That's My Dog

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 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 lots (well, a bit) of money by trying to get their dog to pick a predetermined object (purse, handerchief or somesuch) that their owner had handled beforehand.

Now, 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

Trivia

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

TV Cream

Pictures

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