persons can hear him.
Neat trick, right?
It's a fun premise, too!
And who is this wunderkind pup?
"Just Jesse" the Jack!
Seriously!
That's how he's billed!
I guess his owner and trainer, Heather Brook, is a fan of "Will & Grace", though she would have been a bit young for that show.
She was only 16 years old when she got the Jack Russell pup.
When an article was written about her in 2011, she was 21 and the pup was 5 years old.
(Though I guess they were of a more similar age in dog years, right?)
That's when the videos of his "helpful" tricks made a big splash on youTube.
(smile!)
Five years later, the first of this trio of movies starring the little dog came out, with subsequent films for the next two years.
Last night I had discovered them on this "free to me" channel... and a film fest was born!
The first one was "A Doggone Christmas" and it opened with the canine making an escape from CIA agents on a fast-moving train - wow!
Then, after the initial credits roll, the scene switches to a bunch of kids.
(smile!)
Playing baseball!
Right on a grassy field with dirt roads crisscrossing it!
And there was even a big oak tree behind home plate!
Ah, what great memories for me!
That was just like the baseball field we kids used back in the 70's!
In fact, there were seven kids playing ball... and that's how many we had, too!
I would pitch for both teams, and I guess this kid did that same thing.
And all was going well until one of them hit the ball through a broken window into an abandoned house that had been owned by a scary taxidermist... oooowww.
No one wanted to go in there, of course.
Shades of "The Sandlot", right? (Love that movie!)
Eventually Jamie and his little brother Hugo go in.
That's when they find the dog!
And the story is off and running!
Like, literally!
It's three days before Christmas and the kids want to talk their folks into letting them have a dog without letting them know they already have one...
and they have to keep Agent Sheppard and Agent Mike from tracking them down...
and then Agent Sharp gets called in and she's willing to kill...
but mom and their unemployed inventor dad help, as do the other kids...
and everyone ends with a very, merry Christmas!
Hooray!
(smile!)
Next up was "A Doggone Hollywood", with "Just Jesse" playing Murphy, the star of "Doggie 911", a television series with legs...
get it? My little joke? Hahahaha!
Well, the dog is tired of being a Hollywood star and never getting to have petting from anyone, so a group of kids - yes, those kids! - use their computer skills to free him from the limousine were he's being held.
Run, run, run, little dog!
Of course, the two security guards - Fred and Joe, played by the same guys who were the CIA agents - are in trouble and have to find the studio's little money machine!
The dog, though, runs to Peter, the boy who had freed him with the assistance of his sister, Sydney (nope, no little brother Hugo this time).
The studio puts out a big reward, hoping for a quick turn around, but no one comes forward with info to claim it.
That one eventually ends happily, with the dog becoming the pet of Peter and Sydney, but also still starring in the show.
Hooray!
(smile!)
"A Doggone Adventure" was the last of the trio of films and was definitely the different!
This time, the boy's dad was the star of a science fiction show called "Unresolved Mysteries", something Mulder and Scully could have guested in.
No, really!
The movie opened with the show's episode about a missing scientist, a guy who had stolen the puppy he'd been working with at Galactatech.
UFO-type vessels had chased the man down and made him disappear, but they had not managed to recover the dog.
A few years have passed and the episode had hoped to generate interest and perhaps even lead to the return of the man or dog.
or was it?
His sons, David and Ricky, had noticed strange noises at the abandoned old house and were trying to make a scifi movie like their dad's show.
Then they saw cat-faced crab-clawed aliens and got scared off!
That's about the time the dog found them...
and then the folks at the research lab found out about that...
and a chase was on, with the kids avoiding the bad guys and saving the dog!
Hooray!
(smile!)
And who were the feline-crab ETs?
Who else but those CIA agents, recreated as Jerry and Freddy, two guys trying to turn a quick buck selling knock-off sneakers!
Very funny!
Those first two boys in this photo were the brothers in the first and third movies, with the little guy being an extra in "Doggie 911" in the second and the girl stepping in as the sibling of the older boy (far left); she was a train passenger in the first, then a girl named Jenny in the third one.
The tall boy with the red hair was in all three, too, playing Ronnie in the first two, then having a new name (Jeremy) in the last one.
Another boy, not pictured here, was in all three, too, playing a scaredy cat named Isaac in the first two, then "Shelton the Brain" in this third one.
I really thought it was nice that they were all having such fun together that they wanted to do multiple movies!
But one of my favorite characters was Principal Callahan, the man channeling his inner Clint Eastwood each time - fabulous!
He was a real hard-ass and he stuck up for the kids against the CIA agents, the security guards, and the research folks, warning them that "fi they didn't leave the kids along, he'd put in a call to his brother, Harry, up in 'Frisco" - hahahaha!
All in all, a very nice little film festival for me, especially on this rainy day!
(smile!)
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