Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated comedy horror television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Dilworth's animation studio, Stretch Films. The eponymous character is a dog who lives with an elderly couple in a farmhouse in the middle of Nowhere, a fictional town in Kansas. In each episode, the trio is thrown into bizarre, frequently disturbing, and often paranormal or supernatural adventures. The series is known for its dark, surreal humor and atmosphere. It premiered on November 12, 1999, and ended on November 22, 2002, with four seasons each consisting of 13 episodes. It was nominated for three Golden Reel Awards and won one Annie Award.
Plot[]
Episodes[]
Theme Songs[]
- Opening
- Closing
Voice Cast[]
- Japanese
- English
Trivia[]
- Courage's dialogue decreased after the first season. This is because the creators at Cartoon Network thought Courage "talked too much" and wanted his dialogue cut short.
- Lionel Wilson (Eustace) quit halfway through the series due to illness and was replaced by Arthur Anderson.
- The names Muriel and Eustace are taken from the middle names of Chandler Bing and Ross Geller of Friends (1994).
- This was voice director Peter Fernandez's favourite show that he worked on.
- Whenever Courage takes action to rescue his owner(s) from peril, a variation of the Mission: Impossible (1966) theme is heard playing. This theme varies with each episode, depending on what musical arrangement is being used in that episode.
- The original season 2 finale The Tower of Dr. Zalost (2001) didn't air until after the season 3 premiere Muriel Meets Her Match/Courage vs. Mecha-Courage (2002) aired.
- A number of character designs (such as the Ship captain/Policeman) were reused. Often the only change was different hair color.
- Series creator John Dilworth placed major emphasis on audio effects: he wanted to use unconventional fresh music/sounds, in contrast to most shows developing stock material to use throughout their run. Dilworth wished to put any music/sound into the episode that emphasized the situation, whether it was tense, exciting or especially funny.
- Throughout the series, the word DIL or another variation of creator John Dilworth's name is seen in the background. A sketch of Dilworth can be seen throughout most episodes (predominantly on the wall near the stairs in the house).
- Quentin Tarantino is parodied as the zombie director Benten Tarantella, the first appearance being in Queen of the Black Puddle/Everyone Wants to Direct (2000).
- Tim Chi Ly, who voices the recurring character Di Lung, was one of the show's animators.
- This was the last series that veteran voice actress Billie Lou Watt worked on.
- Peter Fernandez had his face videotaped and inserted into animation for The House of Discontent/The Sand Whale Strikes (2001) (floating head) and The Magic Tree of Nowhere/Robot Randy (2000) (the Tree).
- Courage is a pink beagle.
- Courage originated as a side-character called Hamilton in a grotesquely animated short called "Smart Talk with Raisin" that first aired as a segment in Episode #3.1 (1994). The character was then completely reworked and renamed to star in The Chicken from Outer Space (1996), which aired as Courage the Cowardly Dog: The Chicken from Outer Space (1996) and became the de facto pilot for the series, which was animated and written in the same fashion and tone. The Fog of Courage (2014) was a proposed CGI pilot for the revival of the show. It was designed and written in the same tone as the original show. Though this failed, Courage and his family were brought back 7 years later in the team-up movie Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (2021).
- Courage lasted for 4 seasons with 52 total episodes and 13 episodes per season. Season 1 aired November 12, 1999, and ended June 29, 2000. Season 2 aired October 31, 2000, (had a 3 month hiatus between episodes 22 and 23) and ended January 11, 2002. Season 3 aired November 16, 2001, and ended July 9, 2002. Season 4 aired September 7, 2002, and ended November 22, 2002.