Here's Boomer was an hour-long television movie and a 24 episode television program produced by Paramount Pictures Corporation that aired on the American network NBC beginning in August 1980. The series actually began with a one-hour holiday special called "A Christmas For Boomer", which was first shown on December 6, 1979. The part of Boomer in all of the shows was played by a mixed-breed dog named Johnny, whose appearance was primarily that of a terrier. The series was oriiginally slated to be called Here's Johnny,, after the dog who played the part, but it underwent a name change in deference to the use of that catch-phrase on the Johnny Carson show. The storyline of Here's Boomer owed a great deal to the popularity of the Benji films and television specials of the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1974 film of the same name, Benji was portrayed by Higgins, who had played "Dog" on the television sitcom Petticoat Junction during the 1960s and Mooch in Mooch Goes to Hollywood in 1971. A series of later Benji movies starred Benjean, a daughter of Higgins, who closely resembled him. Just as Benji, in the original movie, had a female companion (Tiffany, a mixed-breed of Maltese appearance), Boomer's love-interest in the series was Cynthia, a smaller fluffy mixed-breed dog. In real life, both Johnny and Higgins were abandoned or lost dogs of mixed breeding who were adopted from animal shelters when their good looks and performing talent were noticed by animal lovers and trainers in California. On screen both played the parts of stray dogs who were smart, friendly, and loving of their human and animal friends. Johnny was similar in appearance to Higgins and Benjean, but he was bigger, shaggier, and not as athletic as the wiry and versitile father and daughter duo, who, in addition to being part terrier were also part miniature poodle and cocker spaniel. Unlike Higgins and Benjean, who performed their own stunts, Johnny had a stunt dog, named Boomer J, who stood in for him on some of his more difficult tricks. As with human stunt actors and the stars for whom they double, the scenes featuring Boomer J were filmed at a distance, to minimize the visual differences between him and Boomer. In addition to appearing in his own show, Boomer appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and also on The Johnny Carson Show.
See also
- The Littlest Hobo, another TV series featuring the adventures of a stray dog
