Bob and Margaret is an adult animated sitcom created by David Fine and Alison Snowden and co-produced by Nelvana Limited and Channel 4 as a collaboration, both financial and artistic, between the United Kingdom and Canada. The last two seasons were co-produced without Channel 4 (i.e. Nelvana Limited and Philippine Animation Studio Inc.) but with continuing British involvement in the animation, cast, and screenwriting. The series was based on the Academy Award-winning short film Bob's Birthday, featuring the same main characters, which won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1994. In Canada, it was the highest-rated Canadian-made animated series ever when it aired in primetime on Global. The show revolves around a married English couple named Bob and Margaret Fish. They are a middle-class professional working couple of forty-ish with no children and two dogs named William and Elizabeth, who often serve as surrogates for children and are considered to be characters with personalities in their own right. Bob is a dentist and Margaret is a chiropodist.

Premise

Bob and Margaret struggle with everyday issues and mid-life crises. Stories often revolve around the mundane, but in a way that is eminently relatable, from the trials of shopping to dealing with friends who annoy them but owe them a dinner. They are often seen enjoying various takeaways – curries, various Chinese dishes, and especially pizza - as they navigate their lazy, sedentary homelives. In the first two seasons, Bob and Margaret live in England, in the South London community of Balham. For the third and fourth seasons, they move to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, allowing the writers to explore the humour of the culture clash. The move was mandated by the realities of funding after Channel 4 backed out, with certain Canadian grants and tax benefits being dependent on stories being physically based in Canada. As such, the transition was necessary to finance the show's continued production. Fine and Snowden chose to take an executive role on these latter two seasons, reviewing scripts and consulting, but not involved in as granular detail as they were for the first two seasons. Snowden continued to provide Margaret's voice, but Brian George replaced Andy Hamilton as Bob's voice.

Characters

Main characters

Canadian-based characters

British-based characters

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (1998-1999)

Season 2 (1999)

Season 3 (2001)

Season 4 (2001)

Telecast and home media

The programme was shown in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 and Ftn, in the U.S. on Comedy Central, and in Germany and France on Arte. Comedy Central only showed the two "London" seasons. The third and fourth "Toronto" seasons were eventually shown (almost two years after Comedy Central showed the last second-season episode) on Showtime. Bob and Margaret formerly aired on Locomotion, and Adult Swim Latin America. Cartoon Network Brazil aired its four seasons on the Adult Swim block. The London seasons also get shown in the United Kingdom, currently on Channel 4. It also had a brief run years later on the Canadian YTV. In December 2013, biTe started to air this series (until the rebrand to Makeful on 24 August 2015).

VHS and DVD

United Kingdom

Two VHS tapes of the series containing three Series 1 episodes each were released in 1999 by Video Collection International under their Channel 4 Video imprint. The entirety of Series 2 was released on DVD in July 2006 by Maverick Entertainment.

US/Canada

In 1999, Season 1 was released on six VHS volumes by Paramount Home Entertainment containing two episodes each. In Canada, the series has seen DVD releases. Series 2 was released in 2005 by Kaboom! Entertainment and Phase 4 Films, and Season 1 was released in February 2010 by Phase 4 Films/Kaboom!. Both releases are two-disc sets containing all 13 episodes of each season.