A Littlest Hobo Reboot if Necessary, but Not Necessarily a Littlest Hobo Reboot
POP-CULTURE COLUMN: By Dan Brown Seth Rogen is rebooting The Littlest Hobo. That may sound like a headline from The Beaverton, but apparently it’s true. If you’re Generation X like me, you’ll remember the CTV series from your own childhood. It featured a drifter German Shepherd who would roam from place to place across the Ontario countryside, helping the good-hearted and foiling the plans of bad guys along the way. Airing from 1979 to 1985, it was like other CanCon productions of the day: So earnest, when you watched an episode your teeth would hurt. I’m all for a new version, but I do have some notes for Rogen and his producing partner, Evan Goldberg. The pair have my blessing, so long as they adhere to the following conditions, First, the dog MUST be real. The original Hobo was played by London, as the opening credits indicated. The opening credits lied, of course. London was actually a team of Shepherds who rotated through the role, depending on the shooting needs on any particular production day (if you want to speak with someone who met these doggles back in the day, just ask L.A. Mood co-owner Carol Vandenberg.) Despite all the technical advances since then, the new Hobo absolutely has to be an actual dog, not a CGI or otherwise-animated creation. In the press release announcing the update, the yet-to-be-filmed series is called “a live-action drama,” so that’s a promising sign. No puppets, no prosthetics, the lead character simply has to be a flesh-and-blood dog to maintain the spirit of the original series (note I’m not saying it has to be a purebred Shepherd). Second, individual episodes MUST be played straight. Rogen made a name for himself prompting laughs in such stoner comedies as Pineapple Express, This Is The End, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. However, for a reboot of The Littlest Hobo to succeed it must be just as wholesome, whatever that means in 2026, as the show that spawned it. So no in-jokes. No code words in the script as cues for the audience playing drinking games at home. No meta references. No self-referential comedy at all. So no irony along the lines of having a character say, “Have you noticed how misfortune seems to follow this stray canine wherever he ends up?” All those jokes have been made by former viewers since the 1980s, they would be cringe today. Besides, Brent Butt made the best Littlest Hobo joke in an episode of Corner Gas when a pup who looked like the Hobo turned up in Dog River, and his true nature was revealed: It turns out the Hobo is a scold, as well as a steak thief. If Rogen and his team are looking for a model to follow, there are worse ones than the modern version of the Degrassi series. Third, there must be big-name guest stars. Watching reruns is fun just for spotting celebrities – Leslie Neilsen, Al Waxman, Saul Rubinek, and others earned an honest paycheck on the show, and future marquee performers like Mike Myers cut their teeth alongside “London.” The time is now for Rogen to call in favours. I bet Myers could be convinced to make a cameo at least, and such collaborators as Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, and Elizabeth Banks, could be drafted for one-episode guest shots. For some reason, I picture Jay Baruchel in a recurring role as a Humane Society inspector who follows the dog from incident to incident, not out of evil intent but genuine concern for his welfare. Oh, also, the theme song can’t be an update with a dramatically different musical flavour, but should be a cover version that captures the same melancholy-yet-hopeful vibe from the first time around. There’s no point redoing The Littlest Hobo if you’re going to betray the gentle flavour it originally brought to the small screen. The advantage Rogen has is he’s making the show for Crave to air in Canada, so he doesn’t need to appeal to a broad demographic as a network series of old. Rogen has proven he can be a mover and shaker in Hollywood with his series The Studio winning 13 Emmy Awards last year. This is not the time for serious tinkering with the Littlest Hobo formula. There are reasons it’s still on the air today. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
POP-CULTURE COLUMN: The Pitt Is Eating At My Gut
By Dan Brown I gotta stop watching The Pitt. The HBO Max medical drama about a chaotic ER in Pittsburgh is stressing me out. Now in its second season, the Pitt is an unrelenting show from the beginning of every episode to the final minutes. My life is already stressful enough without having to keep track of all the storylines and characters. I have two jobs, a wife, two dogs, two cats. I have enough going on in my life without the extra pressure of not knowing if the ER team, led by Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby, is going to make it through the day. Each hour of the show represents an hour of a shift. In the first season, the shift was unfolding like any other day when a mass shooting shook the city, flooding the hospital with wounded patients. In the current season, the major complication is how a ransomware attack means the doctors, nurses, and specialists on duty must do their jobs without the help of computers. The problem for me is that the show is so damn compelling. When the next instalment drops, I know right now it’ll be hard for me to resist watching. I guess I want to see how Wyle and his co-stars deal with the patients that wind up needing emergency care. It’s called competence p*rn – how fans get off on seeing characters who are professionals rise to an occasion beyond their understanding by improvising. The same fetish is also powering the stellar box-office numbers for Project Hail Mary in theatres right now. People love watching Ryan Gosling get stuff done on the big screen. Some human beings are apparently turned on by people who are really good at their jobs. I’m one of those suckers. I do feel a sense of relief when a dying patient is saved on the Pitt. Or when a student doctor pulls a solution out of their butt – the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is a teaching hospital, a neat narrative trick that allows readers to understand what the medical team is up against in each individual case as the team talks out possible treatments. But it’s an ordeal to watch. The Pitt gets on my nerves in a way few TV shows ever have. When I was a young TV watcher in the 1980s, there was another series that had a similar effect, the cop drama Hill Street Blues. It was gritty and so realistic for its time. That was the first television offering to make me grind my teeth in the same way. Each episode of Hill Street Blues also started with the beginning of a typical shift and followed the characters through their long day. I credit the cast of the Pitt for grabbing my attention. The emotional give-and-take between head nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) and Dr. Robby is the heart of this second season. Keeping up such a hectic pace, it’s easy to see how the folks working in this particular ER would get burnt out quickly. And there are all kinds of subplots. One doc is a recovering addict. Another was recently homeless. Another may be about to do self-harm, which means I gotta see if she goes through with it. Who am I kidding? I know I likely won’t change my viewing habits. The Pitt is just too damn good. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
