| Dog The Bounty Hunter | |
|---|---|
| Format | Reality |
| Starring | Duane "Dog" Chapman Beth Smith Leland Chapman Duane Lee Chapman II 'Baby' Lyssa Chapman Tim Chapman Justin Bihag |
| No. of episodes | 100 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Daniel Elias Boris Lee Krutonog |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | A&E Network |
| Original run | August 30 2004 – November 2 2007 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Dog the Bounty Hunter was a reality television show, chronicling Duane "Dog" Chapman's operations at his job, Da Kine Bail Bonds in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dog is joined by his wife and business partner, Beth Smith Chapman, his sons Leland, Duane Lee, associate Tim Chapman and his daughter Lyssa Chapman. His nephew Justin Bihag also appeared during the first season. Besides Hawaii, episodes have been filmed in Dog Chapman's home state of Colorado and the city of San Francisco.
Contents |
Background
The show is aired on A&E Networks in USA and on Virgin 1 and Bravo in the UK. While the program mostly follows Chapman and his team in pursuits against actual criminals who violated the conditions of their bail, it also shows his life as a husband, as a father to some of his twelve children, and as an ex-convict. Chapman and Smith were married on May 20, 2006.[1] Dog's compassionate side is frequently on display, as he looks for ways to coach his catches back to the right path. The program spun off from their appearance in the show A&E Network's Take This Job, a program about people with unusual occupations. Both shows are produced for A&E by Hybrid Films, a New York-based production company. The concept of the program is to follow a family of bounty hunters as they capture fugitives. The family also runs a bail bond business, Da Kine Bail Bonds, and has locations in Oahu, in Kona on the Big Island and also on the mainland in Denver, Colorado. The office on the Big Island is owned and run by Duane's son, Leland Chapman. The Oahu office is located at 1381 Queen Emma St. in Honolulu. Chapman had a daughter named Barbara Katie who was killed in a car accident the day Duane and Beth married. Despite the death, the wedding ceremony commenced and the special episode was aired August 2006.[2] At a legislative hearing in Honolulu, where he appeared to oppose a bill under consideration that would effectively remove his ability to capture fugitives, he claimed to have captured 7000 fugitives.[3]
2006 arrest and extradition proceedings
At approximately 6:00 am Hawaiian time on September 14, 2006, Duane Chapman, his son Leland and his associate Tim Chapman[4] were arrested by US Marshals at the request of the Mexican government, on charges of bounty hunting, which is illegal in Mexico. On June 18, 2003, the Chapman trio captured convicted fugitive rapist Andrew Luster (heir to Max Factor cosmetics) who was wanted on 87 counts of rape.[5] He had fled to Mexico. Duane, Leland and Tim have since been released on bail ($300,000 for Duane and $100,000 each for the other two). On February 16, 2007, the second district court in Guadalajara denied a request for an injunction preventing extradition. The court ruled that Duane, Leland, and Tim should face trial on one count of "deprivation of liberty" in violation of the country's anti-bounty-hunting statutes. There have been multiple legal defense fund raising accounts set up for Duane, Leland, and Tim including one set up by Tanja "Doe," a victim of Andrew Luster. On 1 August 2007, the ruling was appealed by the prosecution to overturn the decision. In Mexico most rulings such as this are automatically appealed and it can take some time for a decision to be made on the appeal. However, On 2 August, the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico dismissed all criminal charges pending against Dog, Tim and Leland Chapman on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. The order effectively cancelled all pending charges. The ruling, however, was appealed by the prosecution in order to overturn the lower court's decision. A&E was told that in Mexico, rulings against the prosecution are generally appealed as a matter of principle.[6] On 4 August 2007, on an episode of Larry King Live, while Duane "Dog" Chapman was talking, it was announced that the charges against Duane "Dog" Chapman, Leland Chapman, and Tim Chapman on the Andrew Luster case, had been dropped by the Mexican government.
Audiotape of Chapman using racial slur
| “ | Duane "Dog" Chapman: I don't care if she's a Mexican, a whore or whatever. It's not because she's black, it's because we use the word 'nigger' sometimes here. I'm not gonna take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some fucking nigger heard us say 'nigger' and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine. Our career is over! I'm not taking that chance at all! Never in life! Never! Never! If Lyssa [Dog's daughter] was dating a nigger, we would all say 'fuck you!' And you know that. If Lyssa brought a black guy home … ya da da. It's not that they're black, it's none of that. It's that we use the word 'nigger.' We don't mean, 'you fucking scum nigger without a soul.' We don't mean that shit. But America would think we mean that. And we're not taking a chance on losing everything we got over a racial slur because our son goes with a girl like that. I can't do that Tucker. You can't expect Gary, Bonnie, Cecily, all them young kids to [garbled] because 'I'm in love for 7 months'—fuck that! So, I'll help you get another job but you can not work here unless you break up with her and she's out of your life. I can't handle that shit. I got 'em in the parking lot trying to record us. I got that girl saying she's gonna wear a recorder....
Tucker Chapman: I don't even know what to say. |
” |
In 2007, during this taped conversation[7][8][9] with his son Tucker, Chapman used strong language, including the word "nigger," when referring to Monique Shinnery, his son's black girlfriend. The audiotape, which Tucker sold to the National Enquirer,[10] has led one civil rights leader to call for Chapman's popular Dog the Bounty Hunter show on A&E to be canceled. After the tape was made public, A&E announced it was suspending production for the series pending an investigation.[11][12] Civil rights leader Roy Innis said that Chapman "should not have a show".[13] On 1 November 2007, Chapman issued a public statement apologizing for his "regrettable use of very inappropriate language."[14] Chapman also claimed that the statements were taken out of context and that he was "disappointed in his [son's] choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character."[14] His lawyer claimed Chapman's son sold the recording of his father's conversation to the National Enquirer for "a lot of money."[14] On 2 November 2007, A&E announced it is removing the show from their schedule "for the foreseeable future." [15] on the same day Yum Brands announced pulling ad support for the TV series. [16] On December 21 2007, Roy Innis, the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the first to call the A&E network to have the show taken off the air, met with Alecia Colon of The New York Sun and Chapman. Innis stated for the daily news paper, "After meeting with him and his wife, Beth, and hearing his side of the story, we realized that the controversy had unjustly spiraled out of control without context." [17]
In popular culture
- Duane Chapman's book You Can Run But You Can't Hide was to be set for a February 2007 release, but after his arrest, and extradition case, his book was released on August 7, 2007.[18]. As of August 20th, the book is number one on the Hardcover Nonfiction list of the New York Times Best Seller list.
- Dog and his crew were parodied in the tenth season South Park episode "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy." Cartman portrayed Dog, but was a hall monitor rather than a bounty hunter. In this episode, Cartman would chase around students accusing them of "hallway infractions" and attacking them with bear mace, which is the weapon of choice for Dog and the rest of his crew. Cartman also gave the students he "caught" moral lectures, spoofing the philosophizing Chapman does with fugitives while transporting them to jail.
- Dog was parodied in American Dad! episode "Joint Custody" when Roger dresses up as Dog, when he was trying to hunt down Jeff Fischer.
- Dog appeared as himself in the season two finale "The Trial" of the NBC show My Name Is Earl capturing Joy Darville in Mexico.
- Dog appeared with his wife Beth on the one hour special of Criss Angel: Mindfreak. Dog tied Criss up to a chair and lowered him into a hot tub. After four minutes, Criss loosened himself and stood up.
- Heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne sings "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" as Dog's theme song. The song can be heard on Ozzy's Prince of Darkness box set (CD #4)
DVD releases
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Best Of Season 1 | 7 | January 25, 2005 | Features Dog's episode of Take This Job, Cast Bios, and Promos. | |
| The Best Of Season 2 | 7 | March 28, 2006 | Features Cast Bios and a Pop Up Dog Hunting Quiz. | |
| The Best Of Season 3 | 8 | February 27, 2007 | Features a Photo Gallery. | |
| The Wedding Special | 1 | December 12, 2006 | Features 5 featurettes titled:
|
|
| The Arrest | 1 | September 25, 2007 | Features Additional Scenes. |
References
- ^ ' Dog' to Marry on 'Bounty Hunter'. MSN TV. 20 March 2006.
- ^ http://www.aetv.com/dog_the_bounty_hunter/dog_episode_guide.jsp?episode=181033 Episode Guide: To Love and Cherish.] A&E TV.
- ^ DePledge, Derrick. 'Dog' at Capitol to fight bill restricting bounty hunters. Honolulu Advertiser. 10 February 2006.
- ^ Dog The Bounty Hunter Official Site
- ^ Roberts, Troy. "Andrew Luster: Caught", CBS News, 2003-06-18. Retrieved on 2007-05-27.
- ^ "A&E Dog News Updates", A&E, 2007-08-03. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
- ^ Dog The Bounty Hunter Tape Online: Duane Chapman's Racist Rant?. The Post-Chronicle (2007-11-01). Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
- ^ "Audio recording full version", National Enquirer.
- ^ "Audio recording short version", National Enquirer.
- ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_en_ce/people_duane_chapman;_ylt=AtVkiGl3DCSPcrHGCbH0Jn6s0NUE
- ^ "Dog the Bounty Hunter's Racist Rant -- Caught on Tape!", National Enquirer, 2007-10-31.
- ^ "A&E Suspends Production on "Dog the Bounty Hunter"", TMZ, 2007-10-31.
- ^ Finn, Natalie. "Dog N-Bombs Himself into Hiatus", E! Online, 2007-10-31.
- ^ a b c Lawyer: Son of TV bounty hunter sold 'N-word' tape. 2 November 2007.
- ^ "A&E cancels Dog's show", Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 2007-11-2.
- ^ Schechner, Sam. "Yum Pulls Ads From Bounty-Hunter Show", WSJ, 2007-11-2.
- ^ "Out Of the 'Dog' House".
- ^ Hank, Melissa. "Dog: The Bounty Hunter, unleashed", TV Guide, 2004-07-10. Retrieved on 2007-05-27.
