Saturday, July 7, 2007

Riot the TV Star

After starring on the PBS show, Fetch, Riot finally scored his first paying gig. And the check arrived today! Two weeks ago he was hired to appear in a Comcast commercial. It was very serious business. We were met on location in Needham at 7:30am by Steve, a professional animal trainer, from Animal Agents (out of the NY/NJ area). We spent a lot of time waiting around for our calls and made numerous appearances on set, which was designed to be a "man town." Steve asked me if Riot knew any commands and I reminded him, "Look, he was hired to sit on a chair and 'look disinterested!' THAT he can do!" And despite not knowing a single command, Riot was a star. Steve and I used smelly hot dog pieces to get Riot to follow the action. Only three times did Riot jump off the chair and run after the hot dog. I nearly died every time as he barged his way through the lights and props, sure his tail would whack something over. Thankfully we were able to redirct him, get him repositioned in his chair and back to business. Check out the photo below. Can you see a cute basset hound set amongst Man Town?!



Below, Riot sniffs for a hot dog nugget while three crew members adjust the lighting so his majesty is properly illuminated.




Not sure when the commercial will air, but stay tuned..!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay, Riot! Can't wait to see the ad--or Fetch! Does he give autographs? How many hotdogs did he earn? And what was the Basset Hound in Man Town product? The mind boggles.

Anonymous said...

You're like a 'stage mom' only with your dog instead of child! You should be a reality show. So very cute. Leora still watches that Ruff show in the hopes she'll see "My Heather's dog." Miss you here -- no one to shoot the __ with at work, which is a real shame. Truly. Rachelle