Like their human counterparts, canine actors have to deal with rejection too. That includes being recast through no fault of your own.
That’s what is happening on the hit Netflix romantic drama Virgin River where the role of Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack’s (Martin Henderson) dog Pony is facing a second recast in that many seasons.
Pony was introduced at the end of the Season 5 holiday special as a puppy, which Jack gave to Mel as a Christmas gift. Largely because of logistical issues, including a strikes-related production delay, the role had to be recast for Season 6, with a lab named Frankie getting the part.
But the dog was MIA for most of Season 6 despite the show spending a lot of time at Mel and Jack’s cabin where Pony should’ve been milling around. There was a reason for that, Virgin River showrunner Patrick Sean Smith explained in a postmortem interview with Deadline dissecting Season 6 and teasing Season 7.
“It turned out Pony wasn’t as prepared for the role before we cast Pony. And I say again, respectfully to the animal wranglers, they had the best of intentions. Pony, I think, was maybe borderline feral when he started on set, and we learned that the hard way,” Smith said. “Martin and Alex were troopers, I actually sent an email to production with a subject line in a reference to an 80s song where it said, ‘Pony, Pony, Pony has done it again.’ Pony was completely out of control, so we pulled Pony from the scene. And I think we were feeling kind of less our best of intentions and more Pony’s got to go back to acting school.”
Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel Monroe with the original Pony in “Virgin River” Season 5
Netflix
As Pony walked down the aisle at his parents’ wedding for a few brief seconds in the Season 6 finale, this may have been the last we’ve seen of Frankie on the show as Smith indicated that a recasting is in the cards.
“I’m hoping we’ll find a lookalike that’s prepared for what the role demands,” he said. “Alex and Martin were just — they had the clickers, they were acting, we were throwing babies at them and everything, they signed up for a lot.”
In one Season 6 episode, Mel and Jack volunteered to babysit Charmaine’s twin babies at their cabin, making for a baby-dog pandemonium.