Disney Plus’s Turner and Hooch is a sequel to the 1989 film of the same name. Carrying on the mantle is actor Josh Peck as Scott Turner, the son of Detective Scott Turner portrayed by Tom Hanks in the old film.
Scott Turner is an ambitious US Marshal who inherits a big, unruly dog named Hooch. When he couldn’t get anyone else to take in the dog, he reluctantly becomes the owner and gradually realises that Hooch may just be the partner he needs.
A roundtable interview with the cast revealed how fond they are of their animal co-stars who helped in a big way to bring the show to life.
Actor Reginald VelJohnson, who plays Detective David Sutton, is now a mayor in the sequel The actor shared fond memories of filming despite initially finding it difficult to re-establish the role.
Actress Lyndsy Fonseca who plays Scott’s sister Laura recalled that there were so many other animals on set other than the five dogs playing Hooch.
“We also have a lot of lizards on the show,” said Fonseca to which VelJohnson added, “Lizards and iguanas. All kinds of stuff. It was cool. I remember that iguana that was sitting behind me that I almost sat on.”
“I think his name was Bob,” Fonseca replied. Actor Jeremy Maguire (who plays Matthew, Laura’s son) agreed, “He (the iguana) was so cute.”
For Josh Peck who plays the titular role as Scott Turner, he was excited to be able to continue the role first played by Tom Hanks. “If you notice Tom Hanks in the original, he’s wearing some 80s goodness in that movie. They were some incredible pieces,” said Peck.
Thus, in homage to the character, the show even included a couple pops of colour into the Peck’s character’s wardrobe which the actor thought was great.
When it came to working with the five dogs who take turns to star as Hooch, Peck said each dog brought something special to the show and it was just so easy to fall in love with them.
“The dog named Obi is sort of our statesmen because he was older and he was just kind of slow moving. Obi is just really good at doing so many things,” said Peck.
“The other dog named Hammer would literally just pull my arm out of the socket. He would pull and run so hard but he had such great sort of animated skill,” he added.
Actress Becca Tobin who play’s Scott’s ex, Brooke, recalled her time working with the different dogs on set too especially a female dog named Mimi.
“[Mimi] was used a little less because she is smaller in stature but she was actually the smartest one. So I got a kick out of that because that one female dog was the best behaved and the most intelligent according to the trainers,” said Tobin.
Peck agreed saying, “It was true. One hundred percent. Mimi was like our specialist, if we needed her to, like pull something off the table. If she had been 40 pounds heavier, it would have been the Mimi show. Turner and Mimi.”
According to actress Carra Patterson who plays Jessica in the series, the animals were truly the stars of Turner and Hooch. While shooting the pilot for the show, director McG had to change the camera angles to try to make it work because the dogs have a mind of their own.
“We just got to follow Hooch and Scott’s being yanked. McG was like ‘This is great! This is the show. This is Turner and Hooch’ so everybody just rolled with it when we realized this is how it’s going to be every episode. We never knew what direction Hooch was going to go,” said Patterson and laughed.
Catch Turner and Hooch on Disney Plus Hotstar.
