Puppets Who Kill | |
---|---|
Written by |
John Pattison Dan Redican |
Starring |
Dan Redican Bruce Hunter Bob Martin James Rankin Gord Robertson |
Country of origin | Canada |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 53 aired (as of June 22, 2006) |
Production | |
Producer(s) |
John Pattison Shawn Alex Thompson |
Running time | 30 mins |
Release | |
Original network | The Comedy Network |
Original release | October 4, 2002 – June 22, 2006 |
External links | |
Website |
Puppets Who Kill is a Canadian television comedy programme produced by PWK Productions and originally broadcast on The Comedy Network. It premiered in Canada in 2002, and in Australia on The Comedy Channel in 2004. It has also been broadcast in India, South Korea and Germany. The series is on the digital network Hulu in the United States as of December, 2013.
"PWK" began as a one-man live theatre show written and performed by comedian/puppeteer John Pattison at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It later morphed into the series, using the same dark topics and featuring some of the same puppet characters.
In Puppets Who Kill, Rocko the Dog, Cuddles the Comfort Doll, Buttons the Bear, and Bill the Ventriloquist's Dummy are four puppets with anthropomorphic qualities including individual histories of delinquency and recidivism. Canadian courts sent each of them to a halfway house for puppets, operated by a hapless and somewhat incompetent social worker named Dan Barlow played by Dan Redican.
Rocko (puppeteer Bruce Hunter), is a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking misanthrope who formerly worked on a children's television programme. The job required him to control his language and behaviour, but eventually a berserk outburst on set ended his career. He takes medication to temper his violent mood swings.