Rover (1979 TV series)

Rover (formerly known as Rover, Max, and Lavender in the first two seasons) is a Filipino-American animated television series created by Remy de Los Santos. It aired on MegaManila Television and National Television on December 30, 1979, and concluded on February 23, 1986 with 7 seasons and 70 episodes. The show was broadcast every Sunday at 10 in the morning.

It was based on De Los Santos's popular eponymous comic that debuted in 1976. It was unanimously regarded as Remy de Los Santos's signature television series. It was widely acclaimed by viewers and critics for its humor and drama. The television series covers the first three chapters of the comic series between 1976 and 1978 (Prologue, College and Going To Australia). The series continued in the 1991 animated television series, Separated Best Friends, and the final animated series to cover the original 1976 series, Rover and Max, which was released in 2017.

Premise
The series revolves around a struggling senior-high-school musician named Rover, a depressed but docile red fox, who is always problematic about his future life and career. He is always accompanied by his friend Max, a former classmate from elementary, a grey wolf who is usually sympathetic to him, and Lavender, an eccentric, optimistic and friendly Siberian husky, who is Max's older sister.

Creation
Most of the characters from the show are based on his drawings when he was 14, which gave him the inspiration to create the eponymous comic strip. With the help of his brothers, who are both cartoonists and writers, helped him make a story out of the characters he created which is a red fox and a grey wolf.

Writing
Most episodes of the show typically start in a comedic plot, which later becomes more dramatic halfway through the episode, which was decided by both of Remy's brothers. However, Remy decided to make the first three seasons a little less dramatic, which will then build up as the seasons go on. The narrative structure, created by his older brothers, was later adopted from Season 4 onwards.

The television show was rated TV-14 by the television station's own classification board.

Voice actors
Remy de Los Santos wanted the voice actors to match the main characters personality, while also making them sound natural and conversational.

Between October 1978 and July 1979, they auditioned several Filipino and American college students and got four of them for the main role: Roberto Gracias, Mark Robinson, June Mills and James Richard Williams. However, on August 23, 1981, before their first recording session for Season 3, Roberto Gracias and his father was killed in a motorcycle accident at Commonwealth Avenue after being hit by a truck. As a result, the recording session was temporarily stopped by Remy de Los Santos to pay condolences. On August 30, they auditioned a few more students to voice Rover. Gabriel Martin was later picked to be the voice actor for the rest of the series. They resumed the recording sessions on September 4, 1981. Some of the viewers pointed out the voice difference of Rover in its third season, but it did not affect the reception of the show.

Animation
Production of the show began in September 1977, with the help of Remy de Los Santos' older brothers, Marcos and Carlos de Los Santos, for storyboards and scripts, and his private group of animators, which consists of over 35 members who work for most of his animated series since 1975. Each Rover episode takes a month to complete. He finished drawing storyboards for the first season in February 1978, while the animation for the first season finished in December 1978. When they are greenlit for a few more seasons, they started producing more episodes for the show a few months in advance. Production for the final season began in November 1984 and was finished on December 1985, a few weeks before its broadcast.

Music
Instead of creating its own theme song or original soundtracks, Remy de Los Santos, who himself was a fan of the Carpenters, decided to borrow the song, "Saturday" from their eponymous album. He has also borrowed several instrumental songs from De Wolfe Music.

Episodes
Main article: List of Rover episodes

Most episodes of Rover last 27-31 minutes. The first two seasons of the show covers the first chapter (Prologue) of the eponymous comic strip. The first season began on December 30, 1979, with the episode "Prologue" and ended on March 2, 1980, with "Rover's First and Last Concert". The second season began on December 28, 1980, with the episode "Should I Sell My Guitar?" and ended on March 1, 1981, with "Graduating". The next three seasons covers the second chapter of the comic strip. The third season began on December 27, 1981, with the episode "Eighteen", and ended on February 28, 1982, with "The Only Fox in the Room". The fourth season began on December 26, 1982, with the episode, "Band" and ended on February 27, 1983, with "Solo". The fifth season began with a 30-minute television special, "Rover's Christmas", and ended on February 25, 1984 with "Success". The show's final two seasons cover the third chapter of the said comic strip. Its penultimate and sixth season began on December 23, 1984, with the episode "Declining Popularity", and ended on February 24, 1985 with "Finals". The seventh and final season began on December 22, 1985, with the episode, "Are There Two of Them?", and ended on February 23, 1986 with a cliffhanger episode, "See You Soon", which would later be followed by its prequel television series, Separated Best Friends, which premiered five years later.

Reception
The show received generally positive reviews, with critics and viewers praising its plot, animation and voice acting. The first season received a mixed review at first, but the reviews became more positive as the show goes on.

The show found its success during the release of Season 3, which made the show popular among audiences. Its finale episode was watched by 2.1 million viewers. The finale episode was widely considered as "the saddest episode of the show".

Sequels
On December 1, 1991, MegaManila Television premiered Separated Best Friends, a prequel to Rover, which covers Chapter IV (Separated Best Friends), V (Reunion) and VI (Leaving Home Behind) (however the pilot episode was still in Chapter III). The show concluded on January 28, 1996.

On December 3, 2017, 9tv (later relaunched as MBN 29 days later) premiered the third television series of the Rover franchise, Rover and Max, which covers the final three chapters of the Rover comic strip: Chapter VII (Dogs in America), Chapter VIII (Where Did Max Go?), and Chapter IX (The Final Chapter). The show's final season is set to premiere on November 28, 2021.