New
FOX sitcom, first aired
March 25, 2002.
Greg the Bunny is set around a
children's television show called
Sweetknuckle Junction starring both
humans and
puppets. However, in the world that Greg the Bunny inhabits, puppets are
sentient beings with the same
rights and
abilities as
humans (well, they need
lower doorknobs, but otherwise pretty much the same).
Greg the Bunny is one of the "Fabricated Americans" (as they be prefer to be called), who is also the roommate of production assistant Jimmy Bender (Seth Green). Jimmy's dad, Gil Bender (Eugene Levy) is the producer of the show along with Alison Kaiser (Sarah Silverman). The other puppet performers on the show are Warren 'The Ape' deMontague, a strange creature with multiple chemical addictions, a pretentious accent, an absurd cap and an attitude to boot; Count Blah, who apparently was ripped off by the Count von Count, and ends every sentence with "blah"; and Tardy, a turtle with a significant learning disability.
The other human performers on Sweetknuckle Junction are Dottie Sunshine (Dina Waters) and Junction Jack (Bob Gunton).
It's hard to describe what the show is really about, per se. The episodes have largely been about happenings on the set, and the interactions of the characters. Episodes also discuss the differences between puppets and humans and can be a strange mirror on race relations in this country. The childrens' show they create doesn't really look that good, but is apparently quite successful. One episode centered around Jimmy retooling the show to update it to modern tastes. SK 2.0, as he called it had lots of flash cuts, psychedelic images, and was set in outer space instead of the farm with a train track around it. Jimmy wanted Count Blah to say "a'ight" instead, but all Count Blah could muster was "ah-ig-hut, blah". And when the episode was tested with kids, they went into seizures.
This show is just damn funny. There's something about the puppets that really make things that human characters couldn't even get away with, hilarious; but the fact that it's all live action makes it seem even more real. You really believe in the puppets as characters, even as they're using the physical humor of puppets, like throwing them against the wall, ripping themselves (or getting ripped), squishing them, etc. The human actors are an excellent cast--and anything with Seth Green's deadpan delivery is always a treat in my book.
GtB started as a show on public access in New York City, and was also featured on several shorts on the Independent Film Channel. Although it is not in the FOX Fall 2002 schedule, it may come back as a midseason replacement.
I stole stuff from www.fox.com and www.tvtome.com for this writeup