Father of the Pride

Father of the Pride is an American animated sitcom created by Jeffrey Katzenberg and produced by DreamWorks Animation for NBC. It was part of a short-lived trend of 3D animated series in prime-time network television (after Game Over).

Father of the Pride follows a family of white lions, the patriarch of which stars in a Siegfried & Roy show in Las Vegas. Despite heavy promotion and support, the series was cancelled after one season due to declining ratings. Transmission and production were also delayed by the real-life on-stage injury of Roy Horn in October 2003.

The show follows the adventures of a family of white lions. The family contains Larry, the bumbling yet well-intentioned star of Siegfried & Roy's show; Kate, a pretty, stay-at-home mother who is a member of a special women's group; Sierra, their teenage daughter who is frequently annoyed by her family; Hunter, their awkward young son, who is a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings; Sarmoti, Kate's father and Sierra and Hunter's grandfather who has a dislike for Larry; and Snack, Larry's mischievous gopher friend.

Recurring characters appear alongside the lion family; these include Larry's friends Roger, Chutney, Vincent, and Nelson; Larry's rival Blake and his wife Victoria; Sarmoti's friends Bernie, Duke, Chaz, and the Snout Brothers; Hi Larious; Kate's friends Foo-Lin, Lily, and Brittany; two lesbian gophers Chimmi & Changa; and Sierra's boyfriend Justin.

More than 200 animators worked on Father of the Pride for two years. Computer animation was produced at Imagi Animation Studios in Hong Kong.

The series employed a small group of seasoned directors, which included Mark Risley, Bret Haaland, Steve Hickner, John Holmquist, John Stevenson, and Mark Baldo. Felix Ip served as creative director for Imagi. For the first season, DreamWorks created 30 principal sets, 500 special props, and about 100 characters. In fact, a typical episode unfolds across all 30 principal sets and features two or three unique locations as well. The lion habitat is inspired by the real Secret Garden in Las Vegas, where the actual Siegfried & Roy lions reside. In Father of the Pride, the Secret Garden encompasses residences for the main characters and their families and public areas ranging from the community bar to a school classroom.

Since Larry and his family drive the story lines for most of the episodes, their residence is the most detailed, comprising separate, contiguous sets for the living room, the kitchen, and the children's bedrooms. Meanwhile, the assets are stored in individual files in order to be loaded into separate layers and assembled modularly.

In 2002, Jeffrey Katzenberg came up with the idea for the series when he visited Siegfried & Roy's show in Las Vegas: "I thought, I wonder what it's like for those lions. What must life be like from their point of view? [They're] living in Las Vegas, trying to raise a family and earn a living. In animation, we look for those things — a way to look at our lives through a fantasy world. It allows us to take on subjects that are too difficult to do with real people. It allows us to be more controversial. Edgier. There can be parody and innuendo and satire. Things can be sophisticated in a way that even our feature films can't be."