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Courage the Cowardly Dog
Courage
Format	Animated television series
Created by	John R. Dilworth
Directed by	John R. Dilworth
Voices of	Marty Grabstein Thea White Lionel Wilson Arthur Anderson Simon Prebble Paul Schofller
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	52 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Broadcast
Original channel	Cartoon Network
Original run	November 12, 1999 – November 22, 2002
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Courage the Cowardly Dog is an award-winning American animated television series, created by John R. Dilworth, who directed each episode, about a dog named Courage and his owners Muriel Bagge, a kindly old Scottish woman, and Eustace Bagge, a grumpy old farmer, living together in a farmhouse in the middle of the fictional town of Nowhere, Kansas (often described as The Middle of Nowhere).

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Pre-Production 2.2 Pilot 2.3 The Series 2.4 Current Status 3 DVD 4 Episodes 5 External links

Courage the Cowardly Dog revolves around the exploits of Courage, a small pink dog who, despite his name, is afraid of the most mundane things; his fears, however, are usually warranted: Eustace, Muriel, and Courage are constantly attacked by (or run into) various monsters, aliens, villians, curses, experiments, natural disasters, and other forms of peril that Courage must face.

Every opening of the show documents Courage's past: "Abandoned as a pup, he was found by Muriel, who lives in the middle of Nowhere with her husband Eustace Bagge. But creepy stuff happens in Nowhere; it's up to Courage to save his new home."

In the series, when Courage wants to save his family from the villain, instead of typical feats of strength, he sometimes faces off the villain in a game, usually something juvenile and simple such as dodgeball, table tennis or a staring contest, in which Courage always loses. The villain is then defeated in various ways: Courage tricks the villain, he flees from them, makes amends with the villain, somehow convinces the villain to change, Muriel saves the day, or in some cases, the villain is not defeated and is plotting another diabolical scheme.

A typical feature of the show is the spoofing or reference of various classic horror and cult films as the basis for many episodes. This is seen in episodes such as "The Demon in the Mattress", "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Loveable Duckling", "Heads of Beef", "Klub Katz", "Journey to the Center of Nowhere", "The Great Fusilli", "Robot Randy", "1000 Years of Courage", "Invisible Muriel", "Human Habitrail", "Courage the Fly", "Mega Muriel the Magnificent", "The Transplant", "McPhearson Phantom", "The House of Discontent", "Courage vs. Mecha-Courage" and "Hard Drive Courage".

There is an obscure Dilworth animated short, Smart Talk with Raisin - Pulling a Malade out of a Hat, that appeared on MTV's Liquid Television in Season 3, episode 1. It features a proto-Courage character named Hamilton as well as what can be considered a proto-Muriel, the titular Raisin, and a proto-Eustace, named Malcolm (who in this case is Raisin's misanthropic brother). This may have influenced the development of Courage the Cowardly Dog.

Originally, Courage started out as a Canadian, one-episode cartoon, entitled The Chicken from Outer Space, which was featured in the Cartoon Network, What a Cartoon! Show. In the original cartoon, there was no dialogue, except for a line spoken by Courage, who was voiced by a different, authoritative voice in this short. An alien chicken was the villain in this short, and it would come back for its revenge in the American series. The Chicken From Outer Space was nominated for an Oscar.

In 1999, Cartoon Network gave Dilworth the okay to turn the short into a series. It was originally supposed to be created at Hanna-Barbara Studios, but Dilworth wanted it at his Stretch Films Studios. The show had ran successfully until its cancellation in 2002. It had 4 seasons, with 13 episodes in each. The show stopped airing on November 22, 2002; however, the following year in 2003, when it was said a fifth season for the show was up for consideration, a large number of fans compiled an online petition, aimed directly at Cartoon Network for said possible fifth season, however, the petition was never sent in to the network, and the network decided not to renew the four-year contract for the series, thus marking the end of the cowardly dog. That same year, however, there had been talks about two new "Courage" projects: one of which was a CD soundtrack, produced by the series' composer Jody Gray, consisting of the popular songs, and music scores from the series. The second new Courage project that had been proposed was a possible feature-length movie (whether it would have been a made-for-TV movie, or a theatrical movie hadn't been discussed); though, neither of the two projects saw the light of day.

It has been noted that on August 26, 2007, and again on October 7, 2007, a Courage marathon occurred in the US that consisted of 14 half hour segments running from 12PM-7PM, under the title of "Courage Monstervision Marathon". Currently, the show has been airing in rerun fashion weekdays at 5:30 and 8:00PM on Cartoon Network. Courage also seems to be making a comeback now because it is starting to show up in commercials for the Cartoon Block: Funny For Your Face.

Courage the Cowardly Dog: Season One, a two-disc DVD set featuring all 14 episodes from the show's first season, was released in Australia (Region 4) on September 12, 2007, by Madman Entertainment.

Main article: List of Courage the Cowardly Dog episodes

• Official Courage the Cowardly Dog Website
• Courage the Cowardly Dog - Unofficial Website (but approved by the creator)
• Courage the Cowardly Dog Season 1 on DVD

v • d • e Cartoon Network Original Series
Cartoon Cartoons
Codename: Kids Next Door · Courage the Cowardly Dog · Cow and Chicken · Dexter's Laboratory · Ed, Edd n Eddy · Evil Con Carne · The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy · Grim and Evil · I Am Weasel · Johnny Bravo · Mike, Lu & Og · The Powerpuff Girls · Samurai Jack · Sheep in the Big City · Time Squad · What a Cartoon! · Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?
Other Cartoon Network original series
Ben 10 · Camp Lazlo · Chowder · Class of 3000 · Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends · Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi · The Life and Times of Juniper Lee · Megas XLR · My Gym Partner's a Monkey · Out of Jimmy's Head · Squirrel Boy
Future Cartoon Network Series
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack · The Secret Saturdays · Transformers: Animated