Here's Boomer
| Here's Boomer | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre |
Children/Family Adventure/Drama |
| Written by |
Lowell Ganz Edward Pomerantz Arthur Silver Sandy Veith |
| Directed by |
Claudio Guzmán Herbert Kenwith Paul Leaf Victor Lobl Sigmund Neufeld, Jr. |
| Theme music composer | Edward Leonetti Zoey Wilson |
| Composer(s) | David Michael Frank |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
A.C. Lyles Daniel Wilson |
| Producer(s) | Fran Sears |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Daniel Wilson Productions Paramount Television |
| Distributor | CBS Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | March 14, 1980 – August 14, 1982 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | A Christmas for Boomer |
| Related shows | The Red Hand Gang |
Here's Boomer is an American adventure/drama series produced by Paramount Television that premiered on the NBC network on March 14, 1980. A television movie called A Christmas for Boomer aired on December 6, 1979 and served as the pilot. A spin-off of the live-action series The Red Hand Gang, the show follows the adventures of the titular stray dog, "Boomer" and ran for two seasons, ending its run in August 1982, with the final original episode, "Flatfoots," airing on July 3 of that year.
The series followed the adventures of Boomer, a stray dog that traveled around helping people in trouble. The part of Boomer in all of the shows was played by a four-year-old mixed-breed dog named Johnny, who was trained by Ray Berwick. One early title considered for the series was Here's Johnny, after the dog who played the part, but was rejected owing to the use of that catch-phrase on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Johnny reportedly earned $3,500 a week while appearing on the series, and had a stunt dog who stood in for him on some of his more difficult tricks.
When the series was set to return in the fall of 1980, viewers were to hear Boomer's thoughts the same way viewers had heard Jackie Cooper's dog's thoughts on The People's Choice in the 1950s. However Boomer's thoughts were only heard in one episode aired as a special on December 7, 1980. When the series returned with new episodes in 1981 the gimmick was dropped and viewers could no longer hear Boomer.
The premise of Here's Boomer was similar to that of the Benji films and television specials of the 1970s and 1980s. In real life, both Johnny and Higgins, the dog who first played Benji, were abandoned or lost mixed-breed dogs who were adopted from animal shelters by animal trainers in California. On screen, both played the parts of stray dogs who were smart, friendly, and loving of their human and animal friends.
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