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While they will always be known as “the South Park guys,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone have more to their name than that. Their film Team America: World Police has cemented its legacy as the funniest marionette action movie/post-911 geopolitical commentary, with an unforgettable anthem. They teamed with Frozen and Coco songwriter Robert Lopez to push the limits of Broadway’s sensibilities with the raunchy and lovable The Book of Mormon, which garnered multiple Tony Awards for Parker and Stone. And who could forget their live-action leading roles in David Zucker’s sports spoof BASEketball? While most of their projects took the duo to other mediums, from video games to most recently a restaurant, in 2001, Parker and Stone created a second television show that, at times, is stranger than South Park. This is mainly because the leading man is the then-recently elected President George W. Bush.
No, the 43rd President of the United States did not spend his first few months in office filming a TV show with the sardonic duo, but his likeness was used as the basis of Parker and Stone’s high-concept TV show, That’s My Bush! Taking a step away from the world of animation, That’s My Bush! is a live-action sitcom set in The White House following the day-to-day work and home life of then-President Bush. George is joined, not only by real-life figures First Lady Laura Bush and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, but also by ditzy secretary Princess, sassy White House housekeeper Maggie, and the whacky neighbor Larry. Together, they help George in and out of wild situations as he tries to balance leading the free world and being a loving husband. And while the actual George W. Bush was unavailable, star Timothy Bottoms‘s (of The Last Picture Show fame) impression is nearly convincing otherwise.
What Is ‘That’s My Bush!’ About?
Audiences may have expected a show from the South Park creators to be a satire of the politics of the Republican President, but in truth, they would have done the same show about Al Gore (according to their DVD commentary.) While That’s My Bush! touches on political arguments, Parker and Stone are less interested in that and more in the conventions of sitcoms. Political issues such as gun control, the death penalty, and the war on drugs are discussed but are secondary to the ideas like planning two events at the same time, overhearing part of a conversation and acting on a misunderstanding, trying to cover up a mistake that only makes things worse, and the always tough visit from the disapproving mother-in-law. The situations continually heighten to exaggerated levels, until everything comes together, and it all works out in the end, just like an episode of any typical network sitcom.
A parody of sitcoms, That’s My Bush! shows a great understanding of the format, characters, and appeal of the shows it’s mocking. Parker and Stone don’t laser in on any show in particular but instead, the crazy scenarios that pop up throughout all sitcoms. That’s My Bush! relies on a laugh track from a studio audience, creating a very specific rhythm and pattern to the dialogue that creates the expectation for set-ups and punchlines every few lines. The show also uses recurring sets to center the action around and of course, has a catchphrase George says to Laura every episode (to which the audience chants along). The characters are all archetypes with George being the sometimes oblivious but well-meaning hero, Laura (Carrie Quinn Dolin), the kind and grounded wife to balance him out, and Karl Rove (Kurt Fuller), the pedantic co-worker trying to steer George in the right direction. This is more obvious with the fictional characters like Maggie (The Simpsons‘s Marcia Wallace), the housekeeper who’s seen it all and mostly just makes quippy remarks, or Larry (John D’Aquino) the neighbor with inexplicable access to the White House, who helps George to come up with crazy solutions to his problems. All of this together is tied up in the understanding that audiences like the feel-good containment that comes with a sitcom. It’s nice when, despite everything, the characters ultimately figure out their problems, and no real damage is done. It’s that maintaining the status quo with a happy ending that can result in a sitcom running for a decade on end. This was not the case for That’s My Bush!, however.
Why Was ‘That’s My Bush!’ Canceled After One Season?
This strange and incredibly high-concept show was likely always meant to be a cult hit, rather than connecting in the mainstream. The show saw a quick dip in ratings, and despite being considered a commercial and critical success by Comedy Central, it was ultimately too expensive to be continued. With episodes costing sometimes a million dollars an episode, according to The Spartanburg Herald-Journal, not only uncommon at the time but uncommon for a comedy, it became too much for a smaller cable network like Comedy Central to sustain when the demand wasn’t there. That’s My Bush! was canceled after just one season of eight episodes. Much of the writing reflects Parker and Stone’s absurdity that is well-suited to animation but becomes challenging when trying to capture on live-action sets with actors. Parker and Stone also believe outside circumstances would likely have doomed the show regardless. Like Tobias Fünke, they don’t want to blame 9/11, but it certainly didn’t help.
While reflecting on the show on the DVD commentary, Parker and Stone admit the timing of the show (Spring 2001) was probably as good as it would get for the farce. They feared that audiences likely wouldn’t have been interested in laughing at something as absurd as That’s My Bush! when the entire perspective of politics shifted so severely. The sitcom goofiness is not as applicable to situations like hunting down terrorists and debates about whether or not to go to war. While fans of the show may have been disappointed, its limited run likely helped any long-term legacy the show has. Parker even admits (again, in the commentary), “I don’t know how long we could have kept going because to some degree it was a parody of itself. I really question how much more we could have done with it.” As Nathan Rabin puts it, when reviewing the DVD Box Set for The AV Club in 2006, “There’s something strangely touching about the show’s conception of Bush as a thoroughly harmless fool. Though only five years old, That’s My Bush! already feels like a relic from a more innocent time.”
‘That’s My Bush!’ Has A Strange Legacy
That’s My Bush! may have been the first sitcom about a president, but it was not the last, nor was it the last one about George W. Bush even. A cartoon parody Lil’ Bush ran for two years on Comedy Central, which would also go on to produce The President Show created by and starring Anthony Atamanuik. Two of the actors have continued in Presidential roles, with John D’Aquino going from this show’s whacky neighbor to playing the president himself in Disney Channel’s Cory in the House. Timothy Bottoms captured George W. Bush so well, he played him again a year later in The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course and in a dramatic role for Showtime’s docudrama movie DC 9/11: Time of Crisis.
Though they discussed with The Spartanburg Herald-Journal capping off the show with a movie, George W. Bush and the Secret of the Glass Tiger, Parker and Stone would only ever occasionally mock Bush. Bush pops up here and there (including an appearance with the That’s My Bush! cast in Season 5) on South Park, but they went so far as to deliberately avoid it with Team America: World Police. Despite being centered around the president, That’s My Bush! wasn’t meant to be political. Parker and Stone prefer to poke fun at the absurdities of life on a much broader scale. Jokes to further a political point have rarely been their goal. While That’s My Bush! has jokes that have not aged well, and it’s a little too niche to work for everyone, there is a charm to how idiosyncratic Parker and Stone’s show is. And thankfully, they were able to get it made, unlike their recent attempt to parody the president…
