Why I hate Meerkat Manor & Animal Planet

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friend of mine who runs a meerkat rescue center in California has a friend who is an Animal Planet producer and when she shared a story I wrote with her and heard that I was Autistic, she wanted to make a documentary about the bond Autistic people have with animals which would feature me. They would fly me out to the meerkat lady's place and then to Africa to see wild meerkats and meet with this meerkat biologist. Animal Planet refused to do it because they were working on Meerkat Manor and did not want two meerkat shows at the same time. I went into a depression and a part of my soul died. It took me a while to figure out who to be mad at, my friend for showing my story, the documentary lady for thinking it up, Animal Planet for refusing or all of them. I've finnaly decided that my friend and the animal planet lady aren't to blame they were just trying to do something nice for me. Animal Planet is just a selfish company and I hate them.

Actually Animal Planet is owned by Discovery I believe so its the CEOs who run animal planet is selfish in your point of view.

It's nothing personal, if you read about show business, this sort of thing happens all the time. You want something unique, because if you have too many of the same kind of show, you're either playing 'copycat', or the audience gets diluted, and you can't get as much money for the commercials. All sorts of pilots, spinoffs, and ideas get pitched every year to the studios, and you just happened to not make it...this time...

What I'd suggest (if I may), is wait 6 months to a year, and re-approach her to see if it could get made. I doubt your feelings for animals is going to change in that amount of time.

^Agree

It's a huge disappointment.

Sometimes you gotta find the strength inside to keep going.

Punky, I'm glad I found your post. I even signed up so that I could reply to you. I'm a huge meerkat fan, and I'm familiar with everyone you're talking about, from Pam at the meerkat center to the folks at Animal Planet (AP). I didn't know anyone four years ago, so I didn't know anything about your story before reading your post, but I think I can help you to feel better about what happened. First, I know that the Meerkat Manor team are very caring people. They've grown to love meerkats through their work with them, and I find that those who care about animals are often decent people. You of course know that Pam at F.E. has a huge heart, and only has good intentions.

If you're really looking for closure about this after 4 years of feeling that AP has hurt you, then here it is... You and Animal Planet are now even!! ! The same thing that they did to you just happened to them. You may have heard that there is a new Meerkat Manor movie that AP is showing on TV. However, it was supposed to be a major theatrical release. AP sold the theatrical distribution rights to The Weinstein Company (a major film distributor). What AP didn't know at the time was that The Weinstein Company had already bought the theater distribution rights to a a second meerkat movie, produced by the BBC (in England), called "The Meerkats", which will be released in theaters this October. However, The Weinstein company felt that there was only room for one meerkat movie in theaters. Thus, the AP movie was shelved. Now AP is showing thier movie on TV instead of theaters, so similar to your story, someone (Weinstein Co.) came along and did not want two meerkat movies in the same year, so now Animal Planet has just had the same thing happen to them that they did to you.

Of course I wish it had made it to theaters, but if this helps your depression to fade and that dead part of your soul to be reborn in knowing that you're even with AP, then I guess there was actually something good that came out of it... I hope this helped...