Lucky the Dog: How the Reincarnation Twist Happened
January 28, 2026
When Buck eventually retired, the writers were faced with a challenge most sitcoms never have to confront: replacing an animal who’d become part of the show’s identity. They didn’t want to pretend he never existed. They didn’t want to quietly swap in another dog and hope nobody noticed. The solution they came up with was… well… peak Bundy.
They decided Buck would be reincarnated.
Lucky, the new family dog, wasn’t just a pet. He was Buck’s soul stuck in a new body. The idea was bold, ridiculous, and perfectly aligned with our brand of comedy. It let the show acknowledge Buck’s legacy without being sentimental. It also gave the writers new material: Lucky reacting to the family like he’d seen it all before, because he had.
The reincarnation twist also allowed fans to process something quietly important: losing a beloved character. Buck had been there from the early seasons. He had become part of the set’s heartbeat. Respecting that mattered.
Behind the scenes, the dog who played Lucky, Chewy, was incredibly sweet. A different energy than Buck, but just as lovable. The cast embraced him immediately, and he slid into the show’s rhythm seamlessly.
Lucky wasn’t a replacement.
He was a continuation. A clever way of saying goodbye without ending the joke.
Buck looked at this family every day with the same expression Dad had when he came home from work. Just total resignation. That dog understood the Bundy lifestyle better than any of us. When he retired, you can’t just bring in a random new dog and act like nothing happened. So the writers went with reincarnation, which honestly is the most Bundy solution possible. Only our show would look at the problem of replacing a dog and go, “What if the dog comes back from the dead?” Lucky was cool though. Different vibe, same tired energy. He took one look at us and you could tell Buck’s soul was in there going, “Not these people again.”