One of the first successful short film series of the sound era, during the period 1929-1931 MGM produced nine Dogville shorts, using dogs instead of human actors to lampoon their most popular films. Much of the series was written and directed by Zion Myers and Jules White, who also provided the human voices for many of the dogs. The high-point of the series was the 1930 film The Dogway Melody, which spoofed the musical genre.