| CatDog | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Peter Hannan |
| Creative director | Robert Porter |
| Voices of | |
| Theme music composer | Peter Hannan |
| Opening theme | "CatDog Theme Song" |
| Ending theme | "CatDog Ending Theme Song" |
| Composer | Denis M. Hannigan |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 68[a](list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Peter Hannan |
| Producers |
|
| Running time | 23 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nickelodeon |
| Release | April 4, 1998 (1998-4-4) – June 15, 2005 (2005-6-15) |
CatDog is an American animated television series created byPeter Hannan forNickelodeon.[1] The series follows the zany hijinks of orange-furredconjoined brothers of different species, with one half of the resultant animal being a cat and the other a dog. Nickelodeon produced the series fromBurbank, California.[2] The first episode aired on April 4, 1998, following the1998 Kids' Choice Awards, before the show officially premiered on October 5, 1998. Similarly, the Season 2 episode "Fetch" was shown intheaters in 1998 before airing on television.[3]
The series ended on June 15, 2005, after a total of four seasons and 66 aired episodes over seven years, plus two produced episodes that never aired. It was produced byNickelodeon Animation Studio andPeter Hannan Productions and was released on DVD inRegion 1 byShout! Factory.
Two animation studios,Saerom Animation andRough Draft Studios throughRough Draft Korea, worked on the animation for the show.
CatDog follows the adventures of acat and adog who share a body, despite having opposite personalities. Cat is a strait-laced, intellectual cat whereas Dog is an impulsive, happy-go-lucky dog. While the brothers can independently control their upper bodies with two heads, they areconjoined at the midsection, meaning they have no tail or hind legs. Cat and Dog's personality differences share similarities withThe Odd Couple, theLooney Tunes shorts and elements ofLaurel and Hardy,Abbott and Costello, and fellowNicktoon charactersRen and Stimpy.[4] Because Cat and Dog cannot be separated, Dog will often drag his brother into activities Dog enjoys, such as chasing garbage trucks, eating fast food, and exploring, even though Cat is reluctant to do so.
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 20 | April 4, 1998 (1998-4-4) | October 29, 1998 (1998-10-29) | |
| 2 | 20 | February 15, 1999 (1999-2-15) | March 16, 2000 (2000-3-16) | |
| 3 | 20 | October 9, 1999 (1999-10-9) | May 18, 2001 (2001-5-18) | |
| 4 | 8 | November 25, 2000 (2000-11-25) | June 15, 2005 (2005-6-15) | |
The series, created by Peter Hannan, was developed as the next Nicktoons production and produced fromNickelodeon Animation Studio inBurbank, 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.[2]
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".[2] 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.[2] 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.[2] Both aspects, he claimed, initially developed the idea of CatDog.[2]
The title characters were originally envisioned as a two-headed superhero called "CatDog Man".
The series originally aired onNickelodeon in the US from 1998 to 2005, and aired reruns from 2005 to 2007. It was subsequently aired onNicktoons from May 1, 2002, to August 23, 2011. Catdog began airing onNickrewind in 2013 and continued to air until 2021. The show started streaming onParamount+ in 2020. In the UK and Ireland, the series was broadcast onNickelodeon (1998–2005),Channel 4 (1999-2007) andNicktoons (2002–13). In Canada, the series was broadcast onNickelodeon (2009–2019) and onYTV (1998–2006). In Australia and New Zealand, the series was broadcast onNickelodeon (1998–2015). In Japan, the series was broadcast onNickelodeon (1999–2009) and onTV Asahi (1999–2006). In Middle East, the series was broadcast onNickelodeon Arabia (2008–2011) and onMBC 3 (2014–2015). In March 2021, the series was added along with other various Nicktoons and Nickelodeon shows ontoParamount+.
The series was reviewed byCommon Sense Media with a score 2/5 stars, advised for children 7 and up.[5]
In 1998, the series was nominated for anAnnie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production, for "Dog Gone". The recipients would have beenDerek Drymon, Robert Porter and Peter Hannan.[6]
At the1999 Kids' Choice Awards, the show was nominated forFavorite Cartoon. However, it lost toRugrats. It did so again in the2000 Kids' Choice Awards.
Two VHS tapes of the series were released byParamount Home Video on March 30, 1999.Together Forever contains a bonus short "Cat-Diggety Dog" plus the episodes "Dog Gone", "Flea or Die", "Diamond Fever", "CatDog's End" and "Work Force", andCatDog vs. The Greasers contains the episodes "Siege on Fort CatDog", "Squirrel Dog", "Full Moon Fever", "Shriek Loves Dog" and "All You Need Is Lube".
| Title | No. of episodes | Release date | Episodes include | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Together Forever | 6 | March 30, 1999 | 2x04c | "Cat-Diggety Dog" |
| 1x01a | "Dog Gone" | |||
| 1x02a | "Flea or Die" | |||
| 1x05a | "Diamond Fever" | |||
| 1x12a | "CatDog's End" | |||
| 1x04b | "Work Force" | |||
| CatDog vs. The Greasers | 5 | 1x12b | "Siege on Fort CatDog" | |
| 1x09a | "Squirrel Dog" | |||
| 1x11a | "Full Moon Fever" | |||
| 1x04a | "Shriek Loves Dog" | |||
| 1x03b | "All You Need Is Lube" | |||
In 2010,Nickelodeon contractedAmazon.com'sCreateSpace service arm to produce DVD sets ofCatDog 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. From 2011 to 2013,Shout! Factory released the series on DVD via several season sets, and a proper complete series set was released on December 9, 2014.[7][8]
| Title | Release date | Discs | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | April 7, 2010 | 4 | 20 |
| Season 2, Volume 1 | December 1, 2010 | 3 | 17 |
| Season 2, Volume 2 | December 1, 2010 | 4 | 17 |
| Season 3 | December 1, 2010 | 3 | 13 |
| Title | Season(s) | Episodes | Release date | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1: Season 1, Part 1 | 1 | 10 | October 18, 2011 | 1 ("Dog Gone" / "Fan Mail" / "All You Can't Eat") – 6 ("Party Animal" / "Mush, Dog, Mush!"), 8 ("Pumped" / "Dummy Dummy"), 9 ("Squirrel Dog" / "Brother's Day"), 11 ("Full Moon Fever" / "War of the CatDog") and 14 ("Nightmare" / "CatDogPig") | |
| Volume 2: Season 1, Part 2 | March 27, 2012 | 7 ("Armed and Dangerous" / "Fistful of Mail!"), 10 ("Escape From the Deep End" / "The Collector"), 12 ("CatDog's End" / "Siege on Fort CatDog"), 13 ("Safety Dog" / "Dog Come Home!"), 15 ("New Neighbors" / "Dead Weight") – 20 ("All About Cat" / "Trespassing") | |||
| Volume 3: Season 2, Part 1 | 2 | June 5, 2012[9] | 21 ("Send in the CatDog" / "Fishing for Trouble" / "Fetch") – 30 ("Climb Every CatDog" / "Canine Mutiny") | ||
| Volume 4: Season 2, Part 2 | September 25, 2012[10] | 31 ("It's a Wonderful Half Life" / "Shepherd Dog") – 40 ("Cliff's Little Secret" / "Freak Show") | |||
| Volume 5: The Complete Third Season[b] | 3 | 20 | March 12, 2013[11] | 41 ("Sumo Enchanted Evening" / "Hotel CatDog") – 60 ("New Cat in Town" / "CatDog's Booty") | |
| Volume 6: The Complete Final Season | 4 | 8 | August 20, 2013[12] | 61–63 ("CatDog and the Great Parent Mystery") – 68 ("Vexed of Kin" / "Meat Dog's Friends") | |
| The Complete Series | 1-4 | 68 | December 9, 2014[8] | 1 ("Dog Gone" / "Fan Mail" / "All You Can't Eat") – 68 ("Vexed of Kin" / "Meat Dog's Friends") | |
The complete series is also available for download in theiTunes Store and streaming onParamount+.
In Australia, seasons 1-3 were released on DVD byBeyond Home Entertainment.
Nickelodeon initiated a $20 million promotional campaign for the series' first season in 1999 with partnersBurger King,Duracell,Jell-O, andNabisco.[13] Burger King, which had promoted Nickelodeon'sThe Rugrats Movie with toys the previous year, offeredCatDog-themed toys in its kids meals for five weeks beginning February 22, 1999.[13] Nickelodeon promoted a trip toUniversal Studios Florida as a prize in an on-air sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King andMattel, which also released a line ofCatDog toys that year.[13] Duracell held a back-to-school-themed backpack offer as well as a "Catch CatDog" sweepstakes on television and radio during the holiday season.[13] Jell-O packagedCatDog stickers in its Jell-O Yogurt kids packs.[13] Nabisco marketed limited editionCatDogCheese Nips flavors, which featured instant-win contest prizes that included a trip to Los Angeles to meet and have their likeness drawn by creator ofCatDog.[13]
On May 13, 1999, Nickelodeon andHasbro Interactive announced a three-year partnership to publish video games based on Nickelodeon television series, the first beingCatDog: Quest for the Golden Hydrant forMicrosoft Windows, which released in late 1999.[14] Ports of the game forPlayStation andGame Boy Color were mentioned but ultimately never released.[14] Another Hasbro title,CatDog: Saving Mean Bob, was announced for a 2000 release for PC and PlayStation[15] but never released.
Characters from the series appeared as cameos or playable characters in the Nickelodeon gamesNicktoons Racing,Super Brawl Universe,Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix,Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl,Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis, andNickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway. Characters make cameo appearances inNickelodeon Party Blast,Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, andNicktoons MLB.
