That's My Bush! - History

History

The entire idea behind the series was to parody sitcoms. The premise developed into having it be about the President in office. Parker recalled the idea came about three months before the 2000 Presidential election. The duo were "95 percent sure" that Democratic candidate Al Gore would win, and tentatively titled the show Everybody Loves Al. It was, essentially, the same show: a lovable main character, the sassy maid, the wacky neighbor. Parker said the producers did not want to make fun of politics, but instead lampoon sitcoms. The duo watched a lot of Fawlty Towers in preparation. The duo signed a deal with Comedy Central to produce a live-action sitcom, titled Family First, scheduled to debut on February 28, 2001. They threw a party the night of the election with the writers, with intentions to begin writing the following Monday and shooting the show in January 2001 with the inauguration. With the confusion of who the President was, the show's production was pushed back. The duo wanted to write a "family sitcoms", with the Bush family. Comedy Central, however, prohibited Parker and Stone from including the Bush twins (Jenna Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush). The writers then turned the Bush twins character into Princess. "An Aborted Dinner Date" was the show's pilot episode. The episode features Felix the Fetus, which was made and operated by the Chiodo Brothers, who later worked with Parker and Stone on Team America: World Police (2004). They also created the cat Punk'kin in "The First Lady's Persqueeter". The show's producers consider the second episode aired, "A Poorly Executed Plan", the true first episode.

This was Parker and Stone's first live-action production to be a part of the Writers Guild of America, West. The show's writers got a big dry-erase board and on one side, they would write down political ideas (abortion, capital punishment) and on the other side would be typical sitcom stories (frat buddies show up, trapped in a small space). They would then combine the two ideas, in what Stone described as "a Three's Company mix-up kind of thing." That's My Bush! was filmed at Sony Pictures Studios, and was the first time Parker and Stone shot a show on a production lot. Spider-Man was being filmed around the same time frame that the show was in production. The show was not shot in front of a live audience, so as to keep control over the show and by necessity, thanks to various shots they would be unable to do in a normal show. They had built several rooms from the White House in their studio (bedroom, dining room) and were allowed "one new, rotating set" per week. Parker described the sets as "amazing," and they were in fact packaged up after the show's run and sent to other White House-related productions. The show's producers gained inspiration by going on a private tour of the White House thanks to Anne Garefino, executive producer, who once worked at the White House for PBS. A White House usher showed the producers various rooms not allowed on normal tours, which allowed them to detail each set effectively.

At 3 (PST) Tuesday afternoon, just like everybody else, we were thinking, "Well, it's going to be a show about Gore." And we're sitting here with the writers and coming up with Gore ideas, and all of a sudden they pull Florida back out. And it was like, "Oh, wait a minute." It's just so funny that this election, the one our show hinged on, was the one that was just too close to call.

Casting was relatively simple; Parker and Stone came across a photo of Timothy Bottoms in Variety for a play he was doing in Santa Barbara. Parker and Stone called him in, and they found he was "perfect" for the role. The plan was not to viciously "rip on" Bush or make him out to be a monster; in accordance with sitcom stereotypes, Bush was made a sweet and lovable oaf. Kurt Fuller was the last actor to be cast in the show. Jeff Melman was the director for each episode. This was the first time Trey Parker was only writing, not directing. Each episode was shot in two days. The weeks were spent writing and getting ready while the cast rehearsed. Like South Park, in which Parker would be able to write a scene and see it animated a short time later, he and Stone could walk to rehearsals and see the cast rehearsing their script. Each episode opened with a cold open, with a "cheesy" joke that segued into the theme song. The duo recalled that, with stupid titles, these scenes were often the hardest to write. The episode "S.D.I. -Aye-Aye!"features the first utterance of the word "Lemmiwinks", which Parker and the writers intended to be a parody of The Lord of the Rings. The word was later famously used in the South Park episode "The Death Camp of Tolerance". The show's first episode set a ratings record (at the time) for highest debut with over 2.9 million viewers tuning in; however, ratings dropped after this, with an average of 1.7 million viewers.

During the production of "Fare Thee Welfare", the show's series finale, the producers knew the show would end as it would be very expensive. For example, for the episode "Eenie Meenie Miney Murder", Parker and Stone used a live bear, an animatronic bear, an actor in a bear suit, and a puppet bear, which ended up breaking their budget. Although the show received a fair amount of publicity and critical notice, according to Stone and Parker, the cost per episode was too high, "about $1 million an episode." Comedy Central officially cancelled the series in August 2001 as a cost-cutting move; Stone was quoted as saying "A super-expensive show on a small cable network...the economics of it were just not going to work." Comedy Central continued the show in reruns, considering it a creative and critical success. Parker believed the show would not have survived after the September 11 attacks anyway, and Stone agreed, saying the show would not "play well." There was talk of a spin-off feature film for the series entitled George W. Bush and the Secret of the Glass Tiger. The concept behind the film extended the bait-and-switch gag of the show: it would have to do with a Chinese invasion foiled by the President. Parker and Stone intended to work on it during the summer of 2002. Parker recalls That's My Bush! "a great time in our lives," and "the most fun we've had in our careers." That's My Bush! has had an effect on the structure of South Park: prior to 2001, each South Park episode was broken up into four acts. While producing That's My Bush!, Parker and Stone found the three-act structure provided a better story, and South Park has continued to use it in recent years. Stone called the show one of the most pleasant experiences in his life.