The Bob Morrison Show

I remember "THE BOB MORRISON SHOW", not really so much because it featured a talking dog, but because it was so incredibly awful!

Yes, this television gem could only have been thought up from where else but Down Under. Bob Morrison was the name of the dog. I forget what breed it was, but I remember that it was white. And when I say that this dog 'talks', I mean that Bob Morrison 'thinks his thoughts aloud' so that everyone can hear it. For example, someone would do or say something stupid to him and he would just sit there and look at that person with his big brown puppy dog eyes while a 'voice over' would talk his thought aloud (usually some dry witty snap) and the laugh track would go off hysterically.

Bob Morrison was no Marmaduke. No, this dog had more personality than the dull cast members grouped together. Nicki Coghill was in this show - fresh off her stint from the then 'just canceled' "FLYING DOCTORS". After seeing her turn in this sitcom, let's just say that she should stick to portraying dramatic roles.

This show didn't even last one season (it wasn't hard to see why). Instead, Channel 7 decided to feed "THE BOB MORRISON SHOW" to the dogs, a move that was applauded by everyone. Personally, I would have preferred to have watched the entire series re-run of "ALF" than this trash.

This show really was a dog!

Having been born and bred in this country, I have gotten to see a lot of our Aussie comedies over the years, and I would agree if someone were to say that most of them are 'awful' or 'embarrassing', but I would not agree that "The Bob Morrison Show" fits that category. There were a lot of decent laughs provided by the script writer, and Andy Anderson (the father), Nikki Coghill (the mother), and Christopher Lyons (the son) all played their parts very well. They gave their characters just the right amount of realism to be funny, and did not make the mistake of over doing their roles at any stage (a blunder that is made by a lot of actors in other Australian comedies). The real gems of the show however were Elissa Elliot (the daughter), and Matt Day (the apprentice). Their performances were nothing short of brilliant, and if nothing else the show was worth watching just for them. How Elissa Elliot managed to portray such a convincing selfish teenage nitwit, I'll never know. Her anger, frustration and idiocy (which bubbled to the surface constantly) was so real you'd swear she didn't even know she was on TV, and I found myself howling with laughter over it several times an episode. And Matt Day's portrayal of a complete and utter dunce with a good heart was equally as real, and equally as funny. Please don't let yourself be put off from watching this show by the other review on this page. It is both unfair and unstudied, as the reviewer has apparently not bothered to notice anything beyond 'the dog'. For the record, it is my opinion that the dog was the most irrelevant part of the show, and his role was so minor that I can barely even remember it.