The Adventures of Digger and Friends

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The Adventures of Digger and Friends
File:The Adventures of Digger and Friends titlecard and logo.png
Title card of "The Adventures of Digger and Friends"
Genre Sketch comedy
Created by NASCAR
Voices of Eric Bauza, Haley Mancini
Theme music composer Keith Urban
Composer(s) Keith Urban
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 5
Production
Running time ~2 minutes
Production company(s) Fox Sports
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

The Adventures of Digger and Friends was a series of vignettes that showed during NASCAR on Fox pre-race shows in 2009; notably, the character of Digger would also make a brief cameo in that year's film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel; the character is briefly seen when a lead character's car zooms past him on a busy street, prompting him to joke "Feels like I'm back at the racetrack!".

Background

In 2009, Fox Sports announced that "Digger", who had already been a mascot for the corner camera in NASCAR, would be subject to a series of vignettes that would air during NASCAR on Fox pre-races.[1]

Keith Urban would compose and write a new single for the show, called "Lil' Digger". In an interview, Urban was noticeably happy with creating the song, saying "How could you turn the critter down? I immediately went to my drum machine, then to my guitar, back to my drum machine and on to my banjo and it wasn't long before I had the song. I just hope that Digger likes it."[2]

An animation studio in Romania would animate the series.[3]

Characters

  • Digger (Eric Bauza): A gopher obsessed with NASCAR racing. Frequently causes mischief at the racetrack, causing Lumpy to chase him.
  • Annie (Haley Mancini): Digger's girlfriend.
  • Marbles: Digger's friend.
  • Gramps: Digger's grandpa and a fan of NASCAR since the beginnings of the sport.
  • Lumpy Wheels: A security guard who constantly chases Digger for causing mischief at the track.

Premise

The series follows Digger's life, and adventures in a racetrack with his friend, Marbles, his girlfriend, Annie, his grandpa, Gramps, and a police officer that chases Digger's mischievous acts, Lumpy Wheels, who was named after former Fox Sports president David Hill and former Charlotte Motor Speedway Humpy Wheeler.[1][4]

Criticism

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Main article: NASCAR on Fox

After a NASCAR town hall-style meeting at the end of May 2009, Fox Sports chair David Hill reported receiving an email from a high-ranking NASCAR official whose identity he chose to conceal, stating that Digger could have been the cause of ratings declines for Fox's NASCAR coverage.[5] Hill said "It was because of Digger that people were turning off in droves because they couldn't stand it, I said, I'm so sorry. If I'd known, I never would have created him. I didn't realize how insidious he was. It's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard."

The criticism led to Fox Sports slowly phasing out the character in 2010; it was completely removed from their broadcasts by the time 2012 Subway Fresh Fit 500 aired.

Episodes

1 "The Sponsor" ?
2 "Picnic Trick" ?
3 "NASCAR is the King" ?
4 "Hole Lotta Trouble" ?
5 "Channel Digger" ?

References

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