'Bob & Doug' Take Off on Canadian TV

Good day, eh? Bob and Doug McKenzie are returning to TV in their native Canada. Global TV will debut the 22-episode animated Bob & Doug this Sunday night. For the new series, co-creator Dave Thomas has developed the community of Maple Lake where the brothers work as garbage men, and hang out with their cousin Rupert, Skate 'N Bowl owner Peggy, and "their scam-loving pal Dennis." Bob and Doug began as filler characters on SCTV in 1980, but within a couple of years, they were the most popular characters on all of late night sketch comedy, releasing the top ten album The Great White Album in 1982 and the film Strange Brew the following year. The other McKenzie brother, Rick Moranis, will not contribute his voice to the series, but he is an executive producer. I really don't know what the deal is with Moranis. His last on screen appearance was 12 years ago, and he had been doing voice work ever since, so you'd think this would be perfect for him. But he turned down an opportunity to lend his voice to the Ghostbusters game, there's a lot of doubt about whether he'll be involved with Ghostbusters 3, and by staying out of the sound booth for this project, too, I guess he's just tired of everything. At least as an executive producer, he'll get some mailbox money. In his place as Bob McKenzie is Dave Coulier from Full House. So why is it animated? Well, to begin with, Dave Thomas is 60. But for another, as he tells Sneak Peak, it gives the writers more creative freedom. "The great thing about animation is that it allows you to do dark stuff in a way that you can't in live action, because it's too threatening." The show debuts tomorrow night; we'll try to round up some video from Bob & Doug after the premiere.