Bob and Margaret | |
---|---|
Genre | Adult animation Romance Sitcom |
Created by | |
Based on | Bob's Birthday by David Fine Alison Snowden |
Starring |
|
Composer | Patrick Godfrey |
Country of origin | United Kingdom (seasons 1-2) Canada Philippines (seasons 3–4) |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 52 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producer | Tom McGillis (S3-4) |
Running time | 22 minutes |
Production companies | Nelvana Snowden Fine Animation SilverLight Productions (season 2) Philippines Animation Studios (season 3-4) National Film Board of Canada |
Original release | |
Network | Global Television Network (Canada) Channel 4 (United Kingdom) |
Release | 3 December 1998 – 29 November 2001 |
Related | |
Ricky Sprocket: Showbiz Boy O Canada |
Bob and Margaret is an adult animated sitcom created by David Fine and Alison Snowden and co-produced by Nelvana and Channel 4 as a collaboration, both financial and artistic, between the United Kingdom and Canada. [1] The last two seasons were produced without Channel 4 (i.e. Nelvana and Philippine Animators Group Inc.) but with continuing British involvement in the animation, cast, and screenwriting. The series was based on the Academy Award-winning short film Bob's Birthday , featuring the same main characters, which won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1994. [2] In Canada, it was the highest-rated Canadian-made animated series ever when it aired in primetime on Global.
The show revolves around a married English couple named Bob and Margaret Fish. They are a middle-class professional working couple of forty-ish with no children and two dogs named William and Elizabeth, who often serve as surrogates for children and are considered to be characters with personalities in their own right. [3] Bob is a dentist and Margaret is a chiropodist.
Bob and Margaret struggle with everyday issues and mid-life crises. Stories often revolve around the mundane, but in a way that is eminently relatable, from the trials of shopping to dealing with friends who annoy them but owe them a dinner. They are often seen enjoying various takeaways – curries, various Chinese dishes, and especially pizza - as they navigate their lazy, sedentary homelives.
In the first two seasons, Bob and Margaret live in England, in the South London community of Balham. For the third and fourth seasons, they move to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, allowing the writers to explore the humour of the culture clash. The move was mandated by the realities of funding after Channel 4 backed out, with certain Canadian grants and tax benefits being dependent on stories being physically based in Canada. As such, the transition was necessary to finance the show's continued production. Fine and Snowden chose to take an executive role on these latter two seasons, reviewing scripts and consulting, but not involved in as granular detail as they were for the first two seasons. Snowden continued to provide Margaret's voice, but Brian George replaced Andy Hamilton as Bob's voice.
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD and Blu-ray release date | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||
1 | 13 | December 3, 1998 | February 25, 1999 | 16 February 2010 [4] | — | — | |
2 | 13 | August 19, 1999 | November 18, 1999 | 25 September 2005 [5] | 17 July 2006 [6] | — | |
3 | 13 | May 30, 2001 | August 22, 2001 | — | — | — | |
4 | 13 | September 13, 2001 | November 29, 2001 | — | — | — |
No. in series | Title | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "A Tale of Two Dentists" | David Fine | December 3, 1998 |
A new dentist opens a practice right across the road from Bob's and steals all his customers. His receptionist also defects, so Bob hires Penny. But things are not as they seem. | |||
2 | "A Night In" | David Fine | December 10, 1998 |
A quiet night at home...unfortunately it falls on a night when there's absolutely nothing to watch on TV. | |||
3 | "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" | Alison Snowden | December 17, 1998 |
Bob and Margaret decide to get fit and, after fruitless attempts at aerobics and workouts, they decide on a friendly game of badminton against Cathy and her latest boyfriend, Ken. | |||
4 | "Burglary" | Alison Snowden and David Fine | December 24, 1998 |
After Bob and Margaret's home is robbed, they file a police report and an insurance claim. Bob tries to get Margaret to lie on the insurance claim so they can get bigger/newer/flashier/fancier high-tech replacements. Margaret feels that this is dishonest and leads to high insurance premiums; she'd rather get comparable replacements and install a home security system. Meanwhile, the thieves watch for empty shipping boxes left for the trash collector. | |||
5 | "Shopping" | David Fine | December 31, 1998 |
6 | "The Holiday" | Alison Snowden | January 7, 1999 |
7 | "For Pete's Sake" | Alison Snowden | January 14, 1999 |
8 | "Friends for Dinner" | David Fine | January 21, 1999 |
9 | "Love's Labors Lost" | Alison Snowden | January 28, 1999 |
10 | "The Dental Convention" | Peter Baynham | February 4, 1999 |
11 | "Discomfort of Strangers" | David Fine and Alison Snowden | February 11, 1999 |
12 | "Trick of Treat" | David Fine and Alison Snowden | February 18, 1999 |
13 | "Neighbors" | Peter Baynham | February 25, 1999 |
No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
14 | "Bob Gets Wired" | Doug Thoms, Karen Lessman, Jamie Whitney, and Harold Harris | Jeremy Hardy | August 19, 1999 |
15 | "No Trouble" | Doug Thoms | Peter Baynham | August 26, 1999 |
16 | "The Trouble with Mummy" | Jamie Whitney | Jamie Whitney, David Fine, and Alison Snowden | September 2, 1999 |
17 | "The Fly on the Wall" | Doug Thoms | Tim Fountain | September 9, 1999 |
18 | "Problems" | Jamie Whitney | Jeremy Hardy | September 16, 1999 |
19 | "A Patient Dies in Bob's Chair" | Doug Thoms | Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil | September 23, 1999 |
20 | "Cuckoo in the Nest" | Karen Lessmann and Jamie Whitney | Tim Fountain | October 7, 1999 |
21 | "A New Life" | Doug Thoms | Peter Baynham | October 14, 1999 |
22 | "Animal Behavior" | Karen Lessmann and Jamie Whitney | Rosie Shuster | October 21, 1999 |
23 | "Party Politics" | Doug Thoms | Sarah Smith | October 28, 1999 |
24 | "Going Dutch" | Karen Lessmann | Sally Phillips | November 4, 1999 |
25 | "My Foot Hurts" | Karen Lessmann | Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil | November 11, 1999 |
26 | "A Bob or Two" | Karen Lessmann | Tim Fountain and David Fine | November 18, 1999 |
No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
27 | "Stranded in Toronto" | Julian Harris | Rosalind Shuster | May 31, 2001 |
28 | "Strangers in a Strange Land" | Dan Poitras | Valri Blomfield | June 7, 2001 |
29 | "Margaret Gets a Job" | Julian Harris | Rosalind Shuster and David Cole | June 14, 2001 |
30 | "'Til Death Do Us Part" | Dan Poitras | Heather Conkie | June 21, 2001 |
31 | "The Wedding" | Julian Harris | David Cole | June 28, 2001 |
32 | "Fish at the Bat" | Dan Poitras | Matthew Cope | July 5, 2001 |
33 | "Over-Exposed" | Dan Poitras | Valri Blomfield and David Cole Story idea by: Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers | July 12, 2001 |
34 | "Age Before Beauty" | Julian Harris | Leila Basen and David Preston | July 19, 2001 |
35 | "Book Club" | Julian Harris | Heather Conkie | July 26, 2001 |
36 | "On Location" | Julian Harris | Valri Bromfield | August 2, 2001 |
37 | "Cottage Country" | Dan Poitras | Terry Saltsman | August 9, 2001 |
38 | "Driving Bob" | Julian Harris | Valri Bromfield | August 16, 2001 |
39 | "Undefined Border" | Julian Harris | David Cole | August 23, 2001 |
No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
40 | "New Lease on Life" | David Thomas | Matthew Cope and David Cole | September 6, 2001 |
41 | "Jury Duty" | David Thomas | David Cole | September 13, 2001 |
42 | "The Player" | Harold Harris | Chas Lawther and Gail Kerbel | September 20, 2001 |
43 | "The Getaway" | David Thomas | Matthew Cope and David Cole | September 27, 2001 |
44 | "Mummy's Boy" | David Thomas | Julie Lacey | October 4, 2001 |
45 | "Gone to Seed" | David Thomas | Terry Saltsman | October 11, 2001 |
46 | "The Candidate" | Julian Harris | Terry Saltsman | October 18, 2001 |
47 | "Life Saver" | Julian Harris | Jennifer Cowan | October 25, 2001 |
48 | "I, Bob" | Julian Harris | David Cole | November 1, 2001 |
49 | "Mastermind" | Julian Harris | David Cole | November 8, 2001 |
50 | "Outward Bound" | David Thomas | David Fine and David Cole | November 15, 2001 |
51 | "Gary" | David Thomas | Chas Lawther and Gail Kerbel | November 22, 2001 |
52 | "A Very Fishy Christmas" | David Thomas | David Fine | November 29, 2001 |
The programme was shown in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 and Ftn, in the U.S. on Comedy Central, and in Germany and France on Arte. Comedy Central only showed the two "London" seasons. The third and fourth "Toronto" seasons were eventually shown (almost two years after Comedy Central showed the last second-season episode) on Showtime.
Bob and Margaret formerly aired on Locomotion, and Adult Swim Latin America. Cartoon Network Brazil aired its four seasons on the Adult Swim block. The London seasons also get shown in the United Kingdom, currently on Channel 4. It also had a brief run years later on the Canadian YTV. In December 2013, biTe started to air this series (until the rebrand to Makeful on August 24, 2015).
Two VHS tapes of the series containing three Series 1 episodes each were released in 1999 by Video Collection International under their Channel 4 Video imprint.
The entirety of Series 2 was released on DVD in July 2006 by Maverick Entertainment.
In 1999, Season 1 was released on six VHS volumes by Paramount Home Entertainment containing two episodes each.
In Canada, the series has seen DVD releases. Series 2 was released in 2005 by Kaboom! Entertainment and Phase 4 Films, and Season 1 was released in February 2010 by Phase 4 Films/Kaboom!. Both releases are two-disc sets containing all 13 episodes of each season.
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