Wilfred (Australian sitcom)

[faceless]

Wilfred
This is a series that will ring a few bells with fans of Johnny Vegas' sitcom Ideal, though it has a good dose more surreality. It's, to paraphrase Wilfred, the dog who's a guy in a dog suit but who talks like a dog would, "fucking funny".

[SquareEyes]

Wow! Never heard of this before. Stopped by after 10 mins into the first episode just to say... "Classic! Hilarious!!". I can see me watching this many times.

Cheers, Faceless!

[faceless]

A tale of two blokes who play the wag
Bridget McManus
March 15, 2007
theage.com.au

ANYONE who has survived a share house will recognise Wilfred, the star of SBS' new late-night comedy series of the same name. He is the bong-smoking couch surfer who never seems to catch the next wave; the hot chick's ever-hopeful "best friend"; the lonely loser who just wants to be listened to, for hours on end. Most perplexing perhaps, is that, despite his annoying habits, Wilfred's sort grows on you. Before you know it, it's dawn, the kitchen table's overflowing with empties and ashtrays and your head's swimming with a dangerous mix of philosophical meanderings.

Adam Zwar and Jason Gann (from Ten's The Wedge) first cast this ubiquitous urban creature as a dog - played by Gann in a dog suit - in their 2002 Tropfest-winning short film. The absurdist theatrical device translates beautifully into the TV sitcom format, providing a platform from which to explore that peculiar phenomenon, Australian male friendship.

From the first night that Adam (Zwar) goes home with Sarah (Cindy Waddingham) after a Powderfinger concert and is sized up by her dog, it's war of the wannabe alpha males. But as much as Wilfred might despise another man moving in on his mistress, he also sees a potential companion.

"It's an Australian thing to put your mates down," Zwar says. "It took me a while to get my head around it because I was an only child. When you're a kid, everyone's nice to you and then you go to school and the other kids tease you, but it's just their way of being affectionate."

Improvised "couch scenes" between Wilfred and Adam reflect their creators' real-life rambles. The pair met 17 years ago at the University of Southern Queensland, where Gann studied acting and Zwar journalism. They honed their deadbeat humour at comedy gigs and theatre restaurants, made short films for fun and educational videos for money.

When they came up with the idea for Wilfred, while extrapolating on a mate's first-date war story, they knew they were onto a winner. But it would be five years - and a mediocre sketch show with a commercial network - before their sitcom dream was realised.

Zwar recalls a conversation about Wilfred that he had with SBS commissioning editor Debbie Lee, before the inception of The Wedge: "She said, 'Go as far as you like - the more bent the better.' That was contrary to everything I'd ever heard about commissioning editors and networks, so it was a great relief and really helped us flex our muscles as writers." Gann agrees: "Wilfred is an opportunity for us to do exactly what we want. With The Wedge we had to make compromises. The chain of command goes up so high and you have to write to a certain formula. But The Wedge is a different timeslot (to Wilfred) and with a major network, so we've got to work within those premises.

"I think that makes you a better writer. I've seen stuff like The Ronnie Johns Half Hour and late-night sketch shows and the temptation is to go for the cheap dirty joke or a swear word, and it's an easy get-out."

Ironically, it was while Zwar was filming a commercial for HBA health insurance (he was the bucktoothed client who sprayed the slogan "Three for free"), that he met Waddingham and director Tony Rogers. "Tony brings a darkness to Wilfred," Zwar says, "which adds another level, more subtext to what we're doing. A lot of people tend to read things into it, which is pretty gratifying. The crux of Wilfred, at all times, is that it's a story about two blokes; just one happens to be a dog. That's always been very important to us.

"We had to create our own rules so that we know at every point what Wilfred would do in that situation, who can actually speak to Wilfred and, more importantly, who can hear Wilfred speak. It's really only Adam who can hear Wilfred. The rest of society sees him as a dog."

An episode featuring Kim Gyngell as a TV vet known as "The Dog Whisperer" comes dangerously close to busting this paradigm. "There's a single-parent theory," Gann says. "He's protective of his mum and he's testing Adam out but at the end of the day he does want a male friend, just like Adam and I are friends. So they just sit on the couch together and just enjoy each other's company and watch DVDs. Wilfred's lonely. They both are."

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Wilfred gets kennel in US
Herald Sun
October 27, 2010

MELBOURNE-made cult series Wilfred, about a bong-smoking dog that has sex with a cat and a teddy bear, is to go global. The Richmond and Williamstown-filmed series created by Adam Zwar and Jason Gann was picked up by US cable network FX this week. It will be adapted into a series starring Lord of the Rings' Elijah Wood. Gann will reprise his role as Wilfred, the chain-smoking mongrel dog with a foul mouth.

Zwar was ecstatic Wilfred would live on in the US. "It is great it will reach a whole new audience," he said. "We felt it was really important that the character of Wilfred was preserved by Jason. And I think FX will remain loyal to the gritty appeal of the show."

This year, Family First Senator Steve Fielding slammed the cult comedy for its "display acts of bestiality" after it received more than $1 million in backing from federal and state taxpayers. "I always thought what Steve Fielding said was hilarious," Zwar said. "Wilfred is a beast playing a dog who may have kissed a cat ... you can't get too upset. But I don't think the US version of the show will go anywhere near where we went. Wilfred will still be a bong-smoking dog, but he won't swear as much."

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I'm sorting download links for all the episodes... they should all be there within 48 hours

[funkyfunkpants]

They can't leave anything alone, I bet they fucking ruin this great show.

[faceless]

the fact he'll still be playing Wilfred is good, but they'll definitely get rid of lines like 'I bit the cunt' that really set the scene in the first episode.

That's all the episodes available now - I checked the official site and people are crying out for a third series, but it looks like there won't be one for a while at least.

[faceless]

I've just watched the first episode of the American series and it's much better than I expected. Elijah Wood's ideal for the role and it also features the guy who plays Randy in 'My Name is Earl' as a hated neighbour...