Dog the Bounty Hunter

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Dog The Bounty Hunter
Format	Reality
Starring	Duane "Dog" Chapman Beth Smith Leland Chapman Duane Lee Chapman, II 'Baby' Lyssa Chapman Tim Chapman Justin Bihag Tucker Chapman
No. of episodes	100
Production
Executive producer(s)	Daniel Elias Boris Lee Krutonog
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	A&E Network
Original airing	August 30, 2004 - Present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Dog the Bounty Hunter is a reality television show which chronicles Duane "Dog" Chapman's operations at his job, Da Kine Bail Bonds in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dog is joined by his wife and business partner, Beth Smith Chapman, his sons Leland, Duane Lee, associates Tim Chapman, his daughter 'Baby' Lyssa Chapman. In season one, the team was joined by Dog's 'nephew' Justin Bihag. Besides Hawaii, episodes have been filmed in Dog Chapman's home state of Colorado and the city of San Francisco. Production was halted by A&E after Dog Chapman was recorded uttering racist remarks and the show was removed from A&E's programming. On February 21, 2008, A&E stated that production of the show would resume, but no air date has been announced. On May 14, 2008 A&E announced that Dog The Bounty Hunter will return on June 25, 2008 with new episodes to begin a few weeks after that.

1 Background
2 Starring
3 2006 arrest and extradition proceedings
4 In popular culture
5 DVD releases
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Background

The show is aired on A&E Networks in USA and on Virgin 1 and Bravo in the UK.

While the program mostly follows Chapman and his team in pursuits against actual criminals who violated the conditions of their bail, it also shows his life as a husband, as a father to some of his twelve children, and as an ex-convict. Chapman and Smith were married on May 20, 2006.^[1]

The program spun off from their appearance in the show A&E Network's Take This Job, a program about people with unusual occupations. Both shows are produced for A&E by Hybrid Films, a New York-based production company. The concept of the program is to follow a family of bounty hunters as they capture fugitives.

The family also run a bail bond business, Da Kine Bail Bonds, and has locations in Oahu, in Kona on the Big Island and also on the mainland in Denver, Colorado. The office on the Big Island is owned and run by Duane's son, Leland Chapman. The Oahu office is located at 1381 Queen Emma St. in Honolulu.

Chapman had a daughter named Barbara Katie who was killed in a car accident the day before Duane and Beth married May 20, 2006. Despite the death, the wedding ceremony commenced and the special episode was aired August 2006. Barbara Katie was just 23 years old.^[2]

At a legislative hearing in Honolulu, where he appeared to oppose a bill under consideration that would effectively remove his ability to capture fugitives, he claimed to have captured 7000 fugitives.^[3]

On May. 15, 2008. It was announced that reruns of Dog the Bounty Hunter will return to air on Wednesday July 16, 2008. with new episodes airing along with episodes from season 4 that never aired. Filmimg has already begun on the 5th season.

[edit] Starring

Duane "Dog" Chapman (Series 1-Present) Beth Chapman (Series 1-Present) Tim Chapman (Series 1-Present) Leland Chapman (Series 1-Present) Wesley Chapman (Series 1-Present) Justin Bihag (Series 1-Present) Duane Lee Chapman (Series 2-Present) "Baby" Lyssa Chapman (Series 2-Present) Tucker Chapman (Series 4-Series 5)

[edit] 2006 arrest and extradition proceedings

At approximately 6:00 am Hawaiian time on September 14, 2006, Duane Chapman, his son Leland and his associate (though Duane calls him his blood brother) Tim Chapman^[4] were arrested by US Marshals at the request of the Mexican government, on charges of bounty hunting, which is illegal in Mexico. On June 18, 2003, the Chapman trio captured convicted fugitive rapist Andrew Luster (heir to Max Factor cosmetics) who was wanted on 87 counts of rape.^[5] He had fled to Mexico. Duane, Leland and Tim were released on bail ($300,000 for Duane and $100,000 each for the other two).

On February 16, 2007, the second district court in Guadalajara denied a request for an injunction preventing extradition. The court ruled that Duane, Leland, and Tim should face trial on one count of "deprivation of liberty" in violation of the country's anti-bounty-hunting statutes. There have been multiple legal defense fund raising accounts set up for Duane, Leland, and Tim including one set up by Tanja "Doe," a victim of Andrew Luster.

On 1 August 2007, the ruling was appealed by the prosecution to overturn the decision. In Mexico most rulings such as this are automatically appealed and it can take some time for a decision to be made on the appeal. However, On 2 August, the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico dismissed all criminal charges pending against Dog, Tim and Leland Chapman on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. The order effectively cancelled all pending charges. The ruling, however, was appealed by the prosecution in order to overturn the lower court's decision. A&E was told that in Mexico, rulings against the prosecution are generally appealed as a matter of principle.^[6]

On 4 August 2007, on an episode of Larry King Live, while Duane "Dog" Chapman was talking, it was announced that the charges against Duane "Dog" Chapman, Leland Chapman, and Tim Chapman on the Andrew Luster case, had been dropped by the Mexican government.^{[citation needed]}

On 29 January 2008, Duane "Dog" Chapman is officially free from his Mexican legal ordeal. A three-judge panel in Mexico unanimously ruled that the criminal charges against Dog, his son, Leland Chapman, and his brother, Tim Chapman, must be dismissed; they cannot be extradited to Mexico to face criminal charges for their 2003 capture of serial rapist and fugitive Andrew Luster.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] In popular culture

Duane Chapman's book You Can Run But You Can't Hide was to be set for a February 2007 release^{[citation needed]}, but after his arrest, and extradition case, his book was released on August 7, 2007.^[7]. As of August 20th, the book is number one on the Hardcover Nonfiction list of the New York Times Best Seller list.^{[citation needed]}

Dog and his crew were parodied in the tenth season South Park episode "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy." Cartman portrayed Dog, but was a hall monitor rather than a bounty hunter. In this episode, Cartman would chase around students accusing them of "hallway infractions" and attacking them with bear mace, which is the weapon of choice for Dog and the rest of his crew. Cartman also gave the students he "caught" moral lectures, spoofing the philosophizing Chapman does with fugitives while transporting them to jail.

Dog was parodied in American Dad! episode "Joint Custody" when Roger dresses up as Dog, when he was trying to hunt down Jeff Fischer.

Dog appeared as himself in the season two finale "The Trial" of the NBC show My Name Is Earl capturing Joy Darville in Mexico.

Dog appeared with his wife Beth on the one hour special of Criss Angel: Mindfreak. Dog tied Criss up to a chair and lowered him into a hot tub. After four minutes, Criss loosened himself and stood up.

Heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne sings "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" as Dog's theme song. The song can be heard on Ozzy's Prince of Darkness box set (CD #4).

Dog was also parodied in the second episode of the fifth season of Reno 911. The character, "Tommy Hawk", was portrayed by Diedrich Bader.

An impersonation of 'Dog' appears in Soulja Boy Tell Em's music video 'Yahhh!'.

Dog appeared in an episode of The George Lopez Show, where George goes to his mom's neighborhood to pick up her pet dog and meets Dog instead.

Dog appeared with Beth in the Corner Gas episode "Coming Distractions", in which during a daydream they showed up to arrest Brent

[edit] DVD releases

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
The Best Of Season 1	7	January 25, 2005	Features Dog's episode of Take This Job, Cast Bios, and Promos.
The Best Of Season 2	7	March 28, 2006	Features Cast Bios and a Pop Up Dog Hunting Quiz.
The Best Of Season 3	8	February 27, 2007	Features a Photo Gallery.
The Best Of Season 4	8	August 26, 2008
The Wedding Special	1	December 12, 2006	Features 5 featurettes titled: The Drama Of Dog's Wedding Ring, Dance Lessons, Shopping With Beth, The Bow Wow Vow, and A Tribute To Dog & Beth.
The Arrest	1	September 25, 2007	Features Additional Scenes.