April 4, 1998 (1998-04-04) – June 15, 2005 (2005-06-15)
CatDog is an American animated television series created by Peter Hannan for Nickelodeon.[1] 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.[2] 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 in 1998 before airing on television.[3]
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, 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 shorts and elements of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and fellow Nicktoon characters Ren 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.
Mervis (a pig) and Dunglap (a weasel) (voiced by John Kassir)
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 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.[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".
Broadcast
The series originally aired on Nickelodeon in the US from 1998 to 2004, and aired reruns from 2005 to 2007. It was subsequently aired on Nicktoons from May 1, 2002 to August 23, 2011. Catdog began airing on Nickrewind in 2013 and continued to air until 2021. The show started streaming on Paramount+ in 2020. In the UK and Ireland, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1998–2005), Channel 4 (1999-2007) and Nicktoons (2002–13). In Canada, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (2009–2019) and on YTV (1998–2006). In Australia and New Zealand, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1998–2015). In Japan, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon (1999–2009) and on TV Asahi (1999–2006). In Middle East, the series was broadcast on Nickelodeon Arabia (2008–2011) and on MBC 3 (2014–2015). In March 2021, the series was added along with other various Nicktoons and Nickelodeon shows onto Paramount+.
Reception
Critical
The series was reviewed by Common Sense Media with a score 2/5 stars, advised for children 7 and up.[5]
Awards and 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.[6]
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".
VHS releases
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 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. 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]
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")
Nickelodeon initiated a $20 million promotional campaign for the series' first season in 1999 with partners Burger King, Duracell, Jell-O, and Nabisco.[13] 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.[13] Nickelodeon promoted a trip to Universal Studios Florida as a prize in an on-air sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King and Mattel, which also released a line of CatDog 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 packaged CatDog stickers in its Jell-O Yogurt kids packs.[13] Nabisco marketed limited edition CatDogCheese 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.[13]
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, which released in late 1999.[14] Ports of the game for PlayStation and Game 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.
