David Cooper (host)

Cynthia, welcome to the show.

I watch a lot of reruns of 90s sitcoms, and one thing that's so present in them that just isn't today is real animals and actors acting with them.

And you're kind of scratching your head like, was this all done ethically?

I mean, that's maybe a different question to ask, but it was such a presence in TV and film for the last hundred years, wasn't it?

I mean, the greatest actor that ever lived may have been that dog in the sitcom Frasier, I gotta say.

When you look at the industry, and it's probably different dogs, it probably wasn't all one same dog, but when you look at the industry today, are these animal actors disappearing?

Are they being depicted by CGI animals?

Is the number of animals that we use, whether fake or real, is it just decreasing?

And for certain animals, like especially ones that aren't domesticated, like chimpanzees, or I think of velociraptors, it's very cruel to depict them on screen.

I'm joking, of course, but when we think of certain animals, I think attitudes have changed.

Like it's not great to be kind of like using these animals in film.

That's one thread of it.

But for domesticated animals like cats and dogs who are, you know, trained around us, know us, live with us,

where I'm sure there are people that would consider that cruel.

I'm not one of them.

Why are these depictions dropping?

Like, why aren't there dogs like Lassie or the dog from Frasier in TV as much?

That's where I completely agree.

Like I'm looking at Kramer playing with a chimp on Seinfeld in the 90s and I'm thinking, what are you thinking?

Like this is this is there's something off about this.