Wilfred is an Australian comedy television series created by Adam Zwar, Jason Gann and Tony Rogers based on their award-winning 2002 short film.
It was directed by Tony Rogers, produced by Jenny Livingston and stars Gann, Zwar and Cindy Waddingham.
[4] Adam Zwar later met future co-star Cindy Waddingham and director Tony Rogers in September 2001 while filming a commercial for HBA health insurance (he was the buck-toothed client who sprayed the slogan "Three for free").
The pair began improvising a scenario between a man and a protective dog, and quickly realized the story was a great basis for a short film – they wrote a script that night.
[6][7] With a self-funded budget of A$4,000,[8] they shot the seven-minute film the following week, and two months later it won Best Comedy at the 2002 Tropfest, with Gann additionally winning Best Actor.
[10] The first series of Wilfred was shot in and around Richmond, Victoria[12] beginning in April 2006, with David Stevens as director of photography.
[15] With Germain McMicking as director of photography, Wilfred II was shot in Kodak 16mm on an Aaton Xtera Super 16 using ARRI/Zeiss Ultra Prime lenses.
He smokes cigarettes and marijuana, drinks beer, eats junk food, and is prone to foul language, malapropisms, and sexual urges.
After some years of living with relatives and in foster care, Adam returned to the family home and brought up his younger brother Spencer on his own.
[25] Sarah Pickford is Wilfred's loving owner, an attractive yet foul-mouthed young woman with some kind of undisclosed day job; she has been called the "straight man" of the series.
Sarah becomes increasingly financially supportive of Adam as the storyline progresses, bringing the house, car and most of the money to their relationship.
Her previous boyfriend, Mark, died in an accident, and most of the first series takes place in his house as Sarah and Wilfred continue to live there.
It also explores themes of maturity that accompany marriage (such as meeting the parents, family holidays, being supportive, parenthood and financial trouble).
[19] Phillipa Hawker, also in The Age, called Wilfred "An entertaining mixture of character-based comedy and quiet absurdity".
[34] Paul Kalina, writing in The Age, dismissed Wilfred as a "bogan show", saying of the decision to discontinue it after the second season "There's only so far the conceit can stretch and one senses that Gann and Zwar know this".
[35] The show was criticised in March 2010 when the Herald Sun reported that up to A$1.5M of government money had been allocated to the production of a series "peppered with profanity, full-frontal nudity and jokes about rape".
Paul Mavis of DVD Talk (USA) praised the show's minimal exploration of the mental health themes so prominent in the American version: "The laughs are unfettered by some falsely reassuring framework of whether or not it's all real.
"[36] However, Manny Lozano (VeryAware, USA) found that the lack of any explanation for Adam's apparent psychosis made the show less credible.
Kelly O'Neill (Rhythm Circus UK) called Wilfred "almost documentary-like in its ability to capture human and animal behaviour...
[38] Nick Aldwinckle of Cult Box (UK) similarly stated "Wilfred's real strength isn’t in its carefully unpredictable tone; it actually lies in the perfect characterisation of the three leads," and compared Wilfred to several much-loved British classics: "Ending after a mere 16 episodes, this is one of those rare sitcoms that join the likes of Fawlty Towers, I'm Alan Partridge and The Office in that esteemed 'two series of perfection' category.
along with Gann (who also reprises his role as Wilfred), stars Elijah Wood as Ryan, a young man trying to find his way in the world.
In contrast to the original series, the American version is more of a buddy comedy, and also delves into the question of whether Wilfred is real or just a figment of Ryan's imagination.
[49][50] In April 2012, Renegade Films signed a deal with Ukraine-based studio Star Media Group to adapt Wilfred for Russian and CIS television.
[50][51][52] Star Media's plot synopsis indicates the 12-episode series will revolve around a young man named Nikita attempting to woo a woman who owns a dog named Charlie, but unfortunately Nikita and Charlie take an instant dislike to one another (suggesting the Russian version will be more similar to the original series than the American remake).