''That's My Bush!'' is an American television
sitcom
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
that aired on
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
from April 4 to May 23, 2001. The show was created by
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon (musical), The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his cre ...
, a comedy-duo best known for creating ''
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
''.
Despite the political overtones, the show itself was more a broad lampoon of American sitcoms, including jokes, a laugh track, and stock characters such as klutzy secretary Princess (
Kristen Miller), know-it-all maid Maggie (
Marcia Wallace), and supposedly helpful next door neighbor Larry (
John D'Aquino).
The series was conceived in the wake of the
2000 presidential election, between
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
and
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
. Parker and Stone were sure that Gore would win the election, and tentatively titled the show ''Everybody Loves Al''. However, due to the
controversy regarding the election's outcome, the series was pushed back. Instead, the show was then plotted around Bush at the workplace.
The show received positive reviews from critics, with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' commenting, "''That's My Bush!'' is a satire of hero worship itself; it is the anti-''
West Wing'' and the first true post-
Clinton comedy.
..This politically astute criticism is embedded in so much hysterical humor that the series never seems weighty."
Plot
The series centers on the fictitious personal life of President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
, played by
Timothy Bottoms. Carrie Quinn Dolin played
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush (née Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American educator who was the first lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009 as the wife of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States. Bush was previously the fir ...
, and
Kurt Fuller played
Karl Rove.
Episodes dealt (with deliberate heavy-handedness) with the topics of
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
,
gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians.
Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...
, the
war on drugs, drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
. Every episode ended with George saying "One of these days, Laura, I'm gonna punch you in the face!", a parody of
Jackie Gleason
Herbert John Gleason (born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.; February 26, 1916June 24, 1987), known as Jackie Gleason, was an American comedian, actor, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growin ...
's line from ''
The Honeymooners
''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It f ...
'', "One of these days, POW!!! Right in the kisser!"
The show was more of a spoof of the banality of television
sitcoms
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...
in general, rather than a cutting political satire. As ''
The A.V. Club'' put it:
Cast
*
Timothy Bottoms as President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
* Carrie Quinn Dolin as First Lady
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush (née Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American educator who was the first lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009 as the wife of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States. Bush was previously the fir ...
*
Kurt Fuller as Deputy Chief of Staff
Karl Rove
*
Marcia Wallace as Maggie Hawley
*
Kristen Miller as Princess Stevenson
*
John D'Aquino as Larry O'Shea
Production
Development
Parker and Stone stated before the
2000 presidential election that they would create a satire about whoever won. According to their DVD commentary, they were "95% certain that
Gore would win" and began developing the series under the title ''Everybody Loves Al''. When the
final election results were in limbo, production was delayed until the winner was determined. With Bush's election, the title became the entendre ''That's My Bush!'' The final episode involves
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
forcing Bush to step down, and featured an alternate title music called ''That's My Dick!'' which, later in the episode, changed to ''What a Dick!''
The show was pitched to
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
,
Fox,
NBC,
CBS,
ABC,
FX and
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
, who all turned down the series.
Writing
The entire idea behind the series was to parody sitcoms. The premise developed into one of the U.S. President in office. Parker recalled the idea came about three months before the
2000 presidential election. The duo were "95 percent sure" that
Democratic candidate
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
would win, and tentatively titled the show ''Everybody Loves Al''.
It was, essentially, the same show: a lovable main character, the sassy maid, the wacky neighbor.
Parker said the producers did not want to make fun of politics, but instead lampoon sitcoms.
The duo watched a lot of ''
Fawlty Towers
''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, originally broadcast on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a dysfunctional fictional ...
'' in preparation.
The duo signed a deal with
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
to produce a live-action sitcom, titled ''Family First'', scheduled to debut on February 28, 2001.
They threw a party the night of the election with the writers, with intentions to begin writing the following Monday and shooting the show in January 2001 with the inauguration. With the
confusion of who the President would be, the show's production was pushed back.
The duo wanted to write a "family sitcom", with the Bush family.
Comedy Central, however, prohibited Parker and Stone from including the Bush twins (
Jenna Bush and
Barbara Pierce Bush). The writers then turned the Bush twins character into Princess.
"An Aborted Dinner Date" was the show's pilot episode. The episode features Felix the Fetus, made and operated by
the Chiodo Brothers, who later worked with Parker and Stone on ''
Team America: World Police'' (2004).
They also created the cat Punk'kin in "The First Lady's Persqueeter". The show's producers consider the second episode aired, "A Poorly Executed Plan", the ''true'' first episode.
This was Parker and Stone's first live-action production in association with the
Writers Guild of America, West.
The show's writers got a big dry-erase board and on one side, they would write down political ideas (abortion, capital punishment) and on the other side would be typical sitcom stories (frat buddies show up, trapped in a small space).
They would then combine the two ideas, in what Stone described as "a ''
Three's Company'' mix-up kind of thing."
Pre-production
''That's My Bush!'' was filmed at
Sony Pictures Studios
Sony Pictures Studios is an American television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California, at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard (south), Washington Boulevard (north), Overland Avenue (west) and ...
, the first time Parker and Stone shot a show on a production lot. It was not shot in front of a live audience, so as to maintain control and by necessity, thanks to various shots they would be unable to do in a normal show.
They had built several rooms from the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
in their studio (bedroom, dining room) and were allowed "one new, rotating set" per week.
Parker described the sets as "amazing," and they were in fact packaged up after the show's run and sent to other White House-related productions. The show's producers gained inspiration by going on a private tour of the White House thanks to Anne Garefino, executive producer, who once worked at the White House for
PBS. A White House usher showed the producers various rooms not allowed on normal tours, which allowed them to detail each set effectively.
Casting
Casting was relatively simple; Parker and Stone came across a photo of
Timothy Bottoms in ''
Variety'' for a play he was doing in
Santa Barbara. Parker and Stone called him in, and they found he was "perfect" for the role.
The plan was not to viciously "rip on" Bush or make him out to be a monster; in accordance with sitcom stereotypes, Bush was made a sweet and lovable oaf.
Kurt Fuller was the last to be cast.
Jeff Melman directed all eight episodes. This was the first time Parker was only writing, not directing.
Filming
Each episode was shot in two days. The weeks were spent in writing and pre-production while the cast rehearsed.
Like ''South Park'', in which Parker would be able to write a scene and see it animated a short time later, he and Stone could walk to rehearsals and see the cast rehearsing their script.
Each episode commenced with a
cold open
A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In North ...
, with a "cheesy" joke that segued into the theme song. The duo recalled that, with stupid titles, these scenes were often the hardest to write.
The episode "SDI-Aye-AYE!" features the first utterance of the word "Lemmiwinks", which Parker and the writers intended to be a parody of ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
''. The word was later famously used in the ''South Park'' episode "
The Death Camp of Tolerance".
The show's first episode set a Comedy Central ratings record (at the time) for highest debut with over 2.9 million viewers tuning in; however, ratings dropped after this, with an average of 1.7 million viewers.
During the production of "Fare Thee Welfare", the series finale, producers knew the end was near as it would be very expensive.
For example, for the episode "Eenie Meenie Miney Murder", Parker and Stone used a live bear, an animatronic bear, an actor in a bear suit, and a puppet bear, which ended up breaking their budget.
Although the show received a fair amount of publicity and critical notice, according to Stone and Parker, the budget was too high, "about $1 million an episode."
Cancellation
Comedy Central officially axed the series in August 2001, as a cost-cutting move; Stone was quoted as saying "A super-expensive show on a small cable network...the economics of it were just not going to work."
The series continued via reruns, considering it a creative and critical success.
Parker believed the show would not have survived after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
anyway, and Stone agreed, saying the show would not "play well."
There was talk of a
spin-off feature film
A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...
for the series entitled ''George W. Bush and the Secret of the Glass Tiger''. The concept extended the series' bait and switch gag: it would have to do with a Chinese invasion foiled by the President. Parker and Stone intended to develop it during the summer of 2002.
Retrospective
Parker recalls ''That's My Bush!'' "a great time in our lives," and "the most fun we've had in our careers."
''That's My Bush!'' has had an effect on the structure of ''South Park'': prior to 2001, each ''South Park'' episode was broken up into four acts. While producing ''That's My Bush!'', Parker and Stone found the three act structure provided a better story, and ''South Park'' has continued to use it in recent years.
Stone called the show one of the most pleasant experiences in his life.
Bottoms went on to portray George W. Bush in two later films: in a comedic context in ''
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course'', and in a serious context in the television film ''
DC 9/11: Time of Crisis''.
Episodes
Home media
A
DVD set containing the entire series, plus commentaries by cast and crew, titled ''That's My Bush! The Definitive Collection'', was released in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
on October 24, 2006.
See also
* ''
Lil' Bush'', animated series satirizing Bush, also on Comedy Central
* ''
Cory in the House'', a series where John D'Aquino plays the president.
* ''
1600 Penn''
* ''
The President Show'', another Comedy Central sitcom focusing on The President in office.
* ''
Our Cartoon President'', an animated series about president
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
.
*''
Heil Honey I'm Home!''
Notes
External links
*
*
{{Comedy Central programming
2001 American television series debuts
2001 American television series endings
2000s American political comedy television series
2000s American parody television series
2000s American satirical television series
2000s American sitcoms
Comedy Central sitcoms
American English-language television shows
Political satirical television series
Parodies of television shows
Television series created by Trey Parker
Television series created by Matt Stone
Television shows set in Washington, D.C.
Television shows filmed in Los Angeles
Works set in the White House
Cultural depictions of George W. Bush
Cultural depictions of Dick Cheney
Television series about George W. Bush
Laura Bush