Bain was acquitted three years ago at a retrial for murdering his parents and three siblings. He spent 13 years behind bars before his release. His long-time advocate, former All Black Joe Karam, didn't see anything funny about the dog's name in Hounds.
He complained to TV3 chiefs this week when promotional material for the series - funded with more than $1.1 million of public money - came to his attention.
On Friday, the station asked Auckland-based production company The Downlow Concept to change the name of the dog before episodes start screening on June 1 at 10pm.
They quickly agreed to do so.
"As soon as I heard about this I called one of the senior management team at TV3 and said I thought it was in extremely poor taste, and he agreed," Karam told the Herald on Sunday.
"It was not simply just a complaint in terms of the guilty association it put on David Bain's name, but I thought the whole idea was in bad taste in general.
"It was wrong to include David between the names of two people who were convicted of extremely bad offences. But it was also offensive to the next of kin and families involved in all three cases to have this brought up as though it is something funny."
The series follows the fortunes of a shiftless lawyer, his half-sister and an alcoholic grey-hound trainer. It stars Toby Sharpe, Susana Tang and Mick Innes.
TV3 spokeswoman Rachel Lorimer confirmed the name of the dog would be changed before the first show aired in just over two weeks' time, but couldn't say how much the fix would cost. Actors would have to be recalled to overdub new lines.
"As a genre, comedy pushes the boundaries, but we are not in the business of offending people," Lorimer said.
"When Joe Karam raised his concerns about the name of the greyhound we discussed the situation with the programme-makers, who are an external production company.
"They had no creative problems with coming up with a new name for the greyhound and this is able to be changed out before the programme's scheduled premiere date."
Karam said that Bain, who now lives in Kumeu, was unaware of the row because he was busy in his job at a marine engineering company in Auckland.
The production company refused to be interviewed but released a statement through TV3's publicity department. "We named the greyhound character (played by Flossie) after New Zealand's three most well-known, potentially wrongly accused men," the statement said.
"We're surprised that Mr Karam was upset, but more than willing to change the name... to avoid further offence as it's perfectly feasible for us to reshoot new lines."
