Hollywood Animal Trainer Bill Berloni Talks ‘Only Murders,’ ‘Sesame Street,’ ‘AJLT’ & More

Anyone who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks hasn’t met Bill Berloni. The animal trainer is known throughout Hollywood with more than 35 films and 50 credits to his name. He currently serves as head animal trainer for Broadway productions of Left on Tenth starring Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher, and Gypsy with Audra McDonald. 

His extensive resume goes back to the 1970s and the original production of Annie. From there he has worked with everything from typical felines and canines to farm animals to reptiles and even cockroaches. 

Viewers got an inside look at his work and family through the Discovery Family series From Wags to Riches. We sat down with Berloni to look back at some of his most memorable experiences on set, talk about recent TV work for And Just Like That…and Only Murders in the Building, and his upcoming milestone project. 

Was To Tell The Truth your first TV credit? How did this all start for you? 

Bill Berloni: I was a very young apprentice at a theater that did the original production of Annie. I was tasked with finding the dog Sandy, which I did. I found him at a shelter. Nine months later we were opening on Broadway. At the age of 20, I became this famous dog trainer. The first show I remember doing was the Today show. Andrea McArdle was on with our Sandy and had been on with Gene Shalit. I had never been in a TV studio. She started singing and I was in a place by the camera in a place where I’m not usually. He started barking through the song. 

Andrea started laughing and started to pet him. The dog wouldn’t stop. His tail was wagging the whole time, but he barked through the whole time. I was completely mortified by my first TV experience on live television, but it was Sandy being a dog. Along with the other press that came with it, we got a request to be on To Tell The Truth. I was 20 and looked like 12. They tried to find some guys who were youngish, I got two votes and another got two votes and Andrea came out and released Sandy and he came over to where I was sitting. That is how they revealed me. All those are sort of wild memories of being on live television. 

Trial by fire. What has been one of your strangest requests as a trainer? 

While doing publicity for Annie, I started getting calls. Apparently, trainers have never done anything like that live in front of an audience. I tried to become an animal agent, and we did get some strange requests. There was a Huffman Koos, a furniture group out in Jersey. They wanted a butterfly to fly into a frame, land on a couch, and fly out the window overlooking Central Park. I called my friend who was in exotic animal consulting. She said there was an entomologist at the National Museum of History in the basement who categorizes butterflies. I called this gentleman and sure enough, it was no problem. 

We booked the commercial. On the day of, I was very nervous. This little man with a bowtie shows up with a suitcase. He goes, “Are you ready?” He opens it up and puts an eyedropper on the couch where they want the butterfly the land and says, “We’re ready.” He releases the monarch butterfly and it does in fact land on the couch and flies out the window. The set erupts. I asked him how he did it. He said, “It’s quite simple. I just put a little sex potion on the couch.” Those were some of the ones that made me a legend at a very young age. 

That is quite impressive. What was another challenging request for you? 

Fast forward I was asked to do Peter Pan Live on NBC. It was one to do a performance for 2 or 3,000 people, and if something goes wrong, it’s one performance. With a live performance in front of millions, the pressure was on, and I was up for it. It was the first time in any theatrical event that Nana was actually played by a real dog. It was always a man in a dog suit. NBC commissioned to have it played by a dog. We rehearsed for four weeks. I realized after the second camera rehearsal there were no audience members. It was like doing it in our living room. Once I realized that it went flawlessly. 

Sesame Street Elmo’s World: Bowdie Playing Schnoodle the Poodle. (Sesame Street)

You also worked on Sesame Street for quite a bit. What do you remember about working on that set? It’s sad to see the future of that show is up in the air. 

I go back to when it was at PBS and had no money. I was honored when they called. I think it was because all the other trainers were charging them too much money. I agreed knowing it was PBS. I have fond memories. It was when Frank Oz came back to do some of the roles. I remember Caroll Spinney playing Big Bird and a lot of the original puppeteers. I remember Frank Oz was doing a scene with Elmo and a pigeon. They were talking and he was moving quickly and his eye flew off. The ad-libs on those shows were hilarious because those people just had fun together. The genius of that. 

To continue with them for more than 25 years, to see them go from PBS where it was pure education, and then to be bought by HBO and streamlining the way it was shot. And now thinking about Sesame Street’s future. That is something to worry about because it’s an institution. We provided the first animal to play an animal character. Up until six or seven years ago, the theory was how could you put a live animal character next to a puppeteer? Would it confuse the little ones? When HBO took over, they were like no, the demo was there that animal characters were popular. There was Mr. Noodle, who was a friend of Elmo’s and a character played by Bill Irwin. They called and said they wanted Mr. Noodle to have a dog named Schmoodle. The dog who had done Peter Pan Live was a big gray doodle with crazy hair named Bowdie. Bowdie became Noodle’s dog Schmoodle. We did that for four or five years. 

How has it been working on Only Murders in the Building? That sounds like a good time. 

For whatever reason, they didn’t hire the animal trainers from Seasons 1 and 2. We were asked to come in for Season 3. The script had animal characters that are pretty complicated. When I look back, it’s more complicated than a bulldog walking on a leash. The call came in for an elderly cadaver-sniffing dog. I have a dear friend who is disabled and has a service dog named Molly. We have used Molly on other shows. She was in Little Voice,  the Sara Bareilles series for Apple TV. She was a recurring character playing [Gradey]. Molly comes in. She is 10, so she’s slowly sniffing the floor and leading them to the body and things that were in her cannon. They were blown away that we were able to have this dog help with the storyline. 

But this baby pig we have for the show, let me tell you. You say you want an infant animal, five months old. You can expect that animal to do the same of what a five-month-old can do. They didn’t initially understand that. My wife and I met a family who actually did birthday parties with their pig in Connecticut. This became her training ground. The cast is welcoming and funny and all in. The crew and everyone around was so helpful and positive. It was a great experience. We were shooting And Just Like That… with my bulldog Myrtle next to Ony Murders in the Building. They see this other bulldog walking to the other set. One day [EP] Michael Patrick King goes, “So, Myrtle is moonlighting. You didn’t tell me she was on the other show. I see her next door filming.” I told him it wasn’t her, and he didn’t believe me. Myrtle did just wrap Season 3 of And Just Like That... She has been working steadily. 

Kristin Davis and Myrtle (Kristen Sobanski/HBO)

And Just Like That… must also be fun with Charlotte’s dog Richard Burton. 

Sarah Jessica Parker was 11 when she was the third Annie on Broadway, and I’ve known her for close to 35 years. I’m very close to her and her family, so to be basking in her success is one thing. Then Kristin Davis, who is one of the kindest, sweetest animal lovers you can imagine literally scooped up Myrtle and loved her. That came across the set. In those experiences where everyone is so dog-friendly, it’s helpful. Then at the end of Season 2, Sarah decided she wanted her character to have a kitten. We brought in 12 kittens from a shelter and I helped her pick one. We shot the last two episodes of Season 2 with Shoe (Lotus). Sarah says I can’t show my kids, they’ll want to keep the kitten. She did show the kids and at the end of she goes, “Billy, my kids really want his kitten. Can you help us get the kitten?” Sarah actually adopted the little kitten. We come back for Season 3 and they say, “Okay Bill, we need lookalikes for Sarah’s cat.” We found two more cats and shot this season now. Fortunately, as the kitten grew, they grew with the story as well so we didn’t have to replace them mid-season. For me doing a show is one thing, but finding a home for an animal is the cherry on top of the cake. 

Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Shoe (Lotus) (Craig Blankenhorn/Max)

What else do you have coming up that you’re excited for audiences to check out? 

It’s a dream come true. I was approached five years ago to do a film called The Friend. A movie based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez about a fifty-something woman whose ex-lover commits suicide and inherits this Great Dane. It’s this beautiful love story between this woman and her dog. I sat them down and talked about how difficult it was to use a Dane and the characterization of the dog. I said, “The only way you’ll be able to do it is if you write the film around what the dog can do. It’s going to take a long time to find that dog.” They worked with me and did a nationwide search and found the dog Bing, owned by a woman who trained part-time. Then COVID and the strike hit, but we finally went to shoot it last year. Naomi Watts agreed to play the woman and Bill Murray played the ex-lover. 

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We brought Bing with his owner. We all lived together in a home in Staten Island and started shooting in January. What is extraordinary about it is that Naomi, being a consummate professional, agreed to work with us. I trained with her three days a week a month before we started shooting to make her comfortable on the streets of New York with this 150-pound dog. By the time we started shooting, there was a real bond we could work with. I always wanted to do a film about the animal-human bond. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It was a beautiful experience. It has gotten amazing reviews. It has been picked up by a distributor and will open in March. It was the film I always wanted to make. People never pay attention to what the dog trainer says, but the director included me in the process. I believe we’ve made something that will really move people. I see it as my training magnum opus within the film industry.