Actress, Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, Chris, owned two dogs that Chris frequently took to the local dog park.
There, Chris mingled with other dog owners, and watched the various interactions between canines and owners. Soon, the germ of an idea grew in his head. In mid 1998, he shared the idea with actor, Eugene Levy, who was less than enthusiastic about the concept of making a movie about a dog show. Levy had doubts that a dog show could be made funny, but Chris (Christopher Guest) persevered, and the rest is history. The movie, “Best in Show,” was made, and considering that the movie was based on an outline that was only 15 pages long and filmed using mostly handheld cameras, it was a huge hit.
It’s possible, however, that the real inspiration for the movie was an actual documentary,“Dog Show,” produced by Leandra Little that aired on New Jersey Network. Read more on that here.
Fans of the mockumentary, Best in Show, will remember that “Winkie,” the Best in Show winning Norwich Terrier at the fictitious Mayflower Dog Show, was handled by an owner with two left feet as portrayed by Eugene Levy. Winkie was portrayed by a real show dog, Can. Ch. Urchin’s Bryllo, and many of the background “extras” were real-life handlers (maybe even one or two of them are reading this?).
If you’ve seen the movie, does the following read familiar?
I’ve seen that movie at least four times. Hilarious!
You should watch a Netflix documentary series 7 Days Out. Episode 1 is Westminster, following the run-up to the show. As I remember, there’s a clone of the Christy Cummings/Sherri Ann Cabot pair with the Poodle in BIS.
My very first dog was named Winkie – a Shetland Sheepdog when I was in 4th grade. Now I am a terrier person through and through.
Dany Canino (real life judge) was one of the judges in the movie
We THOUGHT she look familiar!
The dog who got me involved in dog shows was a Pointer with an ILP that I showed in obedience. Wee Willie Winkie was known as Winkie and taught me many lessons. I did almost everything wrong in training him.
We did everything wrong with our first show dog, too. Bless her heart, she taught us a lot and we look forward to seeing her in heaven (assuming that’s where we go) so we can tell her how sorry we are for our mistakes. We loved her so.
I went to see that movie in the theater with a bunch of my dog friends. There was another section of Christopher Guest fans. The Christopher Guest fans laughed at things like picking the right outfit, losing the special Buzy Bee. My group didn’t because that’s normal in dog show realms. We did laugh at other things that they didn’t get. The older I get the more normal that movie seems. Weird. LOL
Isn’t that funny? Insiders “get” the nuanced aspects of the movie, while “outsiders” laugh at the caricatures of dog people.