Biscuit the Dog

For more information of the Biscuit franchise as a whole, see Biscuit (franchise).

Biscuit the Dog (also known as simply Biscuit or Biscuit the Little Yellow Puppy (the latter name is a misnomer, and is used as an attempt to hook pre-schoolers and younger audiences to watching the series)) is a Canadian/American animated sitcom of sorts on AMC Kids. It premiered on September 7, 1988 on YTV, made its American debut on Nickelodeon on August 16, 1989, and debuted on Time Warner Cable Kids in May 1992 (in order to keep up with its increasing popularity with the channel's target audience).

Plot
Based on the Adventures of Pets book series (and its 1950's theatrical animated adaptions) featuring the same characters, Biscuit is a fully-animated sitcom for pre-teens that focuses on the misadventures of the titular Golden Retriever and his friends as they go through life in the fictional universe of Dog Town (which is a large misnomer; there is way more than dogs in Dog Town). There are two versions of the programme; a half-hour version featuring only the animated part of the show, and a full-hour version featuring puppets, two animated stories, and live-action sequences laced between the feature presentation (the latter version was used only on AMC Kids up until Season 15).

Each episode focuses on a different topic (ex. the dangers of drug use, the adventures of either the young or adult characters, etc.), which is coupled up with a B-plot which is either loosely related or unrelated to the main topic of the overall episode. In the TWCK/AMCK-exclusive version, the episode starts out with a puppet sequence, where Biscuit and the rest of the plush toys in Sammy Brown's room do things related to the topic of the episode, followed by a 30-minute animated sequence, a 5-minute live-action sequence that too follows the topic of the day, another puppet sequence, and an additional animated sequence.

Number of seasons
Main article: List of Biscuit episodes

Snee-Oosh era (1998-2005)

 * Season 1 (Canadian airdate: September 7, 1998 to February 6, 1999; American airdate: August 16 to December 17, 1999; British airdate: 14 January to 23 March, 2000; TWCK airdate: March 20 to September 25, 2000)
 * Released on DVD on November 5, 2002
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 15, 2013 p pals
 * Season 2 (Canadian airdate: August 16, 1999 to March 7, 2000; American airdate: February 25 to October 13, 2000; British airdate: 26 August to 17 November, 2000; TWCK airdate: March 26 to September 19, 2001)
 * Released on DVD on August 26, 2003
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 16, 2014
 * Season 3 (Canadian airdate: September 4, 2000 to August 20, 2001; American airdate: November 13, 2000 to September 15, 2001; British airdate: 5 February, 2001 to 25 March, 2002; TWCK airdate: December 10, 2001 to October 17, 2002)
 * Released on DVD on June 15, 2004
 * Season 4 (Canadian airdate: October 30, 2001 to October 18, 2002; American airdate: April 13 to November 4, 2002; British airdate: 4 November, 2002 to 23 October, 2003; TWCK airdate: January 18 to September 23, 2003)
 * Released on DVD on June 14, 2005
 * Season 5 (Canadian airdate: December 4, 2002 to September 12, 2003; American airdate: March 24 to November 5, 2003; British airdate: 5 November, 2003 to 21 July, 2004; TWCK airdate: January 19 to October 3, 2004)
 * Released on DVD on June 13, 2006
 * Season 6 (Canadian airdate: November 18, 2003 to August 12, 2004; American airdate: April 4 to November 26, 2004; British airdate: 17 September, 2004 to 25 May, 2005; TWCK airdate: February 4 to November 6, 2005)
 * Released on DVD on August 7, 2007
 * Season 7 (Canadian airdate: November 4, 2004 to November 2, 2005; American airdate: January 31 to December 1, 2005; British airdate: 16 September, 2005 to 26 April, 2006; TWCK airdate: February 28, 2006 to January 5, 2007)
 * Released on DVD on July 22, 2008

Nickelodeon Animation Studios era (2006-2013)

 * Season 8 (Canadian/American airdate: March 1 to October 30, 2006; British airdate: 25 September, 2006 to 15 June, 2007; TWCK airdate: September 4, 2007 to May 6, 2008)
 * Released on DVD on October 13, 2009
 * Season 9 (Canadian/American airdate: November 5, 2006 to August 15, 2007; British airdate: 4 September, 2007 to 6 April, 2008; TWCK airdate: September 8, 2008 to April 6, 2009)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 25, 2010
 * Season 10 (Canadian/American airdate: September 4, 2007 to June 26, 2008; British airdate: 26 July, 2008 to 6 April, 2009; TWCK airdate: April 7, 2009 to January 4, 2010)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 23, 2010
 * Season 11 (Canadian/American airdate: July 30, 2008 to February 3, 2009; British airdate: 13 April to 4 October, 2009; TWCK airdate: October 10, 2010 to May 20, 2011)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 31, 2011
 * Season 12 (Canadian/American airdate: August 15, 2009 to April 6, 2010; British airdate: 2 January to 4 June, 2010; TWCK airdate: September 5, 2011 to May 23, 2012)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 24, 2012
 * Season 13 (Canadian/American airdate: September 6, 2010 to June 3, 2011; British airdate: 10 September, 2010 to 13 June, 2011; TWCK airdate: September 2, 2012 to June 4, 2013)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 4, 2012
 * Season 14 (British airdate: 4 August, 2011 to 5 June, 2012; Canadian/American airdate: September 6, 2011 to June 2, 2012; TWCK airdate: September 5, 2013 to April 3, 2014)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 2, 2013
 * Season 15 (British airdate: 31 August, 2012 to 5 February, 2013; Canadian/American airdate: September 18, 2012 to May 30, 2013; TWCK airdate: October 3, 2014 to June 25, 2015)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 4, 2014

DUCK Studios era (2013-present)

 * Season 16 (British airdate: 18 June to 20 December, 2013; Canadian/American airdate: October 2, 2013 to June 5, 2014; AMCK airdate: July 4, 2015 to March 3, 2016)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 9, 2015
 * Season 17 (British airdate: 26 August, 2014 to 5 March, 2015; Canadian/American airdate: September 17, 2014 to May 31, 2015; TWCK airdate: July 11 to 17, 2016)
 * Released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 1, 2016
 * Season 18 (British airdate: 4 August, 2015 to 30 May, 2016; Canadian/American airdate: September 23, 2015 to June 24, 2016)
 * To be released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2017
 * Season 19 (British airdate: 28 June, 2016 to late 2016-early 2017; to be aired in North America starting September 2016)
 * Season 20 (To be aired in 2017)

Characters
Main article: List of Biscuit characters
 * The Narrator is an unseen character who, as the name implies, "pops up" to tell the viewer what is going on in the episode. There have been seven narrators over the course of the series:
 * Nigel Hawthorne (1998-2000, first to second seasons (North America/United Kingdom))
 * Neil Morrissey (2001-2013, third to fifteenth seasons (UK))
 * Lewis Black (2000-2002, third to fourth seasons (NA), first to second seasons (2001 TWCK redub))
 * Jim Carrey (2002-2004, fifth to sixth seasons (NA))
 * Greg Proops (2004-2007, seventh to ninth seasons (NA), sixth season (2005 TWCK redub))
 * Marc Silk (2007-2013, tenth to fifteenth seasons (NA))
 * John Cleese (2013-present, sixteenth season onwards (NA/UK))
 * Biscuit is a Golden Retriever and also the main protagonist of the series. He is a mischievous, yet intelligent and mostly good-tempered resident of aptly-named 123 Brown Street, and considers himself the leader of 123 Brown Street. Voiced by Michael Bell (1998-present)
 * B-Toner is an orange Bull Terrier and Biscuit's best friend. He is less fearless than his bigger and older peers, but is always ready to help out. Voiced by Tom Kenny (1998-2014) and Duncan Brannan (2014-present)
 * Flo is a pink cat with a long, flexible tail. She is tomboyish, passionate, and somewhat excitable, and is also the only female in the "fabulous five". Voiced by Carolyn Lawrence (1998-2013) and Angelina Wahler (2013-present)
 * Mr. Kenny is an oversized rat and the only 'adult' character in the main cast. He has an obsession with p****graphy (social networking in the TWCK redubs) and

Reception
Biscuit was launched to mostly positive reviews. Th

Time Warner Cable Kids
The show, because of the property it was based on quickly becoming a household name more than it had already been, was announced to air on Time Warner Cable Kids in October of 1999. This resulted with the production crew launching a scathing attack on Time Warner Cable, as the show was in no way intended to be a preschool or "baby" show in any way, shape, or form.

When Biscuit was aired on Time Warner Cable Kids, TV Guide, some websites, and even the bumpers called it Biscuit the Little Yellow Puppy. This is highly incorrect, as Biscuit himself is a medium-sized dog and not a puppy as the alternate title of the show claims. The name also forced the writers to make fun of the show being called this and the heavy editing done to make it more appropriate in an episode called The Phantom Baby Show(s), where Biscuit and B-Toner are driven to write a poorly-written preschool show pilot to compete with the other shows for younger children (this show would later become a near-end segment in the vein of another one of these during TWCK's airing of season 5).

Censorship and cultural reference altering
When the second season was aired on TWCK in 2001, it had to be edited to not put too much emphasis on certain things, like gun violence, use of highly dangerous chemicals, and anything similar. While the first season aired the year prior with most episodes unaltered, the edits done to the second season were the beginning of the subsequent censorship of episode content and banning of certain episodes.

Because of the series' mostly violent nature compared to the other shows, it had to be either censored or edited to prevent violating any rules of the channel's programming regulations. Because of this, the "Fun with Guns" trilogy (season 2, episode 15, season 5, episode 24, and season 7, episode 2) all had to be altered severely to not encourage kids to use guns, and the Falcon Punch sequence in the former episode was censored out. In addition, "big-lipped alligator moments" and inappropriate parts of certain episodes were either edited or censored, and various episodes were banned from airing on TWCK due to extremely inappropriate content or language. For example, the episode "The Phantom Baby Show(s)" was banned as it made fun of the show's treatment on TWCK and the constant sending of other shows to "h*ll", all of which were disapproved of by a TWCK programme consultant.

Dispute against Viacom
In July 2016, the current production crew realised that Time Warner Cable Kids was screwing with the show, having called it ".......the Little Yellow Puppy" when it was at its peak, censored multiple episodes for appropriateness sake, banning three out of ten episodes for no reason, and replacing all British/Canadian references to make it as American as most of their shows. Agitated, they phoned American Movie Classics and Time Warner Cable about these, and when neglected after demanding to air the uncensored and banned episodes away from the other shows, a TWCK programme consultant said otherwise. Furiously, the two crews got in an enormous fight, everyone on TWCK's side declining the production crew's ideas every time. As a last resort, the TWCK crew won by a landslide, succeeding to threaten the production crew that the show would never air again if they continued acting up and doing so a day later. Consequently, this leaves seasons 17 (starting from episode 9), 18, and 19 hanging, as well as the original versions of certain episodes and the Tensors never seeing the light of day on the channel in question ever again.

Four days after the phone-in dispute and the show's removal from Time Warner Cable Kids, Viacom, HiT Entertainment (who distributed the fourth and fifth seasons and the majority of Biscuit merchandise released between October 2001 and March 2003 in America and between October 2001 and September 2004 in the United Kingdom), AMC, Time Warner Cable, and the people involved in the production of the show were sent into peer counseling. The deal behind all of this was if no one agreed with Time Warner Cable's then-harsh treatment of the show, then production of half of the nineteenth season would be held back, the twentieth season would have to be aired in 2018 (ironically tying in with the 20th anniversary of the show and the 70th anniversary of the franchise as a whole), Time Warner Cable Kids would lose the rights to air anything related to the Biscuit franchise (whether it be any movie, show, or similar themed to either The Adventures of Pets Biscuit or Alyssa Satin Capucilli Biscuit), and a different animation company would have to be called in to co-animate the series with DUCK Studios. The trial went like this: After all this happened, the production of the nineteenth season continued, and two of the four given punishments were handed out: Time Warner Cable Kids lost their privilege to air any Biscuit media on their channels and Film Roman was reported that they will not be co-animating the series after the nineteenth season finished production.
 * Time Warner Cable and HiT accused the writers attending of making fun of another show on TWCK both visually and verbally. In retaliation, someone who worked on the show during the Snee-Oosh era blamed HiT for treating the distribution of the show and the meaning of the word "sitcom" poorly, as their knowledge of the Biscuit brand was as weak as their knowledge of American religious media and they called Britt Allcroft's Magic Adventures of Mumfie an "animated sitcom" when they had the rights to that show when it wasn't.
 * Both sides scathed eachother again. The resulting fight left three people getting kicked out of the room (one from Nickelodeon, one from HiT, and another from Film Roman) and whoever stayed horrified at such treatment. The leaders of the programming board at AMC and TWC (Ayden P. and Jomaribryan) were called in to solve the problem, which failed, as they both agreed that the show was named Biscuit the Little Yellow Puppy (hence the name of this article) instead of its proper name, Biscuit the Dog, which is taken as a large insult toward the production staff. Consequently, they also said that not only does Biscuit air on TWCK, the channel owns the rights to the show, and that it will be pulled out of cancellation regardless of any complaints.
 * Chris Viscardi, the current showrunner, also took the Little Yellow Puppy remark as an insult, and said that the American and Canadian Nickelodeon channels, as well as Comedy Central, all have the rights to air the show, and they can ask other international channels (BBC in the UK, Nickelodeon in Austraila, and TV Tokyo in Japan) to air the show if they have enough legal rights to do that.
 * Jomaribryan pulled out a press release from October 1999 and the contract made to air Biscuit-related meda on TWCK and argued otherwise. He also said if anyone continued protesting against TWCK's horrible treatment of the show, then they would, without Viacom's or anyone else's permission, pull the show out of channel-specific cancellation, and air it while calling it by the Little Yellow Puppy name instead of its normal title. The other people voted against this, and all sides were called out by another TWCK programme consultant.

On July 26, 2016, it was both announced that Primal Screen would co-animate the twentieth season with DUCK Studios and that Film Roman is done animating the series; having done so since 2000.

Americanised Biscuit
In the season 1 episode "Biscuit's Bargain", the policemen break away from attempting to gang up on Biscuit and Mr. Dumb to having a "private" conversation about the sales at Marks and Spencers. In all broadcasts of this particular episode on TWCK after November 2000, this line was cut out and was replaced with a reference to Marshalls.

Since then, airings of any episode with a British or foreign reference thrown has had it edited out to avoid alienating anyone outside the US. Because TWCK is an American television channel, they highly recommend programming from their home country (there have been several aversions, however), and because Biscuit is a Canadian show (the production crew, however, is American) with several aspects of a British show thrown in, there has been many scenes cut out.

Merchandise
Since the show's debut in 1998, the majority of Biscuit merchandise has been turned over to using elements of the show (character designs, voices, etc.). Some notable pieces of merchandise include:

The Adventures of Pets (originally published from 1949-1990; May 25, 1999-present)
In 1998, Random House acquired the rights to publish the original The Adventures of Pets book series in which the franchise stemmed from, tying in with the announcement of new volumes of said books.

The redesigned Adventures of Pets came out from May 25, 1999 to October 18, 2005. These reprints came with behind-the-scenes looks behind the publication of the books selected, as well as apparent "restorations" done by Classic Media. However, the restorations are instead less saturated than the illustrations in the original prints of the books, and the Commonwealth English language in the books were replaced with American English. Despite these changes, a box set released in 2006 has the un-restored illustrations intact.

Eight new volumes of The Adventures of Pets came out on May 25, 1999, May 23, 2000, August 7, 2001, March 19, 2002, April 1, 2003, March 16, 2004, October 18, 2005, September 19, 2006, October 12, 2010, and November 5, 2013. Curiously, their illustrations, done by Denise Brunkus, the character designer for the current-day Biscuit, were as vibrant as the original un-restored 1950's-1980's books' illustrations, making the corresponding aforementioned books look darker in comparison.

In 2013, Biscuit fan James Sharp came across cleaner, mint-condition versions of the first printings of the first 30 books on eBay. After getting in with Cathy Goldsmith at Random House, they decided to re-release the entire series with the first books being remastered to further represent their original prints.

The current versions of the books, released on November 19, 2014 and March 10, 2015, are the closest representations of the original printings of the 1949-1990 books, as they have remastered illustrations (done using the original colour swatches used by the original authors) and a cover design very similar to the first one.

Stepping Stones chapter books (March 28, 2000-present)
In 1999, Random House acquired the rights to publish books based on the Biscuit TV series. The most popular of these are the Stepping Stone novelizations of almost every episode, as well as many original stories.

Palisades Toys
In December of 2001, Palisades Toys, a novelty toy company, began distributing Biscuit action figures and novelty items. There have been fourteen four-figure waves of this series released under the Palisades name (see below; all figures are listed under this article): In wave 6, Palisades gave the lineup a massive overhaul, redesigning the packaging, beginning to discontinue one wave per year to keep production lines consistent, and releasing larger figures (called "Mega Biscuit Assortment" by Palisades). These figures contain an accessory from the normal figure, and are about 15 inches in height. In wave 12, the packaging was redesigned again to match that of the Biscuit merchandise out at that time.
 * Wave 1 (December 2001)
 * Wave 2 (March 2002)
 * Wave 3 (June 2002)
 * Wave 4 (September 2002)
 * Wave 5 (December 2002)
 * Wave 6 (March 2003)
 * Wave 7 (June 2003)
 * Wave 8 (September 2003)
 * Wave 9 (December 2003)
 * Wave 10 (March 2004)
 * Wave 11 (June 2004)
 * Wave 12 (September 2004)
 * Wave 13 (December 2004)
 * Wave 14 (March 2005)

Mattel
In January 2000, the first couple of TV show-canon Biscuit toys were released by Mattel. Many of these toys were plush toys, figurines, and an action figure wave predating Palisades by a year. The two most best-selling toys in this wave of toys so far are the Ultimate Interactive Biscuit plush (released in September 2000) and the Magic Talk'n Chat Friends assortment (released in August 2001).

Because of the notable lack of adult-targeted items, there has been some complaints about the target audience of the toyline, as the show itself is darker and edgier than the toys themselves. In response to this, Palisades Toys began to make more mature action figures in 2001 (see above) and the Mattel toyline was discontinued in early 2005.

Fisher-Price
Mattel's rights to manufacture Biscuit items were turned over to Fisher-Price in 2005, following their expanded partnership with Nickelodeon, which in a way required any Nick-related item fall under the jurisdiction of them and not Mattel. This partnership also ended Palisades' rights to manufacture their own action figure series, which was turned over to FP as well. They have released the following waves as a result of this: Aside from the regular action figures (which were renamed "Basic Figures" by Fisher-Price), the figure series was also expanded to feature talking figures (released alongside waves 16 and 19), deluxe figures (such as 'smash-and-crash' figures (wave 17) and 'Fun with Guns' figures (wave 20)), an extra mega figure with the yearly tradition of one per year, and episodic figures (waves 18-19 and 22). They also produced more plush and plastic toys, including those with sound, movement, and lights, and also began making roleplay items. The two most best-selling toys in the FP toy series are the Can't Touch Me Biscuit animatronic plush (released in August 2005) and the 9-000 Renegade Supercell Bullet Gun (released in August 2006).
 * Wave 15 (August 2005)
 * Wave 16 (December 2005)
 * Wave 17 (March 2006)
 * Wave 18 (June 2006)
 * Wave 19 (September 2006)
 * Wave 20 (December 2006)
 * Wave 21 (March 2007)
 * Wave 22 (June 2007)
 * Wave 23 (internationally only; September 2007)
 * Wave 24 (internationally only; December 2007)

The Fisher-Price Biscuit toys are episodic, and as such feature elements tying in to the episode that toy is based on - collector's card, theming, decals, and so on.

As with the Mattel toys, there was yet again more bashing of the manufacturer choice being inconsistent with the show's target audience. However, despite these toys being more targeted toward the actual target audience and not younger children, there was even more hatedom from all sides of the fanbase, as the show was a sitcom and Fisher-Price was a preschool toy company. This did not fare well with Fisher-Price, who were clever enough to provide toys based on female characters and barely seen characters due to request from the fandom and the producers of the show.

The toy line was discontinued in North America shortly after season 9 ended, mostly due to the above reasons and the fact that Jazwares had acquired the North American toy rights to the series months before (see below). However, in international areas such as South America and Asia, they lasted much longer, being issued all the way up until 2008.

TOMY
TOMY have been making The Adventures of Pets/Biscuit items since 1983.

In 2000, they began to issue toys from the series internationally, such as the Mattel items, the Palisades figures, and their own merchandise, such as Tomica World vehicles and talking figures.

TOMY's license to do Biscuit merchandise was halted everywhere except Japan when Fisher-Price took over in 2005, who were able to release the twenty-third and twenty-fourth waves of the action figure series internationally instead of them and Jazwares. In 2007, TOMY regained their role as international master toy licensee of the show, and have been doing so since.

In 2013, TOMY received the rights to make Biscuit toys in North America,