NBC has announced that a new sitcom that I never heard of (although I watch shows on DVR and on demand via Hulu and XFinity, but they have commercials there too), “Animal Practice,” has been cancelled. Most coverage is focusing on the low ratings for the show, which had only about 3.85 million viewers compared to other higher-ranking sitcoms like ABC’s Modern Family at over 12 million. However PETA is of course declaring this a victory since they urged a boycott of this show no one watched. Animal Practice is about a veterinary hospital, and it stars the little Capuchin monkey, Crystal, who was also in the Hangover sequel. So of course PETA is against it, since no animals should perform anywhere or work at any job, basically:
EW explains this for us:
“PETA’s staff are celebrating today in response to news that NBC’s Animal Practice has been canceled,” the organization said in a statement. “The cancellation of Animal Practice sends the strong message that using animals for cheap laughs on TV shows is archaic and uninteresting to today’s viewers, who are sophisticated enough to know that not only is putting a monkey in a lab coat not funny, it’s also cruel.”
Yes, thank goodness that Crystal, the most pampered monkey on the planet, has been rescued from employment with a cast of comic actors in Hollywood (on a series that, if anything, idolized the animal kingdom).
NBC is replacing Animal Practice next month with the return of sitcom Whitney. PETA waged a protest against the freshman comedy, saying trained animals are often removed from their mothers in a “traumatic way,” undergo “physical abuse” during the training process and worried the sitcom might encourage people to buy monkeys as pets.
The organization claims 40,000 members wrote to NBC and the show’s advertisers. Though Animal Practice would have needed more than 50 times that number of extra viewers to have had a shot at remaining on the air.
I agree that animals shouldn’t be forced to perform in circuses under horrible abusive conditions, but come on, a TV show or movie? What are we going to do, use animatronic creatures in place of pets? Television tries to portray situations in life and we have pets. Maybe little performing monkeys aren’t the best example of that, but this is a lame thing to get up in arms about.
I tried to Google “PETA against dogs” to see what their stance was on dogs on television, and one of the suggested phrases was “PETA against seeing eye dogs.” I’m not sh*tting you, a VP at PETA said in 2009 that they “oppose most seeing-eye-dog programs” due to the fact that the dogs are bred, not obtained from shelters, and “people are prohibited from petting or playing with them and they cannot romp and run and interact with other dogs; and their lives are repeatedly disrupted.” That’s ridiculous! I also found this article in which a blind person who relies on a guide dog recounted a story about how her friend, also blind with a dog, was accosted by PETA protesters for treating her dog cruelly – just for relying on the dog to get her around! The protesters actually surrounded the blind woman and insulted her for having a guide dog. I can’t with PETA, this is despicable, so I’m going to switch topics and bitch about NBC now.
Instead of supporting their existing comedies, namely “Community,” NBC execs fired Community’s showrunner and pushed back the premiere of the new season to some unspecified future date. They put in this dud of a show and are facing the consequences. And instead of letting us see new episodes of “Community” they’re replacing “Animal Practice” with reruns of another lousy show, “Whitney.” So help me NBC better not mess up “Parenthood” or I am done with them.
That’s so stupid.
Interestingly, it’s the same monkey that plays Annie’s Boobs on community.
I would love a veterinary themed show but anything relying on a monkey as one of the key characters is already lame before it starts. How many jokes can you tell before it becomes a cheesy point. I was planning on sticking to Animal Planet anyway.
Justin Kirk is hilarious. He carried the last season of Weeds IMHO.
Agreed, Sue! He needs a better show than this drivel anyway…
i wanted to like the show but just didnt. it wasnt funny
This was a really funny show, great characters. They didn’t give the show a chance. I was developing a following by word of mouth. It’s how I watched it.
I really liked this show too. It was really funny and I just can not understand why it did not pick up steam. This is really one of those Arrested Development things. A great show that gets yanked before it picks up steam.
Oh yeah, FUDGE PETA.
It was pretty obvious after seeing the commercials for this show it was going to be canceled asap. Why in the world did NBC even think this show was a good idea. And I’m so glad im not the only one who thinks the show Whitney sucks, Hey it’s me Chelsea was better than Whitney and that show got canceled so what does that say. Lol
That show looked so horrible, I avoided it. Even the promo photo for it is cheesy and lame.
I hate PETA. They are the worst. There are so many legitimate ways to help animals and fight cruelty, and they’re going after a TV show with a monkey? Who probably lives a cushier life than all of us!
i’m pretty sure i read somewhere they euthanize thousands of animals (mostly cats) that can’t find homes… i mean how much money are they making from their scam of an organization, they really shouldn’t have to do that! and then they complain about seeing eye dogs. i had a friend who was totally invested in PETA for so long and we always argued about their credibility. she’s now very much against them after doing her full research about the things they do. she remains a vegetarian but she’s no longer interested in PETA’s crap.
PETA’s stance on feral cats is that they should all be euthanized, even if they have been spayed and are living in a managed colony where they are fed. Apparently living outdoors and away from people is a fate worse than death.
I’ve always had issues with PETA, but I really was sick of them after they went after Batman for throwing dogs that were BITING him off of him. I love dogs, but if I’m being attacked, then I’m going to defend myself and anyone who says you shouldn’t be able to do that is nuts.
A friend of mine actually does “manage” a feral cat colony. She has humanely trapped each cat, and had them all spayed/neutered and vaccinated for free courtesy of the local veterinarian. There is NO way these cats could EVER be indoor pets. Several of them are absolutely terrified of humans, and will bolt into the woods when my friend goes outside to feed them, and won’t venture out until she’s been back inside for several minutes. And she’s cared for these guys for YEARS. Others absolutely hate humans, and have to be tranquilized simply to take them to the vet (they will lash out if cornered/provoked). A couple of the cats are semi-friendly towards her, but it’s obvious they are not “donesticated” in the sense that they would be comfortable living as pets. I don’t understand why PETA believes these cats should be euthanized. They aren’t suffering, they’re not ganging up in packs attacking people, and it’s not as though there are government sanctioned areas paid for by taxpayers money just for feral cats! I can understand if they are sick and suffering, but otherwise it’s just a pointless killing. It’s yet another reason that, while I support animal welfare (which is seperate from animal rights, but regardless), I will NEVER support PETA. They took a good cause (animals should be treated fairly, adopt if you can, etc.) and turned it into “If you eat meat, wear fur/leather/sheepskin, use an animal for basically anything, etc., then you’re an awful person”. They’ve turned people who may have cared about animal welfare/rights into people who hear the words, “animal rights”, and automatically think, “crazy PETA paint-throwing nut job”. It’s an absolute travesty.
Awww your friend does good work. At the clinic I worked at we had a program in place to spay and neuter feral cats for free and there were a few colonies we “managed” with the help of good people. These cats are perfectly content living in these colonies and they would hate to be adopted. They are called feral for a reason. It’d be inhumane to keep them indoors. Peta is nuts all around and I’m not just saying that because I’m a veterinary student … and peta basically thinks we are the devil -l-
I actually loved this show. It sucks that its been cancelled.
I’d like to correct one misperception: Although Crystal may appear to be pampered, we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes in her training. It’s not what you see that counts in this case, it’s what you DON’T see. The lives of wild animals used in television and movies are probably not that different from those in circuses.
The Center for Great Apes, a highly respected sanctuary in Florida, writes about the lives of chimpanzees in entertainment; this probably extends to monkeys as well. (The Center is the home of Michael Jackson’s chimp Bubbles, the chimps used in the original Career Builder ad and other former performers.)
http://www.centerforgreatapes.org/apes-in-entertainment.aspx
However, to go with the theme of things we don’t see- what about all of PETA’s kill shelters? They kill like 85% of the animals they take in.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/24/peta-not-as-humane-as-you-might-think
PETA’s not the issue here. How performing animals are treated is.
Um, PETA is the issue in this story.
How performing animals are treated is a separate issue, even a legitimate issue, but we ARE discussing PETA.
Ugh PETA. Shut up. I’m probably one of the most hardcore animal lovers I know and f*cking hate PETA. I always giggle at that south park episode that makes fun of them.
In my personal experience hardcore animal lovers hate PETA the most because they actually know things about PETA beyond the celebrity campaigns.
I loved Justin Kirk in Weeds so I tuned in to the first episode of Animal Practice. It was so categorically awful I couldn’t make it past 15 minutes. In fact, I cannot think of any television show I’ve ever tried to watch that I could not sit through an entire episode. I hope he gets picked up for something else soon.
I JUST WANT MY COMMUNITY BACK, DAMMIT!!! **cries**
Six season and a movie! 🙁
me too 🙁 it’s so ridiculous to see NBC replace animal practice with WHITNEY. holy eff what audience are they catering to with that awful television show?! honestly with that, and the very little promo they do for the fabulous Parks&Rec, they’re really screwing themselves over.
Why must NBC Britta everything!?
Ugh. Britta’s the worst.
But seriously, what clown car dingle fritz is running the show over at NBC? They create some great shows (Community, Raines, Prime Suspect, which I realize was based off an earlier British series), fail to promote them, run them against other better-established shows (Prime Suspect ran against the MentalistI believe) and are like, “sorry, we have to cancel this show because it gets low ratings.” Well, yeah, when you don’t tell people it’s on, or when to find it, you’re right, no one’s going to watch it!
I wish someone would ask the people at NBC that, but since they probably don’t even watch Community, they’d have no idea what we’re talking about!
Seagulls, I really liked Prime Suspect too. It’s a shame it got canceled, I wish TNT or someone had scooped it up.
I didn’t watch the show but I have always kind of liked Joanna Garcia and keep hoping she gets another hit tv show.
I was an extra in Whitney earlier this week- it won’t be reruns, they’re doing a new season.
One small edit CB, Modern Family is on ABC, not CBS.
I saw commercials for this terrible show during the Olympics over the summer. They even cut portions of the closing ceremonies to put that rubbish on when they knew millions of people would be tuned into NBC. I didn’t watch out of principle and because even from the commercials you could tell it would be a huge turd. And look! I was right! That guy, was on Weeds right? Andy? Nancy’s brother in law?
Anyway, the other show they promoted heavily during the Olympics was the revolution, (when the world lost it’s power, I found mine. BARF!) which I regrettably watched on Hulu and it was terrible!
NBC sucks. All their shows suck! Besides Community (which I am not even sure when it comes on anymore, need to catch the Soup and see what Joel says) I never watch that channel. I only watch 30 Rock reruns on fox and comedy central because it has gotten terrible too. NBC sucks, it’s where terrible pilots are picked up, good shows go to die, awesome shows aren’t promoted and everything is cancelled by episode 4. Lol.
I just finished working on a film set where we had ONE RABBIT, and we had to treat that rabbit like it was Angelina Jolie or we were going to get in trouble like there was no tomorrow. Of course the rabbit had an animal trainer escort, couldn’t be in a place where it was too loud or bright, be supplied with food or water. Point is…no one cuts corners with animals on film/tv sets. The consequences are not worth it.
That’s nice to know. I might be guilty of overindulging my pets to this degree sometimes.
You sound like you are complaining about what you had to do for this “ONE RABBIT”. It also bothers me that you say no one cuts corners because the consequences are not worth it. How about because it is just the right thing to do? Food, water, shelter and not exposing the animal to things that scare it are not exactly what I would call “corners”. It is this kind of attitude that makes PITA’s case.
The actors sucked. The writing sucked. Only the monkey was good. Small wonder that it got low ratings.
BTW, Community sucks, too. I remember when comedies didn’t have sociopaths as their main characters. I think Seinfeld was the first one, but that show was funny.
I can’t stand PETA and the story about the PETA protestors tormenting a blind woman just reinforces my hatred of them. While I can understand their stance on fur (I don’t wear fur), they go about trying to dissuade people from wearing it the wrong way. I mean pouring animal blood on fur wearers? So they honestly think THAT is going to make people stop wearing fur? Even if 90% of fur wearers suddenly stopped wearing fur, fur traders would STILL CONTINUE TO TRADE FUR. People have been wearing fur since caveman days, and they’re not going to stop.
As far as seeing eye dogs, there’s a reason that the majority are bred and not from shelters. With breeding, you have some control over the genetics and temperament of the dog, whereas a shelter dog is a shot in the dark. What if you get a shelter dog with a slew of generic problems? Not only is it a waste of money to train them, but it’s a waste to the disabled person who will get the dog because the dog will probably die young. Get shelter dogs as pets, but don’t get them with the expectation of them being basically an extension of a disabled person who needs to rely on one. (I mean no disrespect to people with shelter dogs. I love ALL pets, no matter where they come from).
In conclusion: STFU and GTFO PETA
I personally agree with you there isn’t a problem with Guide Dogs for the Blind breeding their dogs, but you shouldn’t cite genetic problems causing the dogs to die early as a reason. More predictable intelligence and temperament yes, but lifespan no.
Twenty years ago my family adopted a golden retriever that was rejected from the program because she had hip dysplasia, but she had already gone through some training so she was a wonderful pet–until she got cancer and had to have her back leg amputated. Unfortunately the cancer spread before the amputation so she had to be put down before she was even 5 years old. And if she hadn’t had hip dysplasia she would have gone through the program and would have been homed by then. Maybe it was just bad luck, but it also could have been from over breeding. They might have improved their breeding stock since then, but recessive genetic issues are always going to be a problem with purebred dogs.
I honestly would have given it a chance had NBC not cut out performances during the ceremony, *esepcially* MUSE, just to air the freaking pilot.
That’s why I refused to watch it too. That and I did watch it during the closing ceremonies and it wasn’t very good, but mostly because I was so mad at NBC for turning the closing ceremonies into a way to FORCE people to watch it and then punishing them by editing the ceremony anyway.
In defense of PETA, their constant media presence – even if through somewhat laughable means – keeps these issues fresh in our minds. I think it’s fair to remind us of the sacrifices guide dogs make. They loyally serve their human for years (though they do get to play and be petted “after hours,” which is about as much as pet dogs are indulged since most of us work), but they often are separated from that human when they get older, which has got to be emotionally traumatizing for them because they don’t understand what they did wrong.
Not everyone agrees with PETA’s methods, but they’re the reason we’re even thinking about these issues.
Dude the fact that they pushed back community is actually a good thing for the show. They are waiting until they can fit it back into a Thursday time slot where shows perform better than the original Friday it was slated for. This gives it a better chance of getting more viewers and renewal.
PETA had no idea what theyvwere talking about re this show! The show was actually doing some very positive things to helpnanimals and help with adoptions! Shut up PETA and please please go do some good where you’re really needed!! How aboutbyou spent some of your millions on hiring some humane officers to get out there and stop real animal abuse?? I’ve been in humane work longer than they’ve been around and I’m afraid they’re becoming pretty useless. They should have investigated what was happening at Animal Practice and then tout it as a good show for animals. They saved every one of the animals on the show and treated every animal better than most do their pets at home. PETA is getting better at just making useless noise instead of spending money to really help!