The Dog Who Saved Christmas
Genre	Comedy
Screenplay by	Michael Ciminera & Richard Gnolfo
Story by	Jeffrey Schenck Michael Ciminera Richard Gnolfo
Directed by	Michael Feifer
Starring	Mario Lopez Dean Cain Elisa Donovan Sierra McCormick Adrienne Barbeau Gary Valentine Joey Diaz
Music by	Andres Boulton
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Michael Feifer Jeffrey Schenck
Cinematography	Hank Baumert Jr.
Editors	Bryan Roberts Matt Steinauer
Running time	88 minutes
Production company	Barnholtz Entertainment
Original release
Network	ABC Family
Release	November 29, 2009 (2009-11-29)

The Dog Who Saved Christmas is a 2009 Americanmade-for-televisionChristmascomedy film starringDean Cain,Gary Valentine and the voice ofMario Lopez. It was written by childhood friends Michael Ciminera and Richard Gnolfo. It premiered onABC Family on November 29, 2009, during theirCountdown to 25 Days of Christmas programming block.^[1] It was ranked as the number one cable program during its timeslot, and the number one cable film in the winter of the 2009 with 4.0 million viewers.

Zeus, aLabrador Retriever and a formerpolice dog, has lost his bark after his barking ended up blowing off a five-year investigation and his partner can't shoot straight again and ends up at thepound. He is adopted by George Bannister as both an early Christmas present and as a goodguard dog for the house, but the mom is hesitant and didn't want a dog. The dog is left home alone onChristmas Eve when the family head off to visit Grandma's house. A pair ofburglars, Ted Stein and Stewey McMann break into the family home, and it is up to Zeus to saveChristmas for his new family by setting up booby traps to stop them. Zeus soon gets caught by the burglars and they muzzle him and continue to rob the house. Zeus escapes while Ted and Stewey continue to rob the house. Zeus gets chased through the house by Ted and Stewey until Stewey accidentally pepper sprayed himself. Ted then takes out a tranquilizer gun and tries to shoot Zeus but gets Stewey instead knocking him out. Ted tries to escape the house (with Stewey who's still knocked out) but Zeus finishes them off for good by dropping a chandelier on them, knocking the two robbers out. The police come and arrest Ted and Stewey and Zeus finally barks. The family come back and see Ted and Stewey getting arrested and spend a Merry Christmas together.^[1][2]

• Mario Lopez as Zeus
• Dean Cain as Ted Stein
• Elisa Donovan as Belinda Bannister
• Sierra McCormick as Kara Bannister
• Adrienne Barbeau as Cat Lady Mildred
• Gary Valentine as George Bannister
• Mindy Sterling as Grandma Bannister
• Joey Diaz as Stewey McMann

It also features members of the production team in various supporting roles. Writers Richard Gnolfo and Michael Ciminera are credited as Policeman 1 & 2, while the director/producer Michael Feifer is credited as Police Officer 2.

The Dog Who Saved Christmas was broadcast on Sunday, November 29, 2009, and wascable's number one program during its time period of 8:00pm–10:00pm with 4.0 million viewers. It was also ranked number one in scripted telecasts on cable during that Sunday, and became the season's number one cable film. It had a 14% increase in viewers from the same timeslot in the previous year.^[3]

Critics compared it to another Christmas dog themed TV movie of 2009,A Dog Named Christmas and cited influences fromHome Alone andLook Who's Talking.^[4]A Dog Named Christmas was broadcast on the same night asThe Dog Who Saved Christmas with the original timings overlapping by an hour.^[5] Critics ratedA Dog Named Christmas as the superior film overThe Dog Who Saved Christmas, but praised the performances ofAdrienne Barbeau andMindy Sterling.^[6]

The Dog Who Saved Christmas won several "Yulies" from the Popwatch column onEntertainment Weekly's website. The categories it won included "MVP: Most Valuable Pooch" and "Best Use of Dean Cain".^[7]

It was given the "Family Approved" seal byThe Dove Foundation.^[8] Commonsense Media graded it as appropriate for ages 6 and up.^[9]

A sequel,The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, aired on ABC Family in 2010.

A second sequel,The Dog Who Saved Halloween, was releaseddirectly to DVD in September 2011.^[10]

A third sequel,The Dog Who Saved the Holidays, was released directly to DVD on December 4, 2012.

A fourth sequel,The Dog Who Saved Easter, was released directly to DVD on April 8, 2014. It stars Dean Cain, Elisa Donovan, Beverley Mitchell, Mario Lopez,Patrick Muldoon,Matthew Lawrence andCatherine Hicks.

A fifth sequel,The Dog Who Saved Summer, was released directly to DVD on June 2, 2015. It stars Dean Cain, Gary Valentine, Elisa Donovan, Patrick Muldoon, Mario Lopez,Martin Kove,James Hong andWilliam Zabka.

• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.

• List of Christmas films

• The Dog Who Saved Christmas atIMDb
• The Dog Who Saved Christmas atRotten Tomatoes

• American Christmas films
• ABC Family original films
• Christmas television films
• Films about dogs
• 2009 television films
• 2009 films
• Films directed by Michael Feifer
• 2000s Christmas films
• Fiction about police dogs
• 2000s English-language films
• English-language Christmas films

• IMDb title ID different from Wikidata
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Rotten Tomatoes ID same as Wikidata