Funday Pawpet Show ends its run after 18 years
The Funday Pawpet Show, a weekly staple of furry fandom, announced on September 12 that it will be ending its weekly broadcast, citing legal and logistical woes, particularly regarding the music industry.
We have come to a cross roads. Streaming video and music copyrights and licensing have become such a tangled mess of pain in the butt. The music industry has made it impossible for the little guy to do anything online. The costs, the bookkeeping, the constant upkeep of trying to keep from getting flagged… It is no longer a labor of love. We thank you all for nearly 18 years of puppet broadcasting support.
The loss of furry-friendly streaming service Furstre.am weighed on their decision. According to site creator Jacktail, the domain name was allowed to expire this month, as no current developers wished to take it on.
The Funday PawPet Show had humble beginnings in November 1999, when Yappy Fox launched a puppet variety and talk show for the Internet in his living room, with friends Herbie, Simba and Mach Stormrunner. They were soon joined by long-term staff Jackrabbit (JR) and Kuddlepup, with technical assistance from Rasvar. Later years saw cast performances by Eagle Beagle, Liesl, Terry Mouse, Prismo, Blitz, Devin, Jess and others.
Strong characters and personality carried the show to great fame within the fandom. Over time, guests from all sides of the fandom showed up to be part of the fun: from the music guests of Fox Amoore and Rhubarb, to various subservient fursuiters, performers, writers, and artists – not to mention the hundreds-strong audience in IRC. Also a regular presence on the show since June 2003 was Bandit, who passed away this June.
Despite regular acts of puppet-on-puppet violence, and occasional incidents of subsidence, the show powered on throughout its first decade and a half, creating many memorable episodes. But in recent years it was constantly in need of funds to meet licensing requirements, despite annual fundraisers breaking into five figures, at which original cast members such as Poink T. Ferret and Hugh T. Manatee were often auctioned.
Even such licensing was apparently not enough for streaming app Periscope, which banned the show in mid-July this year.
Since the announcement, which was explained as being in lieu of "a very emotional last show", many fans have given their thoughts on Twitter. Archives of past art jams as well as past episodes remain available for download, while the stage has been offered free to a good home. Meanwhile, JR has vowed to resume his own show, Poinkcast, and a list of #PawPet community member contact details is being built.
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Sonious (Tantroo McNally) — read stories — contact (login required)a project coordinator and Kangaroo from CheektRoowaga, NY, interested in video games, current events, politics, writing and finance
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Lots of details were filled out by GreenReaper, so thanks to him on that.
The longest-running internet video show. Big news.
FPS might be gone, but it will never be furgotten ^.^
Murrover, the Pawpet Broadcasting Network continues to live. This includes Romeo Rabbit's The Rabbit Hole* on Saturday, followed by Oh! Pawpets, then Steelwoulfe's Furry Game Night after that. And on Sunday, Woulfe's show, and later in the night another Rabbit Hole. All of which I can HIGHLY recommend. I hope more shows spring up in the space that's been vacated.
Anyone interested can join #pawpet on irc.anthrochat.net which is where we currently hold chat for those shows. There's also a thriving Telegram group at https://t.me/joinchat/BbXyEkFXnJlpobD5R2-DDA . Note that the old server at irc.pawpet.tv now points to Anthrochat, so join there instead. Don't furget to do /join #pawpet because it won't happen automatically like it used to.
* Note that due to the recent events in Florida, Romeo is off-air temporarily, having had his apartment flooded. But we wish him well, and hope that everything returns to order in his life soon. ^.^
UPDATE: It's come to my attention that there's a calendar of furry broadcasts here:
https://www.brownbearsw.com/cal/furcast
I'm not sure if it's currently being updated (FPS is still listed, for instance), but it looks VERY comprehensive. Definitely worth a look.
Apparently, the late Rapid T Rabbit was involved in maintaining it. I'm not sure if it's currently being maintained by anyone else.
A lot of good memories watching this show since I first found furry, sad to see it ending :(
Oh, it's finally over. Guess I can finally binge-watch it. I don't really like ongoing shows. Been waiting 10 years for this.
Wasn't there an update saying that someone bought a new URL or something?
Yes, but on further investigation I found they weren't actually using the old URL or inheriting the furstre.am code; and since they didn't have a product yet, it seemed inappropriate to mention it in the story.
fair enough.
http://furstream.stream will be the URL for the new site, but there's no ETA at the moment. I think it will be ready when it's ready. DougalDragon is working on the site, his FA is intelmmx.
I will definitely miss this show. This past January, I was on the show for the first and only time. But one thing I kind of noticed that the Funday Pawpet Show, ever since, was using the theme song for the Lawrence Welk Show, the "Goodbye Song".
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