That's My Dog
Contents |
Host
Co-hosts
Hostess: Louise Burton
Vet: Eddie Straiton (1984-7), C. C. Guard (1988)
Broadcast
TSW for ITV, 6 September 1984 to 31 August 1988 (57 episodes in 5 series)
Synopsis
Game show that tries to determine whose dog is best. Well, it's original! In fact, it was really a quiz show for the dogs themselves as they were announced as the contestants at the top of the show: "Today we have Cindy a cross-breed from Hungerford, and Biccy a miniature poodle from the Isle of Wight." The dogs' names would be on the front of the podia too, rather than the family surname (although later series featured both family and dog names).
Rounds included the obligatory dog assault course (because that's what dogs do), and there was a maze, the idea of which was that the dog had to find their way out but without being side-tracked by the food that's in the middle. The programme's vet, Eddie Straiton (or C.C. Guard) asked the teams medical questions about their pets, and "Kennel Maid" (hostess) Louise Burton brought on a dog each week that belonged to a famous celebrity who had to be identified from clues.
The winning team got a chance to win the money jackpot (called "the Dog Bone-us" - GEDDIT?) by trying to get their dog to pick a predetermined object - purse, handkerchief or somesuch - that their owner had handled beforehand.
The set of That's My Dog, complete with mechanical scoreboardsIntroduced as the "general dogsbody", host Derek Hobson somehow manages to emerge from this with his dignity intact. And remember, without this show there would never have been any Superdogs and Peter Purves would have been out of a job, so let's celebrate, eh?
Inventor
Devised by Derek Hobson and John Viner.
Theme music
Ed Welch, who created a lively theme tune interspersed with a number of suitably-timed woofs.
Trivia
Early editions were recorded at The Plymouth Athenaeum, a theatre located close to TSW's Derry Cross studios and connected, rather handily, by a tunnel.
Several episodes - particularly from the early series - have been officially lost, as confirmed by archive channel Rewind TV when they acquired the show for repeats in August 2024.
One special edition featured guide dogs, owned by unsighted families.
Believe it or not, there was an American version ran from 1991-95 on their version of The Family Channel.
When TSW lost its franchise in 1991, a viewer wrote into Oracle saying it was "a fate well deserved just for making That's My Dog!" Rather an unfair and uncharitable judgment, wethinks - it certainly wasn't as bad as all that.
Web links
Pictures
This is either (a) a hostess explaining a "dog pampering" prize or (b) a lecherous way for the producer to get a semi-naked lady on TV.
A dog. So now you know what one looks like.