CatDog

CatDog
Genre	Comedy Slapstick
Created by	Peter Hannan
Creative director(s)	Robert Porter
Voices of	Jim Cummings Tom Kenny Carlos Alazraqui Billy West Nika Futterman Maria Bamford
Composer(s)	Denis M. Hannigan
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	68 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	Peter Hannan Productions Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Original release	April 4, 1998 (1998-04-04) – June 15, 2005 (2005-06-15)
External links
Website

CatDog is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for Nickelodeon. The series depicts the life of conjoined brothers, with one half being a cat and the other a dog. Nickelodeon produced the series from Burbank, California.^[1] The first episode aired on April 4, 1998 (following the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards), before the show officially premiered in October. The episode "Fetch" was also shown in theaters with The Rugrats Movie.

The series ran on Nickelodeon until May 18, 2001, with all episodes of season four (except for the made-for-TV film CatDog: The Great Parent Mystery) unaired until June 15, 2005. Reruns were played on Nicktoons from 2002 to 2011 and then on TeenNick as part of The '90s Are All That block since March 2013, then the '90s Are All That was replaced with The Splat on October 5, 2015. The series is produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Peter Hannan Productions and has been released on DVD.

Premise

The series follows the adventures of Cat (Jim Cummings) and Dog (Tom Kenny), two conjoined twins who are a hybrid of a cat and dog with two heads (one at either end of its single body) and no tail or hind legs. Although they are brothers, they have very different personalities which conflict at times. Cat is very cultured while Dog is very fun-loving and enjoys chasing garbage trucks, chasing cars, and exploring, things in which Cat does not want to take part.

The series takes place in Nearburg, a town dominated by anthropomorphic animals and the occasional humanoid.

Production

The series, created by Peter Hannan, was developed as the next Nicktoons production and produced from Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California. Hannan served as executive producer. This was part of Nickelodeon's $350 million investment in original animation over the next five years after the series' inception.^[1]

Albie Hecht, Nickelodeon's senior vice president of worldwide productions, said that the creators planned for the series to "really play off of kids' sympathies" by portraying the characters as experiencing "the worst of both worlds".^[1] Hannan said CatDog was inspired by watching neighborhood cats and dogs occasionally fight each other, and thought that it would be great to make conjoined twins Cat and Dog to see how both of the animals would fare against other things.^[1] The idea of them being conjoined twins came from Hannan watching several news stories on TV about conjoined twins living a normal life conjoined together.^[1] Both aspects he claimed, initially developed the idea of CatDog.^[1]

Episodes

Reception

CatDog is reviewed at Common Sense Media. It is advised for children aged 7 and up, and it is given a score of 2/5 stars. It is described as "iffy", one of the reasons cited as being due to "some bad role models". The review continues; "The series makes some attempts at injecting a moral here or there, but they fall flat. The focus is on looniness, silliness, and out-of-control antics, with very little in the way of redeeming qualities. This can be just the ticket for some kids, although the bizarreness of the concept is enough to leave most parents shaking their heads."^[3]

Award nominations

In 1998, the series was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production, for "Dog Gone". The recipients would have been Derek Drymon, Robert Porter and Peter Hannan.^[4]

At the Kids' Choice Awards, USA, the series is nominated for a Blimp Award for Favorite Cartoon in 1999 and 2000.

Other media

Home video and digital download releases

Two VHS tapes were released for the series in 1999. Together Forever contains the episodes "Dog Gone", "Flea or Die", "Diamond Fever", "CatDog's End" and "Work Force" with a bonus short "Cat Diggety Dog" and CatDog vs. the Greasers contains the episodes "Siege on Fort CatDog", "Squirrel Dog", "Full Moon Fever", "Shriek Loves Dog" and "All You Need is Lube". The complete series is available for download in the iTunes Store. Nickelodeon contracted Amazon.com's CreateSpace service arm to produce DVD sets of CatDog and other Nickelodeon shows exclusively for sale on Amazon. The DVDs were "manufactured-on-demand" DVD-Rs to match orders. The series is also available for download on Amazon's InstantVideo service.

The CreateSpace releases are no longer available with the announcement of Nickelodeon and Shout! Factory releasing traditional retail DVD sets of the series.

Video games

• CatDog: Quest for the Golden Hydrant (1999, PC)
• CatDog: Saving Mean Bob (1999, PlayStation, cancelled)
• Nicktoons Racing (as playable characters)
• Nickelodeon Party Blast (as hosts)
• Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots (Seen but not playable characters)
• Nicktoons MLB (Seen but not playable characters)

Broadcast

The series originally aired on Nickelodeon in the US from 1998-2005. It was subsequently aired on Nicktoons (2002–11) and TeenNick (2013–present). In the UK and Ireland, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1998–2005) and Nicktoons (2002–13). The series was broadcast in Canada on Nickelodeon (2009–present) and on YTV (1998–2005). In Australia and New Zealand the series aired on Nickelodeon (1998–2013).

References

External links

• CatDog at the Internet Movie Database
• CatDog at TV.com
• Welcome to CatDog's 1st Fan Site - Includes various interview from members of cast and crew