NEW YORK — For the Irwins, “crikey” just runs in the family.
“It’s a really good word, because you can use it for everything,” says Robert Irwin, whose late father, Australian conservationist and TV personality Steve Irwin, popularized the word on his long-running Animal Planet series “The Crocodile Hunter.”
“If you get stung by a wasp, you can say, ‘Crikey! That hurt!’ ” Robert continues. “Or if you see something cool, you could go, ‘Crikey! There’s a crocodile!’ It just means ‘wow.’ If you’re stuck on what to say, say ‘crikey.’ ”
Now, wildlife enthusiasts from the next generation are bringing their dad’s famous catchphrase to a whole new audience in Animal Planet’s “Crikey! It’s the Irwins,” which premieres at 7 p.m. Sunday and stars Robert, 14, his sister Bindi, 20, and their mom, Terri Irwin, 54.
The show goes behind the scenes of the family’s Australia Zoo in Queensland, which Terri and Steve co-owned and operated until his death in 2006 at age 44, when he was stung by a stingray while shooting an underwater documentary. “Crikey” marks the Irwins’ first show as a family on the cable network since shortly after Steve’s death.
Each episode showcases the khaki-clad trio’s various skills in caring for and educating people about animals: There’s Robert, who fearlessly follows in his dad’s footsteps handling venomous snakes and feeding the zoo’s crocodiles (a feat he first managed at the tender age of 10); Bindi, who recommends tissues for her sometimes emotional segments with koalas and other “fluffy, baby animals,” and Terri, whose jobs include nursing sick and injured animals back to health, promoting wildlife research, and training staff in conservation efforts.
“Together, we make a really great team,” Bindi says. “Plus, we have moments of reflecting on all of Dad’s amazing adventures,” with clips from “Crocodile Hunter” featured throughout the show’s first season. “You’ll get to see Robert feeding a crocodile and then Dad doing the exact same thing. What’s wonderful is that the beat really continues, and we’re so excited for this beautiful new chapter as a little family.”
Fans of Steve’s will be moved to see just how much of their dad’s qualities his children inherited.
“I never thought anyone was tougher than Steve,” Terri says. “He could fall out of a tree like nothing happened, but was very soft on the inside — that’s Bindi. And Robert just is Steve. It’s pretty funny watching him. Sometimes, when I want to look up a photo of Robert in my phone, half the photos are of Steve,” because her smartphone’s facial recognition doesn’t distinguish between them. “It happens all the time, it’s really weird. His physical characteristics and mannerisms are exactly like his dad’s.”
If there’s one key difference between parent and offspring, it’s the ability to cut a rug: Bindi won the 21st season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in 2015, and continues to samba “every now and then, when the lights are out and no one’s around,” she laughs.
Robert and Bindi “have a passion for wildlife, which I think is partly genetic,” Terri says. “Although I will say, Steve couldn’t have danced to save himself.”
