12/25/2023 0 Comments Airbuddy movie![]() ![]() … I was like, What the heck? We had never made a family movie before. Robert Vince (Producer): I was at home watching David Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Tricks.” I saw this dog shooting baskets. And Letterman brought Buddy back for an encore. So, when you actually make the show, Letterman sees it live for the first time. The producers see the trick and book you. ![]() ![]() Now, David Letterman does not actually see the trick (beforehand). They gave me a call about two weeks later. Then Buddy guest-starred as Comet in an episode of “Full House.” The other guest star on that episode: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.ĭiCicco: Once we trained Buddy to sink baskets consistently, we sent an amateur video into “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” We sent a copy of that same tape to the “Stupid Pet Tricks” producer of David Letterman. All he knew was there was a game, and he was going to be part of it. He didn’t care that this was Madison Square Garden. He didn’t care if it was a nationally televised divisional playoff game. It was one of the Pistons’ few sure-handed plays of the evening.”ĭiCicco: Buddy was looking for some action. From a front-page story in the Detroit Free Press sports section after Game 1 of Pistons-Knicks first-round playoff series in 1992: “There was a brief paws in the action in the third quarter when Air Dog unexpectedly ran onto the court. That’s what gives it elevation.Īfter Buddy and DiCicco made the rounds on late-night TV, Buddy became a halftime sensation at NFL and NBA games. What he’s actually doing is biting at (the ball) and jumping at the same time. We put a little olive oil on the ball, because in the beginning it was Buddy’s saliva that coated it. It took nearly six months and about 4,000 attempts before he sank his first basket, but clearly basketball is what put him on the map. Soon Buddy went from chasing pine cones to shooting hoops.ĭiCicco: It was clearly when I put the hoop up that his magic really came into play. And then after a two-week vacation without anyone claiming ownership, I decided to keep him as a pet. His condition didn’t look to be very good, so I got him some water right away. And I’ll fetch.” I thought it was interesting. He brought a pine cone up and set it at my feet as if to say, “Throw it. We met very nonchalantly, very unexpectedly. He crawled out of the forest carrying a pine cone in his mouth. Kevin DiCicco (Buddy’s owner and Referee 2): Buddy was actually a stray in the wilds of northern California. Have you heard this? The dog who appeared. I asked her, “Where did you ever get the idea for this script?” And she told me the story of the dog who appeared. Nicola Cavendish (Principal Pepper): One day, while I was waiting for my turn to shoot, one of the writers was there. (Quotes from Smith are from Newsweek, and quotes from Buddy’s owner, Kevin DiCicco, are from Screen Slam or his book, “Go Buddy!” All others are from recent interviews with The Athletic. ![]() The reason it stuck with a generation of kids was that at the heart of it, it was a story about a lonely boy who found a friend when he needed it most. (More on that later.)Īs it turned out, “Air Bud” wasn’t totally silly. That success spawned nearly a dozen sequels … with the potential for another reboot ahead. How did a low-budget project filmed in Vancouver become, against all odds, one of the most beloved kids sports movies of all time? Director Charles Martin Smith turned a semi-famous trick shot artist who happened to be a golden retriever into a bona fide movie star, and by the end, Buddy was flying on private jets to Planet Hollywoods around the United States to promote a film Smith had initially deemed too “silly” to pursue. After speaking with roughly a dozen people involved in the making of the movie, The Athletic can now report, with a great degree of confidence, that the real Buddy was a good boy. ![]()
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