402 - Turner & Hooch

Australian listeners! Over in the US, our fellow failed pilot historians (deficio-nauclerusists?) at the Couch Pilots podcast will soon dive into a curio from OzTV: Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos, the doomed clip show infamously yanked from the channel 9 airways mid-broadcast.

If you're unfamiliar with this piece of Aussie TV history, we suggest you let Jason & Blake run you through it. Look out for the episode on the 11th/12th of September on any reputable podcast service!

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In this week’s Failure to Launch, we ask: why would you bother remaking Turner and Hooch? Unfortunately, this 1990 TV adaption of the classic Tom Hanks ‘reluctantly looks after a dog’ film doesn’t give us any answers. It does however give us a plot that revolves almost entirely around the theft of a pecan pie though so it’s not all bad news. Also Turner seems to gain full custody of a child he arrested because there’s no room in the cells. That’s how the law works, right?

But seriously why would you bother remaking Turner and Hooch?

Well, NBC had big plans for the Summer of 1990, big dog-based plans. If you’ve listened to our podcast before you may already be familiar with Poochinski, the story of a dead detective whose soul gets transferred into a living dog. Excitingly, Turner and Hooch aired directly after Poochinski to become the titular second dog in NBC’s now legendary Two Dog Night lineup.

Armed with that really shitty pun, and the crime-solving dog market now seemingly cornered, NBC had the world at their feet. What could possibly go wrong?

Well they don’t solve any crimes. Turner does get called in to investigate the disappearance of some bread and a pecan pie, and then Hooch accordingly mauls a child, but that's not technically solving anything. They also didn’t write any jokes. They do have an angry middle-aged man that inexplicably HATES his dog, but we're not sure that counts as a joke. As a result we’re left with 20 minutes of the televisual equivalent of white noise that pleasingly goes quicker than you’d think.

But we all know that making the transition to the small screen is never easy (see Mr. & Mrs. Smith), so it is a welcome relief for Turner and Hooch fans to see an old friend return to lend his star power to this project. That’s right, reprising his title role, Beasley the Dog is back! They got Hooch guys! They got Hooch!

IMDB - Turner & Hooch (Pilot)

Reviewers: James Ferris, Claire Sullivan, Alex Malone, David Shaw, Harry Brimage
Soundboard: Andrew Cherry