Father of the Pride Information

Father of the Pride is an American animated television series that began broadcasting on NBC on August 31, 2004 and was part of a short-lived trend of CGI series in prime-time network TV (after UPN's Game Over).

Overview

The show, which was produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg and his company DreamWorks Animation, revolves around a family of white lions, the patriarch of which stars in a Siegfried & Roy show in Las Vegas. Despite heavy promotion, the show was unsuccessful and was canceled after one season. Transmission and production were also delayed by the real-life on-stage injury of Roy Horn.

Voice talent

The show features the voice talent of John Goodman, Danielle Harris, Cheryl Hines, Carl Reiner, Orlando Jones, Julian Holloway, Daryl Sabaram and David Herman. The per-episode cost of the series was reportedly US$1.6 million and each episode took nine months to create. Due to costs, physical animation production was contracted to Imagi Animation Studios.

Directors

Father of the Pride employed a small group of seasoned directors which included Mark Risley, Bret Haaland, Steve Hickner, John Holmquist, John Wayne Stevenson, and Mark Baldo. Felix Ip served as creative director for Imagi Studios.

Opening sequence

The opening sequence starts off with a red sports car, with the Nevada license plate "MAGIC1", being driven by Siegfried and Roy past many of the attractions in Las Vegas. Cast names are presented on the marquees of the Strip hotels that, along with the Mirage, belonged to the MGM/Mirage Group at the time, before the car swerves into the Mirage Hotel. The scene then changes to the lions' house. Larry wakes up, late for his performance, on his favorite couch before dashing towards the stage (but not before having a pre-show beer given to him by Snack). John Goodman sings a rendition of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" as the background music throughout the title sequence.

Series run on NBC

The show was almost cancelled long before its broadcast, following the near-death of Roy Horn in October 2003; but after his condition improved, both Siegfried and Roy urged NBC to continue production. The show was promoted heavily during NBC's coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and garnered above average ratings for the network, but the show received a negative response from TV critics, who considered it to be little more than a gimmick and a shill for other NBC and DreamWorks properties (two early episodes extensively featured The Today Shows Matt Lauer and another featured Donkey - voiced by Eddie Murphy - from the DreamWorks movie Shrek and Shrek 2). Also, many TV critics noticed that the show's humor was very similar to South Park (one episode had a character say "Screw you guys, I'm going home!").

The show's ratings began to decline, and by November 2004 it was pulled from NBC's sweeps line-up. In early December 2004, the CEO of DreamWorks announced that the show was canceled, a few months after it was initially aired. A DVD version of the show has been made available, containing the original pilot, an alternate pilot (which draws heavily on the original), an un-aired episode, and one episode that was voice-recorded, but was not animated, and therefore remains at the storyboard stage.

International airings

It first broadcast on Sky1 in U.K. on March 6, 2005. It was also repeated on Sky3. The show was originally on the Global Television Network and can currently be seen on Teletoon in Canada, RT"? One in Ireland (soon on RTE Two), MTV3 and Subtv in Finland, BTV in Bulgaria, NHK in Japan, Canal FOX in Latin America, vtm in Belgium, MediaCorp Channel 5 in Singapore, GMA Network in the Philippines, Telefé in Argentina, TV2 in New Zealand, ProSieben in Germany, TVN7 in Poland, and Go! in Australia.

Cast

Major characters

Character	Voice actor	Profile
Larry	John Goodman	The main character. Larry is a middle-aged, overweight white lion who, through a bizarre series of events, becomes star of Siegfried and Roy's world famous magic show (replacing his less-than-delighted father-in-law Sarmoti). Larry tends to speak before he thinks.
Kate	Cheryl Hines	Kate is Sarmoti's daughter and Larry's wife. Primarily known for her relation to Sarmoti and Larry, Kate is constantly attempting to establish her own individuality.
Sarmoti	Carl Reiner	Sarmoti is Kate's father and the former star attraction of Siegfried and Roy's show. Sarmoti has a dislike for Larry and is disappointed with Kate for marrying him, thinking she could have done better. He fancies himself the feline member of the Rat Pack. The name "Sarmoti" is an acronym of "Siegfried And Roy, Masters Of The Impossible".
Snack	Orlando Jones	Snack is a gopher and Larry's best friend. He is sneaky, manipulative and constantly getting into trouble with the other residents of the park.
Sierra	Danielle Harris	Sierra is Larry's rebellious 16-year-old daughter. She is an activist with very left-wing views.
Hunter	Daryl Sabara	Hunter is Larry's somewhat immature 10-year-old son. He is always shown wearing a plastic Elizabethan collar to stop him from biting himself and is portrayed as slightly mentally-deficient. He is a fan of Lord of the Rings. He is the most rarely-used main character, being entirely absent from a few episodes. Sarmoti suspects Hunter might be gay.
Roy	David Herman	Roy is the animal trainer of the Siegfried and Roy duo and frequently has to defend his animals from the criticisms of Siegfried.
Siegfried	Julian Holloway	Siegfried is the more magically-inclined of the duo and constantly argues with Roy.

Supporting characters

Character	Voice actor	Profile
Foo-Lin	Lisa Kudrow	A female giant panda who is very jealous of her younger, pregnant sister, she is very prone to becoming depressed because she has almost given up on finding a man. She constantly looks to Kate for comfort, and finds Sarmoti's cracks about her mental state funny instead of insulting as they're meant to be.
Donkey	Eddie Murphy	Donkey, co-star of the Shrek films, visits the compound and he is known as a massive star by all of the animals. Larry tries to get him to go to Hunter's school.
Emerson	Danny DeVito	Emerson is an activist lobster who befriends Sierra, much to Larry's dismay. Emerson was later thrown into the sewers by Sierra after he insulted her father Larry, even though Larry saved him twice.
Blake	John O'Hurley	Blake is a white tiger and the main adversary of the white lions. The two groups constantly compete to be the stars of the show. Blake is a self-professed "whore for applause".
Chimmi & Changa	Tress MacNeille as Changa, Chimmi uncredited	A pair of lesbian or possibly bisexual "fiesta babe" gophers Snack hires to promote "Larry's Debut All-Night Fiesta". Snack catches them making out and excitedly photographs them as a gag before a cut to commercial and they again passionately kiss when Chimmi is impressed with Changa's 'intellect'.
Victoria	Wendie Malick	Victoria is Blake's wife. She also competes with the lions to act with her husband in Siegfried and Roy's show. She has a drinking problem, and has already had 2 liver transplants from baboons.
Nelson	Andy Richter	Nelson, aka 'Bong Bong', is a giant panda whom Larry and Kate try and introduce to Foo-Lin. He is extremely nervous about meeting other women as he had never seen other women because he was isolated before brought into captivity by Siegfried and Roy.
Bernie	Garry Marshall	Bernie is Sarmoti's poker buddy and friend. He is a bit of a suck up, he constantly calls him boss and agrees with every single thing he says.
Tommy	David Spade	Tommy, a coyote, is the wise-cracking 'guide' that Larry and Sarmoti meet in the Road Trip episode. Eventually Larry and Sarmoti realise Tommy manages to get them lost, and becomes a bit of an annoyance to them both.
Kelsey Grammer	Kelsey Grammer	Siegfried and Roy take Larry to see Kelsey Grammer in the revised pilot, as Siegfried and Roy believe that he is a real psychologist
Roger	Greg Cipes	Roger the orangutan is a local at the 'Watering Hole' pub.
Hi Larious	Seth MacFarlane	Hi is a snail comedian who is not very funny. He features in a plot against the lions with the tigers.
Vincent	Don Stark	Vincent is a flamingo with a sexual interest in sombreros and a New Yorker's accent. He acts tough because he is self-conscious about being pink.
The Snout Brothers	John DiMaggio	The Snout Brothers are a pair of steroid abusing, exercise enthusiast warthogs who are old friends of Sarmoti. They are right winged characters who are homophobic. When Sarmoti advises them to be careful with the steroids as "They cause shrinkage down there.", the two exclaim "Worth it!" before running off.
Lily	Amanda Peet	Although Lily is a lioness, she is a "cougar". Lily is the leader of a women's empowerment group, who encourages the compound's women to find the goddess within themselves.
Tom	John DiMaggio	Tom is an antelope who is an alcoholic, verbally abusive adulterer, who often tries to pick fights after he has had a few drinks.
Duke	Dom DeLuise	An exceedingly effeminate leopard, Duke is one of Sarmoti's poker buddies. He makes subtle but obvious allusions to his homosexuality, to which his buddies are oblivious.
Chaz	Denis Leary	Chaz is a panther and one of Sarmoti's poker buddies.
Edna Falvey	Kathryn Joosten	Edna is a lioness with a lisp who is the teacher of the "Gifted And Talented Class" of the compound's school.
Brittany	Julia Sweeney	Brittany is a warthog sow.
Chutney	Brian George	Chutney is an Indian elephant and one of Larry's friends. In one episode, it is revealed that he (rather than Lucy Vodden) is Lucy from "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". Through the series, the implication that he is in a gay relationship with his turkey "roommate" and that he is otherwise closeted is a running gag.
Justin	Pauly Shore	Justin is a Jewish adolescent lion with a mop-top haircut. He is a friend of Sierra and an aggressive (but unskilled) poker player.

Episode list and airdates

See List of Father of the Pride episodes for more information

Protest from the PTC

The Parents Television Council's launched a campaign against Father of the Pride. Reasons cited for their opposition were the aforementioned use of anthropomorphic animals and the use of "from the creators of Shrek" in their promotions. Shrek was a much more family-friendly movie than this series, which the PTC used as an example, stating that Father of the Pride could inadvertently draw the wrong audience. Their campaign lead to over 11,000 complaints to the FCC. In March 2006, the FCC ruled that the show was not indecent.

Awards and nominations

Father of the Pride won an Annie Award in 2005 and it was nominated for a People's Choice Award in 2005.