THOH III: "Family Dog" Dead before birth?

I posted this on another forum but figured I'd give it a shot here too.

Okay, so I was watching Treehouse of Horror III again recently, and caught a joke I hadn't caught before. Actually I think I had gotten it once, but completely forgot....in any case, ya know when Bart and Lisa are in the cemetary? And there's a line of gravestones that say "Fish Police", "Capitol Critters", and "Family Dog"? Well, it finally occured to me: those were all prime-time animated shows in the early 1990's that tried to capitalize on the sudden success of The Simpsons, and each infact met early graves. Hilarious! (note for ATS: After checking the Archive Capsule I realize that its mentioned in there, so no need pointing it out).

Here's the problem, though. See, Treehouse of Horror III aired in October of 1992. That makes the jabs at "Fish Police" and Capitol Critters" (from some quick research on IMDB and TvTome, both early '92 shows) sensible. But "Family Dog" didn't air 'til 1993.

Can someone help me out here? Was "Family Dog" cancelled once and brought back again or something? Or are there multiple versions of THOH III (one without the "FD" reference). Or what?

As I recall "Family Dog" had had a lot of production problems, delaying its airing for a very long time. I guess there was enough time for the Simpsons writing crew to throw in that jab.

Valid Advil I swear, I didn't know she was three.

This is my signature :: Raises mighty units

The "Family Dog" pilot aired as a segment of "Amazing Stories" around 1986. After "The Simpsons" hit, CBS announced that it was picking up a series based on this pilot. Then it got delayed and delayed and delayed. I believe five or six episodes finally did air in 1993.

"Uniblab" wrote in news:[email]:

It wasn't a very good cartoon. I have 2 or 3 episodes on tape. Just how much mileage can you get from watching a strange, bizarre family through the eyes of a dog? They ran out of story material very quickly.

There was one episode that was very surreal - it was centered on the nocturnal activities of the dog after the family was asleep. There was some kind of weird between the dog, the stars, and angels in the heavens. It had the potential to be great - but as you're watching it, all you can think of is how stupid it really is.