Yesterday afternoon we brought you the news that Kuma, the star of history’s greatest television show, Disney Channel’s Dog With a Blog, had already been fired and replaced by a younger, less experienced dog. (Isn’t that just like Hollywood?) I assumed that was the end of the story, because (a) I am too lazy to keep looking for new information, and (b) I am also too lazy to think up a second reason, but then — THEN — someone with the username “Poor Kuma” dropped into the comments of that post at 4:09 AM EST and blew the lid off this scandal. THIS GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP. FOLLOW THE MONEY. AND SO ON.
After the jump, please find Poor Kuma’s unedited comment. The Internet is awesome.
Information from an “insider” from the Disney show.
Here are the facts kids! Disney is trying to trick the public by slowly replacing the hundreds of press images of Kuma and slipping in new images of Mick. Easiest way to tell the difference between the two dogs is that Kuma is about 15 lbs smaller and his left (brown ear) is raised and arched. Micks left ear (the brown one) lies all the way down flat. Mick also has a much darker nose.
Just a little FYI – Kuma and Mick both started out as light blond dogs and were both dyed the brown and black colors to portray “Stan.”
Disney does not want people to know that Kuma was fired in haste simply because the owner wanted to be able to chose her replacement if she fell ill. Disney wanted to force it’s own trainers to be able to take Kuma to the set (without the owner present at all). Basically Disney thought of Kuma as a live prop they wanted to rent!
Beware: A Disney rep patrols the Wikipedia pages on their show and added in all the ‘citation needed’ from the blurb above. But the information all 100% true and accurate.
The fact is, Kuma played the title role in every single scene of “Dog with a Blog” for the first five episodes of the show, starting with “Stan of the house” Episode #1″.
I read several articles that Kuma was chosen out of a large casting which looked at hundreds of Hollywood’s finest trained dogs. They chose Kuma because of his ability to do hundreds of tricks on cue and because of his years of set experience.
Have you seen Kuma in his role as ‘Marlowe’ on “Cop Dog?” I mean how could they not chose that dog? He’s pure talent!
It is said that Kuma’s owner felt the dog was really overworked on the set. The word is the owner was also grossly underpaid. The Disney producers made Kuma work 12 to 14 hours a day and expected him to perform like a robot.
I read that the owner was concerned for Kuma’s health and tried to put a few contractual stipulations (as noted above) in place to protect him. In the middle of episode 3 Kuma had suffered a violent seizure on the set because of all the stress the show was causing him.
Kuma’s owner said she need to pull him from the show for his safety or until there were new guidelines in place that would protect him. The animal company Disney hired responded to her by sending Kuma and his owner a termination letter.
From that point on they then started using Mick for the remainder of the show. The poor dog had never done a single job before and had hardly stepped foot on set. People will notice a BIG difference in the two dogs performance levels, as Kuma was one of the top dog in the industry and performed many of his tricks while on the show.
Everyone involved with the show knows what went on, but Disney being Disney is trying to maintain their squeaky clean, animal-friendly persona and doesn’t want anyone to know that the owner quit because her and Kuma were treated so poorly.
They have been brain washing the cast members to never ever make mention of Kuma in any of their press interviews. The poor kids are so coached on what to say they are practically little mindless robots.
So Parents…. I have seen first hand on how show biz corrupts. Do not try to get your kids or your dogs into show biz. It’s too much of a dog eat dog world. – Pun intended.
Sincerely,
Kuma’s Fan
Three thoughts in closing:
1) Pulizer, please.
2) If any of you have more information about this — and I want to stress here that I am NOT JOKING — please contact me at DangerGuerrero [at] gmail. Nothing would make me happier than covering the Dog With a Blog firing like it’s Watergate.
3) WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THERE IS A MOVIE CALLED COP DOG?
