Nellie Andreeva

It has been a great few months for canine actors, with two pilots, Disney Channel’s Dog With A Blog and TNT’s Scent Of The Missing featuring dogs in starring roles. Now one of them, Dog With A Blog, has been picked up to series. The live-action family sitcom, created/executive produced by Michael B. Kaplan (Frasier), is told from the pet’s point-of-view. It centers on step-siblings whose parents get them a dog to encourage them to get along. The two do bond when they discover that the dog can talk AND blog. In the role of Stan, the talking talk with a blog, the series will introduce what the network is billing as “Disney Channel’s next big star”: a four year-old, Husky/Golden Retriever/Border Collie mix named Kuma rescued from a shelter and trained by Guin Dill and Steve Solomon of Good Dog Animals. “With our track record of discovering young talent who are ‘triple threats,’ we launched a nationwide search and our reward is that we found the one dog who could talk, blog and do his own stunts,” said  Adam Bonnett, Disney Channel’s SVP, Original Programming. On the show, Kuma is joined by G. Hannelius (Good Luck Charlie), Blake Michael (Lemonade Mouth), Francesca Capaldi (A.N.T. Farm), Beth Littleford (I’m in the Band), Regan Burns (Wizards of Waverly Place) and Stephen Full (I’m in the Band) as the voice of Stan the dog. Production on the multi-camera series will begin in June for premiere in fall 2012.

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