Dog the Bounty Hunter

The program spun off from Chapman's appearance on the show Take This Job, a program about people with unusual occupations.[1] Dog the Bounty Hunter captured an audience immediately by drawing viewers into the interaction of Chapman and his family/team, mixing street smarts, romance, arguments, teamwork, adrenaline-laced arrests and a philosophy of hope and second chances.[1]

Viewers are taken along as Chapman and his family/team locate and arrest people who have broken the terms of their bail agreements. Bounty hunts and arrests segue into the rides to jail, during which Chapman and his team show compassion and strongly counsel the fugitives to start over, leaving behind drugs and/or crime to become dependable members of their families and society. Rounding out most episodes are scenes featuring Dog, Beth and their large family of children, grandchildren and friends.

As the show progressed, viewers were taken further behind the scenes during Baby Lyssa's training as a licensed bail bondswoman and bounty hunter; Dog's capture of Andrew Luster and the ensuing arrests of Chapman, Tim and Leland in Mexico; the deaths of Beth's father (Garry Smith) and Dog's oldest daughter (Barbara Katie Chapman); Chapman and Beth's 2006 wedding; Baby Lyssa's wedding and the birth of her second child; and the shock and fear of the family after Dog, Tim and Leland were arrested by federal marshals in Hawaii to await possible extradition to Mexico.

Chapman and Beth freely invited viewers into their lives, sharing personal stories about Chapman's 1976 imprisonment; his ex-wives and custody battles; While Chapman was serving his sentence, his first wife LaFonda filed for divorce, and married his best friend. Chapman did field work for the prison, in addition to serving as the warden’s barber. When an inmate was attempting to escape, Chapman tackled him, which prevented the escapee from being shot at by guards. This, in addition to Chapman’s overall good behavior, led to him being paroled after only 18 months. Inspired by his tackle, Chapman decided to pursue becoming a bounty hunter once released.[6]

The following summarizes the original broadcast presentation:

All the hour-long episodes were split into two parts for broadcast syndication. Full episodes are shown on streaming sites and DVD releases.

Note that not all episodes have been released on DVD.

The television series led to a 2007 autobiographical book, You Can Run But You Can't Hide, which chronicles Chapman's years before becoming a bounty hunter and some of his more infamous hunts, including the controversial hunt that took him and his team to Mexico to capture serial rapist Andrew Luster. It also delves into his criminal past as well as his family background, imprisonment in Texas, marriages and children.[14][15] A second book, Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given, was published in 2009. Its title reflects Chapman's overriding philosophy of second chances, which he writes about at length as he asks the public for a second chance of his own. The book largely deals with the fallout from two factors: the federal marshals' arrest and the scandal over his use of the word "nigger".

Chapman has been referenced in live action productions:

• In Season 3, Episode 13 of Boston Legal, "Dumping Bella", Chapman is referred to by Alan as one of the only two people he truly admires and as such the only candidate besides Shirley herself to be his costume for the party.
• In Season 3, Episode 9 of 30 Rock, Jenna says "Now Dog the Bounty Hunter is the second grossest guy I've been with."
• In Season 2, Episode 4 of The Eric Andre Show, a lookalike of Dog is featured in the episode with an impersonator of George Clooney.

Chapman has also been parodied in both animation and print:

• In the American Dad! episode "Joint Custody", Roger dresses up as Chapman and tries to hunt down Jeff Fischer.
• In the Family Guy episode "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side", Stewie calls a bounty hunter meeting and Chapman is briefly seen.
• In the South Park episode "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", Eric Cartman dressed up as Chapman and had a TV show filmed of himself, Beth and Chapman's familiar crew after he was made a school hall monitor.
• In the Nickelodeon TV series The Mighty B!, Bessie's dog Happy dressed up as Chapman and tried to find the person who pulled the fire alarm at the Bee scouts' troop-house.
• Chapman and the TV show were both parodied on Cartoon Network's television program, Mad, as "Frog the Bounty Hunter", showing events of the show as the video game Frogger.
• The song "Dog Catchers" on Insane Clown Posse's The Mighty Death Pop! is disparaging to Dog the Bounty Hunter.
• The series was parodied in the June 2007 issue of Mad magazine as Dud the Lousy Hunter.
• In the Squidbillies episode "Fatal Distraction", Early Cuyler acquires a GPS system for his truck, which he attempts to use to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Cuyler briefly dresses as Chapman to pursue bin Laden before "calling it a night" and going to a strip club.
• There's also an obvious parody to the "Dog" character in The Simpsons episode named "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes" where a character named "Wolf, the Bounty Hunter" is hired by Lucky Jim to hunt down Gil Gunderson.
• Dog and his show were referred to in a 2015 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver which was satirically critical of the American bail system.
• In Season 2, Episode 44 of Sonic Boom, Vector the Crocodile is the host of a reality TV show similarly to Dog.[16]

• Official website
• Dog the Bounty Hunter at IMDb
• Dog the Bounty Hunter at TV.com