''CatDog'' is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

. The series follows the zany hijinks of orange-furred conjoined brothers of different species, with one half of the resultant animal being a cat and the other a dog. Nickelodeon produced the series from

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

. The first episode aired on April 4, 1998, following the '' 1998 Kids' Choice Awards'', before the show officially premiered on October 5, 1998. Similarly, the Season 2 episode "Fetch" was shown in

theaters Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

in 1998 before airing on television. 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 by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Peter Hannan Productions and was released on DVD in Region 1 by Shout! Factory. Two animation studios, Saerom Animation and Rough Draft Studios through Rough Draft Korea, worked on the animation for the show.

Premise

''CatDog'' follows the adventures of a cat and a dog 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 are conjoined at the midsection, meaning they have no tail or hind legs. Cat and Dog's personality differences share similarities with '' The Odd Couple'', the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' shorts and elements of

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...

, Abbott and Costello, and fellow Nicktoon characters Ren and Stimpy. 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.

Episodes

Characters

* CatDog (Cat voiced by

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in over 400 titles. Cummings has frequently worked with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., serving as the offic ...

and Dog voiced by

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...

), a cat and a dog conjoined hybrid twin brothers with a very long and stretchy upper body, having no tail or hind legs. * Winslow Oddfellow, (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui), a tailless blue mouse who lives next door. * Cliff Feltbottom (voiced by Tom Kenny), a male bulldog and the leader of the Greaser Dogs. * Shriek Dubois (voiced by Maria Bamford), a female poodle. * Lube (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui), a male hound who falls in love. * Rancid Rabbit (voiced by Billy West), a green rabbit. * Eddie the Squirrel (voiced by Dwight Schultz), a gray squirrel. * Randolph Grant (voiced by Billy West) * Tallulah Headbank (voiced by Maria Bamford) * Mean Bob (voiced by Billy West) * Lola Caricola (voiced by Nika Futterman) * The Ingrid Twins (both voiced by Laraine Newman) * Mervis and Dunglap (voiced by John Kassir), a pig and a weasel, respectively. * Mr. Sunshine (voiced by Billy West)

Production

The series, created by Peter Hannan, was developed as the next Nicktoons production and produced from Nickelodeon Animation Studio in

. 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. Albie Hecht,

'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". 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. 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. Both aspects, he claimed, initially developed the idea of CatDog. The title characters were originally envisioned as a two-headed superhero called "CatDog Man".

Broadcast

The series originally aired on

in the United States from 1998 to 2005, and aired reruns from 2005 to 2007. It was subsequently aired on

Nicktoons Nicktoons is the brand name used by Nickelodeon for their original animated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company (Paramount Global) in their copyright bylines. Since ...

from May 1, 2002, to August 23, 2011. ''CatDog'' began airing on NickRewind on March 23, 2013 and continued to air until November 15, 2021. The series became available for streaming on

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

on July 30, 2020. In the UK and Ireland, the series was broadcast on

(1998–2005),

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

(1999-2007), and

(2002–13). In Canada, the series was broadcast on

(2009–2019) and on YTV (1998–2006). In Australia and New Zealand, the series was broadcast on

(1998–2015). In Japan, the series was broadcast on

(1999–2009) and on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

(1999–2006). In the Middle East, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon Arabia (2008–2011) and on MBC 3 (2014–2015).

Reception

Critical

The series was reviewed by Common Sense Media with a score of 2/5 stars, advised for children 7 and up.

Awards and nominations

In 1998, the series was nominated for an

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origina ...

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. At the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards, the show was nominated for Favorite Cartoon. However, it lost to '' Rugrats''. It did so again in the 2000 Kids' Choice Awards.

Merchandise

Home media and digital download releases

Two VHS tapes of the series were released by Paramount 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", 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". In 2010,

contracted Amazon.com's

CreateSpace On-Demand Publishing, LLC, doing business as CreateSpace, was a self-publishing service owned by Amazon. The company was founded in 2000 in South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, So ...

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. 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. The complete series is also available for download in the iTunes Store and streaming on

. In Australia, seasons 1-3 were released on DVD by Beyond Home Entertainment.

Promotions

Nickelodeon initiated a $20 million promotional campaign for the series' first season in 1999 with partners

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

, Duracell, Jell-O, and

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco' ...

. Burger King, which had promoted Nickelodeon's '' The Rugrats Movie'' with toys the previous year, offered ''CatDog''-themed toys in its kids meals for five weeks beginning February 22, 1999. Nickelodeon promoted a trip to

Universal Studios Florida Universal Studios Florida is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida, that opened on June 7, 1990. Owned and operated by NBCUniversal, it features numerous rides, attractions, and live shows that are primarily themed to movies, television, and ...

as a prize in an on-air sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King and

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

, which also released a line of ''CatDog'' toys that year. Duracell held a back-to-school-themed backpack offer as well as a "Catch CatDog" sweepstakes on television and radio during the holiday season. Jell-O packaged ''CatDog'' stickers in its Jell-O Yogurt kids packs. Nabisco marketed limited edition ''CatDog'' Cheese Nips flavors, which featured instant-win contest prizes that included a trip to Los Angeles to meet and have their likeness drawn by creator of ''CatDog''.

Video games

On May 13, 1999, Nickelodeon and Hasbro Interactive announced a three-year partnership to publish video games based on Nickelodeon television series, the first being ''CatDog: Quest for the Golden Hydrant'' for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, which released in late 1999. Ports of the game for

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

were mentioned but ultimately never released. Another Hasbro title, ''CatDog: Saving Mean Bob'', was announced for a 2000 release for PC and PlayStation but never released. Characters from the series appeared as cameos or playable characters in the Nickelodeon games '' Nicktoons Racing'', ''Super Brawl Universe'', '' Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix'', '' Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl'', ''Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis'', and '' Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway''. Characters make cameo appearances in '' Nickelodeon Party Blast'', '' Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots'', and '' Nicktoons MLB''.

Notes

References

External links

* * – includes various interview from members of cast and crew {{Portal bar, Television, United States, Cartoon, 1990s, 2000s 1990s American animated comedy television series 1990s American children's comedy television series 1990s Nickelodeon original programming 1998 American animated television series debuts 2000s American animated comedy television series 2000s American children's comedy television series 2000s Nickelodeon original programming 2005 American television series endings American children's animated comedy television series Animated television series about brothers Animated television series about cats Animated television series about dogs Animated television series about twins American English-language television shows Children's television series about talking animals Fictional hybrids Fiction about conjoined twins Nicktoons Nicktoons (TV network) original programming Television series by Rough Draft Studios