Books about TV: The Encyclopedia of TV Pets

The Encyclopedia of TV Pets by Ken Beck and Jim Clark is another book in my collection. The over 300 page reference published in 2002 shares behind the scenes stories of the greatest in television animals in the 20th century.

The authors spoke with cast members and animal trainers to learn the real life stories of the animals that populated our television screens whether on the news, in advertisements or entertainment programming. Only one daytime soap opera is referenced in this book: General Hospital, so I'll paraphrase the 2-page section on the program. 

Ron Bloch provided the ducks that GH used for Sigmund as well Friday the dog. The below two paragraphs summarize what was shared about these animals. 

Originally Mr. Bloch believed this to be a one off, but Sigmund became a semi-regular character on both General Hospital and later its spin-off Port Charles as Sigmund's owner Lucy was a part of that program. The first ducks that were used were named Sigmund, Freud and Blackie. The second batch of ducks as the first group were given away were Rock, Rhythm, Blues and Cowboy with Rhythm being used most regularly. They were trained using a food reward system, getting feed store mash, bread or lettuce for following the instructions. 

Friday was the Scorpios dog, and Kimberly McCullough (Robin) bonded with the wheaten terrier mix. The dog, whose real name was Friday, was rescued on the day he was scheduled to be put to sleep in 1982. This happened to be a Friday, so the name stuck. The most famous scene with Friday was when he licked away Robin's tears, when her parents Robert and Anna were presumed dead. This was not planned, as the dog just reacted to Kimberly's emotions. (The book explains how Robert and Anna died incorrectly, but since this is an animal book and not a soap encyclopedia I can understand how it happened.) Friday passed away in the mid-90s, and also appeared on prime time shows like "Perfect Strangers" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation". 

This book is the kind that people should read if they are interested in animals on television. I learned a lot from it including how from 1951-1986 there was an animal performer award show called the PATSY Awards. These awards were given by the American Humane Association until they were discontinued due to lack of money. Humorously, Ronald Reagan hosted the first PATSY awards. While some may argue that one can easily look up this kind of information online, many of the stories shared are about programs or commercials that are over 30 years old.