Hey everyone...haven't posted here in awhile, great to be back. So how do you all think the opening credits fo Season 4 are going to go...the writers are going to have a hard time with this one!
OK..."Meet the Whiskers - Rocket Dog, the leader of the group...her brother Dudley, the Whiskers' dominant male"...Not sure who else they're going to use. Maybe "Liz (played by Amira), the precocious one..."
Then, "Meet the Aztecs - Maybelline, the leader of the group...her father (really her uncle) Zaphod, the dominant male..." not sure who else is well-known enough in that group, either...
Then, "Houdini, vying for the love of the ladies in both gangs (now being played by Homestar Runner, who will meet his sad end toward the end of the season in a tear-jerking episode)
"And the always playful/naughty/adventurous kids."
So many of our favorites are gone, I wonder which kats are going to be playing bigger parts in the show now. What do you guys think?

Who knows what they'll do, but I think those are good guesses. I'm curious to see if they'll have a designated "arch-rival" group to the Whiskers and/or the Aztecs. Or maybe they'll focus on the interactions between those two. It'll be interesting to see how they spin it.

Sadly, we know its not going to be "meet Flower."

I have no idea what will be said or how, but I hope it is respectful to past memories & our beloved meerkat spirits roaming the Kalahari.

I would think the Whiskers and Aztecs would get top billing. I like to think they will focus on one or two more groups that the Whiskers ladies and men founded. I suppose the villan group will be whoever is closest at the time. I just hope it isn't one of the former Whisker's groups.

As far as opening credits, Rocket Dog and her D-M, I am hoping Ella/Mango as a loving aunt/mother ala Mozart. You have to have Maybeline and Zaphod. Besides that I am guessing "Mitch" will be around played by numerous kats and a mention of the villan group of the year and the playful kids.

Of course there could be the mother of all plot twists and Rocket Dog and the Whiskers become the villans as in pro wrestling. You could show Zaphod lovingly watching over some pups and as soon as his back is turned Rocket Dog and the Whiskers jump him and start beating him with steel chairs. Of course Zaphod fights them all off single-handedly, he is Zaphod after all. But such doctored footage could explain why he is with the Aztecs now. Just a thought....

don't get caught up in the editing. just enjoy the footage and remember they aren't actting, what they are doing is real, regardless of what the name is... a dying meerkat is sad, a dominant battle is exciting, births and seeing pups come out for the first time is tear jerking. If its Mitch: a sibling: or a stunt double, i get the frustration but at the end of the day we are seeing real life events!

Steele chairs, Pro Wrestling, Backstabbing, what the ...? That may be a little to much. I love watching wrestling, but hopefully season 4 is not that betrayal between family members in different groups. I know that most wild animals do not recognize a family member if they have not seen them for a while just by looking at them, they have to use verbal noise to recognize each other, like a Tiger cub will not recognize its mom if he/she seperates from her for even a few minutes, the only way the cub will recognize their mom is by verbal noise that they make. Would Meerkats recognize another family member that's in another rival group just by looking at them? I know that smell is a big way to recognize one another, but what about seeing one another?

Yo Phil

Meerkats somehow know when they are related, that's part of the reason they don't mate with siblings or parents.

Their eyesite is very, very good distance wise (but not close up), so if they can recognize a martial eagle from a vulture when you and I only see little black dots in the sky, then they might be able to recognize a member of their family. Then again they can't read dye marks, so they may have to be close enough to see and smell them.

My take on the opening credits:

Meet the Whiskers:
Rocket Dog, Flower's daughter and successor
Her over protective brother and dominant male, Columbus,
Maybelline who left home and formed her own group, the Aztecs
And Zaphod, the grand-daddy of a whole new generation
Of playful, hungry pups!

Pronker

Love It, Pronker. I vote for *you* as MM script writer. Seriously, wouldn't that be awesome? We'd get plenty of drama based on the TRUTH. That would spark a huge celebration in all MM burrows!!!

I also vote for Pronker as official MM script writer... except I'll admit that I'd be a little jealous

That sounds really good Pronker, but don't they usually name a rival group to the Meerkats? I would also like them to put in a rival group in the opening credits besides the Aztecs.

Oh, lets hope the Whiskers and Aztecs aren't rival groups.

Philmeerkat it is the same with our meerkats as with the Lemurs....why Pegleg and his sidekick Nimbus took off in search of females as he could not mate with females within his family.

Why must we have a rival group? Why must there be pronking, IGIs and inherent conflict?

I know, I know, this is the essence of drama ...tension...cliffhangers and even the most interesting shows at various levels manage to work in conflict or else it is "boring".

But after the tragedies of Season 3 I want to rejoice in peace, pups and harmony..., but as we know, the meerkats will have their own ideas about how their lives go on, but I do not want to see the Whiskers & Aztecs as rivals either, even if they are played by another mob!

i've always watched the show from this perspective..... just because the narrator says these are the "bad guys", i don't look at it that way. i just think of them as another meerkat group in the study. we follow the whiskers but that doesn't mean the lazuli and the zappa and the commandos are evil. i never thought of basil/big si, jimbob/hanibal, or even kinkaju as being the villian. yes, i understand the show is going to paint someone as the villian just for dramatic purposes and thats fine, but i don't have to see it that way. as far as how i want the aztec/whiskers interactions to be.... i want them to be (on the show) very close to what was really observed in those interactions by the researchers. the beauty of this whole thing (kmp and mm) is that it is a behavorial study of a cooperative species of mammal, and it isn't a primate which is pretty rare. it offers insite into our own behavior as well, but these are wild animals. they don't really care what society outside of their own group thinks of them, so it is a little different and wild animals sometimes have to be ruthless to survive. this season should be pretty tame as far as tragedies compared to last season and that certainly is a blessing. as far as the show is concerned, no main characters have died as of the march report (almost the end of the season). mitch disappeared, i don't think homestar was introduced, was he? and i know zara wasn't. so if they go with mitch disappeared on the show, viewers will mourn a little, but missing/disappeared is much better than dead or predated! thankfully, the meerkats (for the most part i like to think) write this show and it looks like they will give us a great season starting in june.

After S3, I've had enough drama and tension to last me a very long time. Give me a season of nice uneventful prosperity, with plenty to eat and burrows bursting with healthy pups. Happy endings and rebuilding the groups after the drought would be plenty entertaining. If we spread the word, I'll bet lots of S1&2 watchers would return.

As for Whiskers' rivals, IMO the real Commandos would continue to fill that role nicely. A few non-injury IGIs would be just about right. Even good times in the Kalahari provide plenty of drama. Are you listening, MM producers? (dream on...)

P.S. I agree with NazarethDodo; I don't buy the hype of MM's one-dimensional marketing catch phrases of the meerkats or groups either. I love them all and want them all to succeed!

oh yeah, kach, i forgot that one in my long winded post.... lots of pups this season, especially if they show us the whiskers new splinter groups (boabab, toyota)!

i wouldn't think that the whiskers/aztecs interraction would be peacefull at all (in reality). zaphod and yossarian and their whiskers fought with the vivian all the time, and also with the young ones and DM alexander who was their half brother and a member of their roving group that initially emmigrated to the whiskers. i know it would be wonderfull if they all just got together once in a while (the aztecs and whiskers) and foraged together for the day, but i don't think it quite goes like that.

I'm afraid you're right. Good point about Zaphod & his brothers fighting with their natal Vivian family. Bummer. As much as we want the Whiskers splinter groups to stay an extended family, I'm afraid there is too much at stake to allow that in the long run. The ongoing battle for survival causes rivalries for territory and food.

It will be sad day when the Whiskers and Aztecs have a serious battle with injuries. Horrors!! Change is inevitable, but we don't have to like it...

I have this vision of the family patriarch, Zaphod, taking care of both his family groups, watching over and guiding Yousarrian's daughters.

This is my vision, or should I say my fantasy, not the reality of our meerkats' lives in the Kalahari Desert. They must survive and choices will be made to best accomplish this.

The Whiskers and their splinter groups live in neighboring (sometimes overlapping) territorries, so it is normal for them to interact.
Current group interests are going to become more important than natal, or previous group interests for the meerkats.

Remember in season 3 how Flower took part of the Whiskers group away and they eventually re-joined? I am wondering if we see any of that happening. Clearly, Maybelline and the Aztecs probably wont as Maybelline kept trying to assert herself against RD. But I wonder about the other groups.

Which brings up a question: I know the Meerkats are less active during May-September, but what if they re-join or there are significant events. How are those captured for MM? I know the research continues, but arent the filming crews gone?

Mitch68, it happens often that the film crew isn't in the right place to capture the footage, but there were researchers observing an event. if it is something mm wants to show, they substitute previous footage (possibly of different groups) to show us what happened in the event that the film crew missed. alot of us complain about the show changing things, but i have absolutely no problem with changes of this kind. there is only one film crew and they often are just a little too late.

MM's using previous footage is not a major problem.

Nazareth, thanks for the clarification.

I think in the opening credits, they will feature Rocket Dog as Whiskers DF, Maybelline as Aztec DF and her sister, Zaphod as the father of both and then Hannibal as the bully nobody likes (they seem to get a lot of mileage from that). The credits will have to change as the season goes on. They probably will add DM of the Aztecs to Zaphod, drop Hannibal as he died, add Baker as the Cammandoes new DM and maybe the DF or DM of another group if they come into contact with the Whiskers or Aztecs a lot.

If you think about it, there are a bunch of storylines for this season: Zaphod and his rovers leaving the Whiskers and going to the Aztecs, death of Hannibal, death of Houdini (OK, I am using MM names because I dont know the KMP names), Baker leaving the Whiskers and becoming DM of the Cammandoes (kind of "the graduate" type episode). Plus there is all kinds of roving action. Unless the Whiskers have a new big event happen (ie RD gets a new DM, Mitch returns, etc), I bet we will see a lot less of the Whiskers than we have in the past. In addition, with so many Whiskers now in dominant roles of other groups, the producers will follow soe of those groups as well.

Can someone please tell me what "IGI" is? I know the role that animals in the wild play when it comes to rival groups, especially in the Meerkats situation of having family members of other groups, but it would be better to know that the Aztecs and Whiskers did not fight for food or territory. But I do understand that many Whisker Natal members, Yes I someone finally told me what natal for Meerkats meant, are in different groups and rivalry must occur with battles. I just can't see Zaphod battling with Axel or Machu Pincho, or Maybelling battling with Rocket Dog.

Hi Philmeerkat.

I asked the same question earlier today. I put the answer below, and a tip on the "Find" tab:

>>>IGI: Intergroup interaction.....a "Fight" between two mobs.
A great hint: at the top of the page is a *Find* tab, click on it and type in the word you are interested in. If nothing else you will find a lot of great reading.<<<

It seems that the thread the you started: "Confusion" (Spoiler) is a great catch-all for a variety of topics. Hope this helps!!!

Take care

NW67675

I think they should say something like this. Meet Rocket Dog the leader of the group,who took over after Flower died (something along those lines),