Production History
The program spun off from Chapman's appearance on the show 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. Dog the Bounty Hunter captured an audience immediately by drawing viewers into the interaction of Chapman and his family/team, mixing street smarts, romance, arguments, teamwork, adrenaline-laced arrests, and a philosophy of hope and second chances.
Viewers are taken along as Chapman and his family/team locate and arrest people who have broken the terms of their bail agreements. Bounty hunts and arrests segue into the rides to jail, during which Chapman and his team show compassion and strongly counsel the fugitives to start over, leaving behind drugs and/or crime to become dependable members of their families and society. Rounding out most episodes are scenes featuring Dog, Beth, and their large family of children, grandchildren and friends.
As the show progressed, viewers were taken further behind the scenes during Baby Lyssa's training as a licensed bail bondsman and bounty hunter; Dog's capture of Andrew Luster and the ensuing arrests of Chapman, Tim and Leland in Mexico; the deaths of Beth's father (Garry Smith) and Dog's oldest daughter (Barbara Katie Chapman); Chapman and Beth's 2006 wedding; Baby Lyssa's wedding and the birth of her second child; and the shock and fear of the family after Dog, Tim and Leland were arrested by federal marshals in Hawaii to await possible extradition to Mexico.
Chapman and Beth freely invited viewers into their lives, sharing personal stories about Chapman's 1976 imprisonment; his ex-wives and custody battles; his baby son who died at one month old; Beth's son whom she had given up for adoption; Chapman's son Tucker's imprisonment for violent crimes; Beth's arrest as a teenager; Chapman's complicated relationship with his own father; and the struggle for the team to be accepted as professional bounty hunters. Conversely, some family situations have been omitted from the program, such as several family divorces, Tim's arrest (and acquittal), and details about some of Chapman's children.
The Chapmans' company, Da Kine Bail Bonds, has a main location run by Chapman and Beth in Honolulu, Oahu. Leland Chapman has established his own Da kine Bail Bonds office in Kona, Big Island, where he lives. Episodes are also filmed in the family's hometown of Denver and in Colorado Springs, where they make extended visits to bounty hunt for their own company there as well as several other companies run by long-time friends (and sometimes former rivals).
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