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Bob and Margaret was a Canadian/UK animated television series that was also shown in the United States. It was based on the Academy Award winning animated short Bob's Birthday, featuring the same main characters. The award-winning series is one of the few Canadian TV shows to ever have regular American exposure and in Canada, it was the highest rated Canadian made animation series ever when it aired in prime time on Global TV.
The show revolved around a married English couple named Bob and Margaret Fish, a middle class 40-ish working couple with no children and two dogs named William and Elizabeth (named after the prince of England and his grandmother the queen). Bob is a dentist and Margaret is a chiropodist (podiatrist for American viewers, though the term was not dubbed and changed during US broadcasts of the episodes).
In the first two seasons, Bob and Margaret lived in England, somewhere in South London. For the third and fourth seasons, however, they moved to Canada, allowing the writers to explore the humour of culture clash. This was due to pressure applied by the Canadian production company funding the show (as well as the government) to have future episodes be based in Canada instead of England. The creators of the series (real-life husband-and-wife David Fine and Alison Snowden, see below) were against this change and gave up control on direction and editing, becoming "consultants" to the show (though Snowden continued to provide the voice of Margaret). Some of the Canada-based episodes use the "culture clash" theme to parody this pressure and regulation.
The program was shown in the United Kingdom on ITV, Channel 4 and Ftn, in the United States 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 2 years after Comedy Central showed the last second season episode) on the Showtime cable channel; they currently rerun all four seasons on their specialty "Showtime Women" channel.
The series was produced by Nelvana, a Toronto animation studio, and created by Canadian David Fine and Brit Alison Snowden. The series was based on the short film Bob's Birthday, which won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1994.
Bob and Margaret currently airs on Adult Swim Latin America and on Canada's YTV. Cartoon Network Brasil airs its four seasons on the Adult Swim program.
Cast (incomplete)
- Andy Hamilton (1998-2000)/Brian George (2000-2001) ... as Bob Fish (voice)
- Alison Snowden ... as Margaret Fish (voice)
- Steve Coogan ... numerous characters (voice)
Criticism
Many fans on the IMDB page for the show have said that they preferred the first two seasons, when Bob and Margaret were still in England.
External links
- Bob and Margaret at IMDB.com
- Bob and Margaret on Arte TV
- www.snowdenfine.com - The creator's website
Animated television series in Canada | Sitcoms in Canada | Global network shows
"Bob and Margaret"