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Dan Butler Got His Start On A Beloved ’80s Show Years Before Becoming Bulldog On Frasier
But even beyond these central characters, the show was bolstered by some excellent guest stars and recurring characters. Take, for instance, Dan Butler, who played Bob “Bulldog” Brisco, the brash and ultra-macho host of “The Gonzo Sports Show.” Butler’s committed performance was, like his co-stars, perfectly-pitched, with Bulldog providing a great foil for Frasier, whose urbanity clashed with the boorish nature of his KACL colleague.
Before he debuted as Bulldog in the second episode of “Frasier” season 1, Dan Butler had been acting in film and television for a good ten years. Alongside a three-episode run in another staple of the sitcom genre, “Roseanne,” the actor had appeared in small roles in “Columbo,” “Quantum Leap,” and in several films including two adaptations of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels, “Manhunter” and “Silence of the Lambs”.
During the show’s inaugural season back in 1982, a young Dan Butler in an uncredited role on the episode “Your Steele the One for Me,” playing a morgue attendant who escorts the two leads to a body being held in the morgue. Interestingly enough, there’s a similar dynamic between Butler’s morgue attendant and Brosnan’s fake PI, with the former projecting more of an easygoing everyman energy while the latter remains urbane and calmly composed throughout their interaction. There’s no Bulldog-style yelling or insults exchanged between the two, but it’s interesting to see a faint suggestion of the Bulldog character and his relationship with Frasier some eleven years before the show debuted.
After season six of “Frasier,” Bulldog would become less of a presence on the show. His character is fired from KACL during that season, but returns to work in the archives of the radio station. Bulldog continued to make appearances throughout the remaining seasons, with Dan Butler appearing in all but one season of the series by the time it ended in 2004. Oddly, Butler was absent from the series finale, “Goodnight Seattle,” which featured a final scene in which the titular doctor’s colleagues surrounded him as he delivered his final broadcast. Butler did show up in the 12th episode of season 11, “Frasier Lite,” but that would be his final appearance on the show.
