Puppy Bowl

[Talon]

Am I the only one who checked out the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet?

If you are a dog lover you would have enjoyed this.

[DLSith]

Well, I am a dog lover and I did check it out, but it was pretty boring. Cute for about 10 minutes and then it got pretty boring. I thought they were going to be tossing the ball around or something more than just letting the dogs play while playing new age music in the back ground.

I still have it on tivo if there is something good to go back and watch.

[FuzzyDolly]

Nope, I watched it too for a little while. I had to change the channel when one of the puppies was getting beaten up and was crying in pain.

[LoadStar]

I flipped past this, and was amazed that it even got past the idea phase, let alone the execution phase. I mean, what - did they officially run out of stuff to show, and their color bar generator was broken? I'm even more amazed that they were selling this crap on DVD.

I feel sorry for each and every one of the humans involved in the production of this show.

[DianaMo]

I thought it was cute! I think places like nursing homes should play this video for their residents for them to get a dose of "cute".

http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/about/about.html

Watch a video sample here:
http://media.animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/preview.html

[jradford]

I think everyone at Animal Planet had really awesome super bowl plans and needed to come up with something that could take up a ton of time and be run by exactly one actual human during the airing (the ref? i guess.)

[DianaMo]

Does anyone know what was underneath the water bowl?

The puppies seemed very interested in the waterbowl and we're wondering what was hiding under that clear waterbowl besides the camera...

[TracerBullet]

Originally posted by DianaMo
Does anyone know what was underneath the water bowl?

The puppies seemed very interested in the waterbowl and we're wondering what was hiding under that clear waterbowl besides the camera...

They were curious about the light.

[YCantAngieRead]

I thought it was cute, but then again, I only watched it for a little bit.

[scottivo72]

I thought it was great, even funny in some parts. It was a good thing to have on in the background while reading the Sunday paper. And definitely better than the 4 (!) hours of Super Bowl "Pregame".

I don't think it really was meant to be a 'must watch' program or all that serious a programming alternative - kind of like the time they had the staff of one cable channel watching the finale of 'Friends'. Just something to have on - some need to lighten up!

I still have it on my Tivo - so whenever I want to relax I can wind it up! (:

[Talon]

Originally posted by scottivo72
I thought it was great, even funny in some parts. It was a good thing to have on in the background while reading the Sunday paper. And definitely better than the 4 (!) hours of Super Bowl "Pregame".

I don't think it really was meant to be a 'must watch' program or all that serious a programming alternative - kind of like the time they had the staff of one cable channel watching the finale of 'Friends'. Just something to have on - some need to lighten up!

I still have it on my Tivo - so whenever I want to relax I can wind it up! (:

I agree. I made a point to avoid all the pregame and post game. I tuned into Puppy bowl every so often and it was fun to watch. Sure, I don't want to watch three hours straight, but it was an interesting idea.

[bruab]

Damn! I took the Doberman and the points!

[DianaMo]

Was watching the Puppy Bowl again last night.
(Who needs to count sheep when you've got puppies!)

Noticed that my cat took the most interest in the water bowl cam shots.

My dogs in the room didn't seem interested in the show. Perhaps if it was in high def. <G>

[BeanMeScot]

They should have had a play by play announcer. It would have made it much more interesting. I stopped in a few times here and there.

[OldFantom]

One of my Dogs liked it. I think I will leave it on the DVD player on a loop when I am out. But the best for this is the copy I sent to my brother who is in Saudi. Wait 'til he pops in this Superbowl DVD.

[PJO1966]

cruel.

[DianaMo]

Who watched the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet last night instead of the Super Bowl?

Which puppy was your favorite?

Puppy Bowl II
http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/puppybowl.html

Videos
http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/video_gallery/videogallery.html

MVP
http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/puppybowl/mvp/mvp2.html

[PJO1966]

We watched for a few minutes while we let the TiVo start recording the Super Bowl. It was beyond cute... once again. I loved the Bowl Cam! I tuned in again as I was getting ready for bed and it was the Kitten Halftime Show.

[lambertman]

hey, this thread wasn't marked *SPOILERS*!

[bigcb37]

MVP - Most Valuable Puppy

I cant believe how many people voted online...

[DianaMo]

MVP - Most Valuable Puppy

I cant believe how many people voted online...

I voted for Barry (the poodle.)

He is in 5th place with 6524 votes and 5% of the votes.

Danny is in first place with 40,926 votes which works out to 31% of the votes.

[footballdude]

This was the coolest show on the air yesterday (besides the game itself). The Superbowl pregame show was unwatchable and most channels weren't really trying all that hard, to look at their lineups. My kids and I watched all three hours (OK, I fell asleep during the kitty halftime show) and I'm making a DVD out of it so they can have it on when I'm not there. It was the first thing they asked for this morning when getting ready for school.

[jcinsc]

I hate that I missed this show! Anyone know if there will be a re-show on Animal Planet?
Reminds me of a public radio segment I heard a couple of years ago in Oregon or Washington about new TV show being pitched to cable networks - Puppies. It was just video of puppies - no voices, no music, just puppies. I wonder if this might be part of that? Going to have to go dig.....

[Azlen]

It looks like it has been pretty successful. The DVD's is one of the top selling DVD's for Discovery last year.

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/utils/tve_article_print/1,1144,,00.html?current_url=271|99704|1|&search_id=1&cntn_id=99704

Animal Planet Unleashes a New 'Puppy Bowl' Litter
By Kate O'Hare

All you people who were tuned in to Animal Planet on Super Bowl Sunday last year, let's go find a quiet place where we can be alone. Take over the bathroom if you have to. OK, door closed, family, friends and roommates out of earshot? Good. Take a deep breath and say out loud, "I watched 'Puppy Bowl.'"
Now, doesn't that feel better? Confession is good for the soul.

Last year, Animal Planet took a risk and counterprogrammed Super Bowl Sunday with a deceptively simple, surprisingly addictive show called "Puppy Bowl."

Set at the "Animal Planet Stadium in downtown Silver Springs, Md.," or so said Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Harry Kalas (who returns this year), it featured 22 puppies romping in a succession of small groups inside a pen made to look like a miniature football stadium. There was a "Ball Cam" (a motorized camera inside a football), a "Puppy Cam," and a "Bowl Cam" (a view from below a clear-bottomed water bowl), along with assorted chew toys and balls.

And when a puppy had an accident, a referee would appear, call a "Puppy Foul," and clean it up.

That's it, but it did well enough to return this year on Sunday, Feb. 5. The three-hour program begins at 3 p.m. ET and then repeats for a total of 12 hours of puppy fun.

"Every time we do something that tickles me," says David Doyle, Animal Planet's vice president of program development, "I like to look at blogs and things, because I'm self-obsessed, and I want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing.

"So I go on these blogs and chat sites, and time and time again, I would read, 'I thought it was going to be stupid, and I turned it on, and my friend and I found ourselves watching it 25 or 30 minutes later.' So people were mesmerized by the thing."

As to whether there's a psychological reason why 5 million-plus viewers tuned in over the full run of "Puppy Bowl" last year, Doyle says, "I would only be the armchair quarterback in that. I would tend to think that puppies are one of the simple things in life, like shiny things and furry things and things that make us feel good and like we're kids again.

"There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing that you can walk away from feeling bad about yourself if you watch puppies rolling around and playing with a ball."

As with last year's group, this year's 21 puppies are a mix of purebreds and mixed breeds, privately owned dogs and dogs from animal shelters.

Included are three puppies -- retriever mixes Domino, Belle and Louie -- who were rescued from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The other rescue pups come from a shelter in Virginia. The show doesn't talk about the fates of individual pups post-"Puppy Bowl," and there's a reason for that.

"What we found last year," Doyle says, "is that there was a big rush of people [to shelters] after the show aired, and those are the numbers that we like to see. To focus on a handful of these pups that we use wouldn't be the goal. The goal would be the hundreds of thousands out there of pups who need homes.

"Within probably two miles of anyone's home, you can go adopt a fun, loving little puppy."

If cat owners are feeling slighted in all this, fear not.

"We are doing our own kitten halftime," Doyle says. "It's the Bissell SpotBot Kitty Halftime Show. It's a hoot. We did it just like any other big sporting-event halftime show. You have the crew that brings on the staging. The lights dim, then there's a ballyhoo, and the kittens play.

"It's a bit of a tip of the hat to the '70s, where we use a lot of '70s music and disco-ball kinds of things. It's about 20 minutes of kitty fun."

As to costumes, Doyle says, "We didn't want any costume failure. It's kitties in all their furry glory. No wardrobe malfunctions. We considered, 'How do we get those little pompoms to stick to their feet?' That just wasn't a good idea."

It's hard to suppress a grin just thinking about all this, and Doyle says, "I'm in the same boat. I've seen it, and it delivers on that silly promise. I wish we had 50 things like 'Puppy Bowl. "

And Doyle doesn't want to mess with a good thing. "We have a little tribute to the early days of puppy play, right at the top of the show," he says, "and that gets us into it. Other than that, we really didn't want to jump the shark with 'Puppy Bowl.' It worked well for us, keeping it simple, so that was the goal.

"There may be a little bells and whistles at halftime, but 'Puppy Bowl' is what you loved last year."

If you missed last year, it is available on DVD. "Strangely enough," Doyle says, "the DVD was one of the top-selling DVDs for Discovery last year."

But who dreamed up "Puppy Bowl" in the first place?

"I wish I could say there was one particular person," Doyle says. "It was an idea generated here at the network, but I think it was one of those think-tank sessions that we have here as a group. It started with, 'Wouldn't it be neat if we just had a lock-off shot of puppies playing?' Then it was, 'We love puppies. Everybody will love puppies. What day of the year is best to show puppies playing? Hey, how about Super Bowl Sunday?'

"It became a magical idea that no one person can take credit for."

According to Doyle, not all the eyeballs trained on last year's broadcast were human. "We got pictures of dogs watching 'Puppy Bowl,' absolutely. I don't know if they get it or not, or if they're just wondering where all those funny sounds are coming from. But we had reports, and we have pictures. If only a puppy could use the Nielsen ratings box. They could teach us a thing or two."

[thebigmo]

The parts I saw, that white poodle was usually getting the crap beat out of it. I think all the other puppies were taking turns. I also liked the kitty cat half time show.

[PJO1966]

The parts I saw, that white poodle was usually getting the crap beat out of it. I think all the other puppies were taking turns. I also liked the kitty cat half time show.


Before that part, the poodle was trying to get the others to play and they were ignoring it.

[jcinsc]

awwwww, that's so sad! Guess I can't wach after all - hate movies where there are sad animal parts.

[PJO1966]

awwwww, that's so sad! Guess I can't wach after all - hate movies where there are sad animal parts.


It wasn't sad, it was cute.

[jcinsc]

But if the poodle was trying to get everybody else to play and they wouldn't, then later they all beat him up, that's what makes makes me sad. Did that happen? Tell me it didn't, pleeeeesssseeeee. OK, I know I need to get a grip, sorry!

[coolpenguin]

I watched about 10 minute while falling asleep. The part I saw, the poodle was raising hell with all of the other dogs-kind of a bully, making me totally dislike the poodle. Pretty funny in small doses.

[PJO1966]

But if the poodle was trying to get everybody else to play and they wouldn't, then later they all beat him up, that's what makes makes me sad. Did that happen? Tell me it didn't, pleeeeesssseeeee. OK, I know I need to get a grip, sorry!


Snap out of it! ;) They weren't beating him up... they were playing.

[jcinsc]

thanks - i needed that! :o Puppies forever! :up:

[YCantAngieRead]

Aw. I didn't know there was a kitten halftime show! Is that online, too?


Nevermind. I just found it. :D

Edit: Man, is there anything cuter than a bunch of kitties playing?

[sieglinde]

I really only watched the kitten half-time show. It took a short while for the kittens to warm-up and get used to their surroundings but they were more interesting than the puppies.

By no means do I think this is a program that was meant to be watched every minute.

[Bondelev]

It's about one step up from the Yule Log.

We had it on in PIP throughout the game. The best part was the Dog Bowl Cam.

I hope next year they use midgets as the referees.

[digdug]

I recorded this for my kids. They watched about 30 minutes of it and toddled of to find more interesting things to do.

[Ruth]

:( I missed it! I saw the clips and it is all sooooooo cute! Maybe next year . . . .

[YCantAngieRead]

One of the things I love about the kitties is how brave they are to go to attack another kitty, and then what the kitty they are attacking turns around, the attacker gets all scared.

That happened several times on that clip. :)