bob the moo
Greg is one of 3.2 million fabricated-Americans living among us in the US. Greg is one of these but the only job that he can get is as the Easter Bunny once a year. He turns to his flatmate Jimmy Bender to ask his director father to get him an admin job behind the scenes on the children's television show Sweet Knuckle Junction. However the show itself is shedding one puppet to freshen things up and Greg happens to be in the right place at the right time, bringing Jimmy with him as his agent.It took so long for this show to reach the UK that it had been cancelled then brought back to the US screens but it was reasonably worth the wait for those of us that enjoy our sitcoms with a bit more subversive humour. The plot is silliness but it is really helped by lots of great character and sharp lines – it is certainly not for children but that is a good thing! The shows are pretty funny and I found myself laughing out loud regularly and was consistently amused when I wasn't laughing. It isn't rocket science and it isn't going to be to everyone's tastes but I enjoyed it and fans of Family Guy and other similar shows will probably enjoy it.The voice work is good but it is the writing of the characters that make it work. Warren the Ape is my favourite but Greg himself is of good value and well delivered by Milano. The retarded turtle is fun; Count Blah is OK but is a rather clumsy spoof of Sesame Street's Count. The human cast contained a surprising amount of stars. Levy and Green are both good, Silverman is sexy and funny as always and Gunton and Spybey are OK if not that well used.Overall then a funny show that was on for only a short time but was very funny when it was. Whether you find the concept funny or stupid should tell you whether or not you'll find it funny – for me the sharp lines and cool characters produced plenty of laughs and made for very enjoyable 20 minute episodes.
say_andy
After watching the whole series on DVD, I realised that I'd only seen one episode of Greg the Bunny when it was originally aired on FOX (the final episode, it turns out). It must have left a good impression, since I decided that I wanted to own it as soon as I heard that it was coming out on DVD. The show was just too funny, too original to be ignored. It was also probably too original to survive on network TV. So sad.I think that was the problem, the fact that it was on network TV. Had it been produced for a cable network, like Comedy Central, then I think it would still be going strong, stuffed somewhere between Crank Yankers and Chappelle's Show. Sure, they probably couldn't have cast Seth Green and Eugene Levy, but that wouldn't really have been much of a loss. It's not that those two aren't good in their parts, they are, Levy especially, but the stars of the show are the puppets. The humans serve as sounding boards and straight men, so it wouldn't have mattered who was cast as Jimmy and Gil Bender (I bet Sarah Silverman could still be cast, which is awesome because she rules).Of the mainstay puppets, Greg is actually the least entertaining. However, that doesn't mean that the focus of the show was on the wrong character, sitcoms are usually most effective when the most normal of the show's characters are the lead, with the kooky ones playing off of the lead in small doses. This helps viewers relate and keeps the supporting characters fresh. Examples of this can be shown in Seinfeld, Frasier, all of Bob Newhart's shows, and Cheers. My favourite character on the show is Warren Demontague, a boozy, arrogant, overweight ape who plays Professor Ape on "Sweetknuckle Junction", the Sesame Street-esquire show within the show, who describes himself as "an actor first, a puppet second, and an ape third". His acerbic wit never failed to make me laugh. In referring to dogs, in one episode Warren said "What do humans see in these things, anyway? If I wanted someone to lick my face and poop on my lawn I'd get back together with Farrah Fawcett". That's South Park or Family Guy-type humour.As great as Warren is, no puppet stole a scene like Tardy the Turtle. He was called Tardy cause he was slow, you see? It could also do with the fact that he was "slow". Having the courage to do something that un-PC for the sake of humour is what made this show great, but also why it could never work on network TV, even FOX. Pretty much any scene he was in, you wanted to hear Tardy say something funny (the kind of funny that you know you should feel bad about finding funny). And he always did.Ultimately, it wasn't a perfect show. It's really low budget, and is all over the place in terms of direction and characterisation. Both are also problems that can be blamed on network interference. But it was funny as hell. It left me wishing there was more. I miss Warren, Tardy and Count Blah already. If you like the humour of the shows mentioned above, but have never seen Greg the Bunny, then I highly recommend renting this DVD. There are only 13 episodes (22 minutes each), so it could easily be digested within a normal rental period. If you have vague memories of finding it funny when it was on, I assure you that it is still funny, so you might want to go ahead and buy it.
oxblood
Excellent but short-lived cancelled series from FOX network, "Greg the Bunny" is hilarious and makes you wonder why it wasn't picked up by the Comedy Channel.Set in a world where puppets are considered a race, Greg is a rabbit puppet who lives with his human pal, Jimmy (Seth Green) who gets him a job on a kids' TV show where his father (Eugene Levy) is a director. The cast of the TV show includes a prima donna ape puppet, a Count Dracula-like puppet with a speech impediment, as well as other humans and puppets. The main theme is that everyone involved humans and puppets alike, have their own personal problems and quirks.The show is a riot especially characters like , Warren D'Montague, the thespian ape with a host of vices and the surly Junction Jack who acts like a friendly Mr. Greenjeans before the camera but has a cigarette and a griping attitude as soon as the director yells "cut".Even though shows like "The Simpsons" have been able to break the boundaries between adult and children's viewing, it's impossible to market a show like this on network TV without pointing toward children. Adults would never go for an adult puppet show. They're much too self-conscious and hypocritical to allow themselves the pleasure. However, be warned: despite it's Sesame Street references, this show is not for kids. There are way too many references to sex, drugs and alcohol, race and violence for this to be geared toward kids. It's obvious why this show was canceled by even the maverick network, FOX. Network TV could never sustain a show this unmarketable. Try to show it to kids and their parents will complain about the adult content. But adults would never give it a chance cuz it visually resembles a kid show. Kind of a Catch-22. This is the type of thing that could have gone farther on cable. Comedy Channel, Spike TV, MTV, even. Check out the DVD. All the filmed eps are there including 2 never aired. Funny stuff! Guest shots by Gary Oldman, Marilu Henner and Corey Feldman.
wtfd00d
Just the best show ever. There are many funny TV shows but this is the only one that made me laugh so hard that I frickin' cried. It's FINALLY on DVD as there is some sort of justice in this world. This is more than crass puppets, yeah there is that element (Warren polishes his helmet) and such but it's not just crass for the sake of being crass. It's genuinely funny stuff. Every character is fully (er...) fleshed out, well written, likable and funny. They cover every cliché in the workplace sitcom genre but knowingly and cleverly. I'm glad a show like Arrested Development made it through it's first season because that's also a genuinely funny show but Greg showed up right before the reality TV cycle hit us and the poor little guy never had a chance. Damn you to hell reality TV.