Interview of Bill Boggs by Bill McCuddy, discussing the new book “Spike Unleashed, the Wonder Dog Returns”

Following the success of The Adventures of Spike The Wonder Dog, Emmy award- winning entertainer and producer Bill Boggs returns with another madcap adventure, SPIKE UNLEASHED (Post Hill Press, July 2023), featuring the fiercely loyal, often tested, but never defeated, English bull terrier Spike. The action begins in High Point, North Carolina when Bud, Spike’s owner, resolves to buy the local television station where he hosts, along with Spike, the enormously popular show Southern Exposure.
There’s only one problem – the station’s one-hundred-and-two-year-old, erectile dysfunctional, sex addicted owner, Sol “The Old Swede” Silverman, stands in the way. Sol forces Bud and his business partner to not only find him a date, but requires them to produce a reality show to reunite him with his estranged daughter, Shoshona, who lives in the woods with a washed-up band of drug-addled celebrity lookalikes.
The mayhem escalates when Spike plays hero, bashing in a door with his brick-like head to save the lives of four female performers as fire engulfs Big Randy Woody’s Strip Club. Spike’s heroics quickly result in an appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” which leads to him co-starring in the reality-based film “Florida Man” with Kate McKinnon, Jim Carrey, Tim Allen, Lucie Arnaz, and Prince Harry himself, playing the heavily tattooed lead. (Since the film is being shot in Palm Beach, Harry took the gig, because a clause in his Netflix contract allowed him to make a movie in a location where his wife can shop.)
After filming ends, Bud and Spike temporarily relocate their TV show to Manhattan to capture the energy of the city only to learn that New Yorkers are smoking so much marijuana on the streets that the metropolis now has the low-key vibe of a dusty Mexican town at 4 PM on a 103-degree afternoon.
Ultimately, Spike’s past catches up with him when his nemesis, Ike “I Got Money” Piles is released from prison. Ike’s claim to fame is boxing. Most of his championships were won by inviting the judges to his post-bout sex parties. Accordingly, he holds the distinction of being the only fighter who was knocked out cold in the first round but still won the title. Ike, seeking revenge, decides to kidnap Spike, but unfortunately grabs the wrong dog – trapping Spike’s lookalike father along with Bud in an East Hampton hideaway. Once again the English bull terrier proves his heroic mettle as he and his buddy Herbie, a foul-mouthed parrot, set out to rescue Bud and his dad.