Television

SYDNEY, Australia — Joe Brumm’s daughter was 3 when she was first admitted to a hospital with an asthma-like illness. She spent a week in intensive care.“When she gets a cold, her lungs shut down,” said Brumm, the creator of “Bluey,” a wildly popular Australian children’s cartoon for 5- to 7-year-olds.In “Bluey,” Brumm, 41, has turned moments from his own family life into a series of seven-minute episodes. These range from mundane squabbles, chores and playtime to more troubling situations, like his daughter’s hospital visit.The difference is, onscreen, it’s a family of dogs.In a country of just 25 million people, the show has been streamed over 200 million times, making it the most popular program ever on ABC iview, the Australian public broadcaster’s on-demand service.And this week, “Bluey” won an International Emmy Kids Award for the best preschool program, with the winners announced online because of the coronavirus pandemic and the cancellation of the awards ceremony in Cannes.“Bluey” started to go global last year. Disney purchased the rights for the series, and it premiered on Disney Junior in the United States in September, and is now on Disney+. Youku, a Chinese streaming service, is showing it dubbed into Mandarin.“Bluey” speaks with a rare frankness and authenticity not only about the experience of being a child, but, also, being a parent. If it becomes as much of a hit abroad as at home, “Bluey” could rival “The Wiggles” as Australia’s most popular children’s cultural export.The dog family lives in a suburban home in Brisbane with palm trees, colorful birds and endless sunny days — not to mention the city’s quintessential “Queenslander” houses, with corrugated iron roofs and shady verandas.Jane Gould, Disney’s senior vice president of content strategy and insights, said that the Australian setting and the characters’ strong accents weren’t an issue for young viewers in the United States, but that they would have been in the past.“Our kids live in a much more global community than the adults do,” Gould said, adding that, because of the internet, children nowadays have heard a broader variety of voices.Daley Pearson, a co-founder of Ludo Studio, which produced the show, said “Bluey” was “a show for parents who hate kids’ shows.” He described it as a mixture of “Peppa Pig” and “Family Guy” — minus the latter’s vulgarity.“I think kids can handle a lot of stuff more than film and TV writers give them credit for,” Pearson added. “They can handle heavy themes about compromise, cooperation or death, or jealousy.”And whereas shows like “Peppa Pig” lampoon a bumbling father figure, “Bluey” celebrates the father, Bandit, as an equal, capable and fun parent, alongside his wife, Chilli. Bandit is always sympathetic to his children, dedicates time to playing games and contributes equally to the housework. Several Australian media outlets have described this portrayal as “groundbreaking.”At a launch party for a “Bluey” range of soft toys and books in Sydney a few months ago, about 30 parents stood by as their children sat on the floor, rapt, while they were read a “Bluey” story.James Brown, 39, who came to the event with his wife and two children, said: “I like the father. He is a really interesting role model for dads who are trying to do a bit more than the traditional model.”“There’s not a lot of TV where that’s represented,” he added.But Brumm said that he did not set out to redefine fathers.“I was just trying to show what I did around the house and with the kids,” he said. “We still tease my father that he never changed a nappy,” he added, using the Australian word for a diaper. “The roles were probably more split back then. For my wife and myself, it’s all in.”Brumm, who also worked on the British cartoon “Charlie and Lola,” said he based “Bluey” on a Blue Heeler dog of the same name he had growing up in Queensland.Also known as an Australian cattle dog, Blue Heelers — a mix of native wild dingoes and domestic breeds — were bred to herd animals over long distances. They are celebrated in Australia for their loyalty and intelligence and the blue tinge of their coats.“There are so many Australian shows that are cockatoos and koalas and kangaroos. I just found this really quintessential Australian dog,” Brumm said.When Brumm had his own children, who are both under 10, he started jotting down the games they played, he said, and these “just morphed into these ‘Monty Python’ bizarre scenarios.”Brumm said he soon realized he had never seen a depiction of unstructured children’s play — with all the strange, nonsensical turns it can take — in a kids’ TV show before.It was equally important for him to show the charm and nostalgia of watching children grow up. One trademark of “Bluey” is the realistic dialogue and the constant dribble of random and amusing questions that young people ask about the world: “Where do rocks come from?” “Why are some plants food, like lettuce, but other plants not food?”Sky Scott, 36, a physiotherapist who was at the recent toy launch, said she loved “Bluey” because it portrayed “the humor of parenting.” She even watches it with friends without her children, she added.“There are so many things we can relate to as a parent” in the show, she said.Teigan Butchers, 36, who came to the event with her 6-year-old, said that “Bluey” depicted “a lot of normalities of life: chores and bedtime and rules. When we were growing up, we had fairy tales, which are a little less realistic.”Brumm said this sense of realism was what “Bluey” was all about. “There’s so much hard work with kids and there’s so much laughter that’s going on in and around the cracks,” he said. “I wanted to get to the core of what’s in the engine room of a family.” More

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If you’re interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.An Empire State of PanicNew York City has been hit hard by Covid-19, with more than 1,550 coronavirus-related deaths as of Tuesday.“Recently, it has gone from the city that never sleeps to the city that lays awake every night filled with existential dread,” Trevor Noah joked on Tuesday night’s “The Daily Social Distancing Show.”This week, the Navy sent in a U.S. hospital ship, the Comfort, to dock in New York and help handle patients. Beginning Monday night, the city paid tribute to emergency workers by lighting the Empire State Building red and white, flashing like an ambulance beacon.“Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the crisis it’s that you definitely want to be on a giant ship.” — JIMMY FALLON“It has 1,000 hospital beds on-site, which New Yorkers are so excited about. So excited that yesterday a crowd gathered to welcome the boat to the city, which is obviously extremely counterproductive in social distancing land, but it also shows you how much New York has changed. Yeah, because normally we hate it when people show up to the city. Like a month ago, New Yorkers would have gathered to throw rats at that boat: ‘Your mother says hello!’” — TREVOR NOAH“Last night, the building lit up like a siren to honor the medical workers serving on the front line of the epidemic. This might be a good idea when they first pitched it, but as someone who lives in New York, it was terrifying. The Empire State Building, the giant light flashing around — and can you imagine if someone was high in their living room? They must have freaked out. ‘[Expletive], dude! I think we’re getting pulled over by that building!’” — TREVOR NOAH“Yep, everyone was confused by the red and white flashing lights. At first, New Yorkers thought it meant Target finally got a shipment of toilet paper.” — JIMMY FALLON“Pull over! The Empire State Building is flashing its lights!” — JIMMY KIMMEL“When they saw that, New Yorkers were like, ‘That’s great. Maybe next time could you give us a heads up? I thought we were being invaded by North Korea.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (MyPillow Edition)“During President Trump’s press briefing yesterday about the pandemic, he invited the founder of MyPillow to speak, at which point I used my pillow to scream into.” — SETH MEYERS“It’s no surprise Trump would introduce the MyPillow guy at a presidential briefing. It’s a tradition going back to Harry Truman announcing victory in the Pacific with Chef Boyardee.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“That’s right, the founder of MyPillow spoke at a coronavirus press briefing yesterday and encouraged Americans to use the time they’re self-isolating to read their Bibles. Oh, I don’t know — between the plague and the false idol next to you, I think the Bible is going to feel redundant.” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingThe “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness offered Jimmy Fallon some helpful tips on home-based quarantine haircuts.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightJoe Biden and Lady Gaga will be virtual guests on “The Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutThere’s never been a better time to follow new comedians on Instagram. More

What’s StreamingBAGHDAD CENTRAL Stream on Hulu. An Iraqi inspector searches post-9/11 Baghdad for his missing daughter in this thriller series. Set around America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, “Baghdad Central” stars Waleed Zuaiter as Muhsin Al-Khafaji, a former law enforcement operative whose mission requires him to form an uneasy partnership with U.S. forces. (“I’m never sure if they’re going to shoot me in the head,” he says early on.) The series, based on a novel by the scholar Elliott Colla, originally aired on the British network Channel 4 and was generally well-received. “It’s nice to see an Iraq war-set thriller that centers on Iraqi lives for a change,” Ellen E. Jones wrote in a review for The Guardian. “Nice because it’s the right thing for a socially conscious broadcaster to commission, but also just nice because it makes for some refreshingly original entertainment.”THE INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON: A DELICIOUS DOCUMENTARY (2020) Stream on PBS.org. Scallops with poached apple, hand assembled. Lobster Napoleon. Lamb carpaccio with “Caesar-salad ice cream.” These are some of the eye-catching dishes in this hourlong documentary, which follows the chef Patrick O’Connell and the employees of his Virginia restaurant, the Inn at Little Washington, on a quest for one of the top honors in the culinary world: a three-star rating in the Michelin Guide. On top of a bounty of lovingly filmed food, the documentary offers a history of the restaurant (in the Blue Ridge Mountains) and a look at O’Connell’s culinary philosophy. “It’s either art or garbage,” he says. “There’s nothing in between.”BE OUR CHEF Stream on Disney Plus. Expect less perfectionism and more princess cameos in this new cooking-competition show, which pits families against each other in Disney-themed culinary challenges. A highlight of the first episode’s menu: Tomato soup served in a bread bowl shaped like Cinderella’s carriage.THE ILIZA SHLESINGER SKETCH SHOW Stream on Netflix. After five stand-up specials for Netflix, the comedian Iliza Shlesinger turns to sketch comedy in this new streaming series. The first episode includes parodies of “Jackass” and “A Star Is Born,” plus a sketch in which a roomful of suited executives trade business gobbledygook while messily (and inexplicably) scarfing down nectarines.What’s on TVSEVEN SAMURAI (1956) 8 p.m. on TCM. Wednesday would have been the 100th birthday of Toshiro Mifune, the Japanese actor perhaps best known for his work with the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. (Mifune died in 1997.) TCM is airing a handful of Mifune and Kurosawa’s collaborations over the course of the day. In addition to “Seven Samurai,” Kurosawa’s venerated drama with Mifune as a samurai of questionable legitimacy, consider Kurosawa’s film noir HIGH AND LOW (1963), airing at 5:30 p.m., in which Mifune plays a business executive drawn into a kidnapping scandal. For a late-night masterpiece, see RASHOMON (1951), airing at 11:45 p.m., with Mifune as a bandit. More

It’s impossible to know whether or not the Netflix docu-series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” would have become such a sensation were we not all spending most of our waking hours inside. The show’s subtitle itself feels like it was made for a different time, one in which the show really had to sell itself to potential viewers. (“It has murder, mayhem and madness.”)The New York Times TV critic Margaret Lyons certainly knew, writing, “Narratively, this seven-part documentary is kind of a mess, but everything it depicts is so outrageous that it barely matters.”If you’ve seen the entire series (or even just a few episodes), you’ve likely been inspired to dive down a rabbit hole and read even more about the sordid tale of Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin and the world of American big cat owners.First, you might want to know that last fall, “Saturday Night Live” actress Kate McKinnon signed up to produce and star as Baskin in the limited series “Joe Exotic.” That series is based on a podcast of the same name by the writer Robert Moor. (You can listen to that podcast here.)Moor also wrote one of the two definitive journalistic pieces on the saga of the Tiger King. There’s this Texas Monthly piece, and then there’s Moor’s, which he wrote for New York Magazine, and is a meaty long read that has tons of details the series does not. Like the following:“When he got back to the park, he put a pair of tigers with lions, and soon his first liger was born. Then he decided to house the liger with a lion, and a year later the first liliger was born — half-lion, half-liger. Joe would go on to create a tiliger and even a tililiger (or T3) — creatures that existed almost nowhere else on earth. Some of these hybrids grew to monstrous size; Joe’s largest weighed over a thousand pounds. By continuing on this trajectory, Joe believed he could re-create a prehistoric sabertooth tiger. (Big-cat biologists universally agree that this is absurd.)”Moor put together a Twitter thread detailing some random facts he found during his reporting, but he deleted one of the Tweets, and now it’s all messed up! (Who among us?) Still, you might be interested in scrolling through his feed.Here are some more of the most interesting and informative pieces “Tiger King” has inspired, from around the web:‘Tiger King’ Chose the Wrong Villain [Slate]“One of the craziest things about this crazy-ass show is the bad edit that it gives to Carole Baskin, making a murderer and a bona fide reality TV villain of one of the few participants who has not actually been convicted of anything murder-adjacent … In a series that is bursting with felons, cult leaders, polygamists, wife abusers, animal abusers, and cruel egomaniacs, it’s Baskin alone who is treated without sympathy.”‘Tiger King’: What Happened to Carole Baskin’s Husband, Don Lewis? [The New York Times]“By Tuesday morning, Sheriff Chronister, who watched the seven episodes of the documentary with his family, was holding a Facebook Live news conference in his kitchen. He wanted to discuss the disappearance of Don Lewis, who ran a big cat sanctuary in the Tampa area before he went missing 23 years ago.”A Debate About ‘Tiger King’ Between Me and Myself [Vulture]“Me: Is ‘Tiger King’ good in a moral sense? Is it humane? Is it compassionate? Is it an ethical piece of filmmaking? Because come on, you know you cringed while watching this.“‘Tiger King,’ for all its extreme watchability, also lives pretty close to that TLC reality-show place. There’s a whiff of class tourism here, not that different from shows like ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ or ‘Here Comes Honey Boo Boo’ — shows that treat their subjects like sideshow acts in a circus, where the circus is poverty. You feel okay watching this?Myself: Ehhhhhhhhhh …”Inside Joe Exotic’s Wild Homemade Music Videos [Vanity Fair]“After some light internet research, Vanity Fair concluded that the mystery musicians responsible for Joe’s tracks are Vince Johnson and vocalist Danny Clinton, both of whom are listed in ‘Tiger King’’s credits. But Joe guarded this ‘secret’ fiercely.“‘I had no idea he was going to Milli Vanilli the songs,’ Johnson wrote Vanity Fair in an email. ‘It was a couple of months and two or three songs [into the collaboration] when I was on YouTube one night and just happened to look up Joe Exotic. And there he was, lip-syncing and acting like the ghost of Elvis [in these music videos].’”The Private Zoos on Netflix’s ‘Tiger King’ Exist Because of These U.S. Exotic Pet Ownership Laws [People]“To learn more about how American citizens can legally own tigers, lions, and other large, dangerous animals as pets, People talked to Alicia Prygoski, the legislative affairs manager at Animal Legal Defense Fund — a group dedicated to furthering animal welfare ‘by filing high-impact lawsuits to protect animals’ — about the current laws (or lack thereof) regarding exotic pet ownership in the United States.”Why Yes, a ‘Tiger King’ Star Did Appear in Britney Spears’ ‘Slave 4 U’ VMAs Performance [Billboard]Hint: It’s not Joe Exotic.Slow and Steady [The New Yorker]This 2012 piece about turtle conservation looks at Eric Goode, who directed “Tiger King,” along with Rebecca Chalkin. In it, Goode is described as a “Manhattan hotel and restaurant owner” who “built and bought trendy hotels — the Maritime, the Bowery, the Jane, Lafayette House” and also used to date Naomi Campbell. More

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Like much of America, Chad Chronister recently binge-watched the chronicles of an eccentric roadside zookeeper known as Joe Exotic and his archenemy, an animal activist who wanted him to stop profiting off big cats.The Netflix documentary featuring Joe Exotic, “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” quickly found a captive audience of would-be investigators, trapped inside homes across the country because of the coronavirus pandemic.But it also transfixed Mr. Chronister, the sheriff of Hillsborough County, Fla., who days ago was trying to convince a rogue pastor to stay at home rather than hold services at his Tampa-area megachurch.By Tuesday morning, Sheriff Chronister, who watched the seven episodes of the documentary with his family, was holding a Facebook Live news conference in his kitchen. He wanted to discuss the disappearance of Don Lewis, who ran a big cat sanctuary in the Tampa area before he went missing 23 years ago.Mr. Lewis was discussed frequently in “Tiger King,” and Sheriff Chronister hoped he could tap into the online frenzy to generate new leads in a case that had been dormant for years.“These last 48 hours have been crazy. Crazy!” said Mr. Chronister, the fourth sheriff to preside over the case. “We are hoping we can bring some justice and closure to the Lewis family.”Joe Exotic, a tiger breeder whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is now in a federal prison cell in Texas, sentenced to 22 years for an unsuccessful scheme to kill the animal activist Carole Baskin, and for killing five tiger cubs. He was reportedly enraged that Ms. Baskin, who was married to Mr. Lewis and an outspoken critic of Mr. Maldonado-Passage, had won a million-dollar civil judgment against him for trademark infringement.“The series was entertaining and intriguing and interesting,” Sheriff Chronister said. “It prompted me to want to take a more in-depth look.”The case was never officially closed, but the last time anything significant happened was in 2011, when the police asked Ms. Baskin to take a polygraph. She refused. The documentary series was released on March 20, as authorities across the country were pleading with people to stay home and blunt the spread of the coronavirus. With newfound time and plenty of restlessness, viewers did not take long to make “Tiger King” a pop culture fixation.Soon, tips started trickling into the sheriff’s department. Since last week, the department has received an average of six tips a day, the sheriff said, but none have been credible.Most callers offer theories on who they think is responsible for Mr. Lewis’s disappearance. Many think he was killed.“We still have it labeled a missing persons case,” Sheriff Chronister said. “We don’t have any type of evidence, not one piece, that suggests that he was killed.”Sheriff Chronister has met with homicide supervisors and assigned a detective supervisor to cull through the tips. The police have not spoken with Ms. Baskin, who denies any role in the disappearance.Mr. Lewis left his home on Aug. 18, 1997, never to be heard from again. The next day, police officers found his van at a private airport, the beginning of a hunt that carried investigators from the 69-acre wildlife sanctuary he ran with Ms. Baskin to Costa Rica, where Mr. Lewis owned a 200-acre park.His disappearance sparked all kinds of rumors, Mr. Maldonado-Passage’s theories among the most pointed. He repeatedly accused Ms. Baskin of killing her husband and of possibly feeding his body to the cats.But for the most part, the case went quiet. Then came “Tiger King.” More